Loading...
Please wait while we prepare the page
Please wait while we prepare the page
Our faith, identity, and affiliations
While it's important to know what we believe as a church, the most important question is personal: Do you know Jesus Christ as your Savior? If you're uncertain about your salvation or would like to understand more about a relationship with God, we'd love to help.
Learn About SalvationWe are a Baptist church committed to historic Baptist principles including the authority of Scripture, believer's baptism by immersion, the priesthood of all believers, and the autonomy of the local church. We believe in the separation of church and state and practice congregational church government.
Read our complete church constitution including our purposes, scriptural basis, articles of faith (A-S), and church covenant with detailed scripture references.
Read ConstitutionGeneral Association of Regular Baptist Churches
We are affiliated with GARBC, a fellowship of independent Baptist churches united around fundamental biblical beliefs and separated living.
Visit GARBCOhio Association of Regular Baptist Churches
We are members of OARBC, the Ohio state association of Regular Baptist churches, supporting fellowship, missions, and church planting throughout Ohio.
Visit OARBCThese are the fundamental biblical truths we believe and teach as a church
We believe the scriptures of the Old and New Testaments to be the inspired Word of God, inerrant in the original writings, the complete and final revelation of God's will to man, the supreme standard of all faith and life. (; ; ; )
We believe in one triune God, eternally existing in three persons; the Father, The Son, and The Holy Spirit; co-eternal in being, co-identical in nature, co-equal in power and glory, each with distinct personal attributes but without division of nature or being. (; ; )
The Father is pure spirit. He is Lord of Heaven and earth and possesses all the attributes of Deity: omnipotence, omnipresence, omniscience, forgiveness and righteousness. He is holy, just, mercy and love. (; ; ; ; , , ; ; ; )
Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, participated with the Father in creation. The Father sent Him to dwell in human form among men. He was born of a virgin, as revealed by the Holy Spirit. He taught the good news of God's redeeming love. In the Father's name, He forgave the repentant, then gave Himself as the sacrificial lamb to save from the penalty of sin whomsoever will have accepted His Blood offering for their sin. He was tried illegally, crucified, died, but the third day He arose, bodily, from the grave and fellowshipped forty days with the believers and, finally, ascended into heaven with the promise to come again. (; ; ; ; , , ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; ; )
The Holy Spirit testifies of and glorifies Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit inspired the writers of the scriptures, convicts mankind of sin and testifies of righteousness and judgement. He regenerates, baptizes, indwells, and seals the believer. He is the believer's comforter, prayer helper, and enables the saints to understand the scriptures. We believe that the sign/revelatory gifts of the Holy Spirit have fulfilled their purposes and are not applicable to the work of the Holy Spirit today. (; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; )
God called the world and all things in it into being by the power of His Word, creating it in 6 literal 24 hour days. We believe that God created mankind with a free will in the image and likeness of Himself. Further, we believe that mankind was created physically as male and female to complement one the other in the fulfillment of God's command to “be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth,…and have dominion over…every living thing…upon the earth.” In light of God's creative design, we further believe that the Bible teaches that marriage is the joining of one man and one woman, and that sexual intimacy is to be expressed only within the bonds of a Biblically defined marriage. Any other form of marriage or sexual intimacy is immoral and a perversion of God's gracious will. (, ; , , ; , ; , ; ; ; ; ; ; )
We believe that mankind in his free will disobeyed God and thereby sinned, incurring spiritual death (which is separation from God) and physical death (which is separation of the body to dust). Consequently, all human individuals have a sinful nature and are sinners in thought, word, and deed. We believe that God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. We further believe that every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with Scripture nor the doctrines of the church. (; ; ; ; ; ; )
We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures as a substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who believe on Him are justified by faith in His shed blood on the cross, and are saved by grace through faith, wholly apart from human merit and works. (; ; ; ; ; )
We believe that all who receive the Lord Jesus Christ by faith are born again by the Holy Spirit through the Word of God, and thereby become the children of God. (; , ; ; ; ; ; )
We believe in the reality and personality of Satan. He is a created being of great beauty and power, “the prince of this world, the god of the age and the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience.” He fell through pride, and will be judged and cast into the lake of fire. (; ; ; ; ; ; ; , )
We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, His ascension into heaven, His present life there for us as our High Priest and Advocate and His personal, bodily, visible, premillennial return to establish His Kingdom on earth and to reign as the only potentate, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. (; ; ; ; )
We believe that at any moment the rapture of the saved may occur, “when the Lord Himself, shall descend from heaven to catch up His people to meet Him in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord”. (; ; )
We believe in the bodily resurrection of all the dead. The saved are to be resurrected to a life of eternal glory and bliss in heaven with God, and the unsaved raised to eternal judgment of conscious suffering and woe in the lake of fire. (; ; ; , ; ; ; ; , ; )
We believe that it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to be a personal soul winner and to do his utmost to give the gospel of Christ to the whole world. (; ; , ; ; )
We believe that we are called to be a separated people to abide in Christ, to walk in the Spirit and to enjoy victory over the world, the flesh and the Devil. (; ; ; ; ; )
We believe that there are two ordinances of the church.
We believe that all who have been truly born again by the Spirit of God through faith in Christ are eternally secure. We believe it is the privilege of all such to be assured of their present salvation and eternal security. While the Christian is eternally secure, he is still subject to sin which will break his fellowship with God making confession of sin to Christ a necessity in our daily lives. (; ; ; ; ; ; ; )
We believe the only methods of financing God's Work are tithes and offerings of God's people as set forth in the scriptures. (; ; ; ; )
The Statement of Faith does not exhaust the extent of our faith. The Bible itself is the sole and final authority of all that we believe. We believe that the foregoing Statement of Faith accurately represents the literal, grammatical, historical interpretation of the Bible and its teachings and, therefore, is binding upon all members of First Baptist Church. We further believe that in order to preserve the function and integrity of the church as the local Body of Christ, and to provide a biblical role model to the church members and the community, it is imperative that all persons employed by the church in any capacity, or who serve as volunteers, should abide by and agree to the Statement of Faith and conduct themselves accordingly.