Thank you for exploring our theological convictions! We commend you, because it’s critical to evaluate a local church’s beliefs when looking for a new church home. While some points of difference between local churches can be relatively minor (in the grand scheme of things), others can and should be deal breakers.

It’s near impossible to spell out every single belief that we hold on a single page, yet the bullet points below should give you a pretty good grasp of the faith that we hold near and dear.

Pleasant Grove Baptist Church confesses:

• The Bible is God’s written and special revelation of Himself to humanity. “It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy” (Baptist Faith & Message).
• There is one and only one living and true God (Genesis 1:1).
• God is Triune. God reveals Himself as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19, John 1:1;14, 1 Corinthians 3:16, Deuteronomy 6:4, 1 Timothy 2:5).
• Humanity is God’s special creation, made in His own image (Genesis 1:26-30).
• Through free choice, Adam and Eve rebelled against God in the Garden of Eden, thereby bringing sin into the world (Genesis 3, Romans 3:23).
• As sinners, humanity is condemned and deserving of eternal punishment because God is perfectly righteous and just. Sin cannot be tolerated, as it violates God’s very nature.
• Due to God’s incredible grace and mercy, however, Jesus became man (while still being fully God) to live the perfect life that no other human could (Hebrews 4:15). As the perfect sacrifice, Jesus did the unthinkable – He died on the cross to pay the price of humanity’s sin. We hold that this is the greatest act of love of all-time (John 3:16). Jesus did what we couldn’t do (please God perfectly), so that we could receive what we didn’t deserve (God’s complete forgiveness and acceptance).
• No only did Jesus solve the problem of sin through his death, He defeated humanity’s greatest enemy – death (1 Corinthians 15:55-7). After being buried for 3 days in a tomb, Jesus rose from the grave. He was dead, but now Jesus is alive!
• As a result of Jesus’ good work on our behalf, salvation is available to anyone who repents of sin, places saving faith in Jesus Christ as Savior, and confesses Jesus Christ to be the Lord of their life (Romans 10:9). When a person does this, they are made new in Christ because their sins have been covered by Jesus’ blood shed on the cross (1 Peter 1:3). This is the Gospel – the good news of Jesus!
• Upon being saved, Jesus calls believers to be baptized (Matthew 28:19-20). Baptism is a public event, whereby the new believer stands before the world to show that they belong to Christ. The process of baptism, which we believe should be full immersion under water, symbolizes dying to sin and rising to new life (2 Corinthians 5:17).
• Those who have been made new in Christ are called to regularly gather together to worship God, be increasingly transformed into the image of Jesus, and proclaim the Gospel to the lost. This is the local church (Acts 2:41-2).
• A core belief of all Baptists, including ourselves, is the autonomy of the local church. We hold that the local church is to be governed by the congregation with democratic processes, whereby each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.
• At the same time, we also believe in the value of cooperation. By working together with like-minded churches, we can maximize our ministry impact to advance God’s kingdom. For this reason, we are aligned nationally with the Southern Baptist Convention, statewide with the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, and locally with the Pulaski Baptist Association.

There are many other important elements to our understanding of the Christian faith beyond the bullet points above. To explore more about our beliefs, click here.