You shouldn't have to guess what a church teaches. From our earliest beginnings in 1986, Dearborn Baptist Church has had a Confession of Faith – a detailed written statement of what we believe and teach. Our Confession of Faith can be found in our Membership Handbook – Article III of the Church Constitution.
Doctrine matters to Dearborn Baptist Church! Doctrine is, quite literally, the teaching of the church – what the church understands to be the substance of its faith. While it is no substitute for the personal experience of the new birth, neither is it simply an intellectual hobby of a few – something that doesn't really matter.
We want people to know what will be taught at DBC. What follows is a brief summary.
Concerning the Scriptures We Teach the verbal inspiration by God and inerrancy of the Old and New Testaments, and, therefore the supreme and final authority of scripture in faith and life.
Concerning God We Teach that there is one, and only one God, creator and supreme ruler of heaven and earth, omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent existing in three distinct Persons; Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, equal and of the same essence in nature, attributes, power, and glory.
Concerning Jesus Christ We Teach that He is the God Incarnate (fully man and fully God simultaneously) as is demonstrated by His virgin birth, His sinless life, His vicarious substitutionary death on the cross for sinners, His bodily resurrection, His present continuing mediatorship, and His personal, premillenial return.
Concerning the Holy Spirit We Teach that His work is to convict the sinner and erring Christian, that He is the agent in regeneration, that He indwells, seals, sanctifies, assures, guides, instructs, and empowers the believer.
Concerning Sin and Salvation We Teach that Adam was created perfect in the image of God, that he sinned and brought physical, spiritual, and eternal death upon himself and on all mankind, that humanity is now fallen, sinful by nature, and incapable of pleasing God apart from divine grace, that all men are sinners and can be saved only by grace through faith in Christ apart from works and when so saved are eternally secure.
Concerning the Church We Teach that the church is a local, visible body of immersed believers, covenanted together by a common faith and fellowship in the gospel, observing the ordinances; that Jesus Christ Himself personally established His church and promised its perpetuity; that the local church is the body of Christ on earth and that every church is to be autonomous.
Concerning the Great Commission We Teach that Jesus Christ commissioned His church to make disciples by preaching the gospel, to baptize by immersion, and to teach all the things that He had commanded; that the commission extends to the uttermost parts of the earth; that it is the privilege and responsibility of every believer to be a personal soul-winner; that true churches should work together for contending for the faith and for furthering the gospel.
Concerning Church Ordinances We Teach that there are two, baptism by immersion of the believer in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit under the authority of the local church, and the Lord's Supper in which members of the church, following a solemn self-examination, commemorate the sacrificial love of Christ by sacred use of unleavened bread and unfermented fruit of the vine.
Concerning Separation We Teach that Christians should separate themselves from practices and influences of the world which hinder a Spirit-filled life and from all forms of ecclesiastical apostasy.
Concerning Creation We Teach that the Genesis six-day account of creation is literal and that the creation of man was a direct act of God and was not from previously existing forms of life.
Concerning Supernatural Sign Gifts of the Spirit We Teach that they were temporary in nature, given for use during the apostolic era, and thus, are not applicable to the work of the Spirit today.
Concerning the Future We Teach the bodily resurrection of all the dead; the saved to a life of eternal glory and bliss in heaven with God; the unsaved to a conscious eternal punishment in the lake of fire; that the order of prophetic events will be, first, the return of Christ in the clouds to resurrect and rapture the saved, followed by a period of Great Tribulation on earth, the visible return of Christ to the earth to establish His kingdom, the resurrection of the unsaved for the Great White Throne judgment and finally the eternal kingdom.