The San Bruno Chinese Church subscribes to the Baptist Faith and
Message (2000) of the Southern Baptist Convention.
I. The Scriptures
The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired
and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure
of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation
for its end,
and truth, without any mixture of error, for its
matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.
It reveals the
principles by which God judges us, and therefore
is,
and will remain to the end of the world, the true center
of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human
conduct,
creeds, and religious opinions should be tried. All
Scripture
is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus
of divine
revelation.
II. God
There is one and only one living and true God. He is
an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being,
the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver,
and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness
and
all other perfections. God is all powerful and
all knowing; and His
perfect knowledge extends to all things, past, present,
and future, including the future decisions of His
free creatures.
To Him
we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience.
The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father,
Son, and Holy
Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but
without division of
nature, essence, or being.
A. God the Father
God as Father reigns with providential care over His
universe, His creatures, and the flow of
the stream of human history
according to the purposes of His grace. He
is all powerful, all knowing,
all loving, and all wise. God is Father in
truth to those who become children of God through faith in
Jesus Christ. He is
fatherly in His attitude toward all men.
B. God the Son
Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation
as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the
Holy Spirit and born
of the
virgin Mary. Jesus perfectly revealed and
did the will of God, taking
upon Himself human nature with its demands
and necessities and identifying Himself completely with
mankind yet
without sin.
He honored the divine law by His personal
obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross
He made provision
for
the
redemption of men from sin. He was raised
from the
dead with a glorified body and appeared
to His disciples as
the person
who was with them before His crucifixion.
He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right
hand of God where
He is the One
Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose
Person
is effected the reconciliation between God and man.
He will return
in power and
glory to judge the world and to consummate
His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers
as the living
and ever present
Lord.
C. God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully
divine. He inspired holy men of old to
write the Scriptures.
Through
illumination
He enables men to understand truth. He
exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin,
of righteousness,
and of
judgment. He calls men
to the Saviour, and effects regeneration.
At the moment of regeneration
He baptizes every believer into the Body
of Christ. He cultivates Christian character,
comforts believers,
and
bestows the
spiritual gifts by which they serve God
through His church. He seals
the believer unto the day of final redemption.
His presence in the
Christian is the guarantee that God will
bring
the believer into the fullness of the stature
of Christ.
He enlightens
and empowers
the believer and the church in worship,
evangelism, and service.
III. Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in His own
image. He created them male and female as the
crowning work
of His creation.
The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness
of God's creation. In the beginning man was innocent
of sin and
was endowed by
his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free
choice man sinned
against God and brought sin into the human race.
Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed
the command
of God, and
fell from his original innocence whereby his
posterity inherit a nature and an environment inclined toward
sin. Therefore,
as soon as they are capable of moral action,
they
become transgressors and are under condemnation.
Only the
grace of God can bring
man
into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill
the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of
human personality
is evident
in that God created man in His own image, and
in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person
of every
race possesses
full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian
love.
IV. Salvation
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.
A. 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 Savior.
B. 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.
C. 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.
D. Glorification is the
culmination of salvation and is the final
blessed and abiding
state
of the redeemed.
V. God's Purpose
of Grace
Election is the gracious purpose of God, according
to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies,
and glorifies
sinners.
It
is consistent with the free agency of man,
and comprehends all the means in connection with
the end. It is the
glorious display
of God's sovereign goodness, and is infinitely
wise, holy, and unchangeable. It excludes
boasting and
promotes humility.
All true believers endure to the end. Those
whom God has accepted in Christ, and sanctified
by
His 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, and 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.
VI. The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus
Christ is an autonomous local congregation
of baptized
believers,
associated by
covenant in the faith and fellowship
of the gospel; observing
the
two ordinances of Christ, governed
by His laws, exercising the
gifts, rights, and privileges invested
in them by His Word, and seeking
to extend the gospel to the ends of
the earth. Each congregation operates under
the Lordship
of Christ
through democratic
processes. In such a congregation each
member is responsible and accountable
to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers
are pastors and deacons. While both
men and women
are gifted
for service in the church,
the office of pastor is limited to
men as qualified by Scripture.
The New Testament speaks also of the
church as the Body of Christ which
includes all
of the
redeemed of all the
ages,
believers
from every tribe, and tongue, and people,
and nation.
