About Us

What We Believe

Scripture

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. All Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.

God the Father

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. He is all-loving and all-wise. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all-powerful and all-knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Jesus took upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin. In His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men from sin. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord.

God the Spirit

The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. Through illumination He enables men to understand truth. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment. He calls men to the Savior and effects regeneration. At the moment of regeneration, He baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which they serve God through His church. He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption. His presence in the Christian is the guarantee that God will bring the believer into the fullness of the stature of Christ.

Man

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image, composed of body, soul, and spirit. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race, whereby his posterity inherits a nature and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.

Salvation

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Salvation is by grace alone through faith in Jesus Christ alone. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord. Salvation includes justification, sanctification, and glorification. Salvation is eternal; as man does not earn his salvation neither can he lose it.

The Church

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, who seek to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. A church maintains the two ordinances first given by Christ: baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Each church member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office and function of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture. The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe and tongue and people and nation.

Emmanuel Baptist Church is in full agreement with the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.