Baptist Faith & Message
This page last modified: January 14, 2008
GOD - "There is one and only one living and true God... The eternal 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 of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary... He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His 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... He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righeousness and of judgment... He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service."
The Scriptures - "The Holy Bible was written by man divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation of Himself to man... It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter... The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ."
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 obrtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification."
God's Purpose of Grace - "Election is the graciouis purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, 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 a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel... and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth... This church is an autonomous body... The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages."
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 Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Jesus Christ.
"The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members... memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming."
The Kingdom - "The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingshop over the men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ... The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age."
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."
Man - "Man was created by the special act God, in his own image, and is 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 inHis own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love."
Family - "God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society... Marriage in 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. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people... Children, from the moment of conception are a blessing and heritage from the Lord."
Evangelism & Missions - "It is the duty and priviledge of every follower of Christ and of 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 personal effort."
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."
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."
Education - "The cause of education in the kingdom of Christ is to co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence... their 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."
The Christian & Social Order - "Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in his own life and human society. The Christian should oppose in the spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness and vice."
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."
Last Things - "God, in His own time, 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 the righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. ... The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord."
The 1999 session of the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Atlanta, Georgia, adopted the following motion addressed to the President of the Convention:"I move that in your capacity as Southern Baptist Convention chairman, you appoint a blue ribbon committee to review the Baptist Faith and Message statement with the responsibility to report and bring any recommendations to this meeting next June in Orlando."
President Paige Patterson appointed the committee as follows: Max Barnett (OK), Steve Gaines (AL), Susie Hawkins (TX), Rudy A. Hernandez (TX), Charles S. Kelley, Jr. (LA), Heather King (IN), Richard D. Land (TN), Fred Luter (LA), R. Albert Mohler, Jr. (KY), T. C. Pinckney (VA), Nelson Price (GA), Adrian Rogers (TN), Roger Spradlin (CA), Simon Tsoi (AZ), Jerry Vines (FL). Adrian Rogers (TN) was appointed chairman.
Your committee thus constituted begs leave to present its report as follows:
Baptists are a people of deep beliefs and cherished doctrines. Throughout our history we have been a confessional people, adopting statements of faith as a witness to our beliefs and a pledge of our faithfulness to the doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture.
Our confessions of faith are rooted in historical precedent, as the church in every age has been called upon to define and defend its beliefs. Each generation of Christians bears the responsibility of guarding the treasury of truth that has been entrusted to us [2 Timothy 1:14]. Facing a new century, Southern Baptists must meet the demands and duties of the present hour.
New challenges to faith appear in every age. A pervasive anti-supernaturalism in the culture was answered by Southern Baptists in 1925, when the Baptist Faith and Message was first adopted by this Convention. In 1963, Southern Baptists responded to assaults upon the authority and truthfulness of the Bible by adopting revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message. The Convention added an article on "The Family" in 1998, thus answering cultural confusion with the clear teachings of Scripture. Now, faced with a culture hostile to the very notion of truth, this generation of Baptists must claim anew the eternal truths of the Christian faith.
Your committee respects and celebrates the heritage of the Baptist Faith and Message, and affirms the decision of the Convention in 1925 to adopt the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, "revised at certain points and with some additional articles growing out of certain needs . . . ." We also respect the important contributions of the 1925 and 1963 editions of the Baptist Faith and Message.
With the 1963 committee, we have been guided in our work by the 1925 "statement of the historic Baptist conception of the nature and function of confessions of faith in our religious and denominational life . . . ." It is, therefore, quoted in full as a part of this report to the Convention:
(1) That they constitute a consensus of opinion of some Baptist body, large or small, for the general instruction and guidance of our own people and others concerning those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us. They are not intended to add anything to the simple conditions of salvation revealed in the New Testament, viz., repentance toward God and faith in Jesus Christ as Saviour and Lord.
(2) That we do not regard them as complete statements of our faith, having any quality of finality or infallibility. As in the past so in the future, Baptists should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time.
(3) That any group of Baptists, large or small, have the inherent right to draw up for themselves and publish to the world a confession of their faith whenever they may think it advisable to do so.
(4) That the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments. Confessions are only guides in interpretation, having no authority over the conscience.
(5) That they are statements of religious convictions, drawn from the Scriptures, and are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation in other realms of life.
Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of faith upon a church or body of churches. We honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God.
Baptist churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments of doctrinal accountability. We are not embarrassed to state before the world that these are doctrines we hold precious and as essential to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice.
As a committee, we have been charged to address the "certain needs" of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile to Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
The 1963 committee rightly sought to identify and affirm "certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified." Our living faith is established upon eternal truths. "Thus this generation of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us."
Adopted from the Baptist Faith & Message
Friendship Baptist Church
4001 74th Street North
St. Petersburg, Florida 33709
Telephone: (727) 343-3321
