Our Beliefs
Lakeside Baptist Church’s Statement of Faith is contained in Article IV of the Church Constitution. Every staff member and employee of Lakeside Baptist Church serves in furthering the mission of Lakeside Baptist Church to proclaim God’s love and forgiveness and to worship, to minister, and to grow as followers of Jesus Christ in our community, our state, our nation, and our world. Accordingly, Lakeside Baptist Church expects the conduct of its staff and employees to be consistent with the Statement of Faith. Conduct inconsistent with the Statement of Faith may result in disciplinary action, up and including possible termination.
God gave the church responsibility to confess its belief in him. The supreme authority for our faith and practice is God, who reveals his law and his gospel in Holy Scripture. The following statement sets forth certain doctrines this church finds revealed in the Word of God. This church believes, cherishes, and closely identifies with these precious doctrines. We also advocate the soul’s responsibility before God, liberty of conscience, and the priesthood of believers, but such truths do not mean our church lacks doctrines necessary for fellowship. This church remains free to revise its statement of faith as the Lord may lead.
We believe in and worship the one and only living and true God the Trinity, the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. God is intelligent, spiritual, and personal being. He is simple, immutable, and eternal. He is love, holy, and righteous, and every perfection. God is the creator, ruler, preserver, and redeemer of the universe. He is all-powerful, ever-present, and all-knowing toward his creation. His complete knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including future decisions by his free creatures. To him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. With other Christian churches, we affirm the orthodox faith described in the Nicene Creed, the Apostles Creed, the Athanasian Creed, and the Formula of Chalcedon.
• God the Father: We believe in God the Father, from whom the Son is eternally begotten and the Holy Spirit eternally proceeds. He created and continues to reign with providential care over his universe, all his creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of his grace. He is all-powerful, all-knowing, all-loving, and all-wise. He is fatherly in his attitude toward all men as their creator. He is Father in truth to those who become his children through faith in his only begotten Son, Jesus Christ.
• God the Son: We believe in Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of the Father, the eternal Word, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten not made, of one substance with the Father, one with and equal in glory, authority, and power with the Father and the Holy Spirit. In his incarnation, the Elect One was conceived of the Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. Taking upon himself our human nature with its demands and necessities he identified himself completely with us, yet he did not sin. Jesus is the self-revelation of God. He honored his divine law by his personal human obedience.
In his substitutionary death on the cross the Lamb made provision for our redemption from sin. The Righteous One arose from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to his disciples, the same Person who was with them before his crucifixion. The Son of Man ascended into heaven and now reigns at the right hand of God. He is the One Mediator to whom all human beings must come for redemption. In his Person, truly God and truly man, is effected reconciliation between God and humanity. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever-present Lord by his Spirit. Christ will return in power and glory to judge the world and to fulfill his redemptive mission. He is Lord, God, and King, yesterday, today, and forever.
• God the Holy Spirit: We believe in God the Holy Spirit, who proceeds eternally from the Father and the Son, and is with the Father and the Son the one and only true and living God. The Spirit inspired the prophets and the apostles to write Holy Scripture. Through illumination he enables people to understand truth. He exalts Christ. He convicts human beings of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness. He calls them to trust the Savior, and he effects regeneration. During their new birth, he baptizes every believer into the Body of Christ. He cultivates Christian character, comforts believers, and bestows the spiritual gifts by which we serve God through his church and in the world. He seals believers unto the day of final redemption. His presence in Christians is the guarantee that God will bring them into the fullness of the stature of Christ. He enlightens, calls, and empowers the church in worship, evangelism, and service. We worship and glorify one God, the Holy Spirit together with the Father and the Son.
God, who is incomprehensible apart from his gracious revelation, discloses the truth of his existence, power, and law to all people by nature and in conscience. He discloses the good news of salvation only in his Son and by his Spirit. The Holy Bible was written by men inspired by the Spirit. In the Old and New Testaments, God reveals himself. His Word is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. All Scripture is true, trustworthy, and powerful. It reveals the truth by which God judges us. It 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. All Scripture testifies to the Lord Jesus Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation.
