About Us
"We believe the Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible Word of God, as found within the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation."
What We Believe
The following paragraphs simply summarize what we believe as a church family. We believe the Bible and teach it to be perfectly true. Every belief and teaching of Spokane Baptist flows from God’s Word.
The Bible
We believe the Bible to be the revealed Word of God, fully and verbally inspired of God. We believe the Scriptures to be the inerrant, infallible Word of God, as found within the 66 books from Genesis to Revelation. We believe God not only inspired every word, but has preserved them through the ages. We use the King James Version for church unity, because of the KJV's textual reliability, and because it's a word-for-word translation of the original text - not a paraphrase like many modern versions. (Psalm 12:6-7; II Timothy 3:15-17; I Peter 1:23-25; II Peter 1:19-21).
God
We believe in one God, who is eternal, self-existent, infinite, and immutable. We believe He has one nature, one essence, and one substance, yet manifests Himself to man in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Deuteronomy 6:4; I Timothy 1:17; James 1:17; I John 4:4).
Jesus Christ
We believe Jesus Christ to be the one and only Saviour of mankind. We believe Jesus Christ to be eternally God and to possess all the attributes of Deity. We believe that the Lord Jesus Christ was virgin born, that He was God incarnate, and that the purposes of the incarnation were to reveal God, to redeem men, and to rule over God's kingdom. We believe Jesus Christ never relinquished any attributes of His Deity, but merely veiled them. We believe He lived a perfect, sinless life, at the end of which He was offered for all mankind as a substitutionary sacrifice for man's sin. This sacrifice was a just payment to God for the forgiveness of sin. It was activated by His death through the shedding of His blood on the Cross and was accepted by God upon His resurrection. We believe He ascended into Heaven after His resurrection to be seated at the right hand of the Father, waiting for the time of receiving His church at the Rapture, and returning seven years later to earth to rule and reign as King for 1,000 years (Psalm 2:7-9; Isaiah 7:14, 9:6, 43:11; Micah 5:2; Matthew 1:25; Luke 1:26-35; John 1:1, 1:3, 14, 18, 29; Romans 3:19-25; Romans 5:6-15; Philippians 2:5-11; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 2:5; I Timothy 3:16; Titus 2:10-15; Hebrews 7:26, 9:24-28; I Peter 1:19, 2:2; I John 1:3; Revelation 20:1-6).
The Holy Spirit
We believe the Holy Spirit of God is a person who has personality and all the attributes of Deity. We believe the Holy Spirit has always been involved in the affairs of mankind. However, we believe He has a special ministry which began at Pentecost and will continue until the Rapture. This ministry includes convicting the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. The Holy Spirit was also sent to regenerate, sanctify, seal, and fill all who have placed their faith in Jesus Christ (John 3:5-6; John 14:16; Acts 1:5; Acts 11:15; I Corinthians 3:16; I Corinthians 6:19-20; I Corinthians 12:13).
Sin and Salvation
We believe all men were born with an inherited sin nature received from our common ancestor, Adam. We believe that because of his nature, man is a sinner by choice, and he is totally incapable of reforming himself or ceasing from his sin by his own power. We believe the only hope of deliverance for man is a total change of mind concerning his sinful condition and inability to change it, and a turning to Jesus Christ as the only Saviour. The Bible clearly teaches that man’s sin is a debt that has to be paid in full - and because God does not grade on the curve, He cannot accept anything less than full payment. Therefore, man can either accept Christ’s payment on his behalf or pay the debt himself in hell. (Genesis 5:1-5; Acts 4:19; Acts 16:31; Romans 3:10-23; Romans 5:6-12; Romans 6:23; Romans 10:9-10; Ephesians 2:8-9; Revelation 20:11-14).
The New Testament Church
We believe the church began with the calling out of the twelve apostles by Jesus Christ and was empowered on the day of Pentecost. We believe the local church is God's only institution to carry out His work today. We believe the local church is composed of members who have been saved and baptized according to the command of Christ, and have voluntarily united together for the purposes of worship, fellowship, service, and the Lord's Table. We believe all true believers will be taken up at the Rapture, just prior to the Tribulation (Matthew 16:16-18; Acts 1:15; Acts 2:41-43; Acts 11:15; Acts 20:28; I Corinthians 15: 51-58; Ephesians 1:12-14; Ephesians 5:25-30; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Timothy 3:4-15).
The Last Days
We believe in the literal interpretation of the Scriptures in their grammatical and historical context. We believe in the pre-tribulational Rapture of the church saints, followed by the seven-year Tribulation. We believe in the pre-millennial return of Christ to the earth and His literal rule of one thousand years. Following this one thousand years is the Great White Throne judgment and then the new Heaven and new earth (I Corinthians 15:51-58; I Thessalonians 4:13-18; I Thessalonians 5:1-9; Revelation 19-22).
"... to be busy with the work of the church, the relief of the poor, and the spread of the Gospel through all nations."
