The following are 10 core beliefs that each

member at Garwood affirms. 

1. THERE IS ONE TRIUNE GOD: There is only one true and living God who is the Creator of the universe. He exists eternally in three Persons – the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

2. THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD: The Bible is God’s written revelation of Himself to mankind divinely given through human authors who were inspired by the Holy Spirit. It is entirely true, totally sufficient, and completely authoritative for matters of life and faith.

3. PEOPLE ARE CREATED IN GOD’S IMAGE: Human Beings are created by God to bear His image. They are the crowning work of His creation worthy of love, dignity, and respect regardless of matters like age, race, gender, or class.

4. PEOPLE ARE IN NEED OF REDEMPTION: Because of the Fall, the image of God in people is distorted but not lost. All people have disobeyed God willfully through sin; thus inheriting both physical and spiritual death and the need for redemption. All human beings are born with a sin nature and into an environment inclined toward sin. Only by the grace of God through Jesus Christ can they experience salvation.

5. JESUS IS BOTH LORD AND CHRIST: Jesus is both fully God and fully human. He was born of a virgin, lived a sinless life, died on the Cross as a substitute for mankind, was raised from the dead, ascended into heaven, and will one-day return.

6. JESUS IS THE ONLY WAY OF SALVATION: Salvation comes only through Jesus Christ, the only mediator between God and man. No other religion, belief, or person can reconcile God and man. He alone can provide forgiveness and eternal salvation.

7. SALVATION IS BY FAITH ALONE: Salvation comes only through a faith relationship with Jesus Christ, the Savior, as a person repents of sin and receives Christ’s forgiveness and eternal life. Salvation is instantaneous and accomplished solely by the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God. This salvation is wholly of God by grace on the basis of Christ’s life, death and resurrection, not on the basis of human works. All the redeemed are secured in Christ forever.

8. THE CHURCH IS CHRIST’S BODY: The Holy Spirit immediately places all people who put their faith in Jesus Christ into one united spiritual body, the Church, of which Christ is the head.

9. JESUS CHRIST WILL RETURN: God will bring the world to its appropriate end in His own time and in His own way. At that time, Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth. Christ will judge both the saved and unsaved. Those who have trusted Christ will receive a glorified body and dwell forever with the Lord. Those who have not trusted in Christ will spend eternity in hell, the place of everlasting punishment.

10. HUMAN SEXUALITY: We believe God is the designer of human sexuality and has expressed this design through the Bible. We believe that God has commanded that no intimate sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a marriage between a man and a woman. We believe that any form of sexual immorality, including adultery, homosexuality, and pornography are sinful acts of God's gift of sex. However, we also desire to treat those who are engaged in such activity with the love of God and help them to know Christ as their personal Savior.

For more information about Garwood's beliefs, please click on this link to the Southern Baptist Convention's site:

http://www.sbc.net/bfm2000/bfm2000.asp