I recently taught at the College in Edmonton on Baptist History and Doctrine. I was reminded of the great privilege of being identified with so many heroes of the faith.
You may be affiliated with a Baptist church because of conditioning—you grew up attending a Baptist church, so you do now. Or perhaps convenience—it’s the church you currently appreciate the most or at least the best church within driving distance. Yet I hope you are a Baptist by conviction, because you believe the Baptist distinctives most accurately reflect the Bible’s teaching, as best you can tell.[1]
All real Baptists believe the fundamentals of the faith (the existence of God, the virgin birth of Christ, the substitutionary death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, salvation by grace through faith, the authority of Scripture, and the like). In other words, we believe what all true Christians believe. But we also believe some doctrines that not all Christians agree on.
Other Christian groups believe some of these distinctives. For instance, the Free Presbyterians believe in the separation of church and state.
Some churches that don’t call themselves “Baptists” adhere to all the Baptist distinctives (such as certain Bible or Community churches). In these cases, the Bible church or Community church is baptistic, whether they claim the Baptist label explicitly.
The label is certainly not the most significant factor (though I hope you are grateful to be in a Baptist church that is not ashamed to be identified as such); the beliefs are. And the most important Baptist belief is complete trust in the authority of Scripture to govern all our lives. We, as Baptists, believe the Bible teaches the following doctrines.
Distinctive Beliefs
1) Regenerate Church Membership
While we cannot guarantee every member of our Baptist church is a believer (since we cannot know hearts), we do strive for a pure church by welcoming into membership only those who:
Have a credible testimony (understand the gospel and claim to have embraced it).
Have been immersed as a believer.
Accept the statement of faith of the church.
Are validating their testimony of salvation by a growing spiritual life. Therefore, maintaining a pure church requires practicing church discipline.
Baptists will not baptize babies into the church family (because babies can’t understand, let alone embrace the gospel) or admit into membership those who deny the gospel.
2) Baptism (Immersion) of Believers
Genuine Baptists believe that the sprinkling of babies or even the sprinkling of believers are not baptism at all. Thus, membership in a Baptist church (that is consistent) requires immersion as a believer. Baptists (John Bunyan notwithstanding!) cannot accept believers into church membership who have been poured on or sprinkled since sprinkling and pouring are not Christian baptism.
If a believer has not obeyed the first command of Christian obedience, why should we expect them to obey the others?
The Scriptural record is clear: sincerity is not sufficient by itself. Believers who say, “When I was sprinkled as a new believer, I was intending it to represent my identification as a follower of Christ,” though sincere, they are not yet obedient. God expects precise obedience to His command to be immersed.
We cannot communicate to new believers that unintentional disobedience to the commands of God is a trivial matter. Otherwise, we as pastors are complicit in their disobedience.
3) Local Church Autonomy
Baptist churches, unlike many Reformed, Presbyterian, or Anglican churches do not recognize any religious authority as higher than the local church. No ecclesiastical body should attempt to force a local church to submit to them. Consequently, fellowships (of individual Christians) are biblically legitimate, while denominations and conventions are less so, in my estimation.
Autonomy communicates independence, yet since many in our day view independence as isolationism or dictatorialism (because of a negative experience with a pastor), perhaps a more helpful, less sullied term is “unaffiliated.”[2] Consistent Baptists are unaffiliated Baptists.
4) Congregational Church Government
Baptists believe the members of the congregation should make the major decisions for their church family. This best reflects the data in the New Testament:
. Matthew 18:15-20; 1 Cor. 5; 2 Cor. 2:6—church discipline (notice the phrase “the majority” in 2 Cor. 2:6).
. Acts 6:1-6—choosing its own leaders
. Acts 13—sending out the missionaries it believes the Spirit is calling
. 1 Cor. 16:3—choosing who would carry their financial gift
Congregationalism does not discount the responsibility of members to follow their pastoral leaders (1 Thess. 5:12-13; Heb. 13:7, 17; Acts 20:28; 1 Tim. 5:17-19; 1 Pet. 5:1-2). Admittedly, many churches fail to find this balance. Yet Baptist churches that are elder-rule are inconsistent in their understanding of and application of the biblical data; deacon-rule is not taught in Scripture either.
To summarize: “…each local church should be ruled by Jesus Christ, governed by its members, led by its pastors/elders, and served by its deacons.”[3]
5) Religious Freedom (Separation of Church and State)
Baptists, in contrast to the major Protestant Reformers (Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Knox) have been a voice for separation of church and state throughout the past four centuries. True Baptists believe each citizen should be allowed “to follow his conscience in religious matters without any human coercion.”[4] This belief is also called soul liberty.
In other words, Baptist don’t want Jews, Muslims, atheists, or anyone punished by the government for not obeying the first four commands of the Decalogue. Forced worship of God is not worship at all.
However, the government should intervene (e.g. make and enforce laws) when a citizen’s religious beliefs (or lack of religious beliefs) infringe on the safety and well-being of other members of society.
Bauder summarizes our perspective well: “The state has no right to establish a religion or prohibit its free exercise.”[5]
John Leland, a Baptist pastor in Virginia in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s, was a tireless proponent for religious liberty (and for abolition). He wrote, “Whenever men fly to the law or sword to protect their system of religion, and force it upon others, it is evident that they have something in their system that will not bear the light, and stand upon the basis of truth.”[6] Leland also wrote, “The notion of a Christian commonwealth should be exploded forever....Government should protect every man in thinking and speaking freely and see that one does not abuse another. The liberty I contend for is more than toleration. The very idea of toleration is despicable; it supposes that some have a pre-eminence above the rest to grant indulgence, whereas all should be equally free—Jews, Turks [Muslims], Pagans, and Christians."[7]
6) The Priesthood of Believers
This distinctive recognizes the responsibility and privilege of every believer to talk to God directly (without the need for a priestly mediator) because of the work of our High Priest (Rev. 1:6; 5:10). Christ is the only mediator between God and men (1 Tim. 2:5). He is sufficient!
Conclusion
With the increasing popularity of a more Reformed or Presbyterian outlook in church doctrine, practice, and polity, many pastors are hesitant to be identified as Baptists. We are grateful for our Presbyterian friends, yet we need not shy away from associating ourselves with our Baptist brothers and sisters who have stood for almost four hundred years for the absolute authority of the Scripture. I’m grateful to be a Baptist by conviction! How about you?
[1] Anthony Chute, Nathan Finn, and Michael Haykin: The Baptist Story: from English Sect to Global Movement (Nashville: B & H, 2015), 325-26.
[2] David Beale, Baptist History in England and America: Personalities, Positions, and Practices (Maitland, FL: Xulon Press, 2018), 532.
[3] Chute, Finn, and Haykin, 339.
[4] Chute, Finn, and Haykin, 342.
[5] Kevin Bauder, Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church Order (Schaumburg, IL: Regular Baptist Press, 2012), 131.
[6] John Leland, The Rights of Conscience Inalienable (1791).
[7] John Leland, A Chronicle of His Time in Virginia (1790).
