Beliefs

The Baptist Mid-Missions Articles of Faith

1. We believe that the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments are verbally inspired of God and are inerrant in the original writing and that they are of supreme and final authority in faith and life  (II Timothy 3:16-17; II Peter 1:19-21).
2. We believe in one God, eternally existing in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal in essence, while distinct in personality and function  (Exodus 20:2-3; Matthew 28:19; I Corinthians 8:6).
3. We believe in God’s direct creation of the universe without the use of pre-existent material and apart from any process of evolution whatever, according to the Genesis account  (Genesis 1:1-31; Exodus 20:11; Colossians 1:16-17; Hebrews 11:3).
4. We believe that Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of Mary, a virgin, and is true God and true man  (John 1:1, 14; Luke 1:35; Isaiah 7:14; Galatians 4:4).
5. We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in His ascension into heaven, and in His present life there as High Priest and Advocate  (Matthew 28:1-7; Acts 1:8-11; I Corinthians 15:4-9; Hebrews 4:14-16).
6. We believe that the Holy Spirit is the agent of the new birth through conviction and regeneration and that He seals, indwells, and baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ at the moment of conversion. We believe that the Holy Spirit fills, empowers, and distributes service gifts to believers, but that sign gifts were restricted to the Apostolic Period  (John 3:5; Ephesians 1:13; Romans 8:9; I Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 5:18; 4:11-12; Romans 12:6-8; Hebrews 2:3-4; Ephesians 2:20; I Corinthians 13:8-13).
7. We believe that man was created in the image of God, that he sinned and thereby incurred not only physical death but also spiritual death, which is separation from God, and that all human beings are born with a sinful nature and are sinners in thought, word, and deed  (Genesis 1:26-27; 3:1-6; Romans 5:12, 19; 3:10-13; Titus 1:15-16).
8. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died as the substitutionary sacrifice for all men. The blood atonement He made was unlimited in its potential. It is limited only in its application, effectively saving those who are brought by the Holy Spirit to repentance and faith (Isaiah 53:4-11; II Corinthians 5:14-21; I John 2:1-2; II Peter 2:1; I Timothy 4:10; John 3:5-8; 16:8-13).
9. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again of the Holy Spirit and thereby become children of God (John 1:12-13; 3:3-16; Acts 16:31; Ephesians 2:8-9).
10. We believe in the eternal security of the believer, that it is impossible for one born into the family of God ever to be lost, because he is forever kept by the power of God  (John 6:39,40; 10:28-29; Romans 8:35-39; Jude 1; I Peter 1:5).
11. We believe in “that blessed hope”—the personal, premillennial, pretribulational, and imminent return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, when the church will be “gathered together unto Him”  (Titus 2:13; John 14:1-3; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Corinthians 15:51-58; II Thessalonians 2:1-3).
12. We believe in the literal fulfillment of the prophecies and promises of the Scriptures which foretell and assure the future regeneration and restoration of Israel as a nation  (Genesis 13:14-17; Jeremiah 16:14-15; 30:6-11; Romans 11).
13. We believe in the bodily resurrection of the just and the unjust, the everlasting blessedness of the saved, and the everlasting punishment of the lost  (Matthew 25:31-46; Luke 16:19-31; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; Revelation 21:1-8).
14. We believe that the Church, which is Christ’s body, is the spiritual organism consisting of all born again believers of this New Testament dispensation  (Ephesians 1:22-23; I Corinthians 12:13).
15. We believe that the local church is the agency through which God has chosen to accomplish His work in the world. A New Testament Baptist church is an organized body of baptized believers; immersed upon a credible confession of faith in Jesus Christ; having two offices (pastor and deacon); congregational in polity; autonomous in nature; and banded together for work, worship, edification, the observance of the ordinances, and the worldwide fulfillment of the Great Commission. We believe that the local church, under Christ’s headship, is to be free from any external hierarchy and should not associate itself with any ecumenical endeavor, neo-orthodoxy, new-evangelicalism, or any such efforts to compromise the Truth  (Acts 2:41-47; Ephesians 3:10; Matthew 28:18-20; I Timothy 3; I Peter 5:1-3; Ephesians 1:22; Romans 16:17; II Corinthians 6:14-17; I Timothy 6:3-5).
16. We believe that the scriptural ordinances of the church are baptism and the Lord’s supper and are to be administered by the local church; that baptism, by immersion, should be administered to believers only as a symbol of their belief in the death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and as a testimony to the world of that belief and of their death, burial, and resurrection with Him; and that the Lord’s supper should be partaken of by baptized believers to show forth His death “till He come” (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 2:41-47; 8:26-39; I Corinthians 11:23-28; Colossians 2:12).