In a world that defines itself by itself, doctrines and values change constantly. Therefore, Calvary Baptist Church stands on core doctrines comes first from the Bible and enumerated by the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. See the full Baptist Faith and Message for Scriptural references on each section.
1. GOD
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual,
and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the
universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all
powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things,
past, present, and future. 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 human history according to the purposes of His grace. He is all
powerful, all knowing, all loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to
those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly
in His attitude toward all men.
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. Jesus perfectly
revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its
demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet
without sin. 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. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His
disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended
into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One
Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation
between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and
to consummate His redemptive mission.
GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old
to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables men to understand
truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of
judgment. He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration. He cultivates
Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by
which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of
final redemption. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in
worship, evangelism, and service.
2. THE SCRIPTURES
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s
revelation of Himself to man. It has God for its author, salvation for its end,
and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all
Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which
God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the
true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All Scripture is a
testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.
3. 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. The gift of gender is thus
part of the goodness of God’s creation. In the beginning man was innocent of
sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice
man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the
temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God and fell from his
original innocence whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment
inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action,
they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can
bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative
purpose of God. 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.
4. 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. There is no
salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
5. 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; observing the two ordinances of Christ (Baptism and
the Lord’s Supper), governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and
privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to
the ends of the earth. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. The New
Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ, which includes all
of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and
people, and nation.
6. LAST THINGS
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its
appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally
and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will
judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the
place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and
glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven
with the Lord.