Flat Springs Baptist Church - Sanford, NC

About

Our Beliefs

God

There is but one God, the Maker, Preserver, and Ruler of all things, having in and of Himself all perfection, and being infinite in all of them; to Him all creatures owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. He is revealed to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ, the unique son of God, is the divinely appointed mediator between God and man. He took upon Himself human form, yet without sin. Perfectly fulfilling the law, He suffered and died upon the cross for the salvation of sinners. He was raised from the dead on the third day, ascended unto the Father in heaven, at whose right hand He ever lives to make intercession for His people. He is the Incarnate Word.

The Church

The church of Christ in its largest signification is the whole company of regenerate persons in all times and ages, in heaven and in earth. This is the transcendent element in the church-- the body of Christ. An individual church may be defined as that smaller company of regenerate persons who, in any given community, unite themselves together, in accordance with Christ's laws, for the purpose of securing the complete establishment of this kingdom in themselves and in the world.

The Fall of Man

God originally created man in His own image, and free from sin. Through the temptation of the Tempter, man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness, whereby his posterity inherits nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, and become under condemnation as soon as one is capable of moral action.

Regeneration

Regeneration is a change of heart, wrought by the Holy Spirit, who quickens the dead in trespasses and sins, enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they love and practice holiness. It is a work of God's free and undeserved grace. It involves repentance on man's part--a turning toward God and, consequently, away from sin.

The Scriptures

The Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are records of the revelation of God to man. They were given by the inspiration of God, and constitute the sufficient, certain, and authoritative teaching of all saving knowledge, faith, and obedience.

Perseverance of the Saints

Those whom God has accepted into the Kingdom and sanctified by His Spirit will never totally nor finally fall away from the state of grace, but will persevere to the end; and though they may fall, through neglect and temptation, into sin, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the Church, and temporal judgments upon themselves, yet they shall be renewed again unto repentance, and be dept by the power of God through faith unto salvation. Every man is competent to go directly to God for forgiveness through repentance and faith. He needs neither individual nor church to dispense salvation. There is but one mediator of God and man, Jesus Christ our Lord. After one has become a Christian, he has direct access to God through Christ. He has entered into a royal priesthood and is privileged to minister for Christ to all men. He is to share with them the faith he cherishes and to serve them in the name and spirit of his Lord. The priesthood of believers, therefore, means that all members serve as equals under God in the fellowship of a local church.

The Lord's Day Observance

The Lord's Day is a Christian institution for regular observance, and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private, resting from worldly employments and amusements, works of necessity and mercy only excepted.

Baptism

Baptism is an ordinance of the Lord Jesus Christ, wherein a believer is immersed in water in the name of God. It is a sign of one's fellowship with the death and resurrection of Christ, of remission of sins, and of this giving himself up to God, to live and walk in newness of life. It is prerequisite to church membership and to participation in the Lord's Supper.

The Lord's Supper

The Lord's Supper is an Ordinance of Jesus Christ, to be administered with the elements of bread and fruit of the vine, and to be observed by his churches till the end of the world. It is in no sense a sacrament but is designed to commemorate his death, to confirm the faith and other graces of Christians, and to be a bond, pledge, and renewal of their communion with him, and of their church fellowship.

The Resurrection

The bodies of men after death return to dust, but their spirits return immediately to God--the righteous, to rest with him and the wicked, to be reserved under darkness to the judgment. At the last day, the bodies of all the dead, both just and unjust, will be raised.

The Judgment

God has appointed a day, when He will judge the world by Jesus Christ, when everyone shall received according to his deeds; the wicked shall go away into everlasting separation from God; the righteous into eternal life with God.