JOIN LAMPTON BAPTIST CHURCH
By Profession of Faith
If you will receive Jesus Christ as your personal Saviour and Lord and follow Him in baptism by immersion, we welcome you into our fellowship.
By Letter from Another Church
If you are a member of a church of like faith, and God leads you here, we will be pleased to welcome you into our church family. We will happily take care of appropriate details for transferring your membership.
By Your Statement of Faith
In the event church membership records are not available for a transfer of membership, we will accept you upon your statement of faith.
By Watch Care
Under Watch care, you become a part of the Family at Lampton Baptist Church, but retain your membership in your home church. You will be welcome to participate in all church events.
Ensuring Your Safety & Security
The safety and security team at Lampton Baptist Church protects the members during worship and other activities held at the church building. The team also works with the newly formed Covid team to make sure all protocols are followed for the well being of all members during the current pandemic.
Articles of Faith for the Lampton Baptist Church
The Lampton Baptist Church has adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world and as accountability to various doctrines. These doctrines are essential to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice. We are challenged to express the truth as revealed in Scripture and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life".
It is the purpose of the following articles of Christian faith to set forth certain teachings which we, The Lampton Baptist Church believe.
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 errors. 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 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 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. 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, reverent, and obedience. The eternal truth, God reveals himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit with distinct personal attributes , but without division of nature, essence, or being.
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 to the human race. Through the temptation of satan man transgressed the command of God, 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 became 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.
IV. Salvation
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, justification, sanctification, and glorification. There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord.
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. However, 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 for and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. Both men and women are gifted for service in the church. 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, tongue, 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 Saviour. It also symbolizes 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 tho church, through the 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. Then 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. All the treasures of wisdom and Knowledge abide in Jesus Christ. 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.
XIII.Stewardship
God is the source of all blessings, temporal and spiritual. We owe God all that we have and all that we are. Christians have a spiritual indebtedness 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. They 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 advancemart of the Redeemer's cause on earth.
XIV.Cooperation
Christ's people should, as time requires, plan associations and conventions that will best get cooperation for the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no power over one another or over the churches. These organizations are voluntary. They are to make suggestions planned to get, to join, and to direct the interests of our people in the most successful way. Members of New Testament churches should help each other to spread the missionary, educational, and kind ministries of Christ's Kingdom. This should be done together to add to Christ's Kingdom. The meaning of Christian unity in the New Testament is spiritual agreement and voluntary help by many groups of Christ's people to reach a common purpose. Cooperation is wanted between the many Christian denominations when the purpose is right Cooperation is wanted when there is no ignoring of the sense of right and wrong. Cooperation is wanted when there is no giving up of loyalty to Christ and His Word as explained in the New Testament.
XV.The Christian and the Social Order
All Christians have a responsibility to try to make the will of Christ first in our own lives and in the world. The ways and methods used to improve society and to create righteousness among men can be very helpful. These changes are helpful only if they come because of the rebirth of the person by the saving grace of God in Jesus Christ. Just like Christ, Christians should be against racial discrimination, every form of greed, self interest, and evil, and all forms of sexual wrongdoing, induding adultery, homosexuality, and pornography. We should work to provide for orphans, the poor, the abused, the old, the weak, and the sick. We should speak for the unborn. We should insist on the holiness of a human life from its creation to natural death. Every Christian should try to bring business, government. and all people under the influence of righteousness, truth, and brotherly love. To do this Christians should be ready to work with all men of good will in any good cause. Christians should always be careful to act in love without giving up their loyalty to Christ and His truth.
XVI.Peace and War
It is the duty of Christians to try to find peace with all men. In keeping with the character and teachings of Christ, Christians should do everything they can to put an end to war. The true solution for war is the gospel of the Lord. The first need of the world is to accept His teachings in all the actions of men and nations. The world needs to apply His law of love to everything they do. Christian people all over the world should pray for the time to come when the Prince of Peace will be in control.
XVII. Religious Liberty
God alone is Lord of what is right and wrong. Man's sense of what is right and wrong is free from the rules and commandments of men. These rules and commandments may be different from His Word. They may not be found in His Word. Church and state should be separate. The state owes protection to every church. The state owes complete freedom to every church in seeking spiritual matters. In giving this freedom, no religious group or denomination should be given any special treatment by the state. The national government was planned by God. It is the duty of Christians to give faithful obedience in all things that are not against the known will of God. The church should not expect the national government to do its work. The gospel of Christ considers only spiritual methods to reach its purposes. The state has no right to require punishment for religious beliefs of any kind. The state has no right to require taxes for the support of any forms of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal. This suggests the right of free communication with God by all men. This also suggests the right to start and spread religious opinions without trouble from the government.
XVIII. The Family
God has planned the family as the first institution of the world. It is made up of persons joined to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.
Marriage is the joining of one man and one woman with the promise of being faithful to one another for a lifetime. Marriage is God's special gift. Marriage shows the union between Christ and His church. Marriage gives the man and the woman the way for intimate friendship. Marriage is the way of sexual expression according to the main beliefs in the Bible. Marriage is the way for increasing the human race.
The husband and wife are of the same worth before God. Both are created in God's likeness. The marriage relationship shows the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given duty to provide for, to protect, and to guide his family. A wife is to submit herself with kindness to the servant leadership of her husband. Awife submits just as the church willingly submits to the leadership of Christ. She is made in the likeness of God. Her husband is also made in the likeness of God. This makes the wife and the husband equals. She has the God-given duty to respect her husband. She is to serve as his helper in running the household and supporting the next generation.
Children, from the moment of creation, are a blessing and inheritance from the Lord. Parents are to show to their children God's example for marriage. Parents are to teach their children spiritual and right values. Parents are to guide their children to make choices based on truths in the Bible. Parents are to guide their children by living a life faithful to God. Parents are to guide their children with loving discipline. Children are to respect and obey their parents.