Second Baptist Church

We Believe 

I.  THE SCRIPTURES: 

We believe the absolute authority and accuracy of the Bible, both Old and New Testaments; its verbal inspiration and in-errancy in the original manuscripts and its all-sufficiency as the Christian's rule of faith and practice (2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 Peter 1:19-21).

II.  THE GODHEAD:

We believe that there is but one God, the Creator, Preserver and Ruler of all things, Who is perfect in holiness, and in love, infinite in wisdom and measureless in      power, and Who reveals Himself to us in three distinct Persons, as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Deut. 6:4, Neh. 9:6; I Chron. 29:11-12; Ex. 15:11; 1 John 4:8b; Matt. 28:19).

III.  THE LORD JESUS CHRIST: 

We believe that Jesus Christ is the eternal and only begotten Son of God, conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary, and that He is true God and true man and is the only, and sufficient, mediator between God and man (Matt. 1:20; Luke 1:45; John 1:1-2, 14; 12:45; 14:9; i Tim. 2:5).

IV.  THE HOLY SPIRIT: 

We believe that the Holy Spirit is the third Person of the Trinity, Whose ministry is to convict the world of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment, to regenerate the unbelieving, and to seal, sanctify, teach, comfort and spiritually gift, as He wills, those who believe in Jesus Christ (Matt. 28:19; John 16:8-11; 3:3, 7; 14:26; Eph. 1:13; I Cor. 12:1-31).

V.  SALVATION: 

We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ Died for our sins according to the Scriptures as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice; that all who believe on Him as justified on the basis of His shed blood (I Cor. 15:3-4; Rev. 1:5).  We believe that salvation is by grace through faith, not as a result of works, and that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit, thereby becoming children of God (Eph. 2:8-9; John 3:3, 7; 1:12).  We believe that those who truly believe in Christ and are born of the Spirit shall never be lost and have the fullest assurance that those who die in the Lord shall rise again and forever be with the Lord (John 6:39; 10:28-29; Phil. 1:6; I Thess. 4:13-18).  We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting conscious blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting conscious punishment of the lost (I Cor. 15:20, 24; Rev. 20:12-15; 2 Cor. 5:8).