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What We Believe
Our Basic Beliefs
Lake Norman Baptist Church is a member or the Southern Baptist Convention. 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 our church. The topics here provide only a brief, partial summary. The full text on the issue discussed is also available on the Southern Baptist Convention's web site.
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, and truth, without any mixture of
error, for its matter.
God
There is one and only one living and true God. …The eternal 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 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. …He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of
righteousness and of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the
church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man
Man was created by the special act of God, in His own image, and is 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 man possesses 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 Saviour, who by His own blood obtained
eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes
regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates,
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 a local body of baptized
believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the
gospel…and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. …This church
is an autonomous body. …The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body
of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
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 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 second 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 be employed in 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 & 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 personal effort.
Education
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 & the Social Order
Every Christian is under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme
in his own life and in human society. ... The Christian should oppose in the
spirit of Christ every form of greed, selfishness, and vice.
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 unity 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.
