First Baptist Church is a gospel-centered church located in the heart of Washington, MO.

Our beliefs are based on the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

Below is a concise summary of our core beliefs.

THE TRIUNE GOD
We believe in one God, eternally existing in three equally divine Persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit,

who know, love, and glorify one another. This one true and living God is worthy to receive all glory and adoration.

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SCRIPTURE
We believe that God has inspired the words of all sixty-six books of the Old and New Testaments.

These writings alone constitute the Word of God, are completely authoritative, without error in the original writings, complete in its revelation of His will for salvation, and sufficient for all that God requires us to believe and do.

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CREATION OF HUMANITY
We believe that God created human beings, male and female, in his own image.

Men and women, equally made in the image of God, enjoy equal access to God by faith in Christ Jesus

and are both called to significant participation in family, church, and civic life through the Holy Spirit.

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THE FALL
We believe that the first man, Adam, made in the image of God, distorted that image and forfeited his original blessedness – for himself and all humanity – by falling into sin through Satan's temptation.

As a result, all human beings are alienated from God, corrupted in every aspect of their being

 and condemned to death apart from God's own gracious intervention.

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THE GOSPEL
We believe that the gospel is the good news of Jesus Christ – God's very wisdom.

It is foolishness to the world, even though it is the power of God to those who are being saved.

This good news centers on the cross and resurrection of Christ and is available to every fallen human being.

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THE REDEMPTION OF CHRIST
We believe that, moved by love, the Word (God the Son) became flesh—fully God and fully human.

The man Jesus, the promised Messiah of Israel, was conceived through the Holy Spirit and was born

of the virgin Mary. He lived a sinless life, was crucified, rose on the third day, and ascended into heaven

as our representative and substitute. On the cross, he canceled the debt of sin

and reconciled all those who believe to God. In raising Christ Jesus from the dead, God the Father

broke the power of death, defeated Satan, and brought everlasting life to all his people.

By Christ’s ascension, he has been forever exalted as Lord and has prepared a place for us to be with him.

We believe that salvation is found in no one else but Jesus Christ.

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THE JUSTIFICATION OF SINNERS
We believe that Christ, by his obedience and death, fully canceled the debt of all those who are justified.

By his sacrifice, he bore in our place the eternal punishment due us for our sins. By his perfect obedience,

he satisfied the righteous demands of God on our behalf. By faith alone, that perfect obedience

is credited to all who trust in Christ alone for their acceptance with God.

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THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
We believe that this salvation is applied to his people by the Holy Spirit. Sent by the Father and the Son,

the Holy Spirit glorifies the Lord Jesus Christ and, as "another Helper," is present with and in believers.

He convicts the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment, and by his powerful and mysterious work

gives life to spiritually dead sinners, awakening them to repentance and faith, bringing them into union

with Christ Jesus, and bearing witness that we are God’s children.

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THE KINGDOM OF GOD
We believe that those who have been saved by the grace of God through faith in Christ alone enter the kingdom

of God and delight in the blessings of the new covenant. Good works, rather than being the means to our salvation are now the glorious response of our salvation and indispensable evidence of saving grace.

Living as salt in a decaying world and light in a dark world, believers should neither withdraw into seclusion

from the world nor become indistinguishable from it. Rather, we are to do good to the community,

for all the glory and honor of the nations is to be offered up to the living God.

THE CHURCH
We believe that God's new covenant people are manifest in local churches of which Christ is the only Head.

The church is distinguished by her gospel message, her ordinances, her discipline, her great mission, and,

above all, by her love for God, and by her members' love for one another and for the world.

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BAPTISM AND THE LORD'S SUPPER
We believe that baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordained by the Lord Jesus himself. Baptism is connected

with entrance into the local church and is the first act of obedience of the believer upon rebirth.

The Lord’s Supper is our ongoing covenant renewal as we remember our Lord’s death on the cross.

Both baptism and the Lord’s Supper are God's pledge to us and our public submission to Christ.

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THE RESTORATION OF ALL THINGS
We believe in the glorious return of our Lord Jesus Christ and in the resurrection of both the believer and unbeliever—the unbeliever to eternal conscious punishment in hell and the believer to eternal blessedness in the presence of him who sits on the throne and of the Lamb. On that day, the church will be presented faultless before God by Christ, and his people will be enthralled by the immediacy of his inexpressible holiness when everything

will be to the praise of his glorious grace.