Baptists are a people who profess a living faith.
This faith is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ who is "the same yesterday, and today, and for ever."
Therefore, the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is Jesus Christ whose will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
A living faith must experience a growing understanding of truth and must be continually interpreted and related to the needs of each new generation.
Throughout their history Baptist bodies, both large and small, have issued statements of faith, which comprise a consensus of their beliefs.
Such statements have never been regarded as complete, infallible statements of faith, nor as official creeds carrying mandatory authority.
Thus this generation of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those articles of the Christian faith,
which are most surely held among us. Baptists emphasize the soul's competency before God, freedom in religion, and the priesthood of the believer.
However, this emphasis should not be interpreted to mean that there is an absence of certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified.
It is the purpose of this statement of faith and message to set forth certain teachings, which we believe.
When life seems to be at it's darkest,