What
we believe
AFFIRMATION OF FAITH OF THE
FELLOWSHIP OF EVANGELICAL BAPTIST CHURCHES IN
CANADA
-Adopted at its organizational
Convention, October 21, 1953.
Section A - Bible
We believe the Bible to be
the complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books,
as originally written, comprising the Old and
New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Spirit
of God and were entirely free from error; that
the Bible is the final authority in all matters
of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian
union.
Section B - God
We believe in one God, creator
of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in
three equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the
Holy Spirit.
Section C - Christ
We believe in the absolute
and essential deity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal
existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory,
in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary
death, bodily resurrection, triumphant ascension,
mediatorial ministry and personal return.
Section D - The
Holy Spirit
We believe in the absolute
and essential deity and personality of the Holy
Spirit Who convinces of sin, of righteousness
and of judgment; Who regenerates, sanctifies,
illuminates and comforts those who believe in
Jesus Christ.
Section E - Satan
We believe that Satan exists
as an evil personality, the originator of sin,
the archenemy of God and man.
Section F - Man
We believe that man was divinely
created in the image of God; that he sinned, becoming
guilty before God, resulting in total depravity,
thereby incurring physical and spiritual death.
Section G - Salvation
We believe that salvation
is by the sovereign, electing grace of God; that
by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily
suffered a vicarious, expiatory and propitiatory
death; that justification is by faith alone in
the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection
of the Lord Jesus Christ and that those whom God
has effectually called shall be divinely preserved
and finally perfected in the image of the Lord.
Section H - Future
Things
We believe in the personal,
bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ;
in the bodily resurrection of the just and the
unjust; in the eternal blessedness of the redeemed
and in the judgment and conscious, eternal punishment
of the wicked.
Section I - The
Local Church
We believe that a church is
a company of immersed believers, called out from
the world, separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily
associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual
edification of its members, the propagation of
the faith and the observance of the ordinances.
We believe it is a sovereign, independent body,
exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts
and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the
Great Head of the church. We believe that its
officers are pastors and deacons.
Section J - Ordinances
We believe that there are
only two ordinances for the church regularly observed
in the New Testament in the following order:
- Baptism which is the immersion of the believer
in water, whereby he obeys Christ's command
and sets forth his identification with Christ
in His death, burial and resurrection.
- The Lord's Supper which is the memorial wherein
the believer partakes of the two elements, bread
and wine, which symbolize the Lord's body and
shed blood, proclaiming His death until He come.
Section K - The
Church and State
We believe in the entire separation
of church and state.
Section L - Religious
Liberty
We believe in religious liberty;
that every man has the right to practice and propagate
his beliefs.
Section M - The
Lord's Day
We believe that the first
day of the week is the Lord's day and that, in
a special sense, it is the divinely appointed
day for worship and spiritual exercise.
Section N - Civil Government
We believe that civil government
is of divine appointment for the interest and
good order of society; that magistrates are to
be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed,
except only in the things opposed to the will
of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Lord
of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the
earth. |
