Statement of Faith
- The Bible is God’s unique revelation to people. It is the inspired, infallible Word of God, and the supreme and final authority on all matters upon which it teaches. No other writings are vested with such divine authority.
- There is only one God, creator of heaven and earth, who exists eternally as three persons — Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, each fully God yet each personally distinct from the other.
- All people are created in God’s image and matter deeply to Him. Central to the message of the Bible is that God loves people, and invites them to live in communion with Himself and in community with each other.
- Apart from Jesus Christ, all people are spiritually lost and, because of sin, deserve the judgment of God. However, God gives salvation and eternal life to anyone who trusts in Jesus Christ and in His sacrifice on his or her behalf. Salvation cannot be earned through personal goodness or human effort. It is a gift that must be received by humble repentance and faith in Christ and His finished work on the cross.Jesus Christ, second Person of the Trinity, was born of the Virgin Mary, lived a sinless human life, willingly took upon Himself all of our sins, died and rose again bodily, and is at the right hand of the Father as our advocate and mediator. Some day, He will return to consummate history and to fulfill the eternal plan of God.
- The Holy Spirit, third Person of the Trinity, convicts the world of sin and draws people to Christ. He also indwells all believers. He is available to empower them to lead Christ-like lives, and gives them spiritual gifts with which to serve the church and reach out to a lost and needy world.
- Death seals the eternal destiny of each person. At the final judgment, unbelievers will be separated from God into condemnation. Believers will be received into God’s loving presence and rewarded for their faithfulness to Him in this life.
- All believers are members of the body of Christ, the one true church universal. Spiritual unity is to be expressed among Christians by acceptance and love of one another across ethnic, cultural, socio-economic, national, generational, gender, and denominational lines. fully devoted followers of Christ.
- The local church is a congregation of believers who gather for worship, prayer, instruction, encouragement, mutual accountability, and community with each other. Through it, believers invest time, energy, and resources to fulfill the Great Commission — reaching lost people and growing them into mature followers of Christ.
Participating Membership 101 Is Now Available Electronically
Contact us if you would like to receive a PowerPoint copy of our Participating Membership 101 class. This course material explains what it means to be a member at Canton Baptist. You may review the slide presentation with included notes and reply via email stating agreement. This will satisfy the requirement to have taken this class within eighteen months of any church membership business meeting to be eligible to vote.
The Gospel (Good News) of Salvation
The Bible tells us in John 3:16 that “God so loved the world that He gave His only Son; so that if we believe in Him, we will not perish but have everlasting life. This is the Good News! You can put your name there, i.e. God so loved [your name] that he gave his only Son so that if [your name] believes in Him than [your name] will not perish but have everlasting life. Glory!
Romans 5:8 tells us” God demonstrated His own love for us in this; While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.
We live in a fallen world. Ever since the third chapter of Genesis when man rebelled against his creator and sin entered the world. We serve a Holy God. He is righteous and Just and he cannot tolerate sin. Fortunately, He is also loving and merciful and gracious. Though He requires a price be paid for sin; He paid that price for us. The Bible tells the story of a scarlet thread of redemption from cover to cover. Ultimately, God became a man in the form of Christ. He lived the perfect life and offered Himself as the spotless final sacrificial Lamb once, and for all. He laid down His life and then took it up again on the third day conquering sin, death, and the grave. Through the power of the Risen Christ and His Holy Spirit, we have been given the power unto new life. Romans 10:9 tells us that “If we confess with our mouth that Jesus is Lord; and we believe in our hearts that God had raised Him from the dead, We shall be saved”. Though Scripture tells us “the wages of sin it death”, it also proclaims “but the gift of God is eternal life.
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
- Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable experiences of grace.
Repentance is a genuine turning from sin toward God. Faith is the acceptance of Jesus Christ and commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Saviour.
- Justification is God’s gracious and full acquittal upon principles of His righteousness of all sinners who repent and believe in Christ. Justification brings the believer unto a relationship of peace and favor with God.
- Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerate person’s life.
- Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.
Genesis 3:15; Exodus 3:14-17; 6:2-8; Matthew 1:21; 4:17; 16:21-26; 27:22-28:6; Luke 1:68-69; 2:28-32; John 1:11-14,29; 3:3-21,36; 5:24; 10:9,28-29; 15:1-16; 17:17; Acts 2:21; 4:12; 15:11; 16:30-31; 17:30-31; 20:32; Romans 1:16-18; 2:4; 3:23-25; 4:3ff.; 5:8-10; 6:1-23; 8:1-18,29-39; 10:9-10,13; 13:11-14; 1 Corinthians 1:18,30; 6:19-20; 15:10; 2 Corinthians 5:17-20; Galatians 2:20; 3:13; 5:22-25; 6:15; Ephesians 1:7; 2:8-22; 4:11-16; Philippians 2:12-13; Colossians 1:9-22; 3:1ff.; 1 Thessalonians 5:23-24; 2 Timothy 1:12; Titus 2:11-14; Hebrews 2:1-3; 5:8-9; 9:24-28; 11:1-12:8,14; James 2:14-26; 1 Peter 1:2-23; 1 John 1:6-2:11; Revelation 3:20; 21:1-22:5.