It has been said, “To keep the faith, we must know the faith.” We encourage all those attending North American Baptist churches to study the Word of God. Dig deep. Ask questions. Know what you believe. Briefly outlined below are several key beliefs essential to a North American Baptist.
1. We believe the Bible is God’s Word given by divine inspiration, the record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity (II Timothy 3:16).
2. We believe in the one living and true God, perfect in wisdom, sovereignty, holiness, justice, mercy and love (I Timothy 1:17; Psalm 86:15; Deuteronomy 32:3-4).
3. We believe God created an order of spiritual beings called angels to serve Him and do His will (Psalm 148:1-5; Colossians 1:16).
4. We believe God created man in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and to be steward over His creation (Genesis 1:26-28).
5. We believe salvation is redemption by Christ of the whole person from sin and death (II Timothy 1:9-10; I Thessalonians 5:23).
6. We believe the Church is the body, of which Christ is the head and all who believe in Him are members (Ephesians 1:22-23; Romans 12:4-5).
7. We believe religious liberty, rooted in Scripture, is the inalienable right of all individuals to freedom of conscience with ultimate accountability to God (Genesis 1:27; John 8:32; II Corinthians 3:17; Romans 8:21; Acts 5:29).
8. We believe Christians, individually and collectively, are salt and light in society (Matthew 5:13-16).
9. We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring all things to their appropriate end and establish the new heaven and the new earth (Ephesians 1:9-10, Revelation 21:1).
