Baptist Distinctives

What makes a Baptist a Baptist? Someone once said that Baptists are like Heinz's products — 57 varieties. There are Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists (now called American Baptists, Hardshell Baptists, Softshell Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Missionary Baptists, General Association of Regular Baptists, Independent Baptists, Bible Baptists, Fundamental Baptists, Full Gospel Baptists, Seventh-Day Baptists, and many more. And that is just in North America. Although there are some significant and polarizing differences among these different Baptist denominations, there are certain things that most, if not all, Baptists hold in common: the Baptist distinctives.

1. Baptists believe in the authority of the Bible. The Bible is the first and final word in matters of belief and behavior.


2. Baptists believe in soul liberty. That means that each individual may believe according to the dictates of his or her own conscience.
   


3. Baptist believe in the autonomy of the local church. Each church is independent of hierarchical control. Churches are free to associate with other churches and religious bodies but are under no compulsion to do so.


4. Priesthood of all believers.


5. Baptists believe there are but two ordinances, preferring not to use the term sacrament. The two ordinances are believer’s baptism and the Lord’s Supper.
   


6. Baptists believe in a regenerate (born again), or saved church membership.


7. Baptists believe there are only two church offices: pastors and deacons.


8. Baptists believe in the separation of Church and State. This is understood to mean that the State cannot dictate to the Church nor is the Church to control the State.

There are often differences of interpretation and implementation of these distinctives among Baptists and some of these are also held by other denominations. Baptists are not creedal, meaning their belief system is not bound by any creed. Their view of the Bible and their belief in soul liberty allow them a liberty not readily available in other denominations of being able to come to a better and fuller understanding of the truth and of living out their faith with a good conscience.

So the Bible Is Wrong?

“The Bible got it wrong. Pride only goes before a fall when it’s hubris – excessive pride that veers into self-aggrandizement and conceit.” That sentence leads off an article on the value and necessity of pride for well-being. You can read it here.

Well, if this isn’t another case of gross stupidity, ignorance, and arrogance. “The Bible got it wrong,” Science Daily reports. Has the author of that statement ever read the Bible? Did he or she even bother to read the alleged quotation?

In the first place, the Bible doesn’t say, “Pride goes before a fall.” The reference is to the wise King Solomon’s statement found in Proverbs 16:18 that “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” That’s from the King James Version, modernized to contemporary verb endings.

Solomon is using a literary device called parallelism, in which the thought found in the first clause is repeated with different words in the second clause. In other words, pride and a haughty spirit are paralleled, as are destruction and fall. Perhaps if Solomon were alive today he would have used the word hubris rather than a haughty spirit. They are one and the same.

The research data, rather than disagreeing with the Bible, supports it. However, for a scientist to admit the Bible is right on relegates their work to the ash bin. Nonetheless, the Bible is right and no amount of research by all the puny minds that science can muster can match the wisdom of the Almighty. Whenever a scientist says the Bible is wrong (those are not the words of the researcher, but of the reporter) you can be assured that it is the scientist that is wrong.

Archaeologists used to prate that the Hittites mentioned in the Bible never existed. They had to eat crow on that one. They said Pilate, the governor that sentenced Jesus to death, was a fiction. They had to eat humble pie when evidence was unearthed to reveal that there was a real Governor Pilate.

There is only one reason to rail against the Bible: if the Bible is true, the unbeliever and the scoffer are doomed, for they will be held accountable by the Judge of all the Earth. Seems to me the Bible says the same thing, but much more eloquently:

Blessed is the man that walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the law of the LORD; and in his law he meditates day and night. And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he does shall prosper. The ungodly are not so: but are like the chaff which the wind drives away. Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous. For the LORD knows the way of the righteous: but the way of the ungodly shall perish. (Psalms 1:1-6)

...and that’s what is meant by pride going before the fall.

Sunday School Curriculum

It seems to me, and this is purely personal observation, opinion, and bias, that children growing up in evangelical churches nowadays are as ignorant of the Bible at the age of eighteen as they are at the age of eight. They do not know basic Bible teachings and as a result are totally unprepared to face the challenges of living for Christ once they have left their homes.

I was asked a while back what I thought a child should that has grown up in the church under my care should know by the time he or she is eighteen. After giving the question some thought I came up with the following items. If I were to give it more thought I could probably add some things to the list.

• The necessity of the new birth and how one finds life in Christ
  
  
• That salvation is entirely a work of God, is by grace and not by works
  
  — Is appropriated by faith alone
  — Involves a turning away from sin as well as a turning to Christ.
  

• The doctrine of the Bible with respect to inspiration and authority.

• How to determine if a translation or version is good or poor.

• Why we reject the Apocrypha

• The names of all the books of the Bible in the order they appear.

• How to study the Bible for oneself.

• The major characters of the Bible and what their roles.

• The major events of the Bible and where they are found.

• The Ten Commandments and where they are found.

• The Beatitudes and where they are found.

• The Lord’s Prayer and where it is found.

• The differences and similarities of the Gospels.

• The attributes and names of God.

• The meanings of theological words such as conversion, redemption, atonement, satisfaction, propitiation, sanctification, justification, and glorification.

• How to determine if a religious group is orthodox or a cult/false belief.

• How to know the will of God.

• What the Bible says regarding marriage, divorce, and sexual purity.

• The difference between Law and Grace.

• What it means to be united with Christ and how to preserve that connection.

Praise to the Holy Trinity

Three years ago I started a series of sermons based on St. Peter's first epistle. I needed a hymn to go along with the first three verses of the first chapter which read:

Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to God's elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood: grace and peace be yours in abundance. Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. (1 Peter 1:1-3)

I found nothing suitable in the hymn book, so wrote this. It may be sung to Duke Street (Jesus Shall Reign Where'r the Son)

Praise to the Holy Trinity
Praise to the Father, Spirit, Son
Praise for salvation, full and free.
Praise to you God for all you’ve done.

Praise to the Father, God above
Who chose me from eternity.
To be his child, his son of love,
That I might live from sin set free.

Praise the Spirit, who gave me birth.
Who sanctified me, cleansed my soul.
You made me see my soul’s great worth,
You washed my heart and made it whole.

Praise to the Son, who for me died
It was for me your blood was spilled,
With your love I am satisfied.
In your presence I am so thrilled.

Praise to you, Holy Trinity
Praise to you, Father, Spirit, Son
Praise to you through eternity
Praise to you,
O great Three in One

© 2004 Willard Paul, All Rights Reserved