The
distinguishing marks of the Baptist Church are better seen in what we believe. To
be specific we hold dearly a particular Distinctive. This article focuses on the
basics of those Baptist Distinctives. In his booklet, Conrad Mbewe has pointed
out eight Distinctives that he suggests as the basic distinguishing marks of a
Baptist. It is upon these I also shall dwell. However, though they are so to us
Baptists, we do not hesitate to acknowledge that there are many others in the body
of Christ that hold dearly to these Distinctives, but are not referred to as Baptist
churches. Such are said to be Baptist-tic in belief. Meaning their doctrine is
inclined to a Baptist position. But that aside for now!
Let
us observe the following Distinctives and see what distinguishes the historical
Baptist church. These doctrinal Distinctives have stood out in Baptist churches
across most of its life. Therefore, if
we are to be true Baptists, these basic minimum beliefs must be adhered to.
AUTHORITY
OF SCRIPTURE: To
us, Baptists, the teaching of the written Word of God is supreme above
everything else that we say or do. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith says,
“The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain and infallible rule of all
saving knowledge, faith and obedience.”
It also says, “the supreme judge, by which all controversies of religion
are to be determined, and all decrees of councils, opinions of ancient writers,
doctrines of men and private spirits, are to be examined, and in whose sentence
we are to rest, can be no other but the Holy Scripture delivered by the Spirit,
into which Scripture so delivered, our faith is finally resolved.” Our Confessions of Faith are, therefore,
never seen as authoritative in themselves but rather merely as declarations of
what we believe to be the most important teaching of the Bible. We must be careful to ensure that this is our
understanding of our Confession too.
LIBERTY
OF CONSCIENCE: We,
Baptists, disapprove attempts by those who have the power to intimidate people
to their philosophies or religious point of view. The fruit of this attempt has always been to
persecute those who resisted the intimidation.
The 1689 Baptist Confession of
Faith says, “God alone is Lord of the conscience,
and hath left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are in
anything contrary to his Word, or not contained in it. So that to believe such
doctrines, or obey such commands out of conscience, is to betray true liberty
of conscience, and the requiring of an implicit faith, an absolute and blind
obedience, is to destroy liberty of conscience and reason also.” So,
people must be free to worship God in the way they perceive to be right
according to the scriptures. We have no
right to lord it over them, however right our claims might be. Obviously, we should try to educate them but
we must never intimidate them into our way of worshipping and obeying God.
STATE-CHURCH
SEPARATION: As
Baptists, we also believe that the state (national government) and the church
should remain separate. Church leaders
should not impose their authority on the state, and neither should the state
impose its rule upon the church. The two
are both accountable to God and must not interfere in each other’s domain. This is why Jesus said, “Give to Caesar what
is Caesar’s and to God what is God’s” (Matt 22:21). There should be no “Christian nation” just as
there should be no “Islamic nation.” The
state should be there to give equal opportunity for its people to grow and
develop without interference from anyone.
It is not there to dictate what religion a person should follow. That should be left to a person’s own
conscience. History has shown that
whenever the church has controlled the state or the state has controlled the
church, both have been corrupted and religious and civil liberty have suffered.
The
separation of church and state does not mean that Christians should leave the
state to be run by non-Christians. No! Christians must be involved in all areas
of public life and at every level. They should also aspire for national
presidency. They should seek to influence government, especially in the realm
of public morals, but they must never do so as “the church”. They must do so as slat permeating society
with their influence. Baptists have
jealously guarded this distinction right across history.
BELIEVER’S
BAPTISM: The
most basic characteristic of a Baptist Church is believer’s baptism, from where
we derive our name. In the earliest days
of their existence, Baptists were called “Anabaptists” because they were
perceived as re-baptizing those who were already baptized as infants by the
state church. However, they always
argued that what happened in infancy was not a baptism in the biblical sense of
the word; hence they preferred to be called Baptists because they were
conducting the only baptism that was true to the Scriptures – the baptism by
immersion of those who profess faith in the Lord Jesus. Consequently in Holland at one time they
began to call themselves as “Congregations
of Christians baptized on the profession of their faith.” Baptists believe that there is no mystical
efficacy in the rite of baptism, except that which is appropriated by the faith
of the person being baptized as he acts in obedience to his Lord.
