Statement of Faith
First Baptist Newark is a Southern Baptist congregation. Our statement of faith can be summarized as follow:
The
Scriptures God God
the Father God
the Son God
the Holy Spirit Man Salvation God's
Purpose of Grace The
Church Baptism
& the Lord's Supper The
Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby
members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate
His
second coming. Evangelism
& Missions Last
Things
The
Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation
of Himself to man. It 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. Therefore, all Scripture is totally
true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us,
and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world the true
center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture
is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
There
is one and only one living and true God. 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
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.
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 substitutionary
death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from
sin.
The
Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He exalts Christ. He
convicts men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He
enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship,
evangelism, and service.
Man
is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male
and female as 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 in His own image, and in that Christ died for man;
therefore every person of every race possesses dignity and is worthy of
respect and Christian love.
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
obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense
salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and
glorification.
Election
is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates,
justifies, 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.
A
New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local
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 extend the gospel to the
ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of
Christ. In such a congregation each member is responsible and
accountable to Christ as Lord.
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 Saviour, 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 the duty and privelege of every follower of Christ and 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 verbal witness
undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony
with the gospel of Christ.
God,
in His own time and 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
righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. The
righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven
with the Lord.