Independent

Northside Baptist Church is an Independent Baptist Church completely self-supporting, self-propagating and self-governing, yielding to no ecclesiastical authority of outside bodies. While we seek fellowship with churches of like doctrine and practice, we will not join hands in any manner that will compromise our beliefs or limit the complete autonomy of this church.

Baptist

While many think that Baptists are Protestants, true Baptists are not Protestants. From the days when our Lord walked upon this Earth there have been churches (though not always Baptist in a name) who have believed and practised the distinctives that we adamantly hold today.  As Baptists, we are not Charismatic in our doctrine or practice.  To learn more about Baptists click here.

The Bibleopen-bible

We believe that the original manuscripts of the Bible, comprising of the Old and New Testaments only, were inspired of God and were inerrant. We believe the Bible to be the supreme and ultimate authority for all doctrine and practice (2 Timothy 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21). We believe that the Masoretic Hebrew text and the Textus Receptus Greek text are the nearest to the original manuscripts; therefore we use only the King James Version of the Bible in our services.  For more information read the sermon Why We Use the KJV.

Belief In God

We believe in only one God, who eternally exists as three Persons in one Being: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19; 1 John 5:7). Each of these triune Persons is coeternal, coequal, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent, holy, and perfect in character, yet varied in office.

  • God the Father

We believe that God the Father is Jehovah.  The King James Bible often refers to Him as LORD or GOD. He is a Spirit, and the Creator and Sustainer of all things (Isaiah 45:12).

  • God the Son

We believe that Jesus Christ is God the Son. He also is the Creator of all things visible and invisible (John 1:1-3, Colossians 1:16, 17). We believe in His deity (John 1:1), in His virgin birth (Matthew 1:18-25), and in His incarnation. While in human body, He lived a sinless life (Hebrews 4:15), preformed real miracles (Acts 10:38), died as man’s substitute (1 John 2:2), and atoned for every man’s sin through His shed blood (Ephesians 1:7, Romans 5:9, 1 Peter 1:18, 19). He bodily rose from the dead (Luke 24:39) and bodily ascended to the right hand of the Father (Acts 1:10, 11) where He ever lives to make intercession for His saints (Hebrews 7:25). He will come to get His saints before the tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 cf. 5:1-9) which is before His literal 1,000-year millennial reign on earth (Revelation 20:1-6, Zechariah 14:4-9).

  • God the Holy Spirit

We believe that God the Holy Spirit is a Person not just an influence. He moved holy men of God to write the Scriptures (2 Peter 1:21). He convicts of sin (John 16:8). He gives life at salvation (Titus 3:5). God baptizes every believer with the Holy Spirit the moment of salvation (1 Corinthians 12:13), and from that moment He indwells the believer (John 14:16; Romans 8:9).  The Holy Spirit seals believers and is the earnest of our inheritance (Ephesians 1:13, 14), and provides power for holy living and service (Galatians 5:16).

We reject the following unbiblical teachings and practices often attributed to the Holy Spirit: Modern-day speaking in tongues, healing in the atonement, faith healing, and prosperity gospel. We do not believe that speaking in tongues is the evidence of Spirit filling.

Satan

We believe in the reality of Satan or the devil (Matthew 4:1). God created him as a holy angel but he rebelled and lost his holiness. He is a powerful living being, the author of sin, the tempter, and the unholy prince of this world (John 16:11). He is the head of all the demonic powers (Ephesians 2:2, 6:11-12), and is destined for the eternal Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:10).

Creation

We believe that God created the universe in six literal, 24-hour periods.  We reject evolution, the Gap Theory, the Day-Age Theory, and Theistic Evolution as unscriptural theories of origin. (Genesis 1-2; Exodus 20:11)

Man

We believe that God created man in His own image (Genesis 1:26, 27). Adam disobeyed God, lost his perfection, and became a sinner in need of a Saviour (Genesis 3:1-24). Since Adam sinned, all people have been born sinners (Psalm 51:5; Romans 5:12). As sinners they are spiritually dead (Ephesians 2:1), destined to perish (John 3:16), and in need of the redemption provided by Jesus Christ alone (Colossians 1:14).

Salvation

  • Believing the Fundamentals of the Faith

Before a person can become a Christian, he must believe five fundamentals of the Faith: 1) The Bible is the Word of God. 2) Jesus Christ is God. 3) Jesus bled and died for our sins. 4) Jesus rose bodily from the grave. 5) Only repentance and faith in Christ’s atonement can save us from eternal judgment in the Lake of Fire.

  • Acting on the Fundamentals of the Faith

God offers His gracious gift of salvation to anyone who will receive it by repentance and personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 3:19; Acts 20:21). This salvation is instantaneous and is not dependent on baptism (Romans 10:13). God wants to save all people (1 John 2:2, 2 Peter 3:9), but He created man with a free will to receive His grace or reject it.

