The teaching of Scripture: Baptists believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament in their original writings as fully inspired of God and accept them as the supreme and final authority for faith and life. Regeneration of the soul: Baptist believe that Christians become Christians through rebirth by believing in the Lord Jesus Christ
Believers’ Baptism: Those who believe must be baptized
by full emersion under water. Freedom of Worship/Religion: People have a God given freedom to choose their religion. Baptists believe and maintain that people should never be forced into any religion. Separation of Church and State: Baptists believe and maintain that the church and the state are two distinct institutions and must be governed separately. In other words the church cannot be the head of the state and in the same way the state cannot be the head of the church. Christians should participate in politics but cannot impose the church governance on the running of the state. In the same way politicians and governments should be part of the church but should not impose their authority into the affairs of the church (faith and church governance). Congregational Church government: The members of the congregation have active participation in the governance of the church through meetings and other structures. This means the congregation will together with its leadership to seek the mind of God relating to their ministry. This does not mean the church is governing itself, but it gives full and active support to the leadership. Autonomy of the local church: This means the local congregation is self-supportive, self-governing and self-propagating. That means a local congregation must support itself financially, have its governance and reach out to the community on its own. Baptists believe in interdependence. We are not independent from each other as congregations, but we are interdependent in our regional setting and conventions or unions. We practice the unity of the Holy Spirit in our associations at various levels. Priesthood of believers: Every believer has direct access to God with out any human mediator. Every believer has a God given gift to serve the church and the community as part of the body of Christ. Believe in the fundamental doctrines of the Bible: Baptists believe that there is only one and only True God revealed in the Trinity i.e. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. We believe in the Virgin Birth of Christ, the real death of Christ on the Cross, the bodily resurrection and the ascension of Christ. We believe in the second coming of Christ, the resurrection of the dead and the final judgment of all the creation by God. We believe in the church as the body of Christ. (See the statement of faith in the constitution)
Statement of Faith
We believe in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments in their original writings as fully inspired of God and accept them as the supreme and final authority for faith and life. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three Persons – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, and is true God and true man. We believe that God created man in His own image; that man sinned and thereby incurred the penalty of death, physical and spiritual; that all human beings inherit a sinful nature which issues (in the case of those who reach moral responsibility) in actual transgression involving personal guilt. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins, a substitutionary sacrifice, according to the Scriptures, and that all who believe in Him are justified on the ground of His shed blood. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the Lord Jesus, His ascension into heaven, and His present life as our High Priest and Advocate. We believe in the personal return of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God. We believe in the resurrection both of the just and the unjust, the eternal blessedness of the redeemed and the eternal banishment of those who have rejected the offer of salvation. We believe that the one true church is the whole company of those who have been redeemed by Jesus Christ and regenerated by the Holy Spirit; that the local church on earth should take its character from this conception of the church spiritual and, therefore, that the new birth and personal confession of Christ is a prerequisite for church membership. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Supreme and only Spiritual Head of the Church universal; that He appointed two ordinances – baptism and the Lord’s supper – to be observed as acts of obedience and as perpetual witnesses to the cardinal facts of the Christian Faith; that baptism is the immersion of the believer in water as a confession of identification with Christ in burial and resurrection, and that the Lord’s Supper is the partaking of bread and wine as symbolical of the Saviour’s broken body and shed blood, in remembrance of His sacrificial death until He comes. We believe that all Christians are called to a life of holiness, devotion to the Lord and service for Him. It is the duty and privilege of every believer to witness for Christ and seek to bring others to Him. We believe in the deity, personality, ministry and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in the believer.
