Distinctives and Doctrines

What makes Heartland Baptist Bible College unique?

Distinctives

Local Church Ministry

Bible colleges often claim a close relationship to the local church—sometimes because they were established as ministries of individual local churches. Yet, many Bible colleges are accountable to non-denominational, para-church accrediting agencies, and a growing percentage of these colleges’ funding comes through dependence upon grants from the federal government.

Heartland Baptist Bible College’s accountability comes through a board of directors comprised of independent fundamental Baptist pastors who, in turn, were elected to serve by independent fundamental Baptist pastors. A strong percentage of the college’s funding comes through several hundred local churches who support HBBC monthly and through a yearly May College Offering.

With this local church accountability in place, Heartland Baptist Bible College maintains a committed, special relationship to Southwest Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. A strong majority of students are required to be members of Southwest Baptist Church and to serve weekly in ministry. Pastor Jason Gaddis is not just a pastor in name only; he and the other members of the church staff labor to provide personal, shepherding care for each student.

Furthermore, Heartland Baptist Bible College does not sever students’ relationships with their home pastors. Rather, when students struggle or are making major life decisions, HBBC administration purposefully involves home pastors—knowing these pastors understand the students’ backgrounds and have already invested deeply into them.

Heartland Baptist Bible College is accountable to the local church, funded by the local church, works through the local church, and exists to train men and women to serve in local church ministry.

For more information on Heartland's relationship with the local church, click here.

Biblical Doctrines and Baptist Distinctives

A Baptist college’s name does not prove its devotion to right doctrine or to ecclesiastical separation. Many institutions founded on precious, biblical beliefs slowly abandon them as expansion becomes more important than fidelity.

At HBBC, “Baptist” and “Bible” are more than words in the college’s name; they represent convictions that dictate the college’s identity and mission.

The college reinforces its commitment to Bible doctrine by selecting only independent fundamental Baptist professors and staff (with more than 1,000 years of combined, faithful ministry experience), as well as accepting only independent fundamental Baptist students.

Our theology courses pulse with passion for the biblical view of salvation and the local church, and every student on campus—regardless of major—takes courses on both Baptist history and Baptist distinctives. Through a 4-year program of study at Heartland Baptist Bible College, students absorb hundreds of hours of rich Bible exposition.

Conservative Ministry Philosophy

Bible colleges often function as formative greenhouses for young preachers and as resource centers for ministry instruction. Between these two points of influence, a Bible college can shape the ministry philosophy of many pastors and churches. Unfortunately, some Bible colleges spend their influence on style rather than substance and, thereby, implicitly communicate that ministry effectiveness lies primarily in appearance.

Heartland Baptist Bible College believes in the sufficiency of the Holy Spirit, the Word of God, and the local church to accomplish God’s work. HBBC endeavors to do everything with excellence because the Lord and His work deserve it—not because culture demands it. This belief in well-executed fundamentals for Jesus’ sake is the mainstay of the college’s philosophy of ministry.

Someone visiting Heartland Baptist Bible College will likely encounter a joyous, friendly, wholesome spirit that manifests itself in genuine fellowship, God-honoring music, and authoritative preaching. Visitors do not find an effort to reinvent, redefine, or repackage Christianity.

Someone visiting Southwest Baptist Church finds a sincere effort to maintain stirring, impactful services that reflect the same conservative ministry philosophy as is present at HBBC. In this way, students and guests can receive a consistent and reinforcing message of biblical faith and practice, rather than a conflicting and confusing one.

King James Bible as the Preserved Word of God

Heartland Baptist Bible College is unashamed in its use and defense of the King James Bible. Holding this position does not require a harsh or negative spirit, but it does require a firm and vigilant stance.

Although some Bible colleges have become ambiguous on the issue of Bible translation, Heartland Baptist Bible College is clear. The college confidently affirms that every administrator, every professor, every staff member, and every class at Heartland Baptist Bible College—as well as every HBBC publication—uses only the King James Version. It is the preserved Word of God.

Biblical Preaching Emphasis

A centerpiece of any ministry education environment should be training men to preach God’s Word. Disappointingly, many Bible colleges do not appropriately emphasize preaching among other ministry methods, and many that promote preaching do not understand biblical preaching.

HBBC believes preaching is God’s chosen method for impacting the world, and the college is determined to equip the next generation of God-called preachers to fulfill the responsibility fervently and accurately. In fact, HBBC’s entire program of study for pastors, missionaries, and youth leaders is intentionally designed to culminate in two full years of preaching courses. Through this emphasis, students learn that biblical preaching requires a man to find God’s intent and to follow Scripture’s intent for how best to communicate that truth to the congregation. This biblical philosophy, combined with practical instruction, converge to provide future preachers with a powerful skillset for faithful exposition.

