Mission Statement –To develop loving followers of Jesus Christ by equipping every individual believer to stand on their own two feet and walk in God’s plan for their life by enlisting every believer to fulfill the Will of God through the local church.

The Holy Bible, consisting of the Old and New Testaments, was written by men divinely inspired and is the record of God’s revelation of Himself to man. It has God as its author, salvation as its end and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. It is inerrant and infallible in its original manuscript, which is to be taken as verbally inspired.

The Bible is perfectly preserved in the text known as Textus Receptus, Received, or Majority Text, from which the Authorized King James Version of the Bible is translated. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore, is the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried. The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ.

Ref: II Timothy 3:16-17; Hebrews 4:12; Proverbs 30:5-6

We believe in one God, existing in three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

God the Father: We believe in God the Father, perfect in holiness, boundless in love, infinite in wisdom and measureless in power. We believe that He concerns Himself in the affairs of men, that He hears and answers prayers and that He saves from sin and death, all who come to Him through Jesus Christ, His Son.

God the Son: We believe in Jesus Christ, God the Son, pre-existent with the father, begotten by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary; sinless in life, infallible in His teachings, making atonement for the sins of the world by His substitutionary death on the cross. We believe in His bodily resurrection, His ascension into Heaven, His perpetual intercession for His people and His glorious second advent according to promise.

We believe that the promise of His second coming includes: first, “the Blessed Hope: of the believer namely, the personal, premillennial, and pretribulation return of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, to rapture His church off the earth; and second, His return later to earth, with His saints to set up His millennial reign.

Ref: Hebrews 9:22; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; John 14:6; Acts 4:12; Hebrews 13:8; John 1: John 16:28; Revelations 19 & 20

God the Holy Spirit: We believe in the deity and the personality of the Holy Spirit. We believe He came from God the Father to convince and convict the world of sin, or righteousness and of judgment, to regenerate, sanctify, indwell, comfort, and bestow the spiritual gifts to believers, by which the believer serves God through His church. He also seals the believer until the day of redemption. His presence in the believer is the assurance of eternal salvation.

Ref: Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:16; John 16:13-14; John 3:3-7; John 16:7-11

We believe that man was created in the image of God; that he sinned and thereby incurred not only the physical death, but also spiritual death, which is separation from God. We believe that all human beings are born with a sinful nature.

The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and that Christ died for man; therefore, every man possesses dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.

Ref: Genesis 1:27; Genesis 3:6-24; Romans 3:28; Romans 5:12-19

We believe that Satan was once holy and enjoyed heavenly honors, but through pride and ambition to be as the Almighty, fell and drew after him a host of angels; that he is now the malignant prince of the power of the air, and the unholy god of this world.

We hold him to be man’s great tempter, the enemy of God and His Christ, the accuser of the saints, the author of all false religions, the chief power in back of the present apostasy; the lord of the Antichrist and the author of all powers of darkness -destined, however, to final defeat at the hand of God’s own Son, and to the judgment of an eternal justice in Hell, a place prepared for him and his angels.

Ref: Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:14-17; Revelations 12:7-90; Revelations 20:1-3; Revelations 20:10

Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who, by His own blood, obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense, salvation includes regeneration (a new birth), sanctification, and glorification.

Ref: Hebrews 9:14-22; John 6:44; John 14:6

Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace, whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus. It is the quickening of the spirit wrought by the Holy Spirit through the 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 the commitment of the entire personality to Him as Lord and Savior. Justification brings the believer into a relationship of peace and favor with God.

Ref: Luke 13:3-5; Romans 4:5; Romans 3:24-25

Sanctification is the experience, beginning in regeneration, by which the believer is set apart to God’s purposes and grows in grace and usefulness to God, and is enabled to progress toward moral and spiritual maturity through the presence and power of the Holy Spirit dwelling in him. Situations designed by God for each individual Believer, as it fits in God’s plan of sanctification for that Believer brings about growth. Even though he will never reach perfection in this life, growth in grace should continue throughout the regenerated person’s life. Those whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified by His Holy Spirit, will never fall away from the state of grace, but shall persevere to the end.

Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, bring reproach on the cause of Christ, and temporal judgments on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.

Ref; John 17:19; I Corinthians 1:2, 30-31; I Corinthians6:11;

Hebrews 2:11; Romans 5:16; II Thessalonians

2:13; Hebrews 10:10; Jude 1:24; I Peter 1:2-5; Romans

8:28;Psalms 138:8; Philippians 2:13; James 1:2-4;

II Timothy 2:21; I Thessalonians 5:23; Philippians 3:12-14

Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed.

Ref: Romans 8:22-23; I Corinthians 15:52-53

We believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ, committed to His teachings, exercising the gifts, rights and privileges invested in them by His word and seeking to extend the Gospel to the ends of the earth.

