Our Beliefs

There is a God.  Only one true God. In fact, He is the creator of everything. We are made in His image, which means we were made just like Him in many ways, except for the fact that He is God and we are not.  He is loving and just and desires a relationship with us.  As individuals with free will, we have the freedom to respond to the relationship that God has initiated with us, or not.  We are free to live outside the realm of the life that God has for us as it is explained in the Bible.  Let's put it another way.  Many of the choices we make either move us closer to God or further away from Him. 

God loves us so much, in fact, that he sent His only Son, Jesus, to die so that the rest of us could live.  The cost of sin was separation from God - spiritual death - until Jesus came and His death paid everyone's debt.  That is serious love. Because of that serious, perfect love,  this gift from God is waiting for anyone who wants to receive it. This is called grace. God gives grace freely and abundantly.

As for us, we need only to decide whether or not to believe and receive this truth.  If we decide to believe it, we have available to us a new, full life that can start now and never stop.  And it's ok to have a lot of questions along the way.  Although God reveals things to us, He remains mysterious and wonderful.

Grace Baptist Church's beliefs are the same as those contained in the Baptist Faith and Message, the confession of faith of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). On June 14th, 2000, the SBC adopted a revised summary of our faith. The committee's report says in part:
 

"Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of faith upon a church or body of churches. We honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God.

"Baptist churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments of doctrinal accountability. We are not embarrassed to state before the world that these are doctrines we hold precious and as essential to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice. 

"As a committee, we have been charged to address the 'certain needs' of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile to Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is 'the Way, the Truth, and the Life.'

"The 1963 committee rightly sought to identify and affirm 'certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified.' Our living faith is established upon eternal truths. 'Thus this generation of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us.' 

"It is the purpose of this statement of faith and message to set forth certain teachings which we believe."