Pleasant Ridge Baptist Church is a cooperating member of the Southern Baptist Convention. The following is an overview of our beliefs. If you have questions about these beliefs or would like to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, connect with us by filling out this form.

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THE BIBLE

• The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. The Bible is our absolute authority. All Scripture is completely true and trustworthy. All Scripture is a testimony to Christ, who is Himself the focus of divine revelation.

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THE TRINITY

• There is one and only one living and true God. The eternal triune God exists as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, with distinct personal attributes, but without division of nature, essence, or being.

• God as Father sovereignly reigns with care over His universe, His creatures, and the flow of the stream of human history according to the purposes of His grace.

• Christ is the eternal Son of God. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ, He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary. He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He made provision for the redemption of men and women from sin.

• The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of God fully divine. He exalts Christ. He convicts men of sin, righteousness, and judgment. He enlightens and empowers the believer and the church in worship, evangelism, and service.

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HUMANITY

• Humanity is the unique creation of God in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. Humanity sinned against God and brought sin into the world. Though sin separates humanity from God, Christ died to remove the wrath of God toward sinners by dying on the cross in substitution for man. Humanity experiences salvation by belief in Christ and His atoning work made manifest in the Gospel.

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SALVATION

• Salvation involves the redemption of the whole person and is offered freely to all who believe in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Jesus, by His own blood, obtained eternal redemption for the believer. Salvation includes regeneration, justification, sanctification, and glorification in its broadest sense.

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THE CHURCH

• A New Testament church is an autonomous gathering of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the two ordinances of Christ (Baptism and The Lord’s Supper), governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. Each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord in such a congregation.

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BAPTISM

• Christian baptism is the immersion of a believer in water. 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.

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LORD'S SUPPER

• The Lord’s Supper is an act of obedience whereby members memorialize and participate in the death of the Redeemer and eagerly anticipate His second coming.

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CHRISTIAN DUTY

• It is the duty and privilege of every follower of Christ and every church of the Lord Jesus Christ to endeavor to make disciples of all nations.

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ESCHATOLOGY

• God, in His own time and in His own way, will bring the world to its appropriate end. Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly. The dead will be raised, and Christ will judge all people in righteousness. The unrighteous will be consigned to hell. The righteous will receive their reward and will dwell forever with the Lord in Heaven.

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FAMILY

• God has ordained the family as the foundational institution of human society. It is composed of persons related to one another by marriage, blood, or adoption.

• Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. It is God’s unique gift to reveal the union between Christ and His church and to provide for the man and the woman in marriage the framework for intimate companionship, the channel of sexual expression according to biblical standards, and the means for procreation of the human race.

• The husband and wife are of equal worth before God, since both are created in God’s image. The marriage relationship models the way God relates to His people. A husband is to love his wife as Christ loved the church. He has the God-given responsibility to provide for, to protect, and to lead his family. 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. She, being in the image of God as is her husband and thus equal to him, has the God-given responsibility to respect her husband and to serve as his helper in managing the household and nurturing the next generation.

• Children, from the moment of conception, are a blessing and heritage from the Lord. Parents are to demonstrate to their children God’s pattern for marriage. 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. Children are to honor and obey their parents.