We, as the North American Baptist Conference, feel the need to state more fully our Baptist understanding of the Christian faith to:

Further the sense of identity and the spirit of unity within our North American Baptist Conference by declaring our common doctrinal understandings;

Provide a basis for doctrinal instruction within our Conference;

Provide a basis for doctrinal discussion in the hiring of Conference personnel;

Serve as a reference point when opinions differ;

Provide a basis for doctrinal discussion in admitting new churches and new pastors into our various associations;

Provide a doctrinal guide for new churches;

Give a doctrinal witness beyond our Conference;

In continuity with our immediate forefathers and the larger fellowship of Baptists throughout history, we seek to practice and propagate by God’s grace the following convictions:

We believe the Bible is God’s Word given by divine inspiration, the record of God’s revelation of Himself to humanity (2 Timothy 3:16).

We believe in the one living and true God, perfect in wisdom, sovereignty, holiness, justice, mercy and love (1 Timothy 1:17; Psalm 86:15; Deuteronomy 32:3-4).

We believe God created an order of spiritual beings called angels to serve Him and do His will (Psalm 148:1-5; Colossians 1:16).

We believe God created man in His own image to have fellowship with Himself and to be steward over His creation (Genesis 1:26-28).

We believe salvation is redemption by Christ of the whole person from sin and death (2 Timothy 1:9-10; Thessalonians 5:23).

We believe the Church is the body of which Christ is the head and all who believe in Him are members (Ephesians 1:22-23; Romans 12:4-5).

The ordinances of the church are baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, and of Son, and of the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:18-20). The Lord’s Supper is the partaking of the bread and of the cup by believers together as a continuing memorial of the broken body and shed blood of Christ. It is an act of thankful dedication to Him and serves to unite His people until He returns (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

We believe religious liberty, rooted in Scripture, is the inalienable right of all individuals to freedom of conscience with intimate accountability to God (Genesis 1:27; John 8:32; 2 Corinthians 3:17; Romans 8:21; Acts 5:29).

We believe Christians, individually and collectively, are salt and light in society (Matthew 5:13-16).

We believe God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring all things to their appropriate end and establish the new heaven and the new earth (Ephesians 1:9-10; Revelation 21:1