What We Believe
First Baptist Church is a Bible-believing, Gospel-centered congregation that confesses "the faith once for all delivered to the saints" (Jude 3). As such, we hold to the historic Christian faith as confessed in the Apostles' Creed and the Nicene Creed.
​
As a Southern Baptist congregation, we hold to these historic Christian truths, along with the Baptist distinctives as confessed in The Baptist Faith and Message (2000).
The following is an abbreviated summary of what we believe and teach at FBC.
​
THE BIBLE
We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, without error in the original documents, and the only final authority in all matters of faith and practice. The focus of all divine revelation is the person and work of Jesus Christ.
​
GOD
We believe there is one God, the Creator of all things, infinitely holy and eternally existent in three persons – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
​
JESUS CHRIST
We believe that Jesus is truly God and truly man, conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the virgin Mary, and sinlessly perfect. His sacrificial death on the cross is both substitutionary and representative. He rose bodily from the dead, ascended to His Father’s right hand, and will come again to receive the redeemed and to reign in power and glory for all eternity.
​
THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that the Holy Spirit, in all that He does, glorifies Jesus. He convicts the world of its guilt, brings new life to sinners, and baptizes believers into union with Jesus, adopting them as heirs in the family of God. He also indwells, illuminates, guides, equips, and empowers believers for Christlike living and service.
​
THE FALL
We believe humanity was created in the image of God to fellowship with Him, but willfully sinned against God, becoming spiritually dead and alienated from that relationship. Apart from the initiation of God, humanity is incapable of coming back to a right relationship with Him and is therefore under His judgment, deserving sin’s penalty of physical and spiritual death.
​
SALVATION
We believe that Jesus, as our substitute and representative, shed His blood on the cross as the perfect, all-sufficient sacrifice for our sins. His atoning death and victorious resurrection constitute the only ground for salvation. We believe it is offered freely to all who turn from sin (repentance) and trust in Jesus (faith) as the only Savior and Lord apart from any human merit, works, or ritual.
​
THE CHURCH
We believe that the true church comprises all who have been saved by God’s grace through faith alone in Christ alone. They are united by the Holy Spirit in the Body of Christ, of which He is the Head. We believe that local churches are to be the visible representation of the Body of Christ in their communities, observing His commands in reference to baptism and the Lord’s Supper and teaching the Word of God for the edification of believers and salvation of unbelievers.
​
HUMANITY’S ETERNAL STATE
We believe that God will raise the dead bodily and judge the world, assigning the unbeliever to condemnation and eternal, conscious punishment and the believer to eternal blessedness and joy with Him in the new heaven and the new earth, to the praise of His glorious grace.
​
END TIMES
We believe in the personal, bodily, visible, triumphant, and glorious return of Jesus. His coming, at a time known only to God, demands constant expectancy. As our blessed hope, it motivates believers to godly living, sacrificial service, and energetic mission.