The First Baptist Church of Hartsville, South Carolina affirms the statement of doctrine and practice known as The Baptist Faith and Message, adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 2000. A partial summary of this church’s basic and most crucial doctrinal teachings based on The Baptist Faith and Message are as follows:

 

THE SCRIPTURES: The Lord divinely inspired people to write the sixty-six books of the Holy Bible. It is the record of God's revelation of Himself to mankind. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy (Matt 5:17-18; 2 Tim 3:15-17; Rom 15:4; 2 Pet 1:19-21).

 

THE NATURE OF GOD: There is one and only one living and true God. He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal Being, the Creator, Redeemer, Preserver, and Ruler of the universe. God is infinite in holiness and all other perfections. To Him we owe the highest love, reverence, and obedience. The eternal God reveals Himself to us as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being (Deut 6:4; Matt 28:19; John 1:1-3; 4:24; Acts 5:3-4).

 

HUMANS AND SIN: The special act of God created humans in His own image, and is the crowning work of His creation. In the beginning man and women were innocent of sin. By their free choice, they sinned against God and brought sin into the human race. Only the grace of God can bring humans into His holy fellowship and enable them to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created humans and that Jesus Christ died for them. Therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and love (Gen 2:4-7; Acts 17:26-31; Rom 1:19-32; 3:10-18, 23; Eph 2:1-22).

 

SALVATION: Salvation involves the redemption of the whole person and is offered freely to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior, who by His own blood obtained eternal redemption for the believer. In its broadest sense salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification (John 1:11-14; 3:3-21, 36; Acts 4:12, 16:30-31; Rom 5:1-2; 6:1-14; Phil 2:12 13; Rev 21:1 - 22:5).

 

THE CHURCH: A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous (self-governing and self-supporting) local congregation of baptized believers who are associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel.  While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture (Matt 16:15-19; 18:15-20; Eph 1:22-23; 20-21; 4:11-13; 5:22-32; 1 Tim 2:12-14).

 

THE ORDINANCES:  First Baptist Church adheres to the two ordinances of baptism and the Lord’s Supper. Baptism is the immersion of a believer in water 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, the believer's death to sin, the burial of the old life, and the resurrection to walk in newness of life in Christ Jesus. The Lord's Supper is a symbolic act of obedience whereby members of the church, through partaking of the bread and the fruit of the vine, memorialize the death of the Redeemer and anticipate His second coming (Acts 2:41 42; Matt 28:19- 20; Rom 6:3-5; Mark 14:22-26; 1 Cor 10:16, 21; 11:23-29).

 

LAST THINGS: God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. According to His promise, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth; the dead will be raised; and Christ will judge all men in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting punishment. The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in Heaven with the Lord. (Mark 8:38, 9:42-49; John 14:1- 4; Acts 1:11; 1 Thess 4:14 18; 5:1 ff.; Rev 20:11-22:17)

 

EVANGELISM AND MISSIONS: It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and of every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations. It is the duty of every child of God to seek constantly to win the lost to Christ by verbal witness undergirded by a Christian lifestyle, and by other methods in harmony with the gospel of Christ (Matt 28:18-20; Acts 1:8; Rom 10:13-15; Titus 2:11-14).

 

GENDER: God created only two genders, male and female (Gen 1:27; Matt 19:4; Mark 10:6).

 

MARRIAGE AND SEXUALITY: God’s plan for human sexuality is to be expressed only within the context of marriage, that God created man and woman as unique biological persons. God instituted monogamous marriage between male and female as the foundation of the family and the basic structure of human society. Marriage is exclusively the union of one genetic male and one genetic female (Gen 2:24; Matt 19:5-6; Mark 10:6-9; Rom 1:26-27; 1 Cor 6:9).

 

REDEMPTION AND RESTORATION: God offers redemption and restoration to all who confess and forsake their sin, seeking His mercy and forgiveness through Jesus Christ. Every person must be afforded compassion, love, kindness, respect, and dignity. Hateful and harassing behavior or attitudes directed toward any individual are to be repudiated and are not in accord with scripture nor the doctrines of the church (1 John 1:9; 2:1-2; Gal 6:1-5; Col 3:1-14).