First Baptist Tanner Core Beliefs

1. We believe the Bible to be the authoritative Word of God  (literally God-breathed), inerrant, verbally inspired, and infallible.

2. We believe there is one true God, manifested eternally in three distinct Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

3. We believe in the deity of Jesus Christ, the second person of the  Trinity, Who possesses all the divine attributes, and is co-equal,  co-existent, and co-eternal with the Father. We believe in Christ’s  virgin birth and that He was God incarnate (both God and man) for the  purpose of revealing the Father, redeeming men, and ruling over God’s  kingdom. Jesus accomplished man’s redemption by the vicarious and  atoning death through His shed blood and sacrificial death on the cross.  By His literal, physical resurrection from the dead and His ascension  to the right hand of the Father, the sinner is justified. We believe  Jesus to be the mediator between God and man Who will return in Glory to  judge all mankind.

4. We believe the Holy Spirit is the third member of the Trinity  possessing all the divine attributes with the Father and the Son. The  Holy Spirit is the supernatural and sovereign agent in regeneration,  baptizing all believers into the body of Christ at the moment of  conversion. The Holy Spirit indwells, sanctifies, instructs, and  empowers all believers for spiritual service.

5. We believe in the present ministry of the Holy Spirit. Who  administers spiritual gifts to each believer for the purpose of  equipping the saints and for the building up of the body of Christ.

6. We believe in the bodily resurrection of both the saved and lost;  the saved to eternal life, the lost to everlasting punishment.

7. We believe that all who put their faith in Jesus Christ are placed  by the Holy Spirit into the spiritual body of believers known as “the  church”, with Christ established as the head. The purpose of the church  is to glorify God by the teaching and instruction of the Word, by  providing fellowship, and by fulfilling the Great Commission to reach  the world for Jesus Christ.

8. We believe that man is a sinner and that the penalty for sin is  eternal separation from the Father. We believe that eternal life is a  free gift of grace bestowed upon each repentant sinner who responds in  faith to the provision of salvation from Jesus Christ. Regeneration is  instantaneous and is accomplished solely by the power of the Holy  Spirit. Genuine regeneration will manifest itself by righteous  attitudes, edifying conduct, and good works to the extent that each  believer submits themselves to the control of the Holy Spirit.

9. We believe that the eternal security of the true believer will  endure to the end. Those who have accepted and received God’s grace  through Jesus Christ, being sanctified and sealed by His Holy Spirit,  will never fall away from the state of grace. The believer may yield to  sin through temptation and neglect, grieving the Holy Spirit, and  bringing temporal judgment on themselves, yet they shall be kept by the  power of God through faith unto salvation.

10. We believe in Christian baptism of the believer by immersion, in  the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. It is an act of  obedience symbolizing the believer’s faith in a crucified, buried, and  risen Savior.