What We Believe

First Baptist Church has prayerfully adopted the "Baptist Faith and Message 2000" which is a comprehensive overview of our basic convictions as a Christian church. (A copy of this document is available upon request.)  Due to limited space on our website, the following core beliefs are presented to state our most basic convictions.

The Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation of Himself and 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.  It is the final standard for faith and practice in our congregation.

We believe that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit are the divine trinity, one in essence and totally unified in the expression of divine will.  Together as one, they are the perfect, infinite beings in whom all things have their source, support and end.

We believe that man was created in innocence by the special act of God in His own image and was endowed with the freedom of choice.  The nature of this freedom is that man chooses to do what he most wants to do every time; therefore, apart from the grace of God, man chooses sin every time.  Only by God's grace can man be recovered from his fallen state and put into a right relationship with God.umans, both male and female, were created in God's image for His glory. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were created without sin and appointed as caretakers of the rest of God's creations.

Salvation from the sin nature and the power of sin is made possible by Jesus' death on the cross whereby He purchased redemption for all mankind.  Salvation is obtained on the basis of repentance (turning from sin toward God) and personal faith (total reliance/trust) in the finished work of Christ, which results in a new nature and the power to live the Christian life.

Baptism is the outward expression of a spiritual transaction whereby a believing Christian confesses that he has died to sin as a practice, desires to be "buried" and raised to new life in his complete reliance upon the finished work of Christ for his salvation. Baptism in water symbolizes the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus and my conviction that I, too, will die, be buried, and raised to new life in the resurrection.

The Lord's Supper is the second of the two ordinances of the church.  It is a symbolic act using the bread and juice to memorialize the death of Jesus and His coming again.

The church is a called out assembly of baptized believers who have covenanted together to carry out the will of Christ as expressed in Scripture, particularly in the Great Commission and the Great Commandment.

We believe that those who repent and place complete faith in the finished work of Jesus are placed by God into an eternal relationship with Him, and, while their fellowship may be broken, their eternal relationship is forever secure.

We believe that the primary reason for our existence is to share the good news of eternal life with all who do not know Jesus.  Beginning with our own families and communities, this commitment to share the gospel extends across the nation and around the world.

We believe that Jesus Christ is coming again at the end of the age, that He is coming bodily (in person) and that all who have a personal faith in Him will be transported to their eternal home with Him, and will have a joyful, personal ministry in His eternal kingdom.