Man is the special creation of God, made in the image of God. God created humanity male and female as the crowning work of his creation. The gift of gender is part of the goodness of creation. In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned and brought sin into the human race. Through the temptation of Satan, he transgressed the command of God and fell from his original innocence, whereby his posterity inherit a nature, and an environment inclined toward sin. Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, human beings become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring them into holy fellowship with God. His grace enables them to fulfill their created purpose. The sacredness of human persons is evident in that God created every human being in his own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
- Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God's grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Regeneration, repentance, and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith includes accepting Jesus Christ and committing one's entire person to him as Lord and Savior.
- Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal, upon the principle of Jesus Christ's righteousness, of all sinners who repent and believe in him as Lord. The grace of justification ushers the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.
- Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God's purposes and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual perfection through the indwelling presence and power of the Holy Spirit. Growth in grace should continue throughout a regenerate person's life.
- Glorification is the culmination of salvation, the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed, who will know the blessed vision of God.
• Election is the gracious purpose of God, according to which he regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. It is consistent with the free agency of man and comprehends all the means in connection with the end. It is a glorious display of God’s sovereign goodness, and is infinitely wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes boasting and promotes humility.
• All true believers endure to the end. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by his Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Holy Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.
• A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by his laws, committed to his teachings, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by his Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
• Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is directly accountable to Christ as Lord yet is also responsible for every brother and sister. The two scriptural offices of the church are of pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to those men who re called by the Spirit, qualified by Scripture, and elected by the church.
• The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes the redeemed of all ages, believers from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and rising to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead. Being a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the privileges of church membership and to the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience, whereby members of the church as believers who have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate his second coming.
The first day of the week is the Lord's Day. It is a Christian institution for regular observance. It commemorates the resurrection of Christ from the dead and should be employed in exercises of worship and spiritual devotion, both public and private. Activities on the Lord's Day should be commensurate with the Christian's conscience under the lordship of Jesus Christ.
The Kingdom of God includes both his general sovereignty over the universe and his particular kingship over believers, who willfully acknowledge Christ as King. The Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ. Christians need to pray and to labor that the Kingdom may come and God's will be done on earth. The full consummation of the Kingdom awaits the return of Jesus Christ and the end of this age. Christ's Kingdom shall have no end.
God himself is the beginning and the end, the first and the last. In his own time, he will bring the world to its determined end. According to his promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead will be raised, and he will judge all in righteousness from his divine throne. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will dwell forever in heaven with the Lord, seeing God face-to-face.
It is the calling of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. The new birth of man's spirit by God's Holy Spirit entails the birth of love for others. Missionary effort is a spiritual necessity in the regenerate life and is expressly and repeatedly commanded by the Lord Jesus Christ. He has commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations. It is the calling of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness supported by a Christian lifestyle, using methods in harmony with the gospel.
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to him. Christians are spiritually indebted to the whole world, having a holy trusteeship in the gospel and a binding stewardship in their possessions. Believers are under obligation to serve the Lord with their time, talents, and material possessions; and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God and for helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute cheerfully, regularly, systematically, proportionately, and liberally for the advancement of the Christ's cause on earth.
All Christians are obligated to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society. Means and methods used for the improvement of society and the establishment of righteousness among men can be truly and permanently helpful only when they are rooted in the regeneration of the individual by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. In the spirit of Christ, Christians should oppose racism, every form of greed, selfishness, and vice, and all forms of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for the orphaned, the needy, the abused, the aged, the helpless, and the sick. We should speak on behalf of the unborn and contend for the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death.
God alone is Lord of the conscience, and he has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to his Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.
God established the family as the first institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, birth, or adoption. Marriage, the uniting of one man and one woman in lifelong covenant, reflects the mysterious union between Christ and his church, provides for intimate companionship, and constitutes the unique relationship for sexual expression and procreation. Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents show their children God's pattern for marriage and for spiritual and moral values, and lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth. Children honor and obey their parents in the Lord.
