Faith Baptist Church is a conservative, independent, fundamental, Baptist church. Our highest goal and purpose is bringing glory to God through the ministry of the church and personal conduct.

Conservative means that Faith Baptist is not going to pursue cutting edge methods and schemes for church growth. Growth in a church cannot be measured simply by increased attendance. While numerical increase is one factor for determining the health of a church, it is by no means the only way to determine a church's ability to please God. The internal, spiritual growth of the saints is more important in God's estimation and future examination. Our philosophy of church ministry places a high priority on providing opportunities for the saints to grow in grace and in the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We are a God-sensitive church committed to Bible preaching and teaching so that individual believers will be doctrinally grounded. Our music is purposefully God-focused, borrowing from the God-honoring music of past generations as well as our current generation, and would be considered “traditional” according to present methods of categorizing. Although an important part of our corporate worship of God, music compliments and supports the entire worship service rather being a ministry that stands by itself.

Independent means that Faith Baptist is an autonomous, self-governing local assembly of believers. Decisions in our church are not governed by any outside authority other than God and the Bible. We are a member of the Wisconsin Fellowship of Baptist Churches, which is a fellowship of churches of similar beliefs and practices. Faith Baptist is also associated with the New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches.

Fundamental means that Faith Baptist holds to a distinctive historical belief system. The term "fundamental" was born of controversy in our country nearly a century ago. On one side stood those who placed human reason over divine revelation—liberal theologians and modernists. On the other side stood a group of believers who argued that Scripture provides certain truths that must be defended and believed. Certainly the history of the battle has produced some rogue members that have brought disrepute upon the name "Fundamentalist," but the essential position is still worthy of defense. Three essential tenets define what it means to be a fundamentalist. First, a fundamentalist recognizes crucial doctrines in Scripture. In brief, this would include the gospel, since this doctrine distinguishes believers from unbelievers in this world. Second, a fundamentalist takes a militant position against error. This means that he cannot expose error without being willing to stand against it. And third, a fundamentalist practices separation. Once error and unbelief are exposed and proclaimed as such, the fundamentalist separates from those unwilling to denounce and remove themselves from the error. Although the action of separation has been abused in the past and has been exercised with a wrong spirit at times, it is still a biblically mandated practice for those who are called to be holy because our God is holy (1 Peter 1:15-16).  

Baptist is a denominational title that has stood for various key principles historically, and Faith Baptist still supports those distinctive biblical positions. One way of recalling our Baptist distinctives is with the following acrostic:

B ible is the only rule of faith and practice

A utonomy of the local church

P riesthood of the believer

T wo ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

I mmersed and regenerate church membership

(Actual order: regeneration precedes immersion)

S oul liberty

T wo biblical offices: pastors and deacons

S eparation of church and state

Note on Bible Translations: Although we use the King James Version of Scripture in our preaching and teaching for the sake of uniformity, we neither support nor promote the “King James Only” or “Only King James” positions. Both teachings have caused great damage to the cause of Christ among English-speaking churches—and even more regrettably among churches that do not speak English.

Because many in our congregation have grown up using and are familiar with the King James translation of Scripture, we have continued its use in the pulpit ministry. However, members of our congregation do use other solid, modern translations, and we also encourage the use of modern translations for personal Bible study. The goal of Bible study is an accurate understanding of the meaning of the text, not simply defending the wording of a chosen translation.

ARTICLES OF FAITH:

I. Inspiration of the Bible

We believe that the Bible in the original writings, consisting of 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, was given by divine inspiration, is the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16­­-17, 2 Peter 1:19-21, 1 Thessalonians 2:13), reveals man’s state by nature, presents the only means of his salvation (Romans 3:10­­-12, Acts 4:12), constitutes the only perfect rule of faith and final authority in all matters pertaining to Christian faith and practice (Acts 17:11, Isaiah 8:20), and sets forth the principles by which man will be judged (Romans 2:1-3).

II.    Belief in God

We believe that there is only one God, eternally existent in three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19, 1 John 5:7).

A.   God the Father: We believe in God the Father, creator and sustainer of all things visible and invisible, who is true, holiness, eternal power, infinite love, perfect justice, absolute truth, the Alpha and Omega, the “I AM THAT I AM” (Exodus 20:2-3, Genesis 1:1; Leviticus 19:2, Romans 1:20, 1 John 4:8-9, Romans 3:26; Revelation 22:13; Exodus 3:14).

