Jan 15
13
We are Reformed Baptist.
When I say Reformed, I mean that we have as our heritage the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century. We believe in the Five Sola’s of the Reformation, the first of them being that the scriptures are our final authority for all saving knowledge, faith and obedience. We are confessional – we subscribe to the London Baptist Confession of 1689. We are creedal – we affirm the great creeds of the historic, orthodox church. We are covenantal – we believe that God interacts with and accomplishes his purposes in his creation by entering into covenant with mankind. We have a high view of scripture – we believe in it’s necessity, sufficiency, internal consistency, clarity, and our dependence upon it. We have a high view of the church – we regard preaching, the ordinances, discipline, worship, and evangelism as central to the fulfillment of the churches mission. We believe that a Christian should possess a distinctly Christian worldview that permeates the whole of life. We believe that God is Triune, sovereign over all, and is worthy of all glory, honor and praise.
When I say that we are Reformed Baptist, I mean that we belong to a very specific tradition within the Protestant Reformation. We believe that baptism is rightly administered to believers, and not to infants. We also believe that the local church is to remain independent, with authority residing within the local church itself, as she is lead by Elders and Deacons. We believe in belonging to associations of churches, and not denominations or presbyteries. See chapters 26, 28, and 29 of our confession.
