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FaithfulWord
Sacramento Baptist Church

Baptist Faith and Message

I. The Scriptures

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is the revelation that God makes of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God as its author, its purpose is salvation, and its theme is truth, without any mixture of error. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is and will remain until the end of the world the true center of Christian unity, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions must be judged. All Scripture is a testimony of Jesus, who is Himself the center of divine revelation.

Exodus 24:4; Deuteronomy 4:1–2; 17:19; Joshua 8:34; Psalms 19:7–10; 119:11, 89, 105, 140; Isaiah 34:16; 40:8; Jeremiah 15:16; 36:1–32; Matthew 5:17–18; 22:29; Luke 21:33; 24:44–46; John 5:39; 16:13–15; 17:17; Acts 2:16 and following; 17:11; Romans 15:4; 16:25–26; 2 Timothy 3:15–17; Hebrews 1:1–2; 4:12; 1 Peter 1:25; 2 Peter 1:19–21.

II. God

There is one God, and only one, living and true. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and in all other perfections. God is all-powerful and omniscient, and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal and triune God reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

A. God the Father

God as Father reigns with providential care over all His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the course of human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all-powerful, omniscient, all-loving, and all-wise. God is truly Father of all those who become His children through faith in Christ Jesus. He is fatherly in His attitude toward all men.

B. God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and fulfilled the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and needs and identifying Himself completely with humanity, yet without sin. He honored the divine law through His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He was raised from among the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the same 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 only Mediator, fully God and fully man, in whose Person reconciliation between God and man has been accomplished. He will return with power and glory to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and omniscient Lord.

C. God, the Holy Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior and brings about regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and gives them spiritual gifts through which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer for the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer to attain the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

III. Man

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crown of His creation. The gift of gender is therefore part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent and was endowed by God with freedom to choose. By his own decision man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the commandment of God and fell from his original state of innocence, whereby his descendants inherited a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill God’s creative purpose. The holiness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image and that Christ died for man; therefore every person of every race possesses absolute dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

IV. Salvation

Salvation involves the total redemption of man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

A. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of the grace of God by which believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart brought about by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and the dedication of the whole personality to Him as Lord and Savior.

B. Justification is the work of God’s grace and the complete absolution based on the principles of His grace toward all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification places the believer in a relationship of peace and favor with God.

C. Sanctification is the experience that begins in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart for the purposes of God and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence of the Holy Spirit who dwells in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the life of the regenerated person.

D. Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the blessed and permanent state of the redeemed.

V. The Purpose of God’s Grace

Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free will of man and includes 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.

All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ and sanctified by His Spirit will never fall from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end. Believers may fall into sin through negligence 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; nevertheless, they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

VI. The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local and autonomous 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 spread 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 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.

The New Testament also speaks of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

VII. Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony of faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is a prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to participation in the Lord’s Supper.

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

VIII. The Lord’s Day

The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is a Christian institution and should be observed regularly. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord’s Day should be in harmony with the Christian conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

IX. The Kingdom

The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willingly acknowledge Him as King. Particularly, the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by yielding themselves to Jesus Christ through a childlike faith and trust. Christians should pray and labor for the coming of the Kingdom and for God’s will to be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age.

X. Last Things

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of eternal punishment. The righteous, in their resurrected and glorified bodies, will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

XI. Evangelism and Missions

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to strive to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man’s spirit by God’s Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part of all thus depends upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerated life and is expressly and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ through personal testimony supported by a Christian lifestyle and by other methods that are in harmony with the gospel of Christ.

XII. Education

Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ are found all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is therefore a part of our Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is coordinated with the causes of missions and benevolence and should receive along with these the generous support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary to complete the spiritual program of the Body of Christ.

In Christian education there must be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly human relationship is always limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian educational institution, school, college, university, or seminary is always limited by the preeminence of Jesus Christ, the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinctive purpose for which the school exists.

XIII. Stewardship

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians are under obligation to serve God with their time, talents, and material possessions, and should recognize that all these are entrusted to them to be used for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and generously for the advancement of the Redeemer’s cause on earth.

XIV. Cooperation

Christ’s people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objectives of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary organizations designed to counsel, to discover, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one another in carrying forward missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the extension of Christ’s Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ’s people. Cooperation between Christian denominations is desirable when the purpose sought is justified in itself and when such cooperation does not involve violation of conscience nor compromise loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New Testament.

XV. The Christian and the Social Order

All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in their own lives and in human society. The means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of justice among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for orphans, the needy, the abused, the elderly, the defenseless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and strive for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love.

XVI. Peace and War

It is the duty of every Christian to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ, they should do all in their power to put an end to war. The true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world is the acceptance of His teachings in all relationships of men and nations and the practical application of His law of love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the reign of the Prince of Peace.

XVII. Religious Liberty

God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes protection and full freedom to every church in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing such freedom, no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state over others. Civil government being ordained by God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience to it in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates only spiritual means for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind, nor to levy taxes for the support of any form of religion. The Christian ideal is a free church in a free state.

XVIII. The 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

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