The Baptist Faith and Message

Southern Baptists have prepared a statement of generally held convictions called
The Baptist Faith and Message. It serves as a guide to understanding who they are;
their basic beliefs. The statements here provide only a brief, partial summary and is
referenced in whole or part from the Southern Baptist Conference (SBC) website
www.sbc.net. You  may review referenced scriptures that support each statement
at www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp

The Scriptures

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of
Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author,
salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore,
all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God
judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true center
of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds,
and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is
Himself the focus of divine revelation.

God

There is one and only one living and true God. …The eternal triune God reveals
Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but
without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and
the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace....
God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in
Jesus Christ.

God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived
ofthe Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. …He honored the divine law by His
personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision
for the redemption of men from sin.

God the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. …He exalts Christ. He convicts men
of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer
and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

Man

Man is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and
female as the crowning work of His creation. …By his free choice man sinned against
God and brought sin into the human race. … The sacredness of human personality
is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man;
therefore every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and
Christian love.

Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who
accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal
redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration,
justification, sanctification, and glorification.

God's Purpose of Grace

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates,
justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. …All true believers endure to the end.
Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall
away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local
congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and
fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by
His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word,
and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation
operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a
congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.
Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are
gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified
by Scripture.

Baptism & the Lord's Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. …It is an act of obedience
symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's
death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life
in Christ Jesus.

The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members … memorialize
the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

Evangelism & Missions

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord
Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations... to seek constantly to win
the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other
methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

The Lord's Day

The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. …It commemorates the resurrection of
Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual
devotion.

Last Things

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end..…
Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly…the dead will be raised; and Christ
will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell.....
The righteous… will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with
the Lord.

Education

The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of
missions and general benevolence … there should be a proper balance between
academic freedom and academic responsibility. …The freedom of a teacher in a
Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ,
by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which
the school exists.

Stewardship

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are
we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy
trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They
are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material
possessions.

Cooperation

Christ's people should … organize such associations and conventions as may best
secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations
have no authority over one another or over the churches. …Cooperation is
desirable between the various Christian denominations.

The Christian & the Social Order

All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our
own lives and in human society... in the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose
racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual
immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to
provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the
sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all
human life from conception to natural death...

Religious Liberty

Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and
full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. …A free church in a free state is the
Christian ideal.

Family

God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is
composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption.

Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a
lifetime. ... The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are
created in God's image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.
He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family.
A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even
as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of
God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to
respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and
nurturing the next generation... Children, from the moment of conception, are a
blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children
God's pattern for marriage.