Brief Doctrinal Statement
North Woodlawn Baptist Church is a traditional, independent baptist church. We hold to the doctrine of the pure, preserved Word of God as our foundation for faith and practice.
- THE SCRIPTURES. We believe that men who were inspired by God wrote the Holy Bible. It is complete and it is the final revelation of the will of God to man. It is without error. It will remain until the end of the world. By "Holy Bible" we mean the collection of sixty-six books from Genesis to Revelation, which does not only contain the Word of God, but is the very Word of God. By "inspiration" we mean that the books of the Bible were written by holy men of old as they were moved by the Holy Spirit of God in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally and verbally inspired and free from error. We believe that the King James Bible is the inspired, infallible, inerrant Word of God preserved for English-speaking people. All of the preaching and teaching at NWBC is done solely from the King James Bible.
- THE TRUE GOD. We believe there is one and only one living and true God. He is an infinite intelligent Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth. In the unity of the Godhead there are three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, equal in every divine perfection.
- THE HOLY SPIRIT. We believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and is of the same nature. He was active in creation, and in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled. He convicts of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness and bears witness to the truth of the Gospel. He is the agent in the new birth and seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses, sanctifies, and helps the believer.
- THE DEVIL OR SATAN. We believe that Satan was once holy and enjoyed heavenly honors, but through pride and ambition to be as the Almighty, fell and drew after him a host of angels. He is now the prince and the power of the air and the unholy god of this world. We hold him to be man’s greatest tempter, the enemy of God, the accuser of the saints, the author of all false religions, the lord of the Antichrist, and the author of all the powers of darkness. He is destined, however, to final defeat at the hand of God’s Son and the judgment of an eternal justice in Hell, a place prepared for him and his angels.
- THE CREATION. We believe in the Genesis account of creation and that it is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively. Man was created directly by God, in God’s own image and after His own likeness. Man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or developments through long periods of time from lower to higher forms.
- THE FALL OF MAN. We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state. Consequently, all people are now sinners, not by constraint but by choice, and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.
- THE VIRGIN BIRTH. We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner. He was born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever born or can ever be born. He was born the Son of God and God the Son.
- THE ATONEMENT FOR SIN. We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the Son of God. By appointment of the Father, He freely took upon Himself our nature. By His death, He made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins. We have redemption through His blood. His atonement consisted not in death as a martyr, but was the voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place.
- GRACE IN THE NEW CREATION. We believe that, in order to be saved, sinners must be born again. The new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus. It is instantaneous and not a process. The one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God. The proper evidence of the new birth appears in the holy fruits of repentance, faith and newness of life.
- THE FREENESS OF SALVATION. We believe that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the Gospel. Nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth except the voluntary rejection of the Gospel.
- JUSTIFICATION. We believe that the great Gospel, which Christ secures to such as believe in Him, is justification. Justification includes the pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life on principles of righteousness. It is bestowed not in any works of righteousness which we have done, but His righteousness is imputed unto us solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood.
- REPENTANCE AND FAITH. We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the quickening Spirit of God. Thereby, being deeply convicted of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of our need of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy and at the same time heartily receive the Lord Jesus Christ and openly confess Him as our only and all-sufficient Saviour.
- THE CHURCH. We believe that a Baptist church is a congregation of believers baptized in a Baptist church of like doctrine and practice. Baptists are associated together by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word. Its officers of ordination are pastors or elders and deacons whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures. We hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations. We believe that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit. On all matters of membership, of policy, of government, of discipline, and of benevolence, the will of the local church is final.
- BAPTISM AND THE LORD’S SUPPER. We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by the authority of the local church. It is administered to show forth a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Savior with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life. Biblical baptism in a church of like faith is prerequisite to the privileges of a church membership and to the Lord’s Supper, which only the members of each particular church partake in.
- THE ETERNAL SECURITY OF THE BELIEVER. We believe that all the redeemed are kept by the power of God and are secure in Christ. It is a work of God, which guarantees that the gift of salvation, once received, cannot be lost, and believers are eternally secure.