Our Focus
The Bible is a big book! It contains teaching, help, and instruction for every area of life. It is an inexhaustible book that contains the very words of God… and it is truly alive! As such, it is as relevant and current today as it was when it was first written. A lifetime of study is insufficient to mine all the treasures contained within the Bible. While there is no such thing as a ‘minor’ teaching of the Bible – some things are clearly emphasized and taught more plainly. We believe that keeping a proper focus on these key teachings of the Bible will not only help a church to remain balanced, but will equip each individual Christian for a lifetime of success in continually growing to be more like Jesus.
In that spirit, Spokane Baptist Church emphasizes the following teachings:
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† The Bible is completely true, utterly without error, supernaturally preserved, and a totally sufficient authority for all things. Without the firm foundation of the Bible, it is impossible to truly know God, serve God, or love God.
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† Soul-winning is the great high-calling of all believers and the mission and purpose of the Church. Sharing the Gospel with others is the key purpose for living for all Christians. The process of soul-winning continues with personal discipleship and folding people into a loving church family.
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† Fruit from the roots. All genuine God-honoring change in behavior flows from a genuinely changed heart. God is not looking to simply alter our behavior, He wants to change our hearts. To support this, SBC focuses on encouraging personal Bible reading, prayer, and evangelism.
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† God’s grace is amazing. Christ died to save sinners! And God's Word teaches that we are all sinners. We believe that God’s grace is available to all and reaches even the lowest sinner who sincerely turns to Him. And while the calling to be a Christian is a sober and holy calling, God’s grace doesn’t come in spite of our failures, God’s grace is FOR our failures.
"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." - Colossians 2:8
Why Are We Baptists?
It’s getting less and less popular for any church to identify themselves as “Baptist” these days. In fact, it’s getting less popular for churches to even identify themselves as a “church”!
So why are we sticking with the name “Spokane Baptist Church”?
The answer is simple… it’s because the label “Baptist Church” has great meaning, history, and significance… all of which we consider an honor to be associated with.
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Tragically, there’s a great deal of misunderstanding today about what this name means. There are even people out there who call themselves Baptists – but have nothing to do with actual Baptist history. The following outline is a very brief introduction to the true meaning and history of the Baptist name.
The Baptist name was actually originally created as a slur against those who would baptize a person only after that person had repented and believed on Christ for salvation. This practice was considered insulting (at best) by the large organized churches that baptized people as babies.
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Since Baptists wouldn’t give up this practice, they were labeled, hunted, driven into hiding, and thousands were actually killed for refusing to abandon the Biblical practice of Baptism.
A Name from our Enemies
A History of Separation from Error
The first major error to gain wide acceptance in Christianity was the establishment of a Church power-structure (started around 200 AD). This un-Biblical practice put some men in charge of multiple churches – which made these men politically powerful in the Roman Government – and ultimately ended up corrupting the purpose of the church. Baptists were persecuted for standing against this error and separating from churches that pledged allegiance to church hierarchy rather than to God's Word alone.
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As this corrupted version of Christianity became politically powerful, around 300 AD, these politically entangled churches started baptizing babies to make their churches even bigger. Baptists refused to acknowledge the validity of a baptism where the person had no choice in the matter (since this is not what the Bible teaches) and many Baptists were therefore killed as enemies of these churches.
By 400 AD, these erring churches were fully united with the government, and the spiral of corruption and deviation from the Bible plunged to new depths. This united Church & State used its power to martyr many Baptists who preached against the elevation of politics and traditions which superseded the Word of God.
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Colossian 2:8 – "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ."
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Sir Isaac Newton said: “The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome [the Roman Catholic united ‘church’ & state].”
A History of Standing for Right
For Freedom of Conscience.
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Baptists wrote the first constitution (State of Rhode Island) granting religious liberty to people of all faiths – recognizing that true salvation comes from a free-will response to Jesus Christ… not from a forced conversion as a result of government pressure.
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In-fact: the phrase “Separation of Church and State” comes not from the US Constitution, but from a letter that Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptists – crediting them for their example!
For Equality for All.
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Baptists have always been staunch advocates of freedom of conscience, are thus the only historical religious group to have never advocated or used state authority to persecute another religious group.
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Baptists were the first to ban slavery in North America. Abraham Lincoln was raised as a Baptist and even Martin Luther King was a Baptist.
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Baptists led the effort to treat the Native Americans as men, not savages.
It is our goal to be faithful to the Word of God, and to follow Jesus Christ, and not any other person. There are obviously plenty of "Baptists" who have claimed the Baptist name but have done terrible things and probably aren't even Christians! Because we believe, like the historical Baptists, that creating church hierarchy and power structures is a very bad and unbiblical idea we don't belong to any denominations – not even "Baptist" denominations like the Southern Baptists or the American Baptist Churches, etc. some of those church might be pretty good – but some of them we would want nothing to do with! This is why we proclaim our status as an "independent" Baptist church.
We use the name "Baptist" only for the historical meaning and rich tradition it includes. It's a way to easily identify our church with a distinctive set of principles and doctrines that we hold as precious – but it is NOT the sum total of who we are. It's very similar to why we call ourselves a "church" – even though not every group called a 'church' is really following the Bible. It simply means we have to do a better job of explaining what a real, Bible-honoring Church (or Baptist) is.
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That's the purpose of this article, we hope it's been helpful for you!
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May God bless you as you search for the Truth.