REGENERATE
MEMBERSHIP: As
Baptists, we believe that no one should be a member of the church unless he has
repented of his sins and believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. We believe that such a person should have
been publicly baptized upon making such a profession. Only then should that person be welcomed into
the membership of the church. Similarly,
when a person persists in sin, the church is obligated to remove such a one
from membership because the behavior suggests that’s that he/she has never
truly known the regeneration grace of God.
Thus church discipline is very much part of Baptist church life. Church membership is very important for
Baptists. You must live up to a certain
standard to be a member of a Baptist Church.
Baptists jealously guard the door of their membership, i.e. they are
careful as to who comes in, they are careful as to ensure proper behavior by
those who are inside, and they insist that those who fail to do so should go
out through the same door that they came in.
To Baptists, therefore, there is a deliberate emphasis of difference
between church visitors and church members, however regular the visitors might
be coming to church.
The
Presbyterian Westminster Confession of
Faith says, “The visible church, which is also catholic or universal under
the gospel (not confined to one nation, as before under the law), consists of
all those throughout the world that profess the true religion; and of their
children.” Baptists certainly disagree
with that. Your children are not members
of the church, unless they individually repent and come to faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Therefore, we, the church,
must labor to teach them the Word of God and implore them to come to Christ
personally for their own salvation.
AUTONOMY
OF THE CHURCH: Baptist
churches fellowship among themselves and will often include in that fellowship
churches that are like-minded. We may
even enter into some form of formal denomination association with other
like-minded churches, but these are never authoritative over the churches. This is because as Baptists we believe that
each church under its own leadership is directly answerable to Christ, the head
of the church. We believe that the New
Testament does not indicate any form of ecclesiastical structure beyond
independent local churches.
PRIESTHOOD
OF ALL BELIEVERS: As
Baptists, we believe that everyone who is a true Christian has a direct
relationship with God and so does not need an intermediary on earth. This is called the priesthood of all
believers. Each believer must be free to
determine what God’s will for them in life is, whether young or old, male or
female, rich or poor. The Lord God
promised that, “I will put my law in their minds and write it on their
hearts. I will be their God, and they
will be my people. No longer will a man
teach his neighbor, or a man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ because they
will all know me, from the least of them to the greatest” (Jer 31:33-34). This does not mean that there is no need for
leadership and preachers in the church, but rather it is that these leaders
must not be blindly followed. This
position also means that all believers are of equal worth before God.
Furthermore,
Peter teaches us that all believers have a priestly function of coming before
God through Christ individually (“But you are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people,
that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into
His marvelous light” 2 Pet 2: 9; ref Eph 3:
11- 12)
CONGREGATIONAL
CHURCH GOVERNMENT: Arising
from the autonomy of the church and the priesthood of all believers, we Baptists
conduct our church business at a congregational level. This means that all the members of a Baptist
Church will come together regularly to consider the business of the church,
outside the context of its church services.
Such meetings will deal with issues of church programmes, disciplines,
finances, welcoming of new members, adopting or modifying their constitution,
etc. The leaders of the church have no
right to commit the church to activities and relationships that the church
membership together as a body has not agreed to. This does not mean that everything has to
pass through a members’ meeting first, but rather that the leaders have to
learn to carry the membership with them by their active participation.
In conclusion, it is therefore expected that any professing believer who
decides to join a Baptist church holds dearly these Distinctives. These are the
basic elements that have distinguished the historical Baptist church for most of
its life. Therefore, when an individual or a church claims to be Baptist, somehow,
the aforesaid Distinctives must be found intertwined in them as part of their
fundamental doctrines as they are taught in the scriptures. Keep to mind that these
alone are not exhaustive, many Baptist Churches will add upon to distinguish
themselves as a local church. However the rationale of this article is to
identify the very basic Distinctives that stand out to mark and distinguish us
as historical Baptists.