HBBC’s preaching emphasis can also be found well beyond the classroom. When students assemble for chapel, the college invites preachers to deliver God’s Word to them. When the college assembles for meetings and invites guests to participate, biblical preaching is the lifeblood and the engine of the meeting. When the college’s representatives minister to churches, they are eager to preach the Bible wherever possible. When HBBC graduates enter ministry, their training has equipped them to declare God’s Word with distinctive earnestness and accuracy.

Great Commission Focus through Missions and Church Planting

In an effort to address many possible interests, Bible colleges can begin to do everything but train people for gospel ministry. However, it just makes sense that Bible colleges that exist for the benefit of the local church should focus on training people to do the work Jesus gave His local church—the Great Commission.

To this end, Heartland Baptist Bible College intentionally points students’ attention toward soul-winning, church planting, and foreign missions.

Students are required to participate in weekly outreach opportunities. Bus ministry, two weekly door-knocking times, street evangelism, neighborhood Bible time, and new-move-in visitation all provide occasions for students to share the gospel and to receive outreach training from seasoned soul-winners. Oklahoma City is a thriving, diverse city that needs the gospel, and students get real-world opportunities to make a difference while training to make a difference.

For students in any 4-year major, the theoretical becomes practical as they participate in each major’s built-in, comprehensive internship program. Ministry preparation journals, Christian service requirements, ministry interviews, and practical ministry sessions all activate students’ learning into simultaneous preparation and practice.

The Heartland National Church Planting Conference is a highlight and delight each year, and God has used the meeting’s preaching and testimonies to call many students to church planting. Many students also participate in work trips, outreach trips, or internships alongside church planters all over the country.

Missions Emphasis Days at Southwest Baptist Church impacts students each year with the local church’s global mandate, and many graduates on mission fields today would point to HBBC’s missions emphasis as integral to formalizing their call to the field. Every other summer, students visit a foreign mission field to assist a veteran missionary and to encounter the field first-hand. The college also hosts 10/40 Window Prayer Conferences, during which the HBBC family assembles for three days of prayer for some of the world’s most populous and unreached places.

Doctrines

In view of the present apostasy (in which many are departing from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, teaching the commandments of men, and disseminating the seeds of fatal error involving the honor of our Lord and the destiny of souls) Heartland Baptist Bible College sets forth a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us. This record is the Confession of Faith to which we subscribe and to which HBBC requires the subscription of the leadership and members of the faculty and student body.

The Scriptures

We believe the Holy Bible was written by men supernaturally inspired; that it has truth for its matter without any admixture of error; that it is and shall remain to the end of the age the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man; and that it is the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and opinions should be tried. We believe the Authorized (King James) Version, Old and New Testaments, is the Word of God kept intact for English-speaking peoples by way of God’s divine providence and work of preservation; and that the Authorized Version translators were not “inspired,” but were merely God’s instruments used to preserve His words for English-speaking peoples.

By Holy Bible we mean that collection of sixty-six books, from Genesis to Revelation, which, as originally written and providentially preserved, does not only contain and convey the Word of God, but is the very Word of God.

By inspiration we mean that the books of the Bible were written by holy men of God as they were moved by the Holy Ghost in such a definite way that their writings were supernaturally and verbally inspired and free from error, as no other writings have ever been or ever will be inspired.

By providentially preserved we mean that God through the ages has, in His divine providence, preserved the very words that He inspired; that the Hebrew Old Testament text, as found in the Traditional Masoretic Text, and the Greek New Testament text, as found in the Textus Receptus, are indeed the products of God’s providential preservation and are altogether the complete, preserved, inerrant Word of God.

We therefore believe and require that the Authorized Version (King James Version) be the only English version used and or endorsed by the staff, faculty, and student body of this college.

Dt 4:2; Ps 12:6-7; Ps 19:7-11; Ps 119:89,105,130,160; Isa 8:20; Isa 40:8; Jer 23:29; Ezk 12:25; Mt 5:17-18; Mt 22:29; Lk 24:44-45; Jn 12:48; Jn 17:17; Jn 20:30-31; Rom 3:4; Rom 15:4; Eph 6:17; II Tim 3:16-17; Heb 4:12; I Pt 1:23-25; II Pt 1:19-21; Rev 22:18-19.

The True God

We believe there is one and only one living and true God, an infinite intelligent Spirit, the Maker and Supreme Ruler of heaven and earth; that He is inexpressible, glorious in holiness, and worthy of all possible honor, confidence, and love; that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons:  the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, equal in every divine perfection and executing distinct but harmonious offices in the great work of redemption.

The Holy Spirit

We believe the Holy Spirit is a divine person, equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature; that He was active in creation; that in His relation to the unbelieving world He restrains the evil one until God’s purpose is fulfilled, and He convicts of sin, of judgment, and of righteousness; that He bears witness to the truth of the Gospel in preaching and testimony; that He is the agent in the new birth; and that He seals, endues, guides, teaches, witnesses to, sanctifies, and helps the believer.

