Statement of Faith
Get to Know God
There is one and only one living and true God. This is the God who has revealed Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Each part of the Trinity has distinct personal attributes, but they are united in nature, essence, and being. This is the God who has created us and calls us to Himself. This is the God who loves us and desires to have a relationship with us.
This is the God who we can know and enjoy forever.
The Holy Trinity
God the Father
Summit Baptist Church holds that God the Father reigns with providential care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace. This is most clearly seen in how He is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. In other words, God’s fatherhood is not simply an empty title—He actually provides for and protects His children in very real ways.
Scripture teaches that we can trust God as our Father because He is good and His plans for us are always for our ultimate good even if we don’t understand them at the time.
The Holy Trinity
God the Son
The Bible teaches us that Christ is the eternal Son of God, a divine being, and the second person of the Triune God. He willingly came to Earth in human form, through the Holy Spirit and virgin Mary, in order to bridge His heavenly Father God with Mankind. Through His personal obedience to fulfill all righteousness, He paid the salvific price for sin on the cross.
In this way, He made full provision for all people to have access to redemption and everlasting life with God—all praise be to Him!
The Holy Trinity
God the Holy Spirit
God the Holy Spirit is God in all ways, fully divine and worthy of our veneration and worship. He results in glory to God by exalting Christ as Savior, convicting mankind of sins that need repentance, revealing righteousness that calls us to holiness, and warning us of judgment. He truly provides transforming power to believers who seek God when they Worship Him in spirit and truth, share the Gospel message with unbelievers who are in dire need of a Savior, and serve God faithfully wherever God calls them to go.
Thus, we look to God the Holy Spirit for guidance throughout all of our lives as believers living for God.
The Scriptures
The Holy Bible is undeniably the most sacred and reliable recorded source of Scripture ever established. It was written by God’s divinely inspired servants, and provides absolute truth in its teachings. Scripture is a priceless treasure that comes directly from God, with salvation as its purpose and goal. Scripture stands as the ultimate authority on how to judge our own behavior, be it personally or in a faith-based setting, serving as an unshakable bond for all believers. It stands as an irrefutable witness to Christ Himself. Scripture is without flaw, and it remains a focal point for Christianity today - now, just as it has since the beginning of our Lord’s journey across this holy earth.
Education
The cause of education in the Kingdom of Christ is co-ordinate with the causes of missions and general benevolence … there should be a proper balance between academic freedom and academic responsibility. …The freedom of a teacher in a Christian school, college, or seminary is limited by the pre-eminence of Jesus Christ, by the authoritative nature of the Scriptures, and by the distinct purpose for which the school exists.
Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtor-ship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions. They are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions.
Cooperation
Christ’s people should organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. …Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations.
The Christian &
The Social Order
All Christians are under obligation to seek to make the will of Christ supreme in our own lives and in human society 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.
Religous Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal.
Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood or adoption. We believe that God wonderfully and immutably creates each person as male and female. These two distinct, complementary sexes together reflect the image and nature of God (Genesis 1:26-27). Rejection of one’s biological sex is a rejection of the image of God within that person. We believe that God intends sexual intimacy to occur only between a man and a woman who are married to each other.
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation… Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage.
