Reformed Baptist is a way of describing a Baptist Church that holds to a Christ centered Theology. We are Baptist in the way that we only baptize professing believers and hold to the Baptist Distinctives, and we are reformed in the way that we have a high view of God and see Him as sovereign over all of His creation. In this way we have a high view of Scripture, and see His Word as our sole authority for doctrine and practice.
We are part of a restorative movement returning to the biblical doctrine and practices of the New Testament. Our intention is to worship the Lord in Spirit and Truth with a focus on God’s Word over the traditions of men. This is not a movement to create anything new, but instead our goal is a return to our Baptist roots grounded in the Scripture that were reflected in the Protestant Reformation.
The Reformation was a return to the days of the early church, when preaching was at the center of the service and God's people came together eagerly to be fed from the Word of God. This is what makes Reformed Baptist Theology so relevant, it’s about the importance of Scripture and how God uses it to grow us and guide us, how it points to Christ and lights the path that He has put us on. We see the pure preaching of God’s Word as necessary for the church, because faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.
While not all Churches hold to this type of Christ centered theology, there is a remnant of God's people that know the entire Bible points to Christ and we still cherish the central doctrines inherited from the early Church. Faithful and True Baptist Church seeks to continue in the doctrine taught by Christ, His Apostles and His disciples in the early Church. Our doctrine comes directly from the Bible, which we see as the sole authority of faith and practice.
Reformed Baptists have certain Doctrines and Practices
We believe in the Almighty God who is Sovereign over all things.
Our creator rules over His creation. All things were created by him, and for him, and in Him all things are held together.
We know that God is all powerful, and has dominion over all that is.
“Remember this, and be assured;
Recall it to mind, you transgressors.
Remember the former things long past,
For I am God, and there is no other;
I am God, and there is no one like Me,
Declaring the end from the beginning,
And from ancient times things which have not been done,
Saying, ‘My purpose will be established,
And I will accomplish all My good pleasure’;
Calling a bird of prey from the east,
The man of My purpose from a far country.
Truly I have spoken; truly I will bring it to pass.
I have planned it, surely I will do it.”
- Isaiah 46:8-11
We believe that God’s will is always done. That there is a purpose and a plan for all of this, and that the Lord is in control.
The Five Solas
The most succinct way to describe how the Lord saves His people is by pointing to the Five Solas: We are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone.
Unwarranted confidence in our ability to choose salvation is a product of fallen human nature. God's grace is not only necessary, but is the only way of salvation. Human beings are born spiritually dead and are incapable of seeking God or being obedient to Him on our own. We are saved from God's wrath by His grace alone. It is the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to Christ by releasing us from our bondage to sin and raises us from spiritual death to spiritual life. Salvation is not something we are capable of contributing to; it is a work of God alone. Faith is not something we choose; it is a response to the grace of God that is at work in us.
The Doctrines of Grace
The Doctrines of Grace are declarations meant to describe the condition of our hearts and how God's grace saves and keeps His people. These are rooted in a basic understanding of Scripture and were taught by Jesus, His Apostles and the early Church long before the reformation. These are fundamental concepts regarding soteriology that we find in the Bible.
The Centrality of Scripture
Reformed Baptist Churches hold to both the inerrancy and sufficiency Scripture. That means not only do we believe that the Scripture is God's perfect Word, but that it is sufficient to accomplish all that God wants to do in His Church without any other human means. The careful expositional proclamation of Scripture, therefore, is the center of our worship.
We believe that all Scripture is inspired by God and is profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness; so that the man of God may be adequate, equipped for every good work. God’s Word guides us and grows us. This is why our worship services are centered on God’s Word, and why we prefer expository preaching.
We are Confessional
Reformed Baptist Churches hold to a confession of faith. A confession is not Scripture, but it tells you what we believe about Scripture. Our church's confession is the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689. We recognize our confession to be a trustworthy summary of the Scripture's teaching.
You can find out more about the Second London Baptist Confession of 1689 here:
We are Covenantal
Covenant Theology is a way of explaining the covenant relationship that God has with His people. Despite the fallen and sinful state of our hearts, God has promised to save us and restore the relationship that we have with our Creator. There is only one covenant of grace in the Bible, it is revealed in both the Old and New Testaments. The Old Testament foreshadows the fulfillment of God’s promises that are kept through Christ in the New Testament.
This is the view of God and our redemption as His people that interprets the Holy Scriptures by way of the Covenant of Grace; it ultimately shows that there is only one way of salvation: by God’s grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. We view the Bible as the story of God as He reveals Himself to His creation through Christ. All the promises He makes with His people are fulfilled through Christ in this way. In the Bible we see the providence of God in action as He draws His people from every tribe, language and nation through this Covenant of Grace. The Bible is a covenantal story, and one that Paul describes as "the covenants of promise" in Ephesians 2:12. Covenant Theology describes the relationship between the Lord God and His people and teaches that God’s people are all one in the body of Christ.
