Southern Baptists have prepared a statement of generally held convictions called the Baptist Faith and Message. It serves as a guide to understanding who they are. Copies are available at Southern Baptist churches. The topics here provide only a brief, partial summary. The full text on the issue discussed is also available.
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.
There is one and only one living and true God... The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.
God as Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purpose of His grace...God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
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.... He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God... He exalts Christ. He convicts of sin, of righteousness and of judgment... He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.
Man was created by the special act of God, in His image, and is the crowning work of His creation... By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race... 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 man possesses dignity and is worth of respect and Christian love.
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, sanctification, and glorification.
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is a local body of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel...and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth...This church is an autonomous body...The New Testament speaks also of the church as the body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages.
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water...It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience where members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society...Marriage is the unity of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime...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..Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.