What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of First Baptist Church, Joplin based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. God is all powerful and all knowing; and His perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present, and future, including the future decisions of His free creatures.

To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It 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.

Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.
It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore 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 is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

• Exodus 24:4
• Deuteronomy 4:1-2
• Deuteronomy 17:19
• Joshua 8:34
• Psalms 19:7-10
• Psalms 119:11,89,105,140
• Isaiah 34:16
• Isaiah 40:8
• Jeremiah 15:16
• Jeremiah 36:1-32
• Matthew 5:17-18
• Matthew 22:29
• Luke 21:33
• Luke 24:44-46
• John 5:39
• John 16:13-15
• John 17:17
• Acts 2:16
• Acts 17:11
• Romans 15:4
• Romans 16:25-26
• 2 Timothy 3:15-17
• Hebrews 1:1-2
• Hebrews 4:12
• 1 Peter 1:25

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 the 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 to the end. Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the 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.

• Genesis 12:1-3
• Exodus 19:5-8
• 1 Samuel 8:4-7,19-22
• Isaiah 5:1-7
• Jeremiah 31:31
• Matthew 16:18-19
• Matthew 21:28-45
• Matthew 24:22,31
• Matthew 25:34
• Luke 1:68-79
• Luke 2:29-32
• Luke 19:41-44
• Luke 24:44-48
• John 1:12-14
• John 3:16
• John 5:24
• John 6:44-45,65
• John 10:27-29
• John 15:16
• John 17:6,12,17-18
• Acts 20:32
• Romans 5:9-10
• Romans 8:28-39
• Romans 10:12-15
• Romans 11:5-7,26-36
• 1 Corinthians 1:1-2
• 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
• Ephesians 1:4-23
• Ephesians 2:1-10
• Ephesians 3:1-11
• Colossians 1:12-14
• 2 Thessalonians 2:13-14
• 2 Timothy 1:12
• 2 Timothy 2:10,19
• Hebrews 11:39–12:2
• James 1:12
• 1 Peter 1:2-5,13
• 1 Peter 2:4-10
• 1 John 1:7-9
• 1 John 2:19
• 1 John 3:2

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, 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 responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

• Matthew 16:15-19
• Matthew 18:15-20
• Acts 2:41-42,47
• Acts 5:11-14
• Acts 6:3-6
• Acts 13:1-3
• Acts 14:23,27
• Acts 15:1-30
• Acts 16:5
• Acts 20:28
• Romans 1:7
• 1 Corinthians 1:2
• 1 Corinthians 3:16
• 1 Corinthians 5:4-5
• 1 Corinthians 7:17
• 1 Corinthians 9:13-14
• Ephesians 1:22-23
• Ephesians 2:19-22
• Ephesians 3:8-11,21
• Ephesians 5:22-32
• Philippians 1:1
• Colossians 1:18
• 1 Timothy 2:9-14
• 1 Timothy 3:1-15
• 1 Timothy 4:14
• Hebrews 11:39-40
• 1 Peter 5:1-4
• Revelation 2-3
• Revelation 21:2-3

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. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s 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.

Through the temptation of Satan man 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, they become transgressors and are under condemnation. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God.

The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man 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.

• Genesis 1:26-30
• Genesis 2:5,7,18-22
• Genesis 3
• Genesis 9:6
• Psalms 1; 8:3-6
• Psalms 32:1-5
• Psalms 51:5
• Isaiah 6:5
• Jeremiah 17:5
• Matthew 16:26
• Acts 17:26-31
• Romans 1:19-32
• Romans 3:10-18,23
• Romans 5:6,12,19
• Romans 6:6
• Romans 7:14-25
• Romans 8:14-18,29
• 1 Corinthians 1:21-31
• 1 Corinthians 15:19,21-22
• Ephesians 2:1-22
• Colossians 1:21-22
• Colossians 3:9-11

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

• Genesis 3:15
• Exodus 3:14-17
• Exodus 6:2-8
• Matthew 1:21
• Matthew 4:17
• Matthew 16:21-26
• Matthew 27:22-28:6
• Luke 1:68-69
• Luke 2:28-32
• John 1:11-14,29
• John 3:3-21,36
• John 5:24
• John 10:9,28-29
• John 15:1-16
• John 17:17
• Acts 2:21
• Acts 4:12
• Acts 15:11
• Acts 16:30-31
• Acts 17:30-31
• Acts 20:32
• Romans 1:16-18
• Romans 2:4
• Romans 3:23-25
• Romans 4:3
• Romans 5:8-10
• Romans 6:1-23
• Romans 8:1-18,29-39
• Romans 10:9-10,13
• Romans 13:11-14
• 1 Corinthians 1:18,30
• 1 Corinthians 6:19-20
• 1 Corinthians 15:10
• 2 Corinthians 5:17-20
• Galatians 2:20
• Galatians 3:13
• Galatians 5:22-25
• Galatians 6:15
• Ephesians 1:7
• Ephesians 2:8-22
• Ephesians 4:11-16
• Philippians 2:12-13
• Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1
• 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
• 2 Timothy 1:12
• Titus 2:11-14
• Hebrews 2:1-3
• Hebrews 5:8-9
• Hebrews 9:24-28
• Hebrews 11:1-12:8,14
• James 2:14-26
• 1 Peter 1:2-23
• 1 John 1:6-2:11
• Revelation 3:20
• Revelation 21:1-22:5

The Kingdom of God includes both His general sovereignty over the universe and His particular kingship over men who willfully acknowledge Him as King. Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of salvation into which men enter by trustful, childlike commitment to Jesus Christ.

Christians ought 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.

• Genesis 1:1
• Isaiah 9:6-7
• Jeremiah 23:5-6
• Matthew 3:2
• Matthew 4:8-10,23
• Matthew 12:25-28
• Matthew 13:1-52
• Matthew 25:31-46
• Matthew 26:29
• Mark 1:14-15
• Mark 9:1
• Luke 4:43
• Luke 8:1
• Luke 9:2
• Luke 12:31-32
• Luke 17:20-21
• Luke 23:42
• John 3:3
• John 18:36
• Acts 1:6-7
• Acts 17:22-31
• Romans 5:17
• Romans 8:19
• 1 Corinthians 15:24-28
• Colossians 1:13
• Hebrews 11:10,16
• Hebrews 12:28
• 1 Peter 2:4-10
• 1 Peter 4:13
• Revelation 1:6,9
• Revelation 5:10
• Revelation 11:15

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 include 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.

• Exodus 20:8-11
• Matthew 12:1-12; 28:1
• Mark 2:27-28
• Mark 16:1-7
• Luke 24:1-3,33-36
• John 4:21-24
• John 20:1,19-28
• Acts 20:7
• Romans 14:5-10
• I Corinthians 16:1-2
• Colossians 2:16
• Colossians 3:16
• Revelation 1:10

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.

1. Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. 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. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace. Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
2. Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
3. 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 maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person's life.

Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience symbolizing the believer's faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Saviour, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection 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, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming.

• Matthew 3:13-17
• Matthew 26:26-30
• Matthew 28:19-20
• Mark 1:9-11
• Mark 14:22-26
• Luke 3:21-22
• Luke 22:19-20
• John 3:23
• Acts 2:41-42
• Acts 8:35-39
• Acts 16:30-33
• Acts 20:7
• Romans 6:3-5
• 1 Corinthians 10:16,21
• 1 Corinthians 11:23-29
• Colossians 2:12