Baptist Doctrine

Throughout the history of Baptist life, there have been several major doctrinal statements:

• The Second London confession of 1689

• The New Hampshire Confession (1833)

• The Abstract of Principles for The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (1858)

• Baptist Faith and Message (1925, 1963, & 2000)

All of these are worth reading. The earlier ones have a lot more content on each point, the more recent ones are leaner and focus more on necessities for cooperation. But these statements give you a good idea of what we as baptists have believed in the past and still believe today.

Statements of faith and confessions help us to quickly summarize what we believe, and be slightly more specific than saying "I believe the Bible." An example in the Bible of a possible statement of faith could be found in 1 Timothy 3:16 when Paul quotes an early confessional hymn of the church. Statements of faith also help us to think through what are 1st, 2nd, and 3rd tier doctrines:

• 1st tier doctrines = truths you have to believe to be a Christian (e.g. the divinity of Christ, the virgin birth, the resurrection, the Trinity)

• 2nd tier doctrines = truths you need to agree on in order to be in cooperation / be a part of the same church (e.g. who can be baptized, who can take the Lord's Supper)

• 3rd tier doctrines = truths you can disagree on and still be in cooperation together (e.g. the timing of Jesus' return)

As a church in cooperation with Southern Baptists, we adhere to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. If you've never read it, here's a link to it. It is a helpful launching point to thinking about points of doctrine, as well as what is required for us to believe in order to cooperate together within the SBC.