PREAMBLE

Concerning authority in all matters of faith and practice, the doctrinal foundation for Faith Baptist church is found only in the Word of God. These Articles of Faith serve to establish our understanding of those doctrines as found in the Word of God.

ARTICLE I – THE HOLY BIBLE

We believe the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, in the original writings, to be the verbally inspired Word of God. The Scriptures are inerrant, infallible and God-breathed. As a result, they represent the final authority for faith and life. The sixty-six books of the Bible are the complete and divine revelation of God to man. The Scriptures shall be interpreted according to its literal, face value unless the Scripture specifies otherwise. Our preferred translation is the King James Version.^[1]

ARTICLE II – THE TRINITY

We believe in one God manifested in three Persons:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Coequal and coeternal in Divine perfection, each Person of the Trinity executes a distinct, but totally harmonious office in all of His acts.^[2]

ARTICLE III – GOD THE FATHER

We believe in one living and true God.  Infinite and eternal, He is the Creator and Sustainer of all things.  He is inexpressibly glorious in holiness and worthy of all possible honor, confidence and love.  He is the final Judge of the living and the dead at the end of all things.

ARTICLE IV – GOD THE SON

We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, became man, without ceasing to be God, having been conceived by the Holy Spirit.  He was born of the virgin Mary in order that He might reveal God and redeem sinful man.

We believe that Jesus Christ accomplished our redemption through His death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice.  Our justification is made sure by His literal, physical resurrection from the dead.

We believe that Jesus Christ ascended to Heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where, as our High Priest, He fulfills the ministry of Representative, Intercessor, and Advocate.

ARTICLE V – GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the Administrator of spiritual gifts for the believer.  These gifted believers are used to equip the church to do the work of the ministry.  We believe that the sign gifts were temporary but that the gifts for ministry are still in use today.^[3]

ARTICLE VI – THE TOTAL DEPRAVITY OF MAN

We believe that man was created in the image and likeness of God.  As a result of Adam’s sin, the human race fell, inherited a sinful nature, and became alienated from God.  Thus, man is totally depraved and, of himself, utterly unable to remedy his lost condition.

ARTICLE VII – SALVATION

We believe that salvation is the gift of God brought to man by grace through faith in Jesus Christ, whose blood was shed on the cross for the forgiveness of sin. 

We believe that all believers, once saved, are kept by God’s power, and are thus secure in Christ forever.

ARTICLE VIII – THE LOCAL CHURCH

We believe the local church should be free of any external authority and control and is responsible to govern itself according to the mandates of Scripture.

We believe that pastors and deacons hold God-ordained offices. Their purpose is to shepherd and serve His Church.

ARTICLE IX – SEPARATION

We believe that all the saved should live in such a manner as to not bring reproach upon their Savior and Lord; and, that separation from all religious apostasy, all worldly and sinful pleasures, practices and associations is commanded of God.^[4]

ARTICLE X – THE SECOND COMING OF CHRIST

We believe in that “blessed hope,” the personal, imminent return of Christ who will rapture His church prior to a seven year tribulation period.  At the end of the Tribulation, Christ will personally and visibly return, with His saints, to establish His earthly Messianic Kingdom which was promised to the nation of Israel.^[5]

ARTICLE XI – THE ETERNAL STATE

We believe in the bodily resurrection of all men, the saved to eternal life, and the unsaved to judgment and everlasting punishment.^[6]We believe that the souls of all believers are, at death, absent from the body and present with the Lord. They await the moment when spirit, soul, and body are reunited to be glorified forever with the Lord.[7]

We believe that the souls of unbelievers remain, after death, in conscious punishment and torment until body and soul are reunited at the Great White Throne Judgment. There they will be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire for eternity.

ARTICLE XII – THE PERSONALITY OF SATAN

We believe that Satan is a person, the author of sin and the cause of the Fall of Man; that he is the open and declared enemy of God and man; and, that he shall be eternally punished in the Lake of Fire.^[8]

ARTICLE XIII – CREATION

We believe that God created the universe in six literal, twenty-four hour periods.  We reject evolution, the Gap Theory, the Day-Age Theory, and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of the origin of man.^[9]

ARTICLE XIV – CIVIL GOVERNMENT

We believe that God has ordained and created all authority consisting of three basic institutions: (1) the home; (2) the church, and (3) the state.  Every person is subject to these authorities, but all (including the authorities themselves) are answerable to God and governed by His Word.  God has given each institution specific Biblical responsibilities and balanced those responsibilities with the understanding that no institution has the right to infringe upon the other.  The home, the church, and the state are equal and sovereign in their respective Biblically assigned spheres of responsibility under God.^[10]

ARTICLE XV – FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

We believe that men and women are spiritually equal in position before God, but that God has ordained distinct and separate spiritual functions for men and women in the home and in the church.  The husband is to be the leader of the home, and men are to be the leaders (pastor and deacons) of the church.^[11]

We believe that God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society.  The husband is to love his wife as Christ loves the Church.  The wife is to submit herself to the leadership of her husband as the Church submits to the headship of Christ.  Children are an heritage from the Lord.  Parents are responsible to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them through consistent lifestyle example and appropriate discipline.^[11]

We believe that God hates divorce and intends marriage to last until one of the spouses die. Divorced and remarried persons may hold positions of service in the church and be greatly used of God.^[13]

Article XVI – HUMAN SEXUALITY

We believe that God has commanded that all intimate sexual activity should be within the bounds of a Biblical marriage between a man and a woman.^[13]  

We believe that any form of homosexuality, lesbianism, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, fornication, adultery and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex.^[14]

We believe that God disapproves of and forbids any attempt to alter one’s gender by surgery or appearance.

We believe that the only Scriptural marriage is the joining of one man to one woman.^[15]

Article XVII – THE VALUE OF HUMAN LIFE

We believe that life is a gift of God from conception until natural death. All human life begins at conception and the unborn child is a living human being. Abortion constitutes the unjustified, unexcused taking of unborn human life. We do not believe that abortion is acceptable under any circumstance.

We believe that the taking of an innocent human life is regarded as a moral evil, regardless of the intention.  Any act or omission which causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes murder and is contrary to the will of God.^[16]

ARTICLE XVIII – MISSIONS

We believe that God has given the Church a Great Commission to proclaim the gospel to all nations so that there might be a great multitude from every nation, tribe, ethnic group, and language group who believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.  As ambassadors of Christ we must use all available means to go to the foreign nations and not wait for them to come to us.  

ARTICLE XIX – LAWSUITS BETWEEN BELIEVERS

We believe that Christians are prohibited from bringing civil lawsuits against other Christians or the church to resolve personal disputes.

We believe the church possesses all the resources necessary to resolve personal disputes between members.  We do believe, however, that a Christian may seek compensation for injuries from another Christian’s insurance company as long as the claim is pursued without malice or slander.^[17]

ARTICLE XX – GIVING

We believe that God established the tithe as a basis for giving, but that every Christian should give offerings sacrificially and cheerfully. These monies should be used to support the local church, the relief of those in need and the spread of the Gospel.^[18]

ARTICLE XXI – AMENDMENTS

These Articles of Faith may be amended provided the amendment is read from the pulpit on two (2) Sundays immediately preceding the meeting in which the amendment is to be considered or ratified. Amendments must be ratified by a three fourths (3/4) vote of the active, and “in good standing”, members present. The vote can be by uplifted hand or written ballot.