Here is a brief summary
of our beliefs here at Harbor City Baptist Church based on the brochure
from the Southern Baptist Convention called "Meet Southern Baptists".
If you would like a copy of this brochure, please call the Church Office
at 254-8879 or you can download the PDF version by clicking
here. Our ministerial staff would be happy to discuss any of the beliefs
listed below.
Meet Southern Baptists
You become a southern Baptist by uniting with a Southern Baptist Church, one in friendly cooperation with the general Southern Baptist enterprise of reaching the world for Christ. Typically church membership is a matter of accepting Jesus as your Saviour and Lord and experinncing believer's baptism by immersion.
Southern Baptists have prepared a statement of generally held convictions called the Baptist Faith and Message. It serves as a guide to understanding who they are. Copies are available at this and other Southern Baptist churches or please visit the web site of the Southern Baptist Convention, www.sbc.net.
The Scriptures
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, without any mixture
of error, for its matter.
God
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 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 substitutionary 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, 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
Man is the special creation of God, made 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 full dignity and is worthy of respect and
Christian love.
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely
to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood
obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation
includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification.
God’s Purpose of Grace
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.
The Church
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. …And seeking to extend the gospel to
the ends of the earth. … The New Testament speaks also of the church
as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all ages,
believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
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 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. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members
…memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His coming.
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 include exercises
of worship and spiritual devotion…
Last Things
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.
Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege 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.
Education
In Jesus Christ abide all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound
learning is, therefore, a part of our Christian heritage. …the cause
of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of
missions and general benevolence. …there 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.
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.
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.
The Christian & Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ
supreme in our own lives supreme in our own lives and in human society.
…In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every
form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality.
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….
Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society.
…Marriage is 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.