B.   God the Son: We believe in the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, in His virgin birth, in His sinless life, in His miracles, in His vicarious and atoning death through his shed blood, in His bodily resurrection, in His bodily ascension to the right hand of the Father, where he ever lives to make intercession for His saints, in His pre-millennial coming for His saints, in his return to earth to reign in power and glory (John 1:14, Matthew 1:18-23; Hebrews 4:15, Acts 10:38, 1 Peter 1:19, Matthew 28:6, Acts 1:9, Hebrews 7:25, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Acts 1:10-11, Zechariah 14:4-9).

C.   God the Holy Spirit: We believe that the Holy Spirit is a divine person who moved holy men of God to write the Scriptures, who convicts of sin, who quickens by the new birth, who baptizes into the body of Christ at salvation, who seals and is the earnest of our inheritance, and who indwells the believers with power for holy living and service (John 14:16-17, 2 Peter 1:21, John 16:8-9, Romans 8:11, 1 Corinthians 12:13).

III.   Man: His Creation, Fall, and Need of Redemption

We believe that man was created by an immediate act of God in His own image as given in the Genesis account and not by a process of evolution, that through disobedience to God lost his first estate, and thereby, became a sinner in need of a Savior, and that since that time all men are born sinners, spiritually dead, alienated from God, and stand in need of personal redemption that is in the Lord Jesus Christ alone (Genesis 1:26-27, 3:1-24, Romans 3:23, 5:12, Psalms 51:5, Ephesians 2:1, Colossians 2:13, Ephesians 4:18, Colossians 1:21, Romans 3:23-24; Colossians 1:14, Hebrews 9:12).

IV.  Blood Atonement for Sin

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace, that the Lord Jesus Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, shedding his blood on the cross as a representative and substitutionary sacrifice, and that all who repent and believe in Him, receiving Him by faith as personal Savior, are thereby justified on the ground of His shed blood (Ephesians 2:8-9; Romans 4:4-5; 1 Corinthians 5:6, 15:3, Isaiah 53:6, Acts 10:43, 13:38-39, 17:30, John 1:2, Colossians 2:6, Romans 5:9, Ephesians 1:7).

V.   Personal New Birth

We believe that in order to be saved, all men being sinners must be born again. We believe that all who receive by faith the Lord Jesus Christ are born again by the Holy Spirit. We believe that this new birth is instantaneous, not a process, and that it is brought about in a manner above our comprehension, solely by the power of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God. We believe that in the new birth God justifies the believer, writes his name in the Lamb’s book of Life, and that the Holy Spirit indwells the believer with power for holy living and service. We further believe that every believer stands as a priest before God (Romans 3:10, 23, John 1:12-13, Revelation 3:20, 1 Corinthians 6:19-20, 2 Corinthians 5:17, Acts 16:30-34, John 16:7-8, 1 Peter 1:23, Titus 3:5-7, Romans 8:33, Revelation 21:27, Galatians 5:22-23, John 3:3-8, 1 Peter 2:5, Revelation 1:6.

VI.  Justification

We believe that justification is a judicial act of God by which He imparts to the born-again believer complete pardon of sins, the gift of eternal life, and imputes to the believer His own righteousness. We believe that justification is bestowed, not in consideration of any works of righteousness which the believer has done, but solely because of his faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Romans 4:6-8, Acts 13:38-39, John 5:24, 6:47, Philippians 3:8-9, Romans 3:21-22, 4:5, Titus 3:5, Romans 2:25, 5:9).

VII. The Difference Between the Righteous (Saved) and Wicked (Unsaved)

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked. We believe the righteous to be those who have been born of the Spirit of God through faith in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the wicked to be those who have never been born of the Spirit of God. We believe that the righteous are assured of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ whereas the wicked are destined to everlasting conscious suffering in a real and literal hell, eternally separated from God (Psalm 1, Malachi 3:8, John 1:19-23, Galatians 3:26, John 3:3-5, Romans 8:9, John 3:18, 1 John 5:11-13, Revelations 20:15, Mark 9:43-48, Luke 16:19-31).

VIII. Satan

We believe in the reality of Satan, a living personality who is the unholy prince of this world, the author of all powers of darkness, and is destined to the judgment of an eternal justice in the Lake of Fire (Matthew 4:1-3, 2 Corinthians 4:4, Revelation 20:21).

IX.  The Security of the Believer

We believe that all who are truly born again are eternally secure, since they have been saved by believing on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, have been sealed by the Holy Spirit, are kept by the power of God unto salvation, and can never be lost (1 John 5:1, Acts 16:31, John 10:26-29, Romans 10: 9-13, Ephesians 1:13, 2 Corinthians 1:22, 1 Peter 1:3-5, Romans 8:31-39, Colossians 3:1-4).

