PREFACE:
Baptists are an amazing people. They have no creed, yet they enjoy a remarkable unity. Scattered throughout the earth, having different ethnic backgrounds, living under varied types of governÂment, and faced with problems inherent in different social enviÂronments, they share a unity in diversity. This unity is a living faith and an abiding message.
It would be impossible for any one person to write an official statement of the Baptist faith and message. The writer of this book is a Southern Baptist. However, in no sense is this work a binding statement of faith and message for Southern Baptists. It is one Baptist's effort to interpret a statement which Southern Baptist messengers in assembled session voted as comprising a treatment of those basic elements of faith generally agreed upon by Southern Baptists. In large measure it is a statement in agreement with the faith and message of Baptists everywhere.
It is the prayer of the writer that his efforts will prove helpful in enabling others to understand more fully the Baptist faith and message. But he strongly urges that each one reading this volume will prayerfully and under the guidance of the Holy Spirit search "the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts I7:11). HERSCHEL H. HOBBS