The Beliefs of the First Baptist Church
The beliefs of the First Baptist Church center on the acceptance of Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. The Baptist church’s faith has been around since the first Baptism happen. We model our faith after the standards set forth in the holiest of books – the Bible. There are two important factors in becoming a Baptist. The first is accepting Christ as your personal Lord and Savior. After the acceptance of Christ, the next step to profession faith is baptism. After all, we wouldn’t call ourselves baptists if we didn’t believe wholeheartedly in baptism as an all important step in your journey with God.
What is Baptism?
Baptism is a simple process. To start, you stand, sit, or kneel in water. A fellow Christian will then lower you under the water, and quickly bring you back up. This is referred to as “immersion”.
Some faiths choose to sprinkle water on the person being baptized instead of immersing them. You might be wondering if this is acceptable. To answer this question we consult the Bible. In the Bible, the only form of Baptism mentioned is total immersion. This is why as Baptists, we completely immerse the person in water. We believe this is the only proper way to baptize somebody.
Immersion is logical once you realize that the term “baptize” is the literal translation of the original Greek term “baptizo”. Baptizo comes from the root word bapto, which is a word used in the 1st century to mean both cleaning and dying cloth. It literally meant to clean, bleach, and change the color of a garment. This is very similar to the idea that baptism cleanses a person of sin, and makes them become a new person by Christ. To say it another way, when you clean the cloth and change its color, you are technically “baptizing” it. If sprinkling was meant to be done, a different Greek word would have been used. But it was not, so we believe the only way to truly baptize somebody is to totally immerse them in water.
Another step of becoming a Baptist is to profess faith.
How does one profess faith?
Professing one’s faith is as easy as saying out loud that you believe that Jesus Christ (and by extension, God) is your savior and an all powerful being.
We believe that baptism occurs in the presence of Jesus and God. And also the Holy Spirit.
What is the Holy Spirit?
The Holy Spirit is God’s gift to us all. Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit to give us the extra support we need on our journey through this Earth.
With the help of the Holy Spirit, we can all walk together with love with all other Christians who also have the Holy Spirit.
The Importance of Family
We are a family-oriented church body. We believe in having fellowship with each other, and of the importance of weekly gatherings. We believe that fellowship and family are important and integral parts of living a Christian lifestyle.
We want to set examples for our children to avoid gossiping, and excessive anger towards each other. We do not engage in drinking or drugs, or any activity that would not honor or Lord and savior.
We also want to encourage each other in the hope that one day, Jesus will return to save us all. This is called the rapture, and the book of Revelation supports this belief. We strive everyday to act in a way that is righteous, in case Jesus were to come back and see us engaging in unwholesome behavior!
Prayer
In the Baptist faith, prayer is as important to us as breathing! We pray everyday, for all kinds of reasons, from giving thanks to asking for Jesus’s powerful healing. We believe prayer has the ability to solve all the world’s problems. To pray, all you have to do is bow your head, and start talking to God, either out loud or in your head. When we pray for somebody to become healed, we lay hands on them. This is because we believe that God will transmit healing powers from our hands to heal the person.
Scripture
We believe that the Bible is the best book ever written, because it was written by God and Jesus. The bible is also the holiest of books, and not because it is full of holes, but because it is sacred! Our faith is mostly modeled after the New Testament, because that’s the part of the Bible where Jesus is introduced. Not to say that the first part isn’t good, too! We believe in the whole Bible, and strive to read it every day for encouragement and wisdom.
Is that all?
To learn more about our faith, come to church some Sunday. You can easily find a baptist church in your town, we have churches all over the world. Come see us!
