THE DISTINGUISHING MARKS OF A BAPTIST

The first time I ever heard the name Baptist in relation to a church, was in my toddler age. I always associated it with John the Baptist. Once, I entered a Baptist church and was stunned at the sight of the baptistery. I always thought this church had something to do with the ministry of John. But later on after knowing Christ and being exposed to the Baptists, I begun to inquire on what distinguished it from others. Today, I have come to appreciate and understand what it means to be a Baptist. Therefore being aware that many within the Baptist church have no clue to what distinguishes a Baptist, I will for a moment share with you the distinguishing marks of a Baptist.

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.