We are Reformed Baptists and heartily embrace the “Five Solas” of the Reformation:

  1. Sola Scriptura – The Bible is the authoritative word of God and is sufficient for all matters of faith and practice.
  2. Solus Christus – Christ alone is the way of salvation. 
  3. Sola Gratia – God saves by grace alone without reference to the sinner’s works.
  4. Sola Fide – God saves by grace alone through faith alone – not a mixture of faith plus works.
  5. Soli Deo Gloria – God’s glory is the goal in the creation and salvation of His people.

As Reformed Baptists, we embrace the sovereignty of God in the salvation of sinners – a view also known as Calvinistic soteriology.  Calvinism consists of “Five Points”

  1.  Total Depravity – The fall of Adam affects all of his posterity in the totality of man’s person.
  2. Unconditional Election – God chooses whom He will save based on His sovereign purpose, not on the foreseen works or faith of the sinner.
  3. Limited Atonement – The Lord Jesus Christ died to save His elect.
  4. Irresistible Grace – The work of the Holy Spirit is efficacious for the elect.
  5. Perseverance of the Saints – God will complete the work He begins in His people.

As Reformed Baptists, we adhere to covenant theology.  The Bible is a unified whole wherein God promises to save His people by Jesus Christ in the Garden of Eden.  God’s covenant of grace is the outworking of His plan to save His elect by the work of Christ.  Additionally, covenant theology informs our view of the law of God.  While we reject salvation by law, we heartily embrace the historic “threefold use of the law” – the civil, pedagogical, and normative uses.

As Reformed Baptists, we subscribe to the Regulative Principle of Worship.  Terry Johnson provides a helpful definition, “To put it simply, in worship we pray the Bible, sing the Bible, read the Bible, and preach the Bible and see the Bible (in the sacraments).”[1]  The centrality of our worship is the preaching of the word of God in which we engage in exposition and application of God’s truth.

As Reformed Baptists, we practice Baptist polity.  We recognize two abiding offices in the church of Christ, elders and deacons, and require biblically qualified men to serve in these offices.  With reference to church ordinances, we believe there are two:  baptism and the Lord’s Supper.  We practice baptism by immersion of believers only and do so in the name of the Triune God.  We believe only baptized persons ought to partake of the Lord’s Supper.  We believe in liberty of conscience, i.e. the civil government is not to intrude into matters of conscience.  We believe in the Great Commission and the biblical mandate to make disciples of all the nations.  Understanding that man is fallen in Adam, we believe the gospel should be preached to all men indiscriminately and that all men should be called upon to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ for salvation.

Finally, as Reformed Baptists, we subscribe to the London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689 as our doctrinal statement.  We do not view this document on par with the Holy Scripture, but agree with Charles H. Spurgeon who said:

“This little volume is not issued as an authoritative rule, or code of faith, whereby you are to be fettered, but as an assistance to you in controversy, a confirmation in faith, and a means of edification in righteousness.  Here the younger members of our church will have a body of divinity in small compass, and by means of the Scriptural proofs, will be ready to give a reason for the hope that is in them.”[2]

[1] Terry L. Johnson, Reformed Worship:  Worship that is According to Scripture (Jackson, MS:  Reformed Academic Press, 2010), 34.

[2] To review the 1689 Confession online, visit the1689.org.