Each Primitive Baptist Church has been constituted on a set of beliefs summarized in Articles of Faith, which vary church to church, but contain several key elements in common, most of which are common to all Christian Religions. The first article is a belief in One True and Living God, and that Jesus was his only son and that the Holy Spirit was the Comforter that was promised to come into the world. The second broad category of belief is that baptism should be by immersion, most practicing baptizing backward, although a few baptizing face first. Though not a generally accepted ordinance, a widely practiced or- dinance in Appalachia is the washing of the feet of the saints, though it is not generally practiced in Northern Primitive Baptist Churches. Only members of the church are allowed to participate in these ordinances.
Membership is obtained by baptism or transfer by letter from another church of the same faith.
For example, a member of a Southern Baptist Church could only join by baptism, not by transfer. Most, but not all, Primitive Baptist Churches do not permit their members to belong to secret societies, such as the Masonic Lodge, Odd Fellows or any other society which does not permit anyone to attend. This rule seems to have been developed just after the American Civil War to prohibit membership in the Union League and in the Ku Klux Klan and in order to make the rule fair extended to any institution which didn't permit general membership. Most Primitive Baptist Churches in the pre-Civil War era and for sometime after the war, permitted membership of black persons, in fact I know of none that prohibit black membership at the present time, though most black persons formed their own churches in the Reconstruction period of American History. The key point that makes the Primitive Baptist Church unique, at least in the current time, is a belief in Predestination.