The Church is Christ’s body and it operates under the headship of Jesus Christ.

Ref: Ephesians 5:25-29; I Corinthians 12:12-13; I Corinthians 12:27-28; Hebrews 12:23; Colossians 1:12-19; I Corinthians 1:2; Acts 2:47; Acts 14:23; I Timothy 3; Acts 20:28; Hebrews 10:25

Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are the ordinances of the Church.

Christian Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water, in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of obedience, symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and risen Savior; the believer’s death to sin, the burial of the old life and the resurrection to walk in the newness of life in Jesus Christ. It is a testimony of faith in the final resurrection of the dead. It has no saving power, only as an answer of a good conscience toward God. Baptism comes after the profession of faith in Christ as the Son of God.

Ref: I Peter 3:31; Acts 8:36-37; John 3:23

The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience, whereby Believers in Christ, through the partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine (unfermented), memorialize the death of Jesus Christ and anticipate His second coming. It is commemorated as often as directed by The Senior Pastor or his delegate.

Ref: I Corinthians 11:23-24

The first day of the week is the Lord’s Day. It is the day that the New Testament Christians assembled together for regular worship. It commemorated the resurrection of Christ from the dead.

Ref: Acts 20:7; Mark 16:9

We believe in the bodily resurrection of the dead, the saved to eternal life and blessedness in Heaven, and the unsaved to eternal, conscious suffering, and woe in Hell. The dead in Christ will rise first, then we, who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord, shall be caught up together with them to meet the Lord in the air: and so we shall ever be with the Lord. This is the first resurrection, followed by the Judgment Seat of Christ for Believers. Then comes the judgment of God upon this sinful world in the tribulation period, afterward Jesus, our Lord, will come with His saints to establish His millennial kingdom.

After the Millennial period, Satan will be cast into the Lake of Fire and the unsaved dead shall be resurrected (the second resurrection) and stand with all those who rejected Jesus as Christ at the Great White Throne Judgment. The unsaved will be separated from God and consigned forever to the Lake of Fire that burneth with fire and brimstone.

Ref: I Thessalonians 4:13-19; I Corinthians 15:51-52; Book of Revelations

It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ, to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by personal effort and by all other means in harmony with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

Ref: Matthews 28:18-20; John 4:35-36; II Corinthians 5:20

God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual; all that we have and are, we owe to Him. Christians have a spiritual debtorship to the whole world, a holy trusteeship in the Gospel, and a binding stewardship in their possessions.

Believers are therefore under obligation to serve Him with their time, talents, and material possessions, and should recognize all these as entrusted to them to use for the glory of God in helping others. According to the Scriptures, Christians should contribute their means cheerfully, regularly, proportionately, sacrificially, and by faith.

Ref: Hebrews 10:25; Ephesians 5:15-16; Colossians 3:23; I

Corinthians 12:27-28; Matthew 6:19-34; II Corinthians 9:6-9;

Colossians 3:2; Hebrews 11:6; Romans 1:17; Galatians 3:11;

Hebrews 10:38

The Christian should work to provide for the orphaned, needy, aged, helpless, and sick. He should oppose every form of greed, selfishness, and vice. In order to promote these ends, Christians should be ready to work with all men of goodwill in any Bible issue confronting society, always being careful to act in the spirit of love without compromising their loyalty to Christ and His truth.

It should be realized that lasting social change must be the result of changed hearts. Therefore, the greatest contribution the Church can make to social betterment is to bring individuals to a heart-changing encounter with Jesus Christ.

Ref: James 1:27; Titus 3:8-14; II Corinthians 5:17-21

The state owes to every Church, protection, and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom, no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Because civil government is ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God.

The Church should not resort to civil power to carry on its work. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. A free Church in a free state is the Christian ideal and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion, without interference by the civil power.

Ref: Mark 12:17; Acts 5:29

We, therefore, believe, in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, that Human Sexuality will also naturally gravitate towards interest in the Sex opposite of one’s natural and physical created design. Human Marriage, in accordance with the Holy Scriptures, is also defined by God. Human Marriage is the unique union of a Male and Female according to their God given created identity and sex.

Therefore, marriage is the union of two people of the opposite sex and correct gender representation to their original design. Marriage then, is not the union of two people of the same identity or sex nor is it the union of two people of altered identity regardless of gender preference. Southwinds Baptist Church upholds the Scriptural teaching and outline of Marriage between a Male and Female in proper representation of their original creation and design. Furthermore, Southwinds Baptist Church and its Pastor and Ministers will not perform or participate in marriage ceremonies that violate

Ref: Genesis 1:26 –27; Genesis 2:7; Genesis 2:21 –22; Genesis 2:18; Genesis 2:22 –25; Matthew 19:3 –6; Mark 10:6; Ephesians 5:21 –33