• Baptists have historically always been Bible believing Christians. The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. All confessions, creeds, commentaries, and opinions must submit to the authority to the Word of God. (Acts 17:11; 2 Timothy 3:15-17; 2 Timothy 4:2-5).
• Jesus is our only Head and Founder. His church was started during His earthly ministry. We do not answer to a Pope, no earthly human head, no presiding elders, or preachers with authority over the churches. (Mark 16:18; Colossians 1:18)
• There are only two officers in the churches - Pastors and deacons, the number of which depends on the will and need of the individual church (2 Timothy 3:1-15).
• All our members are equal; we are congregational in our church government. Men and women have their proper placed within the church but they all have an equal voice and vote in the church (Matthew 20:24-28; 23:5-12)
• We have only two ordinances - believers baptism (immersion), followed by the Lord’s Supper, which is limited to the members of the church. (Matthew 28:19-20; 1 Corinthians 11:26).
• The church has but one financial plan - tithes and offerings. (1 Corinthians 9:14; 1 Corinthians 16:1-2)
• We are separate from the State. Matthew 22:21

Most Baptists will agree with us on these things, but there are a few more items we must look at to identify ourselves with the churches of the New Testament:

We believe in the chain link succession of Baptist churches back to Christ by a trail of blood. Like always beats like. It works that way with people, animals, trees and churches. The Lord’s churches never needed reformed and didn’t identify with Rome. (Matthew 16:18).

We are Landmark Baptists. There is only one church and that is the church that Jesus built during His earthly ministry. This church was neither Catholic nor Protestant. There is only one baptism and that is Scriptural baptism. We cannot recognize as valid the church off Rome nor the churches of the reformed. We cannot exchange pulpits with their preachers. They cannot partake of the Lord’s Supper with us nor sit on our ordination counsels. We do not recognize their baptisms as valid and cannot exchange letters with them. (Ephesians 4:5)

We believe in and teach a local visible church and reject the universal church idea. In Matthew 16:18 we find the very first time that the word church is used. Notice it is used by our Lord. He did not invent the word ekklessia. Nor did He put into it any unfamiliar or unusual meaning. It is a word borrowed from the Greeks and it means “assembly” “congregation” “gathering” or “meeting.” The Bible describes the church as a wife (Ephesians 5), a body (Colossians 1:18, 24), and a house (1 Timothy 3:15). All of these are local and visible.

We are an Independent Baptist church. Just as the churches in the New Testament were independent so we are too. We do not associate with any convention, answer to a pope, or get our orders from any earthly headquarters. (Matthew 18:15-17).

We are Sovereign Grace Baptists, which means we hold to that system of doctrine often called “The Five Points of Calvinism.” It is a nickname to call it that because these five points existed long before Calvin came along. They are sometimes called TULIP doctrine. Here’s the list with the definitions, which were obtained from Brother Tom Ross’s book Abandoned Truth:The Doctrines of Grace:

• Total Depravity - Refers to the fallen state of the natural man who inherits a sin nature at conception. Every sinner is spiritually dead, with no capacity or desire for spiritual things. He is incapable in and of himself to come to a saving knowledge of Christ apart from the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration. Every faculty of the sinner has been corrupted as a result of the fall of Adam. In short, man has been completely ruined by sin without any hope of restoration apart from the distinguishing grace of God. (Romans 3:10-18).
• Unconditional Election - Refers to the sovereign choice of some men unto salvation by God the Father, before the foundation of the world, not according to any foreseen merit or faith that he saw in the sinner, but according to his own good pleasure and purpose of grace. (Romans 9:11-16; 2 Thessalonians 2:13)
• Limited Atonement, or Particular Redemption - Refers to the teaching of the specific intent and extent of Christ's sacrifice on the cross. He died only for the elect. He came to redeem and reconcile only those whom God chose. He acted as substitute and surety only for those whom the Father had given Him before the world began. Christ did not shed one drop of blood in vain. He did not die for the devil, reprobate angels, or for any sinner who dies in unbelief and goes to Hell.” (Matthew 1:21;Matthew 20:28)
• Irresistible Grace, or te Effectual Call - Refers to the fact that all whom the Father elected and the Son died for will assuredly come to salvation through the power and work of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. When the Spirit draws in the effectual call the sinner most willingly comes to Christ, as it is impossible to resist the will and power of God. (John 6:37,44)
• Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints - Refers to the fact that all the elect are preserved from final apostasy in hell by the power of God, and that all true children of God who have been changed in regeneration will preserver in holiness. Simply stated, it is impossible for one of God's elect to be kicked out of His family, become a child of the devil, lose God's salvation and go to Hell. (Jude 20-21, 24)