Our Doctrinal Statement

We are proudly Baptist in heritage, practice and doctrine. We believe the Baptists, when traced through church history, are the closets to the early New Testament church in doctrine and practice. We believe in the Baptist Distinctives:

Bible as the sole authority for faith, doctrine and practice

Autonomy of the local church

Priesthood of all believers

Two ordinances of the church - Baptism and the Lord's Supper

Individual soul liberty

Saved (Regenerated) church membership

Two Offices of the Church - Pastor and Deacon

Separation of Church and State


SCRIPTURE: THE WORD OF GOD - We Believe the Holy Bible, containing the Old and New Testaments, to be the verbal and plenary inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God  . We also believe the Bible to be the sole authority for faith, doctrine, and practice.

TRINITY - We believe there is one omnipresent (all present), omniscient (all knowing), omnipotent (all powerful), eternally existing God manifested in three distinct persons, whom are all coequal in all aspects: The Father, The Son, and the Holy Spirit.

GOD THE FATHER - We believe the Father is the one and only infinite, omniscient, omnipotent, and omnipresent Spirit who is the Maker and Supreme Ruler the heavens, the earth, and all aspects of everything that exists. We believe He is coequal with the Son and the Holy Spirit.

GOD THE SON - We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is divine person, deity, and coequal with the Father and the Holy Spirit. We believe in His virgin birth, His sinless life, His vicarious (substitutionary) death on the cross for our sins, His bodily ressurection from the grave, His ascension to the right hand of God, where he now sits and makes intercession for all believers.

GOD THE HOLY SPIRIT - We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person, not an unseen force, and coequal with the Father and the Son. We believe He was active in the creation. We believe that in reference to the unbelieving world, he restrains the Evil One (Satan) until God's purpose is fulfilled. We believe He convicts of sin, righteousness, judgment and bears witness to the truth of the gospel message of salvation. We believe that He is the agent of the New Birth and seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, and helps the believer.

ANGELS - We believe that all angels were created by God and were good, but some of them chose to follow Satan in his rebellion against God. The good angels are confirmed in righteousness, and that the evil angels will eternally share their doom with Satan. We believe that Satan is a literal creature, completely evil, the enemy of God and all believers. He has power over human beings but is subject to God and God will cast Satan into the Lake of Fire for eternal damnation.

FALL AND DEPRAVITY OF MAN - We believe that Adam was created without sin or a sin nature, but because of his voluntary transgression, fell into sin and this resulted in man's spiritual death, which is separation from God. We believe as a result of the fall of man, all men are born sin and are sinners by nature and practice.

CHURCH ORDINANCES - We believe that there are two Biblical church ordinances for this age - Baptist and the Lord's Supper:

We believe that water baptism is the symbolic act of the believer in which he follows the Lord Jesus in His single, complete death, burial, and resurrection. It is commanded and instituted by the Lord Jesus Christ for every born again believer and baptism is to be by immersion only. Baptism shall be administered in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Baptism shall be prerequisite to church membership.

We believe that the Lord's Supper is a memorial feast commenorating the Lord's death until He comes again. The Lord's Supper is to be exercised by born again believers who are in complete fellowship with God. The symbols of the Lord's Supper are the bread, representative of his body and the cup, representative of His shed blood in remission for our sins.


THE CHURCH - We believe that the Church is a group of believers set apart by an invisible act of God. This act places the believers in the body of Christ by the Holy Spirit's baptism. This body is Biblically identified as THE CHURCH. We believe that a New Testament Local Church is a congregation of baptized (immersed) believers together by a covenant of faith and directed by the Holy Spirit. The local church is responsible to Christ in all matters of membership, polity, discipline, and benevolence. We believe the only Biblical officers of the church are: Pastor and Deacon.

SALVATION - We believe in atonement, that saving or redeeming work which is the result of Christ's shedding His blood on the cross, which reconciles man to God. We believe that salvation is a free gift bestowed by God, brought to man by grace and received by personal faith in the atoning work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe it is the responsibility of this church and all its members to actively engage in evangelism.

THE SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER - We believe that all who have been truly been born again and thus have become partakers of the divine nature are eternally saved and cannot be lost. God sees to it that "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28) and for God's glory. We believe that a disobedient child of God will be chastened by God to bring him to repentance.

ECUMENICAL MOVEMENT - We believe in separation from all religious apostasy of apostate organizations and all worldly or sinful affiliations as commanded by God. Therefore, it is our strong conviction not to have an associations with them , neither indiviually nor as a church body. Apostate organizations include the National Council of Churches, World Council of Churches or any of its associate organizations

 

                                                                                                           

       2008 Westside Baptist Church 762 Smokey Road Newnan GA 30263 (770) 251-5333 mpayne@wsbnewnan.org