What We Believe
We, the members of First Baptist Church of Nashville, Tennessee, unanimously adopt the following Articles of “the faith once delivered to the saints.”
The Scripture
We believe that the Holy Bible was written by inspired men and that it is a perfect rule of faith and practice.
God
We believe that there is only one living and true God who is infinite in every natural and moral excellence and that He has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Ghost, the same in essence and equal in divine qualities.
Human Depravity
We believe that man was created holy; that he by transgression fell, and as a consequence, he and his descendants became corrupt; and that as “all have sinned,” all are “by nature the children of wrath.”
The Way of Salvation
We believe that the only way of salvation is through the righteousness and blood of Jesus Christ our Lord, “whom God hath set forth to be the propitiation for our sins through faith by His blood.”
Grace, and the Work of the Holy Spirit
We believe that all those who are the subjects of repentance and faith became such in consequence, not of their own merit, but “of God’s own purpose and grace which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began”; that the Holy Ghost, without whose influence none would repent and believe, performs the work of regeneration; and that only such as are truly converted and “become new creatures” are proper subjects of membership in the church of Christ.
Final Perseverance
We believe that all true believers will, by the grace of God, persevere in His love and service, being “kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.”
The Ordinances
We believe that in the church of Christ there are but two ordinances, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, and that believers are the only proper subjects; that immersion, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, upon profession of faith in Christ, is the only Christian baptism.
Church Offices
We believe that the gospel authorizes but two offices in the church of Christ, that of Pastor and Deacon.
Church Government
We believe that each individual church, with the Word of God for its guide, possesses within itself all the requisite authority for self-government.
The Lord’s Day
We believe that, according to the example of the apostles and early Christians, sanctioned by the repeated presence of the Son of God after the resurrection, the first day of the week is to be observed as the Lord’s Day.
Resurrection and Judgement
We believe that there will be a resurrection, both of the just and unjust, and that “the Son of Man shall come in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then shall He sit upon the throne of His glory; and before Him shall be gathered all nations; and He shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats; and He shall set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left. Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, ‘Come ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.’ Then shall He say also unto them on the left hand, ‘Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.’”
