What We Believe | Crossroads Church

Our Beliefs

We like to classify our beliefs the same way the hospital evaluates patients when they come into the Emergency Room. The hospital calls it a Triage. The word triage comes from the French word trier, which means "to sort," thus, the triage officer in the medical context is the front-line agent for deciding which patients need the most urgent treatment. Without such a process, the scraped knee would receive the same urgency of consideration as a gunshot wound to the chest. The same discipline that brings order to the hectic arena of the Emergency Room can also offer great assistance to Christians defending truth in the present age.

A discipline of theological triage would require Christians to determine a scale of theological urgency that would correspond to the medical world's framework for medical priority. Dr. Mohler suggests three different levels of theological urgency, each corresponding to a set of issues and theological priorities found in current doctrinal debates.

(Theological Triage by Albert Mohler)

Theological Triage

First-Order

First-order theological issues would include those doctrines most central and essential to the Christian faith. Included among these most crucial doctrines would be doctrines such as the Trinity, the full deity and humanity of Jesus Christ, justification by faith, and the authority of Scripture. These first-order doctrines represent the most fundamental truths of the Christian faith, and a denial of these doctrines represents nothing less than an eventual denial of Christianity itself.

Authority of the Bible (inerrancy and infallibility of God’s Word)
One Supreme God revealing Himself in the Holy Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit)
Salvation by Faith in Jesus Christ alone
Regeneration and Sanctification by the Holy Spirit. This is the point of salvation in our life and our salvation working in us throughout our life.
Priesthood of Believers, all Christians have equal access to God’s revelation of truth through His Holy Word.
Perseverance of the Saints, a true believer will never lose their salvation through Christ. This does not mean they won’t stumble, but the drawing of the Holy Spirit will not allow them to quit the faith.
Sexuality, God created man and woman to be different and to compliment each in life. As a Baptist we believe God created marriage to be between a man and woman until death separates them. We also hold to God’s perfect creation and God created a male to be a man and a female to be a woman.

The set of second-order doctrines is distinguished from the first-order set by the fact that believing Christians may disagree on the second-order issues, though this disagreement will create significant boundaries between believers. When Christians organize themselves into congregations and denominational forms, these boundaries become evident.

Second-Order

Second-order issues would include the meaning and mode of baptism. Baptists and Presbyterians, for example, fervently disagree over the most basic understanding of Christian baptism. The practice of infant baptism is inconceivable to the Baptist mind, while Presbyterians trace infant baptism to their most basic understanding of the covenant. Standing together on the first-order doctrines, Baptists and Presbyterians eagerly recognize each other as believing Christians, but recognize that disagreement on issues of this importance will prevent fellowship within the same congregation or denomination.

Baptism pictures what Christ has done for the believer in His death, burial, resurrection. Baptism is by immersion only.
Church authority, each Southern Baptist church is an autonomous body of believers.
Women Pastors, we believe that God create all people as equal, but the husband or man has authority in the household and responsibility to protect his family. While both men and women are gifted to serve in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men.
Heaven and Hell, as a Baptist we hold to a literate Heaven and a literal Hell. All mankind will spend eternity either in Heaven or Hell. People who have trusted Jesus Christ as Lord will spend eternity in Heaven, while those who have rejected God’s Son will spend eternity in Hell.

Third-Order

Third-order issues are doctrines over which Christians may disagree and remain in close fellowship, even within local congregations. We would put most of the debates over eschatology, for example, in this category. Christians who affirm the bodily, historical, and victorious return of the Lord Jesus Christ may differ over timetable and sequence without rupturing the fellowship of the church. Christians may find themselves in disagreement over any number of issues related to the interpretation of difficult texts or the understanding of matters of common disagreement. Nevertheless, standing together on issues of more urgent importance, believers can accept one another without compromise when third-order issues are in question.