Sola Fide means that man’s salvation is by faith alone; specifically, faith in the redeeming work of Jesus. No amount of personal effort or good works can be added that would in any fashion add to or aid in the achievement of salvation.

Sola Gratia means that the saving work of Jesus in all its parts is not something given to sinners because they can earn it or have earned it. It is simply the free, unmerited grace of Christ alone and is given to those chosen by Him when He moves upon them to repent and believe.

Solus Christus means that salvation is brought about by Christ and his work alone. There is no other name or way by which men can be saved or accredit anything to the work needed and completed by the life and death of Jesus.

Sola Deo Gloria means that all things, including the redemption of man, is to the glory of God, excluding all else. The whole work of redemption of sinners from their sin is completed by the Father’s eternal plan to send His Son to be the payment and satisfaction of sin’s penalty and God’s justice. Man, unable to purchase his own pardon, owes his complete being to God, and thereby must recognize that because he was helpless in procuring his own salvation, he owes and gives all glory to whom it belongs: God alone.

God’s election is an unconditional act of free grace that was given through his Son Jesus before the world began. By this act, God chose, before the foundation of the world, those whom would be delivered from bondage to sin and brought to repentance and saving faith in Jesus.

The atonement of Christ is sufficient for all humans and effective for those who trust him. It is not limited in its worth or sufficiency to save all who believe. But the full, saving effectiveness of the atonement that Jesus accomplished is limited to those for whom that saving effect was prepared. The availability of the total sufficiency of the atonement is for all people. Whosoever will — whoever believes — will be covered by the blood of Christ. And there is a divine design in the death of Christ to accomplish the promises of the new covenant for the chosen bride of Christ. Thus Christ died for all people, but not for all in the same way.

This means that the resistance that all human beings exert against God every day (Romans 3:10–12; Acts 7:51) is wonderfully overcome at the proper time by God’s saving grace for undeserving rebels whom he chooses freely to save.

We believe that all who are justified will win the fight of faith. They will persevere in faith and will not surrender finally to the enemy of their souls. This perseverance is the promise of the new covenant, obtained by the blood of Christ, and worked in us by God himself, yet not so as to diminish, but only to empower and encourage, our vigilance; so that we may say in the end, I have fought the good fight, but it was not I, but the grace of God which was with me (2 Timothy 4:7; 1 Corinthians 15:10).

The Council of Nicaea convened in 325 to settle the dispute between Arius and the defenders of orthodoxy like Athanasius as to whether Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was actually coequal and coeternal with the Father or merely the Father’s first created being. They concluded that Scripture and the testimony of the Apostles revealed a Jesus who had always been with the Father, having never been created, and being homoousios, or of the same substance and essence, as the Father. Later, in 381, the Council of Constantinople would condemn the Macedonians and confirm that the Holy Spirit was also a unique person in the Godhead, sharing the same substance as the Father and Son. The Nicene confession, with subsequent revisions by Constantinople, reads as follows:

We believe in one God, the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, and of all things visible and invisible. And in one Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, begotten of the Father before all worlds, Light of Light, very God of very God, begotten, not made, being of one substance with the Father; by whom all things were made; who for us men, and for our salvation, came down from heaven, and was incarnate by the Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, and was made man; he was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate, and suffered, and was buried, and the third day he rose again, according to the Scriptures, and ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of the Father; from thence he shall come again, with glory, to judge the quick and the dead; whose kingdom shall have no end. And in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceedeth from the Father and the Son, who with the Father and the Son together is worshiped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. In one holy catholic and apostolic Church; we acknowledge one baptism for the remission of sins; we look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Debates surrounding the personhood of Christ and the details of his nature as the God-man began circulating in the 5th century. In 451, the Council of Chalcedon formalized a doctrine called the hypostatic union, that unmixed yet inseparable union of natures, Godhood and manhood, in the single person of Christ. Masterfully articulated, their confession frames the person of Christ as containing both natures in their fullness, without any distinctions or qualities of either being lost:

Following, then, the holy Fathers, we all unanimously teach that our Lord Jesus Christ is to us One and the same Son, the Self-same Perfect in Godhead, the Self-same Perfect in Manhood; truly God and truly Man; the Self-same of a rational soul and body; co-essential with the Father according to the Godhead, the Self-same co-essential with us according to the Manhood; like us in all things, sin apart; before the ages begotten of the Father as to the Godhead, but in the last days, the Self-same, for us and for our salvation (born) of Mary the Virgin Theotokos as to the Manhood; One and the Same Christ, Son, Lord, Only-begotten; acknowledged in Two Natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably; the difference of the Natures being in no way removed because of the Union, but rather the properties of each Nature being preserved, and (both) concurring into One Person and One Hypostasis; not as though He were parted or divided into Two Persons, but One and the Self-same Son and Only-begotten God, Word, Lord, Jesus Christ; even as from the beginning the prophets have taught concerning Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ Himself hath taught us, and as the Symbol of the Fathers hath handed down to us.

In the 16th and 17th centuries, England built its own church after Rome’s model, centralizing its power and authority on the Crown and the State. This however did not stop other Reformed denominations from developing. The Presbyterian Church published their Westminster Confession, which the Congregationalists modified into the Savoy Declaration. Both groups sought to publicize their theology and demonstrate that their beliefs were in line with those of Scripture and Christian history. Soon, Baptists in England saw the need to demonstrate the same thing, especially considering they rejected the paedobaptist practices of the Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists. In 1677, Baptists anonymously published the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith, heavily drawing from the Westminster and Savoy confessions both to show continuity with the Reformed doctrine of those confessions but also because they were very well articulated. Later, in 1689, England would pass legislation for the tolerance of dissenting religious groups, allowing the Baptists to re-publish their confession without fear.

(To clarify, there was a Baptist confession written by English Baptists in 1644, but this confession was mostly to draw distinction between the English Baptists and the Anabaptists of mainland Europe that they were accused of being associated with.)

the1689confession.com has many useful resources on the history of the 1689 Confession, as well as an interactive publishing of the full text. We at GLBC affirm the articles of the 1689 but formally hold to the New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith as we believe it is a more accessible, immediately relevant confession to our specific location and historical context as American Baptists.

Grace Life Baptist Church formally holds to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith as the confession we feel accurately represents our theological standing in our particular place in Christian history. Written in 1833 by Baptists in New Hampshire, the confession articulated a defense against specific challenges to the traditionally Calvinist theology of American Baptists, including hyper-Calvinism, anti-missionary efforts, and the rise of the Free Will Baptist movement. The confession presents 18 articles on various doctrines and positions including the responsibility of gospel witness, faith and repentance, and the doctrines of grace, defending the evangelical Calvinism that had so dominated global missions efforts for the previous two centuries.

Founders.org, a Baptist resource with many other helpful articles, has a helpful article on the context behind the New Hampshire Confession of Faith, and the full text of the confession can be found here.