The Devil or Satan

We believe that Satan was once holy and enjoyed heavenly honors, but through pride and ambition to be as the Almighty, fell and drew after him a host of angels; and that he is now the malignant prince of the power of the air and the unholy god of this world.  We hold him to be man’s greatest tempter, the enemy of God and His Christ, the accuser of the saints, the author of all false religions, the chief power back of the present apostasy, the lord of the Antichrist, and the author of all the powers of darkness.  He is destined, however, to final defeat at the hand of God’s Son and to a judgment of everlasting fire, prepared for him and his angels.

The Creation

We believe in the Genesis account of creation and that it is to be accepted literally and not allegorically or figuratively; that man was created directly by God in God’s own image and after His own likeness; that man’s creation was not a matter of evolution or evolutionary change of species or developments through interminable periods of time from lower to higher forms; and that all animal and vegetable life were made directly, and God’s established law was that they should bring forth only after his kind.

The Fall of Man

We believe that man was created in innocence under the law of his Maker, but by voluntary transgression fell from his sinless and happy state; consequently, all mankind are now sinners, not by constraint but by choice, and therefore are under just condemnation without defense or excuse.

The Virgin Birth

We believe that Jesus Christ was begotten of the Holy Ghost in a miraculous manner: born of Mary, a virgin, as no other man was ever born or can ever be born of woman; and He was born the Son of God and God the Son.

The Atonement for Sin

We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace through the mediatorial offices of the Son of God, who by appointment of the Father freely took upon Himself our nature yet without sin, who honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and who by His death made a full and vicarious atonement for our sins, thus we have redemption through His blood; that His atonement consisted not in setting us an example by His death as a martyr, but was the voluntary substitution of Himself in the sinner’s place, the Just dying for the unjust, Christ the Lord bearing our sins in His own body on the tree; that, having risen from the dead, He is now enthroned in heaven and uniting in His wonderful person the most tender sympathies with divine perfection; and that He is in every way qualified to be a suitable, compassionate, and all-sufficient Saviour.

Grace in the New Creation

We believe that, in order to be saved, sinners must be born again; that the new birth is a new creation in Christ Jesus; that it is instantaneous and not a process; that in the new birth the one dead in trespasses and in sins is made a partaker of the divine nature and receives eternal life, the free gift of God; that the new creation is brought about in a manner above our comprehension and is not by culture, nor by character, nor by the will of man, but wholly and solely by the power of the Holy Spirit in connection with divine truth so as to secure our voluntary obedience to the Gospel; and that proper evidence of the new birth appears in the holy fruits of repentance and faith and newness of life.

The Freeness of Salvation

We believe in God’s electing grace: that the blessings of salvation are made free to all by the Gospel; that it is the immediate duty of all to accept them by a cordial, penitent, and obedient faith; and that nothing prevents the salvation of the greatest sinner on earth but his own inherent depravity and voluntary rejection of the Gospel, which rejection involves him in an aggravated condemnation.

Justification

We believe that the great Gospel which Christ secures to such as believe in Him is justification; that justification includes the pardon of sin and the gift of eternal life on principles of righteousness; and that it is bestowed not in consideration of any works of righteousness which we have done, but His righteousness is imputed unto us solely through faith in the Redeemer’s blood.

Repentance and Faith

We believe that repentance and faith are solemn obligations, and also inseparable graces, wrought in our souls by the quickening Spirit of God; thereby, being deeply convicted of our guilt, danger, and helplessness, and of our need of salvation by Christ, we turn to God with unfeigned contrition, confession, and supplication for mercy and at the same time heartily receive the Lord Jesus Christ and openly confess Him as our only and all-sufficient Saviour.

The Church

We believe that a Baptist church is a congregation of baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word; and that its officers are pastors or elders and deacons whose qualifications, claims and duties are clearly defined in the Scriptures.  We believe the true mission of the church is found in the Great Commission:  first, to make individual disciples; second, baptize and build up the church; third, to teach and instruct as He commanded. We do not believe in the reversal of this order, and we hold that the local church has the absolute right of self-government, free from the interference of any hierarchy of individuals or organizations.  We believe that the one and only superintendent is Christ through the Holy Spirit; that it is scriptural for true churches to cooperate with each other in contending for the faith and for the furtherance of the Gospel; that every church is the sole and only judge of the measure and method of its cooperation; and that on all matters of membership, of policy, of government, of discipline, of benevolence, the will of the local church is final.

Baptism and the Lord's Supper

We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer in the name of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, by the authority of the local church, to show forth a solemn and beautiful emblem of our faith in the crucified, buried, and risen Saviour with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; and that it is prerequisite to the privileges of a church membership and to the Lord’s Supper, which the members of the church by the use of bread and the fruit of the vine are to commemorate together the death and coming of the Lord, preceded always by solemn self-examination.

