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1. God is our Creator:

Genesis 1:1  In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.

God has existed from eternity past.  This first verse in the Bible marks the beginning of the universe in time and space. This description of God creating heaven and earth is understood to be:

a. Recent - meaning THOUSANDS not MILLIONS of years ago
b. Ex-nihilo - meaning out of nothing
c. Special - meaning in 6 consecutive 24 hour periods called “days” distinguished by the phrase, “in the evening and the morning.”

2. God is our Triune:

We believe that God exists as one God, displaying Himself in three Personalities; God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit.

 Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness.”

These Personalities are evident and proclaimed throughout the Scriptures.  The first triunity indication of God is stated again in Genesis:

Genesis 3:22 Then the Lord God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, knowing good and evil; and now, lest he stretch out his hand, and take from the tree of life, and eat, and live forever . . .”

In the New Testament we see the Triune God in the Gospel of Mark as Jesus is being baptized in the Jordan:

Mark 1:10-11 And immediately coming up out of the water, He [Jesus] saw the heavens opening and the [Holy] Spirit like a dove descending upon Him, ¹¹ and a voice came out of the heavens: “Thou art My beloved Son, in Thee I am well pleased.”

3. God is Sovereign:

1 Peter1:1-2 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia,² Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ . . (emphasis added).

The two words in verse two that are of special interest in what we believe about God’s sovereignty are elect and foreknowledge.

   a.  Elect is from the Gr. word which connotes the “called out ones.”  The word means to “pick out” or to “select.” In the O.T. the word in Hebrew was used of Israel, indicating that God sovereignly chose Israel from all the nations of the world.

In the New Testament usage, it is a term that refers to Christians, those chosen by God for salvation.

   b.  Foreknowledge is also translated “foreordained” in verse 20 of      1 Peter 1. In both verses, the word does not refer to awareness of what is going to happen, but it clearly means a predetermined relationship in the knowledge of God.

Foreknowledge means that God PLANNED before, not that He OBSERVED before. Thus God pre-thought and pre-determined or predestined each Christian’s salvation.

Southside Baptist Church
4208 US Hwy 41 South
(4 Miles South of Ruskin)
   (813) 645-4085