Core Distinctives of First Baptist Church
Historically Baptist
First Baptist Church is distinct from other denominations of the Christian Faith by a number of core scriptural convictions. Although there are other denominations who hold to some of the same convictions, these are the historic biblical convictions that are distinctive to the Baptist Faith:
Reformed According to the Scriptures
At First Baptist Church, we are reformed in our theology.
Reformed theology gets its name from the Protestant Reformation. We believe the theology represented by the Reformers was taught by Christ and His apostles. The Reformation (1517) was a pivotal moment for the Church. Protesting against the heresy of the Catholic church, the Reformers of the day fought to see the church re-formed according to the Scriptures. The Reformation took place to purify the church and save the true Christian religion from the Roman Catholic Church.
Reformed theology harmonizes the progressive revelation of God in the Old and New Testaments with the attributes of God to formulate a holistic interpretation of the entire Bible. Reformed theology is zealous to divide rightly the Word of Truth. Below are a few important aspects of Reformed Theology that are maintained at First Baptist Church.
Five Solas of the Reformation
We stand upon the “five solas” of the Reformation as essential doctrines of the faith:
Sola scriptura (Scripture alone): Scripture is the ultimate authority of the church and completely for sufficient for all things Christian Faith and Practice.
Sola fide (faith alone): Salvation comes through faith alone.
Sola gratia (grace alone): Salvation is by grace alone.
Solus Christus (Christ alone): Salvation is found in Christ alone.
Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone): Salvation is to the glory of God alone.
Our goal is to teach the whole counsel of God as we preach expositionally through the Bible. Though we do seek not to become unbalanced in our theology by overly focusing upon one doctrine to the neglect of other truths, we firmly believe that the understanding of the absolute sovereignty of God affects every aspect of our church life, including our doctrine, our preaching, our philosophy of ministry and missions, our counseling, and our worship.
Doctrines of Grace
The heartbeat of Reformed Theology is the doctrine of salvation or soteriology. Post-reformation, the reformed doctrine of soteriology came to be known as Calvinism. Calvinism organizes and expresses the historic biblical doctrines of grace into five points under the acronym TULIP. These Doctrines of Grace are maintained and taught at First Baptist Church:
Total Depravity: We maintain that all of mankind is born in sin inherited from Adam, and that this condition is so great man can be described as being spiritually dead, enslaved to sinful passions. This enslavement prevents us from doing any good thing apart from being born again (regenerated) by the Holy Spirit.
Unconditional Election: We believe that prior to creation God chose a particular people to save, and that it has never been God’s intention to save all human beings created. God’s choice was not based on a foreseen virtue or work in the elect, nor was it arbitrary. Rather, God’s choice was unconditional and to the praise of His own glory.
Limited Atonement: We believe that Jesus’ death was not intended to be applied to every human individual. Rather, Jesus died to make atonement for the sins of the elect people whom the Father sent Jesus into the world to save. It is appropriate to speak of Christ dying for all, for the whole world, and for mankind since the elect are made up from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
Irresistible Grace: We believe that regeneration, whereby a person is made a new creature and is born again, is a divine work of the Holy Spirit that the sinful man will not resist or prevent when effectually called according to his election.
Perseverance of the Saints: We believe no justified person can lose their justification. Any person who loses their faith would lose the justification said faith obtains. Thus, in order for God’s purpose of election to stand, and that the work of Christ’s atonement would not be undone, the Holy Spirit of God perseveres the believer’s faith until the end. This means that genuine believers cannot lose their faith or their salvation.
Covenantal
Reformed Theology sees a covenantal structure to the Bible. God entered into a covenant with Adam and all of mankind in the Garden of Eden at creation and has also expressed salvation to mankind through a separate covenant in Christ. There have been many covenants throughout Scripture which God has used to administrate this saving covenant.
Throughout the history of the Christian church, the covenantal hermeneutic has been debated at many points. Presbyterians, Baptists, and New Covenant Theologians all have different expressions of a covenantal reading of Scripture. At First Baptist Church, we do not see the new covenant of grace as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ as a replacement of the old Abrahamic covenant but as a new covenant altogether. Therefore, we do not see the sign of physical circumcision as being continued through the sign of physical baptism. Therefore, as reformed Baptists, we practice credobaptism (baptism of believers upon an observable confession of faith) as opposed to pedobaptism (baptizing the infants of confessing believers) as the biblical practice for the ordinance of baptism in New Testament churches.