VII. Baptism and the Lord's Supper
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 newness of life in Christ
Jesus.
It is a
testimony to his faith
in
the
final
resurrection of the dead. Being
a church ordinance, it is prerequisite to the
privileges of church
membership and to
the Lord's Supper.
The Lord's Supper is a symbolic
act of obedience whereby members
of the
church,
through partaking
of the bread
and the fruit
of the vine, memorialize the death
of the Redeemer and anticipate
His second
coming.
VIII. The Lord's Day
The first day of the week is the
Lord's Day. It is a Christian
institution for regular
observance. It
commemorates
the
resurrection of Christ from
the dead and should include exercises
of worship
and spiritual devotion, both
public and private. Activities on the
Lord's Day
should
be commensurate
with the Christian's
conscience
under the Lordship of Jesus
Christ.
IX. The Kingdom
The Kingdom of God includes
both His general sovereignty
over
the universe
and His particular
kingship over
men who willfully
acknowledge Him as King.
Particularly the Kingdom is the realm of
salvation into
which men enter
by trustful,
childlike
commitment
to Jesus Christ. Christians
ought to pray and to labor
that the
Kingdom may come
and God's
will
be done on
earth. The
full consummation
of the Kingdom awaits the
return of
Jesus Christ and the end
of this age.
X. Last Things
God, in His own time and
in His own way, will
bring the
world
to its
appropriate end. According
to
His promise,
Jesus Christ
will return personally
and visibly in
glory to the earth;
the dead will be raised;
and Christ
will judge
all men
in righteousness.
The unrighteous will
be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting
punishment.
The
righteous in their
resurrected and glorified
bodies will receive
their reward and will dwell
forever in Heaven
with the
Lord.
XI. Evangelism and
Missions
It is the duty and
privilege of every
follower of
Christ and of
every church
of the Lord
Jesus Christ
to endeavor
to make
disciples of all
nations. The new
birth of man's
spirit by
God's
Holy Spirit
means the
birth of
love for others.
Missionary
effort
on the part of
all rests thus upon a
spiritual necessity
of the regenerate
life, and is
expressly and repeatedly
commanded in
the teachings of
Christ.
The
Lord Jesus Christ
has commanded
the
preaching of
the gospel
to all nations.
It is the
duty of every child
of
God to seek constantly
to win
the lost
to
Christ
by verbal witness
undergirded by
a
Christian lifestyle,
and by other methods
in harmony
with the gospel
of Christ.
XII. Education
Christianity is
the faith of
enlightenment and
intelligence.
In Jesus Christ
abide all the
treasures of wisdom
and knowledge.
All
sound learning
is, therefore,
a part of our
Christian heritage. The new
birth
opens all human
faculties
and creates
a thirst
for knowledge.
Moreover, the
cause of education
in the Kingdom
of
Christ is
co-ordinate
with the causes
of missions
and
general benevolence,
and should
receive along with
these the
liberal support
of the churches.
An
adequate system
of Christian
education
is necessary
to
a complete
spiritual program for Christ's
people.
In Christian
education there
should be
a proper balance
between academic
freedom
and
academic
responsibility.
Freedom
in any orderly
relationship
of human life
is
always limited
and never
absolute. The
freedom of
a teacher in
a
Christian school,
college,
or seminary
is limited
by the pre-eminence
of Jesus Christ,
by the authoritative
nature of the
Scriptures,
and
by the distinct
purpose
for which
the
school exists.
XIII. Stewardship
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.
They 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
and for
helping others. According
to the
Scriptures, Christians
should
contribute of
their means
cheerfully,
regularly,
systematically,
proportionately,
and
liberally
for the
advancement of
the
Redeemer's
cause on
earth.
XIV. Cooperation
Christ's
people
should, as
occasion
requires,
organize
such
associations and conventions
as
may best secure
cooperation
for
the great objects
of
the
Kingdom of
God.
Such organizations
have
no authority
over
one
another or over
the churches.
They
are
voluntary and advisory
bodies
designed
to
elicit, combine,
and
direct the
energies
of
our people in
the
most effective
manner.
Members
of
New Testament churches
should
cooperate
with
one another
in
carrying
forward
the missionary,
educational,
and
benevolent ministries
for
the extension of Christ's
Kingdom.
