Southern Baptist Convention
Baptist Faith and Message 2000

1. There is one and only one living and true God. 

2. The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man.

3. 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.

4. The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures.

5. Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.

6. Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer.

7. All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

8. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

9. Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. 

10. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

11. The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day.

12. The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. 

13. God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord.

14. It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. 

15. In Christian education there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. 

16. God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him.

17. Christ’s people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. 

18. All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society.

19. It is the duty of Christians to seek peace with all men on principles of righteousness. In accordance with the spirit and teachings of Christ they should do all in their power to put an end to war.

20. God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. 

21. God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.