Confessional
Scripture teaches that the church is the "pillar and support of the truth." (I Tim 3:15). The church as a whole is charged with interpreting the Bible, and God has authorized teachers in the church throughout history. Therefore, while every individual Christian is responsible to understand Scripture for himself, no Christian should study the Bible without any consideration of what the great teachers of the past have taught about the Bible.
Each of our members must affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 with other supportive statements of faith as outlined in our church's constitution: the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the 2017 Nashville Statement on Biblical Sexuality, and the 2018 Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel.
Beyond these historic confessions and statements of faith, our elders must affirm the Abstract of Principles. This historically Reformed Baptist confession of faith was adopted in 1858 as the guiding confessional document for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
We maintain that the historic and Reformed confessions of faith serve as reliable and helpful documents which accurately reflect biblical, Christian theology. Although it is required of our members only to affirm the confessions and statements of faith previously listed, you will hear in our teaching references to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as well as the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith.
Law & Gospel
Reformed Baptists believe that the Ten Commandments are the summary of God's moral law. We believe that unless we rightly understand the law, we cannot believe the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ kept the law for our justification by living in perfect obedience to earn the law's blessing of life, dying a substitutionary death to pay the law's penalty, and rising again for our justification. But the Gospel isn't only a promise of justification. It's also the good news that Christ promises graciously to give the Holy Spirit to kill their lawlessness and to make them more and more lawful. Titus 2:14 says that Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works."
Regulative Principle of Worship
The earliest Baptists believed that the elements of public worship are limited to what Scripture commands. John 14:23 says, "True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (emphasis added; see also Matthew 15:9). The revealed truth of Scripture limits the worship of God to what is prescribed in Scripture. The regulative principle of worship limits the elements of public worship to the Word preached and read, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer, the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and whatever else the Scripture commands. At First Baptist Church, we maintain the regulative principle of worship as a guide for offering worship that is pleasing and glorifying to God.
First Baptist Church is distinct from other denominations of the Christian Faith by a number of core scriptural convictions. Although there are other denominations who hold to some of the same convictions, these are the historic biblical convictions that are distinctive to the Baptist Faith:
- God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
- The Lordship of Jesus Christ
- The Bible as the sole written authority for faith and practice
- Soul competency, accountability, and responsibility
- Salvation only by grace through faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior
- The security of the believer who has responded to God's grace through faith
- The priesthood of each believer and all believers in Christ
- Baptism of believers by immersion
- Church membership voluntarily entered only by baptized believers
- Baptism and the Lord's Supper as meaningful to, but not necessary for, salvation
- Congregational governance of a church by the baptized believer members
- The autonomy of each local body of baptized believer priests
Reformed According to the Scriptures
At First Baptist Church, we are reformed in our theology.
Reformed theology gets its name from the Protestant Reformation. We believe the theology represented by the Reformers was taught by Christ and His apostles. The Reformation (1517) was a pivotal moment for the Church. Protesting against the heresy of the Catholic church, the Reformers of the day fought to see the church re-formed according to the Scriptures. The Reformation took place to purify the church and save the true Christian religion from the Roman Catholic Church.
Reformed theology harmonizes the progressive revelation of God in the Old and New Testaments with the attributes of God to formulate a holistic interpretation of the entire Bible. Reformed theology is zealous to divide rightly the Word of Truth. Below are a few important aspects of Reformed Theology that are maintained at First Baptist Church.
Five Solas of the Reformation
We stand upon the “five solas” of the Reformation as essential doctrines of the faith:
Sola scriptura (Scripture alone): Scripture is the ultimate authority of the church and completely for sufficient for all things Christian Faith and Practice.
Sola fide (faith alone): Salvation comes through faith alone.
Sola gratia (grace alone): Salvation is by grace alone.
Solus Christus (Christ alone): Salvation is found in Christ alone.
Soli Deo gloria (glory to God alone): Salvation is to the glory of God alone.
Our goal is to teach the whole counsel of God as we preach expositionally through the Bible. Though we do seek not to become unbalanced in our theology by overly focusing upon one doctrine to the neglect of other truths, we firmly believe that the understanding of the absolute sovereignty of God affects every aspect of our church life, including our doctrine, our preaching, our philosophy of ministry and missions, our counseling, and our worship.
Doctrines of Grace
The heartbeat of Reformed Theology is the doctrine of salvation or soteriology. Post-reformation, the reformed doctrine of soteriology came to be known as Calvinism. Calvinism organizes and expresses the historic biblical doctrines of grace into five points under the acronym TULIP. These Doctrines of Grace are maintained and taught at First Baptist Church:
Total Depravity: We maintain that all of mankind is born in sin inherited from Adam, and that this condition is so great man can be described as being spiritually dead, enslaved to sinful passions. This enslavement prevents us from doing any good thing apart from being born again (regenerated) by the Holy Spirit.