“The distance between God and the creature is so great, that although reasonable creatures do owe obedience to Him as their creator, yet they could never have attained the reward of life but by some voluntary condescension on God's part, which He hath been pleased to express by way of covenant.
Moreover, man having brought himself under the curse of the law by his fall, it pleased the Lord to make a Covenant of Grace, wherein He freely offers unto sinners life and salvation by Jesus Christ, requiring of them faith in Him, that they may be saved; and promising to give unto all those that are ordained unto eternal life, His Holy Spirit, to make them willing and able to believe.
This covenant is revealed in the Gospel; first of all to Adam in the promise of salvation by the seed of the woman, and afterwards by farther steps, until the full discovery thereof was completed in the New Testament; and it is founded in that eternal covenant transaction that was between the Father and the Son about the redemption of the elect”
- Chapter 7 of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith
We are Biblically Organized
Reformed Baptist Churches follow the New Testament pattern of having a plurality of elders and deacons. Our elders shepherd, over-see, and protect the congregation and ministries of the church, while the deacons serve the church in various ministries.
We practice Biblical Worship
Reformed Baptist Churches follow the biblical mandate that God has prescribed for how He desires to be worshiped. We follow, therefore, what is known as the Regulative Principle of Worship; we only practice in corporate worship what Scripture specifically commands us to do. Our worship is God-centered, recognizing that He is alone the consumer, object, and focus of worship. Our worship also is simple, stressing the Ordinary Means of Grace; the reading and preaching of the Word, prayer, and observing the ordinances.
- Chapter 22 of the 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith says this about how we worship the Lord:
“The acceptable way of worshiping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures”
Membership in the Church is only for believers
We follow the biblical New Testament model of Church membership. The local Church is a congregation of born again baptized believers, associated by covenant in faith and fellowship. It is an expression of the body of Christ and operates under the Lordship of Jesus.
We are an assembly of Christians who God has brought together to worship the Lord and have fellowship with each other as a Spirit filled family of believers. As the Church we are God’s remnant people who have been saved by His grace. We belong to God and in this way we seek to serve Him by sharing our faith, making disciples and coming together in the body of Christ with other believers for worship prayer and fellowship.
We have One Great Emphasis
To glorify God in all that we do.
“For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.”
- Romans 11:36
“Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God.”
- 1 Corinthians 10:31
Some history about Reformed Baptists
The Reformed tradition was forged out of the mighty storm known as the Protestant Reformation. It was a work of God's grace, and we are the blessed recipients of this tradition. We are reformed in our theology but always reforming. This means we are always trying to go back to the book, consistently returning to Scripture and actively worshiping the Lord in the way that He guides us through Scripture.
The Catholic Church was teaching doctrine that was contrary to Scripture. They were idolatrous, and were teaching a false man centered superstitious gospel. When the Roman Catholic Church condemned the biblical doctrine of justification by faith alone, it denied the true Gospel and ceased to be a legitimate Church. When the Word of God was finally translated into the common languages of the people of Europe during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, the people began to see for themselves just how far the Catholic Church was from biblical doctrine. Movements began in an attempt to reform it and bring it in line with what God had given in Scripture.
Christians in the Reformation movement established new Churches in the 1500 and 1600s with the intention of going back to the doctrine of the early Church that we see in Scripture. These Churches shared a common God centered view of Scripture that stressed the sovereignty of God, the power of His grace, and the inability of man to save himself. These core doctrines of the early Church were summed up as what we call the Five Solas; that we are saved by the grace of God alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to Scripture alone, for the glory of God alone. Baptist Churches which returned to biblical doctrine and practice of the New Testament were the first to be considered "Reformed" Baptists. These are Churches that are reformed in the way that we look to Scripture as our authority as opposed to the traditions of men.
Midway through the nineteenth century, a shift began to take place among many Churches. Their biblical God-centered doctrine was replaced with a man-centered focus. In many Churches this resulted in becoming detached from Scripture and descending into theological liberalism. The focus moved from the glory of God to attracting people into the Church, from biblical practice to pragmatism, from discipleship to an emphasis upon decision-making and numbers, and the Gospel was cheapened so that more people could easily "accept" Christ and Church rolls could be padded. It shifted the focus from Christ centered worship to man centered entertainment, and the result has been the formation of Churches with full rolls and empty pews, many decisions but few disciples, and the substitution of what we call churchianity and rock star preachers in place of the Word of God.
In the mid-twentieth century, seeing the condition of the Church culture and the damage this man centered false gospel was doing to lost souls, many Baptist groups and churches in the other denominations began to reemphasize the early Church’s biblical doctrines and practices reflected in the reformation-era Church movement. They put the adjective "reformed" on the names of their Churches to set them apart from the man-centered doctrine of the day and to signal that they were returning to the God-centered doctrine and the Five Solas of the early Baptists. Faithful and True Baptist Church is a Reformed Baptist Church that is part of this movement. We preach and teach the doctrine taught by Christ and His Apostles in the early Church. And everything we believe is rooted in Scripture.
If you have any questions about our Church, please contact us at the link below.
