What We Believe

The following are the core beliefs of New Testament Baptist Church | Danville, VA based on the foundational truths taught in the bible. All of our teaching and ministry is rooted in and flows out of these biblical doctrines.

There is one eternally existing God who has three distinct persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. He is the creator of all that exists, both visible and invisible, and is therefore worthy of all glory and praise.  God is perfect in love, power, holiness, goodness, knowledge, wisdom,  wrath, justice, and mercy. He is unchanging and therefore is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow. There is no one like Him. He is above all things.

There are multiple ways that God has revealed Himself to us. He first revealed Himself in the creation account. He then revealed Himself to man through the prophets. Then He revealed Himself through His son, Jesus Christ, who is God incarnate. During all of history, He decided to reveal Himself to mankind the most through His Word, the inspired Scriptures. Peter says, in 2 Peter, that we have a word more sure than human experience and that we should do well to pay attention to it.

Humans, both male and female, were created in God's image for His glory. The first humans, Adam and Eve, were created without sin and appointed as caretakers of the rest of God's creations. We believe that the chief purpose of mankind is to glorify God. That is what we, as well as all creation, were created to do.

When Adam and Eve chose disobey God, they ceased to be what they were made to be and became distorted images of God. This caused them to fall out of fellowship with God and fractured all of creation ever since that time. Because of their disobedience to God, the curse of sin was passed down through the generations. This means that every single human being, after the fall, was born a sinner and an enemy of God with no hope of salvation on their own power.

Jesus Christ came to reconcile us with God, even though we were enemies of him. We were dead in our transgressions against a Holy God, until He decided to bring our spirits to life. Christ did this by living a life without sin, a life we never could live, and willingly dying on a criminal's cross to pay the penalty for our transgressions. God, accepting the sacrifice Christ made, raised Him from the dead and now, by grace, offers the free gift of eternal life to all who follow Christ, by faith, as their Lord and Savior. That is why salvation can be found in Christ ALONE.

The Church is the bride of Christ, consisting of all those who follow Him. The purposes of the Church are to edify the saints of God, to equip the saints with the Word, and to lift one another's spirit. Proverbs 27:17 says, "Iron sharpens iron, and one man sharpens another." We are to equip our members with Biblical truth and theology. Galatians 6:2 says,  "Bear one another's burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ." This shows that the Church is supposed to be a community that builds up and helps each other.

Jesus Christ was crucified and buried for three days. On the third day God resurrected our Lord, accepting the sacrifice that was given for our sins. The resurrection is the most important aspect of the Christian faith because, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15, if Christ has not risen then our faith is futile. But because He has risen we now have salvation and eternal security for those who are in Christ.