*We believe the Bible to be the inspired, infallible, authoritative, and inerrant Word of God (II Timothy 3:15-17, II Peter 1:21).
* We believe there is one God, eternally existing in three persons: the Father, Son and Holy Spirit (Genesis 1:1, Deuteronomy 6:4, Matthew 28:19,
John 10:30).
* We believe in the deity of Christ (John 10:33); His virgin birth (Isaiah 7:14, Matthew 1:23, Luke 1:34-35); His sinless life (Hebrews 4:15, 7:26); His miracles (John 2:11); His vicarious and atoning death (I Corinthians 15:3, Ephesians 1:7, Hebrews 2:9); His resurrection (John 11:25, I Corinthians 15:4); His ascension to the right hand of the Father (Mark 16:19); His personal return to earth in power and glory (Acts 1:11, Revelation 19:11-16).
* We believe in the absolute necessity of regeneration by the Holy
Spirit for salvation because of the exceeding sinfulness of man, and
that all are justified on the single ground of faith in the shed blood
of Christ, and that only by God's grace through faith alone are we
saved (John 3:16-19; 5:24, Romans 3:23; 5:8-9, Ephesians 2:8-10, Titus 3:5).
* We believe in the resurrection of both the saved and the lost;
those who are saved unto the resurrection of life, and those who are
not unto the resurrection of damnation (John 5:28-29).
* We believe in the spiritual unity of the believers in our Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 8:9, I Corinthians 12:12-13, Galatians 3:26-28).
* We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit by Whose indwelling the Christian is enabled to live a godly life (Romans 8:13-14, I Corinthians 3:16, 6:19-20, Ephesians 4:30; 5:18).
* We believe that we as Christians are examples of the love of God
in this world. It is this (agape) love that we desire to possess and
without which we have no right to call ourselves Christians (I John 4:16-17).
* We believe it is the mandate of the whole Church to go into the
whole world and to preach the Gospel to every living creature. (Mark 16:15,
Matthew 28:19-20)
Our Commitments
1. We will seek first the Kingdom and His righteousness because we
know that then and only then will all other things be added to us.
2. We will do our best to serve God by our obedience. That means
obedience to God’s commandments, and all of His Son’s admonitions.
3. We have chosen to follow after Jesus so we will deny ourselves
daily and take up our cross and do our very best to be like Christ.
4. We believe in Biblical Evangelism – It is the duty of every believer to evangelize the lost. We adamantly stand against hyper-Calvinism on the one hand and easy believism on the other. We are committed to preach the Gospel to every creature and to implore all men to repent and believe. At the same time, we recognize that neither repentance nor faith can be produced by manipulating the emotion or coercing the will. They are the result of the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit.
(Taken from First Baptist Church of Muscle Shoals)
We also
know we must use the Law of God to stop the mouth of a self righteous
sinner, (Romans 3) to bring the knowledge of sin (Romans 7) and as a school master to lead
people to Christ. (Galatians 3:24).
5. We will treat all other seed sowers with the love and respect
we would give to Jesus. We will not make harsh remarks about another
seed sower whether in private or in public.
6. We will not allow doctrinal divisions in our ranks. We don’t
need or want to get into deep doctrinal discussions that divide the
Body. We want the focus to remain on Christ crucified and resurrected
and on preaching the Word.