The Security of the Believer

We believe that all the redeemed are kept by the power of God and are secure in Christ.  It is a work of God which guarantees that the gift of salvation, once received, cannot be lost, and believers are eternally secure.

The Righteous and the Wicked

We believe that there is a radical and essential difference between the righteous and the wicked; that all such as through faith are justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and sanctified by the Spirit of our God are truly righteous in His esteem, while all such as continue in impenitence and unbelief are in His sight wicked and under the curse; and that this distinction holds among men both in and after death in the everlasting happiness of the saved and the everlasting conscious suffering of the lost.

Civil Government

We believe that civil government is ordained of God; that its purpose is to punish evil doers and to praise good works that we may lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty; that we are commanded to pray for those in authority; that we are to render to all their dues:  tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.  We are to render to government the things which belong to the government and to God the things that belong to God.

The Resurrection and Return of Jesus Christ and Related Events

We believe in and accept the sacred Scripture upon these subjects at their face and full value.  Of the resurrection, we believe that Christ arose bodily the third day according to the Scriptures; and that He alone is our merciful and faithful high priest in things pertaining to God.  Of the return of Christ, we believe that this same Jesus which is taken up from you into heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven.  Jesus will come in the air for His saints before the tribulation period.  After the tribulation, He will return to the earth and reign a thousand years.

Missions

We believe that the command to give the Gospel to the world is clear and unmistakable; and that this commission was given to the churches to go, make disciples, baptize them, and teach them.

The Grace of Giving

We believe that God’s method of financing His earthly work, which is the spreading of the Gospel to all nations, the care of the churches, and the support of the ministry, is by the tithes and offerings of His people; that it is to be given to the Lord through His church or storehouse to be distributed as directed by the leadership of the Spirit as the need arises; that upon the first day of the week everyone will lay by him in store as God hath prospered him; that everyone is accountable to the Lord for one-tenth of his income; and that tithing was instituted long before the law was given, and it was practiced by the early church.

Human Sexuality

We believe that God has commanded that no sexual activity should be engaged in outside of a one-man one-woman marriage.  

We believe that any form of adultery, fornication, homosexuality, lesbianism, pedophilia, bisexuality, bestiality, incest, and pornography are sinful perversions of God’s gift of sex and design for mankind.

FAQs

How many majors does Heartland offer?

Heartland offers 15 majors across 6 academic departments. The majors include 4-year programs in a variety of pastoral, missions, youth ministries, education, and music disciplines, as well as a 2-year Ministry Secretarial program and a 1-year Bible Certificate program. See the complete list of majors and the course catalog here.

Is Heartland a local church ministry?

Because Heartland is not organized as a ministry of one specific church, perhaps you’ve wondered:

• Is Heartland a local church ministry, or is it a parachurch organization?

• Can our church send students to Heartland when we believe ministry training is a local church responsibility?

• Why is Heartland not under the exclusive authority of Southwest Baptist Church?

These are reasonable questions that warrant clear answers. We are passionate about biblical church doctrine, which means we’re glad to explain how a high view of the local church can co-exist with fervent support for Heartland.

Click here for more information.

How does Heartland's cost compare to other colleges?

The average price for a year of Bible college in 2024 across the nation was $15,145. Out of 15 Christian colleges, with prices ranging from $6,000 to $29,670 per year, Heartland ranks as one of the most affordable at $9,060.

Click here to learn more!

How does Heartland support students academically?

Heartland desires for all students to thrive academically and provides multiple layers of academic support. All students are assigned to an academic department through which the student’s department chair is available to answer program-related questions and to give academic counsel. The Academic Affairs Office monitors students’ academic progress and provides guidance for those who need additional support. Instructors view their teaching responsibilities as a ministry to students and are eager to offer personalized help. Tutors are also available for a variety of subjects.

All of these support layers (and more) reinforce our care for students.

What quality of education will I receive at Heartland?

Heartland’s administration and board of directors (comprised of 22 pastors) are dedicated to excellence in ministry training without the influence of any accreditation association led by theologians from other denominations. Because the college is not entangled in bureaucratic accreditation processes, Heartland’s resources can be focused on giving students a high-quality education that prepares them for real-life Christian service. This quality of education is rooted in instructors’ personal walk with God and extensive ministry experience, as well as the leadership’s high academic standards. Through purposefully designed curriculum—and enriching and practical instruction—students are challenged to devote their minds to Christ, which gives them grace to excel in the academic rigors they encounter.

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CONTACT US

Email: [email protected]

Phone: 877-943-9330

Office Hours: 8:00am to 5:00pm

Mailing Address:

4700 NW 10th St

Oklahoma City, OK 73127

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