Who We Are

Emmanuel Baptist Church is a Christian Church in the Reformed Baptist tradition. What does that mean?

We are committed to the Bible: We believe in the infallibility and sufficiency of Holy Scripture. The primary message of the Bible is that we are by nature sinners in rebellion against God. The only way to be saved from our sin and the wrath of God is through the Lord Jesus Christ and what He accomplished in His death and resurrection. Because of the implications of the Gospel, we desire to obey Christ’s command to make disciples here and around the world.

We are Christian: We believe in one God in three Persons and that salvation can only be found in Jesus Christ. We believe and confess His virgin birth, sinless life, sacrificial death, bodily resurrection, ascension, and promised second coming.

We are Baptist: We believe that only professing believers in Christ can partake of the ordinances of baptism by immersion and the Lord’s Supper. We believe the New Testament church is made up of those who give a credible profession of faith in Jesus Christ. We also believe that each local church is autonomous under the headship of the Lord Jesus Christ.

We are committed to the Doctrines of Grace: We believe salvation belongs to the Lord. The Bible teaches that we are born in sin and are dead in our sins. Therefore, we are hostile to God and if left to ourselves, we would never seek God. So God, before time began, set His love upon a particular people, His bride, whom He would save. Those who were chosen before time began are redeemed by the death and resurrection of Christ, and are called out of sin and misery by God’s word and Spirit. Furthermore, by grace, Christ by His Spirit gives His people the gifts of repentance and faith. All those who are saved can never perish or completely fall away, but will most certainly arrive safely to heaven and be resurrected on the last day when Christ returns.

We are Covenantal: We believe that God deals with men by way of covenant. In the Garden of Eden, it was the Covenant of Works with our father Adam. He failed and broke that covenant. Then God began to promise the Covenant of Grace through the Seed of the woman and afterwards step by step through the means of the Abrahamic, Mosaic, and Davidic Covenants. Jesus fulfilled those Covenants as the One who is the Seed of the woman and Abraham, the ultimate sacrifice, and as the king in the line of David. The New Covenant (the Covenant of Grace), which was instituted in the death and resurrection of Christ, alone brings salvation. This covenant is effective in all ages for those who have faith in Christ. The Covenant of Grace is founded on the eternal Covenant of Redemption between the Persons of the Trinity.

We are Creedal and Confessional: We believe the historic creeds and confessions have been helpful to unify the Church throughout history and to fight and offset heresies that crept into the Church. This was faithfully done by the Church throughout the centuries. To be clear, our only infallible rule of faith and practice is Scripture alone. These creeds and confessions are not above or equal to the Bible, but are faithful summaries of what Scripture teaches and they summarize the core doctrines of the Christian faith. Our primary confession is the 1689, 2nd London Baptist Confession of Faith, which gives our distinctives as a church.

We are Committed to Biblical Worship: At EBC, you will observe that we take the Bible, which is God’s infallible written word, very seriously. Therefore, we seek to regulate our worship by the word of God. We believe that public worship is meant to be for the glory of the Triune God and for the edification of His people. The word shows that our worship should contain the reading of the Scriptures, preaching and hearing the word of God, teaching and admonishing one another in singing, and the administration of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper. The preaching of the word of God is typically done by expository preaching, verse by verse, through a whole book of the Bible.