If you are looking for a church that believes that God is real and alive then Oakland Baptist Church is for you! We offer all the benefits of a small country church where members are family as well as dynamic preaching and outstanding fellowship. Here at OBC, Christianity is not just a title, but a way of life as we seek to experience the fullness of God’s relationship with us (Phil. 3:12-15).
If your life seems to be lacking and you desire to experience Christianity the way God intended, then need to join Oakland Baptist Church. Here you can experience spiritual and emotional healing and growth.
If you are interested in becoming a member at OBC, please let the pastor know. Membership in OBC is attained by profession of faith, completing of the New Members Class and any one of the following:
- By Scriptural baptism by immersion after profession of faith in Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Savior
- By transfer of church letter from another Baptist Church
- By a statement of faith of prior experience of conversion and scriptural baptism by immersion in another evangelical church
God’s Plan for Salvation:
In today’s culture, it is popular to believe that there are many ways to go to heaven. After all, God is a loving God and is not willing for anyone to go to hell, so it makes sense that God would accept well meaning, good people to heaven right?
Unfortunately, well meaning and good people cannot go to heaven, only the unrighteous will make it there. This may seem strange but it is true. People who think they are righeous in and of themselves and believe that they deserve to go to heaven will surely miss it. Only those who recognize that they are unrighteous and unworthy of heaven have any chance of getting there. This is where the love of God is demonstrated. While we are sinners and deserve eternal punishment for our sins, God made a way of salvation for us! There are many today claiming that God seeks to save us from poverty, pain, suffering, political unrest, and eventually hell. But, those who proclaim such things miss the gospel altogether. For Christ did not die on the cross so we would not suffer (or else he owes the apostles and 2,000 years of Christianity an apology). Rather, Christ died on the cross to pay the penalty for our sins.
The disturbing truth is that until we realize that we are sinners in need of salvation from the power and penalty of sin, we cannot be saved. Or else, what will we be saved from? Once we recognize that we are sinners who cannot do enough good deeds to merit righteousness (Rom. 3:10-23), only then will we truly call out for a savior.
When we do call out for a savior, who should we call out to? According to Scripture, Jesus is the only true savior (John 14:6; Acts 4:12). He is such a savior, that while we hated Him, He still paid the penalty of our sins on the cross (Rom. 5:8; I John 4:10). Through Christ’s propitiation (turning away of God’s wrath), we have the opportunity to be reconciled back to God (which is what salvation is really about). However, the payment for our sin is not automatically applied to our account. It is a free gift (Rom. 6:23) but it must be received in order to be applied. How does one receive the free gift of salvation? According to Romans 10:9-13 all we have to do is “call” upon the name of Christ.
Sounds simple enough right? And it is, it is so simple that even a child can do it (Matt. 18:3). But there is a catch. To call upon the name of Christ does not mean that we simply acknowledge the existence of Christ and just say, “Yo! Jesus! Save Me!” For example, Matthew 7:21-23 reads, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness.'” You may be saying, “Now hold on a minute! Doesn’t Romans 10:13 say, ‘Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved’?” And you would be right, but there is a difference in wording between the two passages. In Matthew you will find that the Greek words for ‘say’ are lego (to call) in vs. 21 and ereo (to speak) in vs. 22. This refers to people who acknowledge the existence of Christ but fail to allow that knowledge to make any real difference in their lives (just as that knowledge did not make any saving difference in the lives of demons (eg. James 2:19). In the Romans passage, the phrase ‘call upon’ in the Greek is epikaleomai which means to call upon for one’s self. In other words, if you were drowning in a lake and were calling out for someone to ‘save’ you, you would not lego or ereo them, but rather you would epikaleomai them.
Calling upon the name of Jesus is a confession of faith (Rom. 10:9-10). It is the first outward manifestation of choosing the life of Christ. For salvation is not about getting out of hell and going to heaven, it is about dying to yourself so that Christ may live through you. Christianity is about Christ, not us. It is about us having a personal relationship with the God and Creator of the world and not about going to heaven (although eternal life is a nice perk).
There are many in the world today, even life-long church members, who have failed to actually accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior. As a result, their lives are empty and lack any hope or joy. They have a form of godliness, but no power (II Tim. 3:5). Fortunately, Christianity is not about us, it is about Christ in us (Col. 1:27). And we can all live a full and rewarding life once we decide that doing it our way just isn’t working and we really want to do it God’s way!