SBC. DBA and BGCT
First Baptist Church Wilmer is
a member of the SBC (Southern Baptist Convention), DBA (Dallas Baptist
Association) and BGCT
(Baptist General Convention of Texas).
The Baptist Faith
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.
Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the
principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to
the end of the world the true center of Christian union, and the supreme
standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions
should be tried. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself
the focus of divine revelation.
God
There is one and only one living and true God.
…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.
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 substitutionary 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, fully
divine. …He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness and
of judgment. …He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in
worship, evangelism, and service.
Man
Man is the special creation of God, in His own
image. He created them male and female as 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 person of every race 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
Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the
believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration,
justification, sanctification, and glorification.
God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God,
according to which He regenerates, justifies, 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 an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by
covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two
ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts,
rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to
extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates
under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a
congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as
Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men
and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is
limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
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