“What makes a Baptist Church…Baptist?” Since we are located in a state dominated by Lutheran and Roman Catholic denominations, I’ve heard this question more than once. And in a recent conversation with a pastor’s wife from a city that was a little more in the Bible Belt, I confessed that there are probably quite a few folks here at EBC who aren’t really sure what it means to be Baptist, other than, “not Lutheran” or “not Catholic.” This is an oversight I hope to correct in the coming weeks.
While Baptist churches vary greatly in their beliefs and practices, there is a historical set of doctrines that distinguish Baptists from other Christians. That is not to say that Baptists are the only ones to ever believe these things, but only Baptists have consistently practiced all of them. Taken together, these doctrines help to explain what it means to be Baptist and how we do church at Emmanuel.
So what are these distinctives? They begin with our foundation and follow a logical order of development:
- Bible as the only rule for faith and practice
- Regenerate and immersed church membership
- Autonomy of the local church
- Priesthood of the believer
- Soul liberty
- Immersion and the Lord’s supper are the only two ordinances
- Separation, both ecclesiastical and ethical
Taken together, these doctrines help to explain what it means to be Baptist and how we do church at Emmanuel.
Many churches teach that the Bible is authoritative, but not all of these believe that God’s word is the final and ultimate decider of things for the church and for Christians. Baptists have always held that nothing carries any authority over the believer or the church unless it is derived from Scripture. Other books and traditions may offer some benefit for study and growth, but they cannot bind anyone’s conscience like the Bible. Our goal as Baptists is to follow Biblical teaching as closely as possible in every area of our faith, worship and organization.
What is it about the Bible that sets it apart from all others as the standard for Christian faith? First of all, it is a unique book. No other sacred book can compare to it in quality, consistency, and reliability. We’re talking about a collection of writings penned over a span of more than 1,500 years by more than 40 authors from every walk of life, including kings, military leaders, peasants, philosophers, fishermen, tax collectors, poets, musicians, statesmen, scholars and shepherds. It was written in a variety of literary styles, including poetry, historical narrative, song, romance, didactic treatise, personal correspondence, memoirs, satire, biography, autobiography, law, prophecy, parable and allegory. Yet for all of its diversity, the Bible communicates a unified message about the One true God and his creation program, in which he triumphs over the rebellion of his creatures, not by destroying them but by redeeming them along with the whole universe.
The Bible also supersedes the authority of the church or of any denomination. God told Moses and the children of Israel that they were to “keep the commandments of the LORD” without adding to or taking away from his word (Deut. 4:2). The Scriptures were the standard by which all prophets were to be tested (Deut. 13:1-4; 18:21-22). Jesus equated God’s word with truth itself. The apostles taught that the Scriptures are the seed which produces eternal life (1 Pet. 1:23-25), give wisdom that leads to salvation (2 Tim. 3:15), equip men to perform every good work that God calls them to do (2 Tim. 3:16-17), and are filled with precious promises that supply everything we need to live godly lives.
The Bible itself is the record of the teaching of the prophets and apostles on whom the church rests.
Although some have mistakenly argued, based on a misunderstanding of 1 Timothy 3:15, that the church is the foundation for the Bible, Paul is explicit in Ephesians 2:20 that the church is a spiritual house, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets. Contrary to the Roman Catholic Church which teaches that the apostles laid this foundation by their traditions outside of Scripture, the Bible itself is the record of the teaching of the prophets and apostles on whom the church rests.
The Bible’s authority rests not on its recognition, collation, or preservation by the church but on its divine origin (2 Pet. 1:20-21). And when the apostles spoke, they did not claim to be revealing their own traditions or beliefs. Any authority they claimed for their words being “the testimony of God” (1 Cor. 2:1). They wanted believers’ faith to rest on the power of God’s Holy Spirit who revealed the very thoughts of God to men (v.2-13). They recognized that the Scriptures, especially the NT writings, represented a particular body of truth “handed down once for all to the saints” (Jude 3).
As B. H. Carroll wrote in 1913 in Baptists and Their Doctrines, “The New Testament is the law of Christianity! Let the disciples of Zoroaster, Brahma, Confucius, Zeno and Epicurus hear it. And when Mahomet comes with his Koran, or Joe Smith with his book of Mormon, or Swedenborg with his new revelations, or spirit-rappers, wizards, witches and necromancers with their impostures, confront each in turn with the all-sufficient revelation of this book, and when science—falsely so called (properly speculative philosophy)—would hold up the book as moribund, effete or obsolete, may that Baptist voice rebuke it. Christ himself set up his kingdom. Christ himself established his church. Christ himself gave us Christian law. And the men whom he inspired furnish us the only reliable record of these institutions. They had no successors in inspiration. The record is complete. Prophecy and vision have ceased. The canon of revelation and the period of legislation are closed. Let no man dare to add to it or take from it, or dilute it, or substitute for it. It is written. It is finished.”