Mt. Vernon Baptist Church
OUR BELIEFS
THE BIBLE
The Bible is God’s divinely inspired Word, written by men as God moved upon their spirits. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation. The Bible is holy, as its Author, and is therefore our final authority for life, faith and practice.
GOD
The one and only triune God is perfectly holy, infinite in power, knowledge and wisdom, and is full of mercy and grace. He created the world as stated in the Bible and He sustains it. All are accountable to Him and should honor, praise and serve Him.
HUMANITY
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His 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 against God and brought sin into the human race. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. God created man in His own image, therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.
SALVATION
Salvation is of the Lord and is made possible by His mercy and grace. The father plans it, the Son pays for it, and the Holy Spirit provides it. A person is "saved" by calling on Jesus Jesus Christ as personal Savior. One receives Christ through repentance of sin toward God and faith in Jesus Christ's redeeming work on the cross as his or her substitutionary sacrifice for sin. A saved person has been "born again" spiritually, made a new creation through the regenerating work of God, and will live a new kind of life, seeking to be like the Savior in life and service.
BAPTISM
Baptism is the water immersion of a believer as a symbolic representation of how Christ died for our sin, was buried, and rose again. It is a public outward display of the spiritual resurrection which took place when the believer called on Jesus in faith for salvation.
THE CHURCH
The Church is a universal description of all who have placed saving faith in Jesus Christ and follow Him as Lord. Scripture refers to the church as Christ's bride and body. A Local New Testament Church is a geographically local assembly of Scripturally baptized believers governed with autonomy according to the New Testament. The member of a local New Testament Church devotes time, service, and financial support for the purpose of carrying out the Great Commission of Christ to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth.
MARRIAGE
Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God's unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church, and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship -- the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.
THE RETURN OF CHRIST
Jesus is coming again at God's appropriate time to set up His perfect kingdom upon earth.