Homeschooling Program — The Southern Baptist Statement of Faith
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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.
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God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent,
spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler
of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God
is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all
things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free
creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. 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.
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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. He is all powerful, all knowing, all
loving, and all wise. God is Father in truth to those who become
children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. He is fatherly in His
attitude toward all men.
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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.
Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself
human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself
completely with mankind yet without sin. 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. He was raised
from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as
the person who was with them before His crucifixion. He ascended into
heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the
One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the
reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory
to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now
dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.
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God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy
men of old to write the Scriptures. Through illumination He enables
men to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of
righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Saviour, and
effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration He baptizes every
believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character,
comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they
serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of
final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that
God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.
He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship,
evangelism, and service.
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Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male
and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part
of the goodness of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and
was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned
against God and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan
man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence
whereby his posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.
Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors
and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy
fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. 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 full
dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
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Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all
who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal
redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration,
justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from
personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
- Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers
become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the
Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in
repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith
are inseparable experiences of grace.
- Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the
acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as
Lord and Saviour.
- Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His
righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification
brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
- Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the
believer is set apart to God's purposes, and is enabled to progress toward
moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit
dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate
person's life.
- Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and
abiding state of the redeemed.
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God's Purpose of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies,
sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man, and
comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is the glorious display of
God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes
boasting and promotes humility.
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. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation,
whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach
on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept
by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
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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.
The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes
all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and
people, and nation.
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Baptism and the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's
faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the
burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.
It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church
ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's
Supper.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through
partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer
and anticipate His second coming.
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The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular
observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should include
exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the
Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of
Jesus Christ.
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The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His
particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the
Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment
to Jesus Christ. Christians ought to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and
God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of
Jesus Christ and the end of this age.
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Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.
According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to
the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The
unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The
righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will
dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.
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Evangelism and Missions
It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord
Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit
by God's Holy Spirit means the birth of love for others. Missionary effort on the part
of all rests thus upon a spiritual necessity of the regenerate life, and is expressly
and repeatedly commanded in the teachings of Christ. The Lord Jesus Christ has commanded
the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek
constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian
lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ.
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Education
Christianity is the faith of enlightenment and intelligence. In Jesus Christ abide all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. All sound learning is, therefore, a part of our
Christian heritage. The new birth opens all human faculties and creates a thirst for
knowledge. Moreover, the cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with
the causes of missions and general benevolence, and should receive along with these the
liberal support of the churches. An adequate system of Christian education is necessary
to a complete spiritual program for Christ's people.
In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and
academic responsibility. Freedom in any orderly relationship of human life is always
limited and never absolute. The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or
seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of
the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
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Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we
owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship
in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under
obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should
recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping
others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute of their means
cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement
of the Redeemer's cause on earth.
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Cooperation
Christ's people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions
as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such
organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary
and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in
the most effective manner. Members of New Testament churches should cooperate with one
another in carrying forward the missionary, educational, and benevolent ministries for the
extension of Christ's Kingdom. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual
harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends by various groups of Christ's people.
Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations, when the end to be
attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of
conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word as revealed in the New
Testament.
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The Christian and the Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our
own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and
the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when
they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus
Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed,
selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery,
homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the
abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and
contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death. Every Christian
should seek to bring industry, government, and society as a whole under the sway of the
principles of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. In order to promote these ends
Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause, always being
careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His
truth.
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Peace and War
It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In
accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ they should do all in their power to
put an end to war.
The true remedy for the war spirit is the gospel of our Lord. The supreme need of the world
is the acceptance of His teachings in all the affairs of men and nations, and the practical
application of His law of love. Christian people throughout the world should pray for the
reign of the Prince of Peace.
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Religious Liberty
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and
commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state
should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit
of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination
should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it
is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the
revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work.
The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The
state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no
right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state
is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on
the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion
without interference by the civil power.
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The Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed
of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It
is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for
the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of
sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the
human race.
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God's image.
The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his
wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to
protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant
leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.
She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given
responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household
and nurturing the next generation.
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents
are to demonstrate to their children God's pattern for marriage. Parents are to teach their
children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example
and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children are to honor and
obey their parents.
