Our Beliefs - First Baptist Church Waterloo - Come Grow With Us!

Our Beliefs

As believers in the Lord Jesus Christ, we affirm the following as a summary of what we believe to be basic truths about God and His works.

The Bible

We believe the Bible to be the complete Word of God; that the sixty-six books, as originally written, comprising the Old and New Testaments were verbally inspired by the Holy Spirit of God and were entirely free from error; that the Bible is the final authority in all matters of faith and practice and the true basis of Christian union.

The Godhead

We believe in one God who exists in three equal Persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit; that He is self-existent, immutable, eternal, and infinite in wisdom, power, holiness and love; that each of the Divine Persons is to be distinctly recognized and adored and yet all three are of the same essence.

God The Father

We believe that God the Father sustains His relationship as Father to God the Son, who is our Lord Jesus Christ.

God The Son

We believe in the absolute and essential deity of Jesus Christ, in His eternal existence with the Father in pre-incarnate glory: in His Holy Spirit conception and in His virgin birth; that He lived a sinless life, provided a substitutionary death for all, was bodily resurrected, triumphantly ascended, provides mediatorial ministry and assures us of His personal, glorious and imminent return.

God The Holy Spirit

We believe in the absolute and essential deity and personality of the Holy Spirit, who convinces of sin, of righteousness and of judgment; who regenerates, sanctifies, illuminates and comforts those who believe in Jesus Christ; and who indwells and baptizes into the body of Christ, believers at the time of acceptance of Christ as Saviour.

Angels

We believe there are angels; that they are created beings; that they are God’s ministering servants.

Satan

We believe that Satan exists as an evil personality, the originator of sin, the archenemy of God and man, and with his angels will be committed to the eternal lake of fire.

Man and His Fall

We believe that man was divinely created in the image and likeness of God; that he sinned and by his disobedience, fell from his state of innocence resulting in total depravity for himself and his posterity, thereby incurring both physical and spiritual death.

Salvation

We believe that salvation is by the grace of God; that by the appointment of the Father, Christ voluntarily suffered a vicarious, reconciling death; that justification is by faith alone in the all-sufficient sacrifice and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ; and that those whom God redeemed are eternally secure in that having been born again they cannot be lost

The Second Coming of Christ and the Future Program of God

We believe in the personal, imminent, bodily and glorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ, that when His bride, the Church, shall have been completed, He will appear in the air to rapture the Church unto Himself and to take them to Heaven where the Judgment Seat of Christ and the Marriage Supper of the Lamb will take place - during which time of seven years the Great tribulation will take place on earth; that Christ and His Bride will return to earth to take vengeance on them that know not God and set up His Millennial reign; that after these events will come the Great White Throne Judgment when the wicked of all ages shall be judged and cast into the Lake of Fire forever; that the righteous of all ages shall enjoy eternal bliss in the presence of God in the New Heaven and New Earth.

The Local Church

We believe that the church is a company of immersed believers, called out from the world and separated unto the Lord Jesus, voluntarily associated for the ministry of the Word, the mutual edification of its members, the propagation of the faith and the administration of the ordinances. We believe it is a sovereign, independent body, exercising its own divinely awarded gifts, precepts and privileges under the Lordship of Christ, the Great Head of the church. Pastors and deacons are its spiritual officers.

Ordinances

We believe that there are only two ordinances to be administered by the church in the New Testament:

  • Baptism, which is the immersion of the believer in water, whereby he obeys Christ's command and sets forth his identification with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection.
  • The Lord’s Supper, which is the memorial wherein the believer partakes of the two elements, bread and wine, which symbolize the Lord's body and shed blood, proclaiming His death until He come.

The Lord’s Day

We believe that the first day of the week is the Lord's Day and is to be joyfully hallowed as a day when we give our sacred priority to the sacred worship of God and service in the local church. (Acts 20:7; John 20:1-19, 26; 1 Corinthians 16:2; Hebrews 10:25)

Civil Government

We believe that civil government is of divine appointment for the interest and good order of society; that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honoured and obeyed, except only in the things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, Who is the only Lord of the conscience and Prince of the kings of the earth.

The Church and State

We believe in the entire separation of church and state.

Religious Liberty

We believe in religious liberty; that every person has the right to practice and propagate his beliefs.