Unconditional Election: We believe that prior to creation God chose a particular people to save, and that it has never been God’s intention to save all human beings created. God’s choice was not based on a foreseen virtue or work in the elect, nor was it arbitrary. Rather, God’s choice was unconditional and to the praise of His own glory.
Limited Atonement: We believe that Jesus’ death was not intended to be applied to every human individual. Rather, Jesus died to make atonement for the sins of the elect people whom the Father sent Jesus into the world to save. It is appropriate to speak of Christ dying for all, for the whole world, and for mankind since the elect are made up from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
Irresistible Grace: We believe that regeneration, whereby a person is made a new creature and is born again, is a divine work of the Holy Spirit that the sinful man will not resist or prevent when effectually called according to his election.
Perseverance of the Saints: We believe no justified person can lose their justification. Any person who loses their faith would lose the justification said faith obtains. Thus, in order for God’s purpose of election to stand, and that the work of Christ’s atonement would not be undone, the Holy Spirit of God perseveres the believer’s faith until the end. This means that genuine believers cannot lose their faith or their salvation.
Covenantal
Reformed Theology sees a covenantal structure to the Bible. God entered into a covenant with Adam and all of mankind in the Garden of Eden at creation and has also expressed salvation to mankind through a separate covenant in Christ. There have been many covenants throughout Scripture which God has used to administrate this saving covenant.
Throughout the history of the Christian church, the covenantal hermeneutic has been debated at many points. Presbyterians, Baptists, and New Covenant Theologians all have different expressions of a covenantal reading of Scripture. At First Baptist Church, we do not see the new covenant of grace as instituted by our Lord Jesus Christ as a replacement of the old Abrahamic covenant but as a new covenant altogether. Therefore, we do not see the sign of physical circumcision as being continued through the sign of physical baptism. Therefore, as reformed Baptists, we practice credobaptism (baptism of believers upon an observable confession of faith) as opposed to pedobaptism (baptizing the infants of confessing believers) as the biblical practice for the ordinance of baptism in New Testament churches.
Confessional
Scripture teaches that the church is the "pillar and support of the truth." (I Tim 3:15). The church as a whole is charged with interpreting the Bible, and God has authorized teachers in the church throughout history. Therefore, while every individual Christian is responsible to understand Scripture for himself, no Christian should study the Bible without any consideration of what the great teachers of the past have taught about the Bible.
Each of our members must affirm the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 with other supportive statements of faith as outlined in our church's constitution: the 1978 Chicago Statement on Biblical Inerrancy, the 2017 Nashville Statement on Biblical Sexuality, and the 2018 Dallas Statement on Social Justice and the Gospel.
Beyond these historic confessions and statements of faith, our elders must affirm the Abstract of Principles. This historically Reformed Baptist confession of faith was adopted in 1858 as the guiding confessional document for the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
We maintain that the historic and Reformed confessions of faith serve as reliable and helpful documents which accurately reflect biblical, Christian theology. Although it is required of our members only to affirm the confessions and statements of faith previously listed, you will hear in our teaching references to the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith as well as the 1646 Westminster Confession of Faith.
Law & Gospel
Reformed Baptists believe that the Ten Commandments are the summary of God's moral law. We believe that unless we rightly understand the law, we cannot believe the Gospel. The Gospel is the good news that Jesus Christ kept the law for our justification by living in perfect obedience to earn the law's blessing of life, dying a substitutionary death to pay the law's penalty, and rising again for our justification. But the Gospel isn't only a promise of justification. It's also the good news that Christ promises graciously to give the Holy Spirit to kill their lawlessness and to make them more and more lawful. Titus 2:14 says that Christ "gave himself for us to redeem us from all lawlessness and to purify for himself a people for his own possession, who are zealous for good works."
Regulative Principle of Worship
The earliest Baptists believed that the elements of public worship are limited to what Scripture commands. John 14:23 says, "True worshippers will worship the Father in spirit and truth" (emphasis added; see also Matthew 15:9). The revealed truth of Scripture limits the worship of God to what is prescribed in Scripture. The regulative principle of worship limits the elements of public worship to the Word preached and read, the ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper, prayer, the singing of psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, and whatever else the Scripture commands. At First Baptist Church, we maintain the regulative principle of worship as a guide for offering worship that is pleasing and glorifying to God.