First Baptist Church of Boca Grande

 

Statement of Faith

 

 

As a body, we at First Baptist Church believe that it is important to agree on a core set of beliefs that have been clearly stated in scripture and that are essential to our faith. These core beliefs form our Statement of Faith.

 

 

Scripture

 

 

We believe Scripture (the Old and New Testaments of the Bible) is: God's complete revelation, inspired

 

 

through the mouth of His prophets, authoritative in all it says, and sufficient for our lives, inerrant in the

 

 

original writing.

 

 

 

 

 

The Nature of God

 

 

We believe God is the eternal, holy, Triune God - one nature, three persons - each person equally and fully divine. Each with distinct, but complimentary roles.

 

 

 

 

 

God the Father is: sovereign over His creation, sovereign over redemption.

 

 

 

 

 

God the Son (Jesus Christ) is: fully God and fully man, born of a virgin into this world, sinless and perfect, bore our sins once for all, was crucified, buried, and has Risen - overcoming sin and death. The only mediator between God and man.

 

 

 

 

 

God the Holy Spirit: glorifies Jesus Christ in all He does. Convicts us of sin, righteousness and judgment,

 

 

sanctifies, seals and indwells believers. Instructs, guides, comforts, empowers and enables us to accomplish

 

 

God’s will.

 

 

The Nature of Man

 

 

Man is created in the image of God, fallen and depraved in Adam and by choice, alienated and separated from God by sin unable in any fashion to save himself – utterly in need of salvation.

 

 

Salvation

 

 

Only comes through the complete payment of our sins through the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus on our behalf. Salvation is by grace through repentance and faith in the finished work of Christ that we are declared righteous and adopted into God's family.

 

 

The Church

 

 

Through salvation we are placed into the Church, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the Head. The Church: gathers to worship and be taught God's Word, goes out to serve as God's hands and feet, models Jesus in the world, and observes the ordinances of believer's baptism and communion. The Church's mission is to make disciples - locally and throughout the world. This is the privilege and dutyof a believer. It is God's redemptive plan and is our calling as Christians.

 

 

Marriage, Gender and Sexuality

 

 

We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male or female, and that these two distinct, complementary genders together reflect the image and nature of God. We believe that God created marriage to be exclusively the union of one man and one woman, and that intimate sexual activity is too ccur exclusively within that union.

 

 

Concerning Things to Come

 

 

We look forward to the glorious, visible return of Jesus Christ for His Church (Rapture). We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and the lost. We believe that the saved are raised to eternal life and joy in the new heaven and new earth in the manifested presence of God, and that the lost are raised to judgment and eternal hell.