There is only one true and living God who is the Creator of the universe. He exists eternally in three Persons—the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Baptist Faith and Message: “There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness... all powerful and all knowing... To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. 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 is active and involved in creation.

God is personal. He exists in three persons (not three gods, not one god in three modes).

God is fatherly to all, but especially fatherly to his children. God extends common grace, even to those who hate him. But He extends a specific, saving grace to those who are his.

God the Son is eternal, incarnated as Jesus, and born of the Virgin Mary.

Baptist Faith and Message: “in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.”

Jesus is fully God and fully man, everything it means to be God and human, and He is the only way of salvation.

The Holy Spirit is active, inspiring and illuminating Scripture so that we can understand it.

Baptist Faith and Message: “He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. ...He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows... spiritual gifts.... He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. And He enlightens and empowers [us for the Christian life].”

We pray that the Spirit will be active in and through us.

We should want to know this Triune God, and we owe him everything.

The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself to mankind, divinely given through human authors, who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is entirely true, totally sufficient, and completely authoritative for matters of life and faith. In his Word, God speaks through human writers to make sure we have everything we need for life and godliness.

God wants us to know him. The BF&M says that the Bible “has salvation as its end.” The Bible is “the true center of Christian union.” It is “the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.”

We stand under the authority of Scripture. The Bible is completely true and trustworthy. Its central purpose is for us to know Christ.

Human Beings are created by God to bear His image. We are the crowning work of His creation worthy of love, dignity, and respect. We are able to have a salvific relationship with God.

Because of the Fall, the image of God in people is distorted, but not lost. All people have disobeyed God willfully through sin; thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for redemption. All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin. Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.

God created man (male and female) good, innocent, with the freedom to choose—morally responsible.

Gender is part of the goodness of God’s creation, and the difference between the sexes is a good thing. We will be male and female forever, the way God made us. We should not conflate or confuse the sexes.

Our first parents sinned, so we inherit an environment and nature bent toward sin, and we all willfully sin.

Salvation in Christ changes our very nature, enabling us to “fulfill the creative purpose of God,” albeit imperfectly. Therefore, all people need grace.

Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He is everything it means to be God and everything it means to be man, and that fact is very important. The Cappadocian fathers said, “that which he did not assume, he did not redeem.” We should not emphasize either nature at the expense of the other.

Jesus was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the Cross as a substitute for mankind, was raised from the dead in victory, He ascended into heaven, and will one day He will return to consummate His Kingdom.

Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. No other religion, belief, or person can reconcile God and man. He alone can provide forgiveness and eternal salvation. Jesus separates us from every other world religion. Our God came to us and became like us, in Christ, fully God and fully man, in order to save us from our sin.

There is no other way of salvation, apart from a relationship with Christ. Despite the fact that exclusivism is unpopular, we assert the exclusivity of Christ.

Salvation occurs as a person repents of sin and receives Christ’s forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. Salvation is progressive in the sense that God has saved, is saving, and will save His people, but He never fails to complete the process (cf., Phil. 1:6). This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of Christ’s life, death, and resurrection, not on the basis of human works. In other words, we take hold of the gospel by faith, not by works. And all the redeemed are secured in Christ forever.

A true believer will never fall away. You cannot be saved and then not saved. The BF&M says, “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. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”

The Bible uses the words “elect” and “election” to talk about those who will be saved. Election is the good and gracious purpose of God and is in every way consistent with mankind’s free will (cf., Eph. 1, Rom. 8).

Baptist Faith and Message: “Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.”

The Holy Spirit immediately places all people who put their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body—the Church, of which Christ is the head.

The local church is the visible expression of the universal church (all the saved, from all places, for all time).

When you are saved, you’re placed into that body, and you have a new identity, shared with your church family. Salvation is not individualistic like our culture. Everyone is saved as an individual, but everyone is saved into the body of Christ. The church is not a building or an activity to add to your routine. The church is the body of believers! Therefore, we are part of the church, and we embrace the church, good and bad. We are bound together in Christ.

God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way. At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. Christ will judge both the saved and unsaved. Those who have trusted Christ will receive a glorified body and dwell forever with the Lord. Those who have not trusted in Christ will spend eternity in hell, the place of everlasting punishment.

How and when exactly this will happen is unclear to some extent in Scripture. Therefore, we hold opinions, and we hold them loosely and charitably. Where the Bible is dogmatic, we are dogmatic. Where the Bible is silent or preserves mystery, we do the same.

Scripture is clear about the following “end times” issues: Jesus will return visibly and personally. Hell is real, and unsaved people will go to hell. Inclusivism and universalism are heresy. For Christians, this life is as close to hell as you’ll get. Our future as believers is a real, physical existence in the perfect presence of God forever. We will not remain disembodied spirits. We will not become angels or fat babies on clouds. So, while we can disagree on the particulars of eschatology, or the “end times,” we agree on the final outcome.