We believe that God justifies all who repent and trust Christ as their Saviour from sin’s penalty in hell (John 5:24, Romans 5:1). In other words, Christ’s blood cleanses them completely of all sin and He gives them His righteousness (Romans 5:9). They are instantly born into God’s family (John 1:12), given eternal life (John 3:16), and indwelt by Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9).

The Security Of The Believer

When a Christian sins, he loses his fellowship with God but not his relationship with God. We are not Arminian (believing that a Christian can lose his salvation), nor are we Calvinists (basing eternal security on election).  We believe that those made righteous through faith in Christ are assured of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ (John 5:24). They are eternally secure, not because God elected them but because of their faith in Christ who died for them.  The moment God saves a person, the Holy Spirit seals him, and the power of God will keep him saved until he reaches heaven (John 10:26-29; Ephesians 1:13-14; Romans 8:16-17; 1 Peter 1:3-5).

The Destiny Of The Unrighteous

We believe that those made righteous through faith in Christ are assured of eternal life with the Lord Jesus Christ (John 3:36; 5:24; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18), whereas God condemns those whom Christ has not made righteous to everlasting conscious suffering in a real and literal Lake of Fire, eternally separated from God (Mark 9:43-48; Luke 16:19-31; 2 Thessalonians 1:8,9; Revelation 20:15).

Local Churches

We believe a local church is an autonomous assembly of people who have trusted Christ as their Saviour (Acts 14:21-23), and have been immersed after their salvation (Acts 2:41), who agree in doctrine and practice, who have formally united, and who assemble to worship God publicly, to serve Him, and to fellowship. Each local church is a body of Christ and a type of the future complete body of Christ in heaven (Ephesians 5:22-33).

Local church public worship includes singing hymns and spiritual songs (Ephesians 5:19). It includes hearing the preaching and teaching of God’s Word in order to receive spiritual edification and instruction (2 Timothy 4:2), moral and Biblical education (Matthew 28:20), and to evangelize unbelievers. Service includes participating in Gospel evangelism, foreign missions, and observing the ordinances of a New Testament church.  A male pastor is to shepherd each local church (1 Timothy 3:1-7; 1 Peter 5:2-3).

Our local church is an independent Baptist church. We believe that each church is to be self-supported, self-governing, and not controlled by any outside religious authority.  While we seek fellowship with churches of like doctrine and practice, we will not join hands in any manner that will compromise our beliefs or limit the complete autonomy of our church.

Local churches with doctrine similar to ours have existed since the first century. Their members often suffered for defending believer’s baptism by immersion. Such churches, known by various names, eventually became known as Anabaptists and then Baptists. Baptists are not Protestants that emerged from the Reformation.

The Ordinances Of The Local Church

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

  • Water Baptism

Biblical baptism is when a man, authorized by a local church that believes the fundamentals of the faith, publicly immerses in water a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, as an act of obedience and a testimony of his salvation. The believer must first give evidence that he has repented of his sins and trusted Christ alone for eternal salvation. Biblical baptism is by immersion only and has nothing to do with salvation. It always follows salvation and pictures the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ (Acts 8:38-39; Romans 6:3-5).

  • Lord’s Supper

We believe that the Lord’s Supper is a local church ordinance that only born again, immersed, obedient, believers may observe.  It is a non-sacramental ordinance observed in remembrance of the death of the Lord Jesus Christ to be preceded by self-examination and confession (Matthew 26:26-29; 1 Corinthians 11:23-32). Visiting members of churches of like faith and practice may be invited to participate.

Future Events

We believe that right now the Lord is saving those who call upon Him in repentance, and that those who receive Jesus Christ as their personal Saviour make up the Family of God (Acts 2:39; 15:14; John 1:12,13; Ephesians 3:15).

  • Tribulation

We believe that before the Tribulation Period the Lord Himself shall descend from Heaven to get all true Christians and take them to heaven (known as the Rapture). The dead in Christ shall rise first; then the living in Christ that are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; 1 Corinthians 15:51,52).

  • Judgment Seat of Christ

We believe that all truly born again believers will appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ to be rewarded according to the faithfulness of their service for Christ (2 Corinthians 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:11-15; Romans 14:10; 1 Peter 4:17-18).

  • Kingdom

We believe Christ will personally return to the earth following the Great Tribulation to begin His one thousand-year earthly reign (Acts 1:11; Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 21:25-31; Revelation 20:10).

  • Final Judgment

Following the Millennial Kingdom, God will sentence the unrighteous to the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:11-15), while those made righteous through faith in Christ will live for all eternity with God.