X.  The Church

We believe that the church is the body of Christ, a living organism made up of born-again believers, including those who have gone to be with the Lord, and that this spiritual body is made manifest through the local church, a congregation of immersed believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by his laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and that its officers are pastors and deacons whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures (Acts 2:41-42, 1 Corinthians 11:2, Ephesians 1:22-23, 4:11, 5:30, Acts 2:47, Colossians 1:18, Acts 2:38-47, 1 Timothy 3:1-13, 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, 2 Corinthians 6:14-18).

XI.  The Ordinances of the Church

We believe that Christ as the Head of the church commanded two ordinances: Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.

A.   Baptism: We believe that baptism as taught in Scriptures is by immersion, is not necessary for salvation, yet is the privilege and duty of every child of God to follow the Lord in baptism as an open confession of his identification with Christ in his death, burial, and resurrection (Mark 1:9. Matthew 28:19, Acts 16:32-34, John 3:23, Acts 8:38-39, Luke 23:39-43, Acts 10: 47-48, Romans 6:3-5, Acts 8:12).

B.   The Lord’s Supper: We believe that the Lord’s Supper is to be observed by born-again believers in remembrance of the Lord Jesus Christ, that its observance shows forth His death till He comes, and should always be preceded by self examination (Matthew 26:29, Luke 22:19-20, Romans 6:3-6, 1 Corinthians 11:23-33).

XII. Attitude toward Civil Government

We believe that civil government is ordained of God for the punishment of evildoers and for the protection of the good (Romans 13:1-7). We therefore, consider it our duty to pray for rulers and magistrates (1 Timothy 2:1-3), and to be submissive and obedient to their authority, except in things opposed to the will of God (Titus 3:1, 1 Peter 2:13-14, Acts 4:19, 5:29, Matthew 23:10). We believe in the separation of church and state (Matthew 22:21).

XIII.  The Resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ

We believe in the resurrection of the crucified body of our Lord, in his bodily ascension into Heaven where He now is at the right hand of God our High Priest, Mediator, Intercessor, and Advocate (Mark 16:5-6, Matthew 28:5-7, John 20:27, Luke 24:36-40, 50-51, Acts 1:9, Hebrews 8:1, 9:15, Romans 8:24, 1 John 2:1, Hebrews 1:3).

XIV.  Christ’s Second Coming

We believe in the personal, visible, premillennial, and imminent return of Christ (John 14:1-3, Acts 1:10-11, Mark 13:34-37). This will be accomplished in two stages: First, the Rapture—Christ’s coming for His saints, when Christ will descend into the air to catch away His waiting bride, the church (1 Thessalonians 4:14-18, 1 Corinthians 15, Revelation 3:10). Second, the Revelation—Christ’s descending with His saints (Jude 14, Romans 8:16-19, Colossians 3:4, Revelation 19:14) to establish the long promised kingdom and to reign upon earth for a thousand years (Daniel 7:13-14, Luke 1:32-33, Revelation 5:9-10, 20:4-6). Between these two stages the Great Tribulation judgments are visited upon the apostate and rebellious world (Matthew 24:21, 2 Thessalonians 1:3-10, Revelation 6:17).

CHURCH COVENANT:

Having been led by the Spirit of God to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior; and on the profession of our faith having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, we do now in the presence of God, angels, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as one body in Christ.

We engage, therefore, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, to walk together in Christian love; to strive for the advancement of this church in knowledge, holiness, and comfort; to promote its prosperity and spirituality; to sustain its worship, ordinances, discipline, and doctrines; to contribute cheerfully and regularly to its local and missionary programs.

We also engage to maintain family and private devotions; to seek the salvation of our loved ones and acquaintances; to walk with vigilance in the world, to be just in our dealings, faithful in our engagements, and exemplary in our deportment; to avoid all tattling, backbiting, and excessive anger; to abstain from the sale and use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage, to avoid all appearance of evil; to avoid all worldly practices which might bring reproach to the cause of Christ, and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the cause of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We further engage to watch over one another in brotherly love; to remember each other in prayer; to aid each other in sickness and distress; to cultivate Christian sympathy in feeling, to be courteous in speech; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and mindful of our Savior, to secure it without delay.

We moreover engage that when we remove from this place we will, as soon as possible, unite with some other church of like precious faith, where we can continue to carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of God’s Word.