Christian
unity
in the
New
Testament
sense
is spiritual
harmony
and voluntary
cooperation
for
common ends
by various groups of
Christ's
people.
Cooperation is desirable
between
the various
Christian
denominations,
when
the end to
be attained
is
itself justified,
and
when
such cooperation
involves
no
violation of
conscience
or
compromise of loyalty
to
Christ and His
Word as
revealed
in
the New Testament.
XV. The
Christian
and
the Social
Order
All
Christians are
under obligation
to seek
to make
the will
of Christ
supreme in
our own
lives and
in human
society. Means
and methods
used for
the improvement
of society
and the
establishment of
righteousness among
men can
be truly
and permanently
helpful only
when they
are rooted
in the
regeneration of
the individual
by the
saving grace
of God
in Jesus
Christ. In
the spirit
of Christ,
Christians should
oppose racism,
every form
of greed,
selfishness, and
vice, and
all forms
of sexual
immorality, including
adultery, homosexuality,
and pornography.
We should
work to
provide for
the orphaned,
the needy,
the abused,
the aged,
the helpless,
and the
sick. We
should speak
on behalf
of the
unborn and
contend for
the sanctity
of all
human life
from conception
to natural
death. Every
Christian should
seek to
bring industry,
government, and
society as
a whole
under the
sway of
the principles
of righteousness,
truth, and
brotherly love.
In order
to promote
these ends
Christians should
be ready
to work
with all
men of
good will
in any
good cause,
always being
careful to
act in
the spirit
of love
without compromising
their loyalty
to Christ
and His
truth.
XVI.
Peace and
War
It
is the
duty of
Christians to
seek peace
with all
men on
principles of
righteousness. In
accordance with
the spirit
and teachings
of Christ
they should
do all
in their
power to
put an
end to
war.
The
true remedy
for the
war spirit
is the
gospel of
our Lord.
The supreme
need of
the world
is the
acceptance of
His teachings
in all
the affairs
of men
and nations,
and the
practical application
of His
law of
love. Christian
people throughout
the world
should pray
for the
reign of
the Prince
of Peace.
XVII.
Religious Liberty
God
alone is
Lord of
the conscience,
and He
has left
it free
from the
doctrines and
commandments of
men which
are contrary
to His
Word or
not contained
in it.
Church and
state should
be separate.
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.
Civil government
being 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
the civil
power to
carry on
its work.
The gospel
of Christ
contemplates spiritual
means alone
for the
pursuit of
its ends.
The state
has no
right to
impose penalties
for religious
opinions of
any kind.
The state
has no
right to
impose taxes
for the
support of
any form
of religion.
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.
XVIII.
The Family
God
has ordained
the family
as the
foundational
institution
of human
society. It
is composed
of persons
related to
one another
by marriage,
blood, or
adoption.
Marriage
is the
uniting of
one man
and one
woman in
covenant commitment
for a
lifetime.
It
is God's
unique gift
to reveal
the union
between Christ
and His
church and
to provide
for the
man and
the woman
in marriage
the framework
for intimate
companionship,
the
channel of
sexual expression
according
to
biblical standards,
and the
means for
procreation
of
the human
race.
The
husband and
wife are
of equal
worth before
God, since
both are
created in
God's image.
The marriage
relationship
models
the way
God relates
to His
people. A
husband is
to love
his wife
as Christ
loved the
church. He
has the
God-given
responsibility
to provide
for, to
protect, and
to lead
his family.
A wife
is to
submit herself
graciously
to
the servant
leadership
of
her husband
even as
the church
willingly
submits
to the
headship of
Christ. She,
being in
the image
of God
as is
her husband
and thus
equal to
him, has
the God-given
responsibility
to
respect her
husband and
to serve
as his
helper in
managing the
household
and
nurturing
the
next generation.
Children,
from the
moment of
conception,
are
a blessing
and heritage
from the
Lord. Parents
are to
demonstrate
to
their children
God's pattern
for marriage.
Parents are
to teach
their children
spiritual
and
moral values
and to
lead them,
through consistent
lifestyle
example
and loving
discipline,
to
make choices
based on
biblical truth.
Children are
to honor
and obey
their parents.
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