FIRST-person: readability in the New yr

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EDITOR'S note: Ronnie Floyd is president and CEO of the Southern Baptist conference executive Committee.

NASHVILLE (BP) -- The birth of a brand new year is a very good time to evaluation where we're and to state clearly the place we are heading. this is genuine individually, in our households, in agencies and whilst a convention of church buildings.

I hear from pastors and other leaders wondering the place we as Southern Baptists are heading. Some query our commitment to Scripture. Others concern we're softening a few of our practices to develop into more beautiful to the culture.

With each and every question, my reply is the same. The Southern Baptist conference is committed to doing our work along side faithfulness to the doctrines printed in the Holy Scripture. Our dedication to the Bible is still robust. where are Southern Baptists headed? we are headed on mission with God under the Lordship of Jesus Christ as printed via His word.

at the start of this new yr, it is respectable for us to be aware the foundational truths that guide us on our mission. These truths movement from the unchanging and timeless treasure of Holy Scripture.

1. We trust the Bible is the note of God. while I can't talk for all Southern Baptists on many issues, here is one component on which we agree: The Bible is God's infallible and inerrant reality. here's the place Southern Baptists are.

The Baptist religion and Message, our consensus confession of faith, puts it this manner: "The Holy Bible was written by means of men divinely impressed and is God's revelation of Himself to man. it is a perfect treasure of divine guideline. It has God for its writer, salvation for its conclusion, and truth, without any blend of error, for its rely.... hence, all Scripture is completely real and faithful" (Article I, BF&M).

2. We agree with Jesus Christ is the Son of the living God. he's God in the flesh. Jesus Christ lived a sinless life, died on the pass for the sins of the area, became buried, and rose from the dead on the third day. sooner or later, Jesus will come once again in vigor and glory. There is no salvation aside from repentance from sin and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This own relationship with God through Christ is the crucial message of our faith.

three. We believe Jesus commissioned His followers to make disciples of the entire international locations. When evangelizing these without Christ, we cause them to be baptized as a testimony of their saving faith and disciple them to turn into lifelong followers of Jesus Christ. Embracing this regular missional imaginative and prescient, we cooperate collectively as self sustaining churches to current the Gospel of Jesus Christ to each adult on this planet and to make disciples of the entire international locations.

4. We agree with each and every New testomony church is an self reliant, local congregation of baptized believers in Jesus Christ. The Church of Jesus Christ is committed to advancing the Gospel of Jesus Christ to each grownup in the world. each men and women are gifted to serve within the church and the realm. The office of pastor or elder, despite the fact, is proscribed to guys as qualified by means of the Holy Scripture.

5. We believe in protecting the sanctity of human life from theory to herbal loss of life. every adult concerns to God; for this reason, every adult concerns to us. We work together to do all we are able to to retain and improve now not handiest the sanctity of human lifestyles, but also the distinction of all human existence.

6. We consider the Church and the state should be separate. God by myself is Lord over the conscience. govt is given to us by God. it's our duty to obey its laws once they do not violate God's will as published in Scripture. We depend not on the vigor of civil government to carry out our work, but totally on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the energy of the Holy Spirit.

7. We trust biblical marriage is simply between one man and one lady uniting collectively in covenant for a lifetime. both male and female are made in the photograph of God and are of equal worth before God. The little ones they share together are a present and a heritage of the Lord. each and every family unit is God's plan to be the foundational establishment of human society.

eight. We consider God created male and female in His own photograph. The pleasing gift of gender is an expression of God's blessing to us. As a creational reward of God, gender is not fluid.

With so many swirling currents from secular subculture, within the ranks of evangelicalism, and even among our personal Baptist family unit, we have to be fully clear about what we agree with concerning Scripture, the Savior it exhibits, and the religious Kingdom our Lord came to set up. Heaven and earth will circulate away; however His note -- and His Kingdom -- abide always.