NOBTS Articles of Religious Belief
Article I - Sole Authority of Scriptures.
We believe that the Bible is the Word of God in the highest and
fullest
sense, and is the unrivalled authority in determining the faith
and practice
of God’s people; that the sixty-six books of the Bible are
divinely and
uniquely inspired, and that they have come down to us
substantially as
they were under inspiration written. These Scriptures reveal all
that is
necessary for us to know of God’s plan of redemption and human
duty.
We deny the inspiration of other books, ancient or modern, and
exalt
the Bible to an unchallenged throne in our confidence. These
Scriptures
do not require the authorized interpretation of any church, or
council,
but are divinely intended for personal study and interpretation,
under
the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
Article II - One Triune God Who Is Father, Son and
Holy Spirit.
We believe in one only true and living God, the Creator and
Sustainer of all things, who is infinite, eternal, and
unchangeable
in every spiritual excellence, and who is revealed to us as
Father,
Son, and Holy Spirit, three in one and one in three, as the
essential
mode of His existence. The Father is the Head of the Trinity, into
whose hands finally the Kingdom shall be given up. The Son is
the promised Messiah of the Old Testament, Jesus Christ who
was born of the Virgin Mary, given to reveal God, died to redeem
man, rose from the dead to justify the believer, is now at the
right
hand of God as our Advocate and Intercessor, and at the time the
Father keeps in His own power, He will return in visible, personal
and bodily form for the final overthrow of sin, the triumph of
His people and the judgment of the world.
The Holy Spirit is a Person who has been sent from God to
convict the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, to
regenerate and cleanse from sin, and to teach, guide, strengthen,
and perfect the believer.
Article III - Satan and Sinful Man.
We believe that man was created innocent, but that being tempted
by Satan, he sinned, and thereafter all men have been born in sin,
and are by nature children of wrath. The original tempter was
Satan,
the personal devil, who with his angels has been since carrying on
his work of iniquity among the nations of the earth. The essence
of sin is non-conformity to the will of God, and its end is
eternal
separation from God.
Article IV - Christ, God’s Way of Atonement.
We believe that a way has been provided whereby men born in sin
may be reconciled to God. That Way is Jesus Christ, whose death
atoned for our sin, and through union with Him we become partakers
of His merits, and escape the condemnation of God’s holy law. The
atonement becomes personally effective through the foreordination
and the grace of God, and the free choice and faith of man.
Article V - Christ, the Only
Savior From Sin,
Without Whom Men Are Condemned.
We believe that apart from Jesus Christ there is no salvation.
He is the only and all-sufficient Savior of sinners, irrespective
of
natural talents, family connection, or national distinction. All
men
are under condemnation through personal sin, and escape from
condemnation comes only to those who hear and accept the gospel.
The heathen, then, are under condemnation just as well as those
who hear and reject the gospel, for they are sinners by both
nature
and practice. The pressing and inviolable obligation rests upon
every
church and individual to present the gospel to all men, that to
all men may come the means of eternal life. Unless we proclaim
the gospel we shall suffer loss, not only in this life, but in the
day
when we render to God the account of our stewardship.
Article VI - Conversion Includes Repentance,
Faith, Regeneration, and Justification.
We believe that the Christian life begins with conversion.
Conversion has several aspects, including repentance, faith,
regeneration, and justification. Repentance implies a deep and
sincere change of thinking, feeling, and willing toward sin
and God, and faith is the surrender of the entire personality,
thought, feeling, and volition to Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord.
Regeneration is the act of the Holy Spirit by which the sinner is
born again, and his whole being is radically changed so that the
believer becomes a new creation in Christ Jesus. Justification is
the judicial act of God by which the sinner is declared forgiven
and freed from the condemnation of his sin, on the ground of the
perfect righteousness of Christ, imputed by grace through faith.
The life begun in regeneration is never lost, but by the grace and
power of God, and the faith and cooperation of the believer is
constantly brought nearer to that state of perfect holiness which
we
shall experience finally in heaven.
Article VII - Final Resurrection of All Men.
We believe in the final resurrection of all men, both the just and
the unjust; and that those who here believe unto salvation shall
be
raised to everlasting life, while those who here disbelieve shall
be
raised to everlasting condemnation.
Article VIII - A New Testament Church Is a Body of
Baptized Believers, Observing Ordinances of Baptism
and the Lord’s Supper.
We believe that a New Testament Church is a voluntary assembly,
or association of baptized believers in Christ covenanted together
to follow the teachings of the New Testament in doctrine, worship,
and practice. We believe there are only two Church ordinances–baptism and the Lord’s Supper–and that a church, as a democratic
organization, is served by only two types of officers–pastors or
bishops, and deacons. We believe that saved believers are the only
scriptural subjects of baptism, and that immersion, or dipping, or
burial, in water, and resurrection there from is the only
scriptural act of baptism. We believe that the Lord’s Supper is
the partaking
by the church of bread and wine, as a memorial of the Lord’s
death, and our expectation of His return. The bread typifies His
body; the wine typifies His blood. We deny the actual presence
of His body and blood in the bread and wine.
Article IX - Lord’s Day and Christian
Support of Civil Government.
We believe that the Christian Sabbath, or Lord’s Day, should be
observed as a day of rest and Christian service in memory of the
resurrection of Christ, and as a means of Christian development
and usefulness. We believe in civil government as of divine
appointment, in the complete separation of church and state, and
in the universal right to civil and religious liberty.
Article X - Baptist Loyalty to Distinctive Baptist
Doctrines.
We believe that Baptists stand for vital and distinctive truths,
to
many of which other denominations do not adhere, and that we
cannot compromise these truths without disloyalty to the
Scriptures
and our Lord. We believe that we should cooperate with other
denominations insofar as such cooperation does not affect these
truths, but no union with them is possible, except on the basis of
acceptance in full of the plain teachings of the Word of God.
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