Baptist History and Distinctives Quiz 1

Baptists

• Roger williams

• Charles Spurgeon

• William carry

What is a Baptist

• About a set of doctrines

• Not styles, aesthetics, or traditions

Baptists acrostic

• Bible is the final authority for faith and practice

• Autonomy of the local church

• Priesthood of the believer

• Two ordinances (baptism and the Lord's Supper)

• Individual soul liberty

• Saved, baptized membership

• Two offices (pastor and deacon)

• Separation of church and state

Bible is the final authority for all matters of faith and practice

• The Bible is NOT our only authority 

- Government is a God-ordained authority - Romans 13:1-7

- Parents are a God-ordained authority- Ephesians 6:1-3

- The church has God-ordained authority- Hebrews 13:7, 17

• The Bible IS the only infallible authority!

- 2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Peter 1:20-21

- Hebrews 6:18, John 17:17

- Matthew 24:35, Isaiah 40:8, 1 Peter 1:23-25

Baptists' view on Bible authority

• Whatever the Bible teaches is to be believed 

• Whatever the Bible commands is to be obeyed

• Whatever the Bible commends is to be considered right and useful

• Whatever the Bible condemns is to be avoided

• The Bible is the authority on man’s condition and his only hope of salvation.

• The bible is the only plan for the Christian life of joy and victory

• The Bible is to be read, preached, lived, and shared

• No one person, denomination, ecclesiastical hierarchy, or government is to dictate the affairs of the church

• The Reformers coined “sola scriptura”; the Baptists lived it

Autonomy of the Local Church

• Greek word for church: ekklesia

- “ek” - out of

- “kaleo”- to call

- “ekklesia” - a called-out assembly

- 118 times in the NT

- 2x used to describe Israel as a called-out people (Acts 7:38, Hebrews 2:12)

- 3x used in a secular sense to describe a mob (Acts 19:32, 39, 41)

- sometimes used in a universal sense (Ephesians 5:25, 27)

- no matter your doctrinal positions, 80x it is clearly, obviously, exclusively talking about a local body of believers

The Baptist position

• The local church is God’s means of working on the earth today

• The Bible gives no instruction or expectation for the “universal” church to govern, but instead gives an example and instruction to local bodies of believers

• Local churches may sometimes partner together for various ministries like missions, outreach, ect, but they are each responsible to Christ as their head (Eph 5:23)

• What about Southern Baptists, ABCUSA, ect?

- As independent Baptists, we believe that these covenetions/denominations go beyond the biblical fellowship

- Compared to other denominations, these still offer local church autonomy 

Priesthood of the Believer 

• This is the Baptist distinctive that all Protestant denominations agree on and was a major driver of the Protestant Reformation

• 1 Tim 2:5, 1 Peter 2:5,9, Rev 1:6

• Believers can speak directly to God because of their relationship in Christ

• As believer priests, we are able to make spiritual sacrifices 

- We offer the sacrifice of praise to God- Heb 13:15

- We offer the sacrifice of prayer to God- Rev 8:3-4

- We offer the sacrifice of our possessions to God- Phil 4:15-18

- We offer the sacrifice of our person to God- Rom 12:1-2

Two ordinances

• Baptism and the Lord’s Supper

• Ordinances vs. sacraments 

- Catholics teach 7 sacraments: baptism, confirmation, Eucharist, penance, anointing of the sick, holy orders, and matrimony 

- Most Protestants identify only 2: baptism and Eucharist (what we call the Lord’s table

- Churches that teach sacraments teach that these are manifestations and impartation of God’s grace- functionally, this can become works salvation 

- Some Baptists have occasionally leaned more into sacramental views, but the vast majority and emphasis of Baptists have taught ordinances 

So what are ordinances then?

An ordinance is a spiritual practice instituted by Christ to represent and remind us of the gospel.

How should we baptize

immersion

baptizo- greek word for immersion

Who should be baptized?

• Believer's baptism is the biblical model

- Mark 16:16, Acts 2:41, Acts 8:13, Acts 18:8

- Pedobaptists argue that baptism is for believers and their children, but we see no precedent for this in the NT

   - Two main reasons for pedobaptism

-1. Belief in baptismal regeneration for infants who die before birth 

2. Belief in covenant theology whereby the church is a new Israel, so baptism is the new circumcision 

• Baptism is commanded (Acts 2:38, Matt 28:19)

• Baptism brings more intimate fellowship with the Lord (John 14:15, 15:14)

• Baptism publcilt identify sbeivers with Christ

• Should we rebaptize?

- ‘Anabaptists’ were so called because they were viewed as re-baptizers

- any baptism without faith is no true baptism, so they are not being re-baptized 

Individual soul liberty 

Individual soul liberty 

• Along with believer's baptism, this is the MOST baptis distinctive

• Religion must be voluntary, and cannot be compulsory 

• Christian faith and practice are matters of conscious and personal choice 

• Everyone will answer to God alone, not church authority 

• Every individual had a right to read the Bible and interpret it before God

• Man has a right to believe and declare to others whatever religious opinion he has, so long as they are not unjust to others 

Saved, Baptized Membership

• This is another distinctive that we think, isn't that what every Christian thinks

• When you allow infant baptism into the church, you open the door to unsaved members if they never came to faith 

• This distinctive is the one that has led to the most persecution of Baptists throughout history 

• Matt 28:19-20, Acts 8:36-38, 16:31-33

Why emphasize saved, baptized membership?

• The local church is not supposed to unite or partner with unbelievers (2 Cor 6:14, Eph 5:7)

• Professing believers who live in sin were to be put out of the church (1 Cor 5:11-13)

• Every local church in the NT that was written to was made up of believers