Beloit Road Baptist Church is a confessional Reformed Baptist church in West Allis, Wisconsin. If you are in the Milwaukee area, looking for a Christian church near me that is firmly rooted in the Word of God, we invite you to explore our core doctrines.
The Scriptures
The Holy Bible, the 66 books of the Old and New Testaments, was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of himself to man.1 It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction.2 It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth without any mixture of error for its matter.3 Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy.4 It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard of all beliefs and conduct.5 All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is himself the focus of divine revelation.6
God
There is only one living and true God.1 He is an intelligent, spiritual, and personal being; the Creator, Sustainer, and Ruler of the universe.2 God is infinite, eternal, and unchangable in his power and perfections, goodness and glory, wisdom, justice, and truth.3 He is holy, righteous, and full of mercy.4 In all things, he is limited by nothing other than his own nature and character.5 To him we owe the highest love, reverence, gratitude, and obedience.6
There are three persons in one God without division of nature, essence, or being: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.7 Having been in perfect relationship within himself from eternity past, only the triune God is love.8
Creation
In the beginning, God created the material universe from nothing in six ordinary days.1 He spoke, and by the Word of his power, it was.2 Our science on the nature and time of this event must be determined in full submission to God’s Word.3 God created Adam out of the dust, and Eve from his side.4 Adam and Eve are alone the historical parents of the entire human race.5
Man
Man is the special creation of God, made in his own image.1 He created them male and female as the crowning work of his creation.2 The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God’s creation.3 God immutably creates each person to reflect his image as male or female, as recognized by one's biology.4 The sacredness of human personality is evident in that man bears the image of God, and in that Christ died for all mankind.5 Thus, every person of every race, class, and ability possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love.6 Likewise, as Christ began his incarnation in the womb, all human fetal life from conception is sacred, worthy of our love and protection.7
Sin
In the beginning, man was innocent of sin.1 But by his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.2 As the head of the human race, Adam‘s fall became the fall of all his posterity, in such a way that corruption, guilt, death, and condemnation belong properly to every person.3 All men are thus corrupt by choice and by nature, enslaved to sin, and morally unable to delight in God and overcome their own proud preference for the fleeting pleasures of self-rule.4 Only the grace of God can save man out of sin.5
Jesus Christ
Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God, the only Redeemer for mankind. He is truly and fully both God and man, such that two distinct natures, divine and human, were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion. He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, facing all the demands and temptations of human nature, identifying himself completely with mankind, yet without sin. He demonstrated his lordship and divine nature through his miracles. He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried. By his death on the cross as a substitutionary sacrifice, he made atonement for those who would believe in his name. On the third day, he rose from the dead with a resurrected body and appeared to His disciples for 40 days. He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God. He is the Head of God's Church as Prophet, Priest, and King. He now dwells in all believers through his Spirit as the living and ever present Lord. And he will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate his redemptive mission.
The Holy Spirit
The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God, a separate person from the Father and the Son, fully divine.1 He inspired holy men of old to write the Scriptures.2 Through illumination, he enables men to understand truth.3 He exalts Christ.4 He convicts men of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.5 He calls men to the Savior, and effects regeneration.6 At the moment of regeneration, he indwells every believer, unites them to Christ, applies to them all the benefits of salvation, and baptizes them into the Body of Christ.7 He cultivates Christian character, guides believers into truth, comforts them, and equips them with spiritual gifts.8 He empowers the believer and the church in worship, holiness, evangelism, and service.9 He seals the believer unto the day of final redemption.10
Salvation
Salvation involves the redemption of the whole man, and is offered freely to all who receive Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.1 There is no salvation apart from personal faith in Jesus Christ.2 Salvation includes regeneration, justification, adoption, sanctification, and glorification.3
Regeneration, or the new birth, is a work of God’s grace whereby believers become new creatures in Christ Jesus.4 It is a change of heart wrought by the Holy Spirit through conviction of sin, to which the sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.5 Repentance and faith are inseparable.6 Repentance is a genuine renouncing of sin and turning to God.7 Faith is the acceptance of all that God reveals in his Word and the resting in Jesus Christ alone for salvation.8
Justification is our declared righteousness before God by the merit of Jesus alone, so that while the believer is still guilty of committing various sins and still inclined towards all unrighteousness, yet by the merit of Christ God reckons the believer's faith as righteousness, clothing him with the very righteousness of Christ.9 Justification thus brings the believer unto peace and favor with God, based nothing upon our works.10
Adoption is an act of God’s free grace, whereby the believer is received into the family of God and has a right to all the privileges of being a child of God.11 In adoption, the believer is freed from the tyranny of Satan, knows God personally as “Father,” enjoys the fellowship of every other believer as family, and will share in God’s inheritance for his Son.12
Sanctification is God setting apart the believer to be holy unto God.13 At regeneration, the believer is instantly set apart for God’s purposes, yet he grows progressively towards moral and spiritual maturity, never fully reaching it in this life.14 Such gradual growing righteousness is necessary for salvation, as the evidence, not the basis, thereof.15 The believer is saved by faith alone, but the faith that saves is never alone, but perseveres unto Christian obediance.16
Glorification is the culmination of salvation and is the final blessed and abiding state of the redeemed, in which our bodies are resurrected unto imperishable immortality, all sin and temptation is forever gone, the redeemed will live in perfect righteousness, and they will enjoy the presence of God together forever.17
God's Eternal Purpose
God, from all eternity, in order to display the full extent of his glory, did, by the most wise and holy counsel of his will, freely and unchangeably ordain and foreknow meticulously whatever comes to pass.1 He does this in such a way that he never sins, nor tempts another towards sin, nor ever condemns a person unjustly; but instead it is compatible with the moral accountability and free agency of his creatures.2
God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace, which was given through his Son Christ Jesus before the world began.3 God chose, before the foundation of the world, those who would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in his Son Christ Jesus, which excludes all boasting.4
All true believers endure to the end.5 Believers may fall into sin through neglect and temptation, whereby they grieve the Spirit, impair their graces and comforts, and bring reproach on the cause of Christ and temporal judgments on themselves; yet they shall be kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation.6
The Family
God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of society.1 Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime.2 It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and his church.3 In marriage, God provides for the man and the woman the framework for intimate companionship, the only channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.4
The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, while filling distinct roles.5 The marriage relationship models the way God relates to his people.6 A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church.7 He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family.8 A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.9 She has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.10
Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord.11 Parents are to teach their children spiritual and moral values and to lead them, through consistent lifestyle example and loving discipline, to make choices based on biblical truth.12
Children are to honor and obey their parents.13
The Church
A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by his Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to their families, neighborhoods, and the ends of the earth.1 Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes.2 Each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.3 Its two scriptural offices are that of pastor/elder/overseer and that of deacon.4 While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor/elder/overseer is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.5
The New Testament speaks also of the Church as the Body of Christ, which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.6
Baptism & the Lord's Supper
Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.1 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.2 It is a testimony to his faith in the final resurrection of the dead.3
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.4
The Last Things
God, in his own time and in his own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end.1 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 and equity.2 The unrighteous will be consigned to Hell, the place of everlasting conscious destruction, banishment, and punishment.3 The righteous in their resurrected and glorified bodies will receive their reward and will dwell forever in a new heavens and a new earth with the Lord.4 Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.5
Having been led, as we believe, by the Spirit of God, to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, and on the profession of our faith, having been baptized in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, we do now in the presence of God, and this assembly, most solemnly and joyfully enter into covenant with one another, as one body in Christ.
We promise by the power of the Holy Spirit, to forsake the ways of sin and to walk together in Christian love and in the paths of righteousness. We will strive together for the peace and purity of this church; to sustain its worship and steadfastly to cherish and hold its ordinances, doctrines and disciplines; to contribute, as faithful stewards, such time, talent, and money, as God prospers each of us, that the responsibility for the work of the local church and the world wide ministry of spreading the Gospel be faithfully and effectively discharged.
We also promise to maintain family and private devotions; to teach the Bible to our children; to seek the salvation of others; to be just in our dealing and faithful in our commitments; to be exemplary in our lifestyle; to abstain from every form of evil; to advance the cause of our Savior, and to make Christ first in all things.
We further promise to give and receive admonition with meekness and affection; to remember each other in prayer; and to aid each other in case of sickness and distress; to be slow to take offense, but always ready for reconciliation, and, mindful of the scriptures, to seek it without delay; to encourage one another in the blessed hope, of our Lord's return.
We moreover promise that should we move from this area, we will unite with a local church where we can carry out the spirit of this covenant and the principles of the Word of God.