First Southwest Baptist Church Core Beliefs

Bible

We believe the Bible to be the complete and inerrant Word of God.

• That the 66 books of the Old and New Testament were inspired by the Spirit of God
• That the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and conduct · 2 Timothy 3:16

God

We believe in one God, Creator of all, holy, sovereign, eternal, existing in three equal Persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit

Jesus Christ

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of our Lord Jesus Christ as God The Son

• In His eternal existence, with the Father in pre-incarnate glory
• In His work of creation, in His virgin birth, sinless life, substitutionary death and bodily resurrection
• In His triumphant ascension, mediatorial ministry and personal return

The Holy Spirit

We believe in the absolute and essential deity, and in the personality of the Holy Spirit as God The Holy Spirit

• Who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgment
• Who regenerates, indwells, seals, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ
• Who baptizes believers at conversion into the Body of Christ and bestows upon them His gifts sovereignly as He wills and fills those yielded to Him

Mankind

We believe that Adam was divinely created in the image of God

• That by the sin of disobedience he fell from that state
• That all his posterity inherited spiritual depravity and defilement
• That all men therefore are guilty before God and condemned to physical and spiritual death

Salvation

We believe that salvation is by the sovereign grace of God

• That by the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a propitiatory death
• That justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ
• That those whom God has effectually called shall be divinely preserved and ultimately perfected in the image of the Lord
• That by receiving the Holy Spirit, they become sealed and secured untill the day of the Lord Jesus' return