Cedar Rock First Baptist Church is affiliated with the Tar River Baptist Association, the North Carolina Baptist Convention, and the Southern Baptist Convention.
As a result, our church affirms the Baptist Faith and Message 2000.
Here’s our statement of faith.
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. (Psalm 18:30; 119:96; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Peter 1:20-21)
God
There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes and functions, but without division of nature, essence, or being. (Deuteronomy 6:4; Matthew 28:18-19; Mark 12:29)
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. God is Father in truth to those who become children of God through faith in Jesus Christ. (Genesis 1:1; Isaiah 64:8; Romans 8:14-15; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:6; 1 Timothy 1:17)
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. 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. (Matthew 16:27; Romans 8:34; 1 Corinthians 15:3-8; Hebrews 1:2; 4:15)
God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, fully divine. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, of righteousness and of judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service. (John 16:7-15; Romans 8:9; 1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:30; Galatians 5:22-23)
Humanity
Humanity is the special creation of God, in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. In the Garden man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. 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 dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love. (Genesis 1:27; 3:1-24; Romans 3:23; 6:23)
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who repent and believe in Jesus Christ, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification. (Mark 1:15; Romans 5:8; Ephesians 2:8; 1 John 5:12-13)
God’s Purpose of Grace
Salvation is the gracious gift and purpose of God, according to which He regenerates, justifies, sanctifies, and glorifies sinners. All genuine 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. (John 10:28; 1 Peter 1:5)
Soul Competency and Priesthood of Believers
Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of faith upon a church or body of churches. We honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God. (1 Peter 2:9)
The Church
The New Testament church is universal, being comprised of all who have been saved by faith in Jesus Christ. It is also 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 two scriptural officers are (pastor/bishop/elder), and deacons. (Acts 1:8; 2:42-47; Galatians 6:10; Ephesians 3:21; 1 Timothy 3:1; Hebrews 10:24-25; 1 Peter 5:1-3)
Baptism & the Lord’s Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. 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. The Lord’s Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming. (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:17-27)
Discipleship, Evangelism & Missions
It is the duty, privilege, and responsibility of every follower of Christ to make disciples of Jesus, strive for Christian maturity, and allow Christ to transform our minds, desires, wills, relationships, and our reason for living. It is also the duty, privilege, and responsibility of every church to foster a culture and environment in which followers of Christ may fulfill this mission. (Matthew 28:19-20; Luke 14:27; Acts 1:8; 2 Timothy 2:2)
Last Things
God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly. The dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell. The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. (Daniel 12:2; Matthew 16:27; 24:27-31, 36; 25:31-46; 26:64; John 5:28-29; 6:40; 14:3; Acts 1:11; 24:15; 1 Corinthians 15:12-54; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; 5:2; 2 Timothy 4:1; Hebrews 9:28; 1 John 2:28; Revelation 20:1-15)
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. (Deuteronomy 8:18; Psalm 24:1; Colossians 3:23-24)
Cooperation
Christ’s people should 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. Cooperation is desirable between the various Christian denominations. (Acts 15; Acts 16:1-3; Acts 20:6; Romans 15:26; 1 Corinthians 16:1)
The Christian & 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. 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. (Galatians 3:28; 5:16-26)
Religious Liberty
Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal. (Mark 12:17)
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. The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. 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 their lives together, their 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. (Genesis 1:27-28; Genesis 2:18; Ephesians 5:3-33)
Cedar Rock First Baptist Church 