|
Faith and Practice of
True Baptist
By Andrew Strokes
The world is very different than it was in the time of Christ. There are many
different so-called churches that proclaim to believe and practice the way that
Jesus taught in His personal ministry. With so many varieties, it leaves you
wondering just who is really correct. The individual must search the scriptures
with humility of heart and seek the things that the Holy Spirit of God will
reveal. In my personal opinion the Baptist church is the closest to those first
truths taught by the Messiah and His apostles. We ought to go one step further
and proclaim that the Missionary Baptists are the closest, due to recent
deception that has entered once sound Baptist churches. There are many traits
that separate the "true" Baptist from all of these other doctrines. For the sake
of time and effort we will try to briefly discuss the most essential topics of
difference.
The first difference that we would recognize would be in a combination of
Hebrews 10:25 and I Thessalonians 5:19. Here we are taught to not forsake the
assembling of ourselves together and also not to quench the Holy Spirit of God.
It is not enough to just assemble in a form of worship. You must have the Holy
Spirit to lead the service, to uplift the congregation, to empower the speaker,
and to convict lost souls.
The second difference that we could discuss would be the church body. The lay
members consist of a body of believers who have been sanctified by the Spirit of
God. They have been saved by God's glorious grace and have fulfilled the Lord's
commandments by following their salvation in a scriptural water baptism. Just as
John the Baptist required "fruits meet for repentance"(Matthew 3:8), we require
a testimony of their experience from nature to grace. After their testimony the
church must vote to receive them unanimously. This vote is taken because only
the church holds the authority to administer baptism, as it was given by our
Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:19). There are two officers in the
Church body, Pastor and Deacons. The deacon obviously must first be a lay member
and fulfill all the requirements of that. This office is restricted to males as
we learn in I Timothy 3:11,12. These deacons must undergo an ordination service.
In this service the men endure the careful review of trusted ordained brethren
followed by a prayer and laying on of hands. The deacon does not receive a
divine call to his office. As in Acts 6:1-6, the church chooses men who humbly
meet the qualifications set forth in I Timothy 3, and they separate these men
from the general assembly to appoint them to the responsibility of the needs of
the church. The other office of the church would be the pastor or under
shepherd. This office would be considered the highest office in the Lord's
church. We see in I Timothy 3:1,2 that this office is also restricted to males.
We require the pastor to proclaim a holy calling from God and then to undergo
the same careful review of trusted ordained brethren followed by a prayer and
laying on of hands in order to ordain the candidate unto the full work of his
ministry. We see in Acts 13:1-3 where the church of Antioch performed this same
rite unto Paul and Barnabas before they sent them unto the work that God called
them unto. The form of ordination service that we use has risen from tradition,
but the basic necessities remain which are described in the scriptures. For the
sake of functioning in a modem church assembly, there are many other positions
that we could speak of, but these are the basic three that have existed since
the early beginnings of our faith.
The third major difference that we as Baptists ascribe to is our faith and
doctrine. We believe first of all that Jesus Christ was the only perfect
sacrifice that could have been made for our sins (Hebrews 9:12-15). He was born
of a virgin and conceived of the Holy Spirit, being the only begotten Son of God
(Matthew 1:18; John 3:16). Therefore, he did not carry the awful blemish of sin
that every human has inherited. We believe that He willingly gave His life for
the remission of sins so that the entire world would be given the opportunity to
have eternal life (Matthew 26:52-54). We believe that He remained in the grave
for three days and then arose unto a glorified body by the power of God, that He
ministered another 40 days unto His disciples, and then ascended unto the right
hand of the Father (Mark 16:1-6, John 20:26-29; Acts 1:9-11). Following His
ascension, we believe that the Holy Spirit, or the Comforter, entered the world
that we might be able to commune with God (John 16:7). Upon this fulfillment of
scripture, we believe that the Spirit must first convict the sinful individual,
and then they must yield themselves unto God repenting of their sinful nature
and believing in Jesus Christ as their Savior (John 16:8-1 1; John 6:44; Luke
13:3; John 14: 1). When the sinner reaches this point of true repentance, we
believe that salvation is delivered from God the Father (Ephesians 2:8,9). This
marvelous gift of grace was not earned or deserved, but it was simply given by a
merciful and loving God. We do not see in the scripture where that salvation
comes from a change of mind or anything that deals with the mortal man. It is
spiritual and above the abilities of us as weak humans. In relation to the fact
that we realize salvation does not come from any of our efforts, we know that it
cannot be lost by any of our efforts. Romans 8:38-39 teaches that nothing can
separate us from God's love. By reading Hebrews 9:24-28 we see that Jesus Christ
died once for our sins and can understand that in turn we must only be saved
once. In fact, Hebrews 6:4-6 explains that if one was to lose their salvation
they would have to crucify Jesus a second time to ever be able to come back to
the repentance they once knew. Since the scriptures teach that the only return
Jesus will make, will be to bring God's children home, we can rest assured that
there is security in the believer. We also believe that following this true
salvation that Jesus Christ instructed us to perform two ordinances of the
church by which we fulfill His commandments. The first ordinance would be
scriptural baptism, as we spoke of earlier. This is