We affirm the HOLY BIBLE as the inspired word of GOD and the basis for our beliefs.  This church subscribes to THE BAPTIST FAITH AND MESSAGE 2000 as amended by the First Baptist Church of Elroy.  We voluntarily band ourselves together as a body of baptized believers in JESUS. The following statements summarize our primary tenets of belief:

 

The Bible: 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.

 

The Trinity: 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., To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. 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.

 

Man: Adam, the first man, was created innocent and with free will.  He willfully disobeyed God, bringing sin and death into the world. His posterity therefore inherits a nature and an environment inclined toward sin, and as soon as they are capable of moral action become transgressors and are subject to eternal punishment, under the just condemnation of a holy God.

 

Salvation: Christ offered Himself as a sacrifice by the appointment of the Father. He fulfilled the demands of God by His obedient life, died on the cross in full substitution and payment for the sins of all, was buried, and on the third day He arose bodily from the dead.

 

Therefore, salvation comes through repentance of sin and by faith alone in Him as Savior. The believer is declared righteous, born again by the Holy Spirit, turned from sin, and assured of eternal security in heaven.

 

The Church: The body of Christ on earth exists to continue the ministry that Jesus started. We exist as a local congregation that is a part of the overall body of Christ followers in Central Texas, and of the universal church around the world. This local assembly of baptized believers, under the discipline of the Word of God and the lordship of Christ, is organized to carry out the commission to evangelize, to teach, and to administer the ordinances of believer's baptism and the Lord's table.

 

The Return of Christ: The return of Christ for all believers is imminent. The unsaved will then be raised and judged according to their works and separated forever from God in hell. The saved, having been raised, will live forever in fellowship with God in heaven.

 

The Ordinances:  We believe that baptism by immersion signifies receiving Jesus Christ as personal Savior and symbolizes to every witness: our surrender to Jesus Christ; the washing away of our sin and our old lifestyle; and the cleansing of our sin as we come out of the water a new person in Jesus Christ.

​

We believe the Lord’s Supper commemorates the death of our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross and the price He paid with his body and blood, a final sacrifice for our sin.  (See Article IV of By-laws.)

 

The Family: God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons

related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption. Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel for sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of humanity.

​

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. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

​

Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and obey their parents.

​

The Scriptures declare divorce to be a sin. It is forbidden, except in cases of marital infidelity. The church, therefore, should not counsel or encourage divorce. However, the church must also demonstrate the grace of redemption through Jesus Christ, and thus divorced or remarried persons shall be extended the same grace which all believers share.

​

Marriage and Sexuality: We believe that the term “marriage” has only one meaning and that is marriage sanctioned by God which joins one man and one woman in a single, exclusive union, as delineated in Scripture. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to only occur between a man and a woman who are married to each other. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman.

​

We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with scripture.

rity, agency, or official action; or legal developments on the local, state or federal level.