Our Beliefs

This is a very basic and brief explanation of the foundational, essential beliefs of Spring Bayou.  If you would like a more detailed explanation with full scripture reference, please go to the following website: 

http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp

God’s Word

The Bible is God’s Word to all people. It was written by human authors under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Because it was inspired by God, the Bible is truth without any mixture of error and is completely relevant to our daily lives.

The Trinity
There is one and only one living a true God.  He is Holy and there is no other like.  God has existed in relationship with Himself for all eternity as one substance yet in three persons: The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. Although each member of the Trinity serves different functions, they each have equal power and authority.

God the Father
God is great: He is all powerful, all knowing, ever present, unchanging, completely worthy of our trust, and above all, Holy. It is in Him that we live, move and exist. God is good. He is our Father. He is loving, compassionate, and faithful to His people and His promises.

God the Son
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God.  In His incarnation, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin earthly mother, Mary.  Jesus Christ is 100% human 100% God. He is the only plan for bringing people who are far from God back into a right relationship with Him. Though He lived a perfect life, He died could be a substitution for us.  God took out His wrath for us upon His Son.  In doing so, He satisfied God’s demands for perfection. He defeated death in His resurrection so that we can have life.

God the Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is not a doctrine, power, or feeling, but He is a Person, the Spirit of God and fully Divine.  The Holy Spirit’s presence assures us of our relationship with Christ. He guides believers into all truth and exalts Christ. He calls people to Jesus and effects the regeneration or salvation.  At that moment of salvation, he baptizes every believer.  He convicts people of their sin, God’s righteousness, and the coming judgment. He comforts us, equips us spiritual gifts, and works to make us more like Christ and His church to become without spot or blemish.

Man

Man is a unique and special creation of God that is made in the image of God and is the supreme object of His creation and made innocent and sinless.  All men were created to have fellowship with God.  But by man’s free choice of sinful disobedience, he became separated from God.  As a result, man cannot reach a right relationship with God through his own effort. Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God

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.

The Church
The Church is a local autonomous community of baptized believers unified through faith in Christ. It is committed to the teachings of Christ and obeying all of His commands, and it seeks to bring the Gospel to the world. The Church works together in love and unity, intent on the ultimate purpose of glorifying Christ.  The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believes from every tribe, tongue, people, and nation.

The Ordinances

Ordnances are symbolic acts of worship that the church takes part together to remember and testify of what God has done for His church.  They are not sacraments, or extra acts required for salvation.  These two ordinances are as follows:

Baptism

We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, burial, and resurrection of our Savior Jesus Christ, with its effect in our death to sin and our resurrection to a new life. It shall be pre-requisite to the privileges of a church relation.

The Lord’s Supper

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is the commemoration of His death until He comes and should be preceded always by self-examination. The Lord's Table is not a barrier to separate believers, but rather a sacred place where all true Christians meet. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the unleavened bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anxiously await His second coming.

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 equal with the Christian's conscience under the Lordship of Jesus Christ.

Eternity and Last Things

Man was created to exist forever. He will exist either eternally separated from God by sin or in union with God through forgiveness and salvation. To be eternally separated from God is Hell. To be eternally in union with Him is Heaven. Heaven and Hell are places of eternal existence.

God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its 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.

Evangelism and Missions

Jesus commanded the preaching of the gospel to all nations as he was leaving earth. It is the duty of every child of God to look 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.

The Family

God established the family in the very beginning as the basic intuition of human society.  Persons come to the family being related by marriage, blood, or adoption.

Marriage is God’s plan therefore it must be exercised in God’s way.  It is a covenant union of one man and one woman with the intent to last a lifetime.  Marriage is God’s special gift to us, revealing His own relationship between God and humanity. According to The Bible, marriage is the best framework for intimate companionship, sexual expression, and the means reproducing children.

Spring Bayou is affiliated with the following organizations: 

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) 

Kentucky Baptist Convention (KBC) 

West Union Baptist Association (WUBA)