Bethany baptist church
a southern baptist church
Bethany Baptist regularly gives to and supports the Cooperative Program of the Southern Baptist Convention and is proudly affiliated with the ministry efforts of the Georgia Baptist Mission Board. Additionally, we are members with the Centennial Baptist Association based in Thomaston, GA and love to partner regularly in collaborative ministry efforts.
A view into
bethany's beliefs
salvation by grace through faith
We believe in the Triune Godhead consisting of God the Father, Jesus Christ the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
We believe God made everything good. Yet, in giving freedom of will first to the angels who fell and then after to mankind, we volitionally marred our goodness, becoming slaves to sin, death, and hell with no way to save ourselves.
But God through His great grace, mercy, and love chose to pay an awesome price to give mankind the chance to be redeemed, being the shed blood of His perfect, sinless Son Jesus Christ on Calvary's cross. This same Jesus God raised to life in fulfillment of the Scripture and is now at the right hand of the Father ever making intercessory prayer for those who repent of their sins and believe the gospel through obedience.
Justification comes by the grace of God through our response of faith, not by dead works of the law.
baptism by water immersion as testimony
Before Jesus ascended to His Father, He gave His disciples and the onlookers a Great Commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." (Matt. 28:19-20)
This term "baptize" comes from the transliterated Greek word "baptizo," meaning to "immerse."
While we believe the act of baptism plays no bearing on one's Justification, we do believe it to be obedience to the words of Christ once converted as well as a fine form of testimony, signifying one's spiritual death and rebirth to newness of life.
"Therefore whoever confesses Me before men, him I will also confess before My Father who is in heaven. But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven." (Matt. 10:32-33)
Autonomy of the local church
We recognize the sound principles outlined in New Testament Scripture for the proper governance of the church by the shepherds of the church with Christ being the Chief Shepherd and Head of the body. The Pastor and Elders of the church seek by prayer, Scripture, and sound reasoning to lead the way in which church polity, activity, and discipline should be applied.
