Together we affirm that all of the gospel of Jesus Christ is found in the Christian Scriptures—that is, the Old and New Testaments—which are uniquely the means chosen by God through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to communicate His plan for salvation to mankind.
Together we acknowledge the universal sinfulness of mankind and the universal need for conversion.
Together we acknowledge that, as a result of our universal sinfulness, every person with a capacity for transgression against God is guilty of transgression against God.
Together we affirm that all who are saved will spend eternity in Heaven.
Together we acknowledge with sadness that all who are not saved will spend eternity in Hell.
Together we affirm that any who is saved will be saved by grace through faith and not of works.
Together we affirm that none will spend eternity in Hell who is not guilty of his own volitional transgression against God.
Together we affirm that all of those who spend eternity in Heaven will be able to describe themselves accurately as the elect.
Together we deny that any of those who spend eternity in Hell will be able to describe themselves accurately as the elect.
Together we affirm that all who spend eternity in Hell will do so at the displeasure of God and contrary to the initial design and desire of God.
Together we affirm that God, from eternity past, knew exactly who would spend eternity in Heaven and exactly who would spend eternity in Hell.
Together we affirm that none can be saved by any means other than Jesus Christ.
Together we affirm that Jesus Christ, in the sacrifice of Himself on the cross as our substitute, made atonement for our sins.
Together we affirm that all who through faith receive Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross will be saved.
Together we affirm that all who do not receive Jesus Christ and His sacrifice on the cross are condemned already.
Together we affirm that salvation comes in conjunction with personal conversion, an experience closely correlated with and attended by repentance, faith, confession of Jesus as Lord, regeneration, justification, reception of the Holy Spirit, and adoption into the family of God.
Together we affirm that conversion does not come upon anyone without that person’s knowledge nor contrary to that person’s will at the moment of conversion.
Together we affirm that at conversion we were reconciled to God the Father because of His work in God the Son on the cross.
Together we affirm that at conversion we received justification of our sins as the result of God the Son’s sacrifice on the cross.
Together we affirm that at conversion we were born again to eternal life —resurrected with Christ to walk in newness of life, as it were—by the work of God the Holy Spirit.
Together we affirm that the symbol of conversion—that is, of the mortification of the old, condemned, sinful self and the birth of the new, justified self being sanctified—is the immersion of new believers in water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Together we affirm that God commences at each respective moment of conversion the work of sanctifying the person saved.
Together we affirm that we cannot, apart from sanctification, make unto God offerings of worship in righteousness that glorify Him.
Together we affirm that the Law is just and that God uses it to restrain evil in the world, to show us our sinfulness, and to sanctify believers by showing them His standards of righteousness.
Together we affirm the churches’ duty of preaching and working for the sanctification of believers.
Together we deny that anything not both initially producing some evidence of sanctification and finally resulting in entire sanctification is or ever was true gospel conversion.
Together we affirm that God has called regenerate believers, and only such, to gather as New Testament churches.
Together we affirm that God has used as His means of saving us the proclamation of the gospel to us by those who were believers before us.
Together we receive as our duty the mission to be the witnesses of Christ throughout the extent of the earth to all peoples, calling upon each one to receive the gospel of Jesus Christ—that whoever is the elect of God has certainly been elected to embrace and do some portion of this task.
Together we affirm that although these statements bear witness to the teachings of the Christian Scriptures about the gospel, they do not exhaust them, and therefore, that many facts about the gospel beyond these few beckon us to consider them.
Together we affirm the importance of the gospel, our earnest desire to understand it more fully, and the value of studying and meditating upon the gospel.
Together we acknowledge that our respective studies and meditations have led us to differing opinions on some questions of the nature and operation of the gospel that lie beyond and behind the items delineated in this statement.
Together we affirm that, where we differ on further items of soteriology, we cannot all be right, and indeed, we may all be wrong to some degree, but that when we gain further light, God’s Word will be vindicated as true in all respects.
Together we affirm that, our differing opinions on other matters notwithstanding, our common affirmation of these truths and the other truths expressed in The Baptist Faith & Message constitute sufficient grounds for us gladly to acknowledge one another as brothers and sisters in Christ, to owe one another our love, to serve one another and to serve with one another in the Southern Baptist Convention, and to acknowledge the leadership of one another in convention work as God may grant it.
Together, desiring to know more fully the truth of God, we encourage one another to study, converse, write, confer, consider, and even debate among one another the further nuances of soteriology, so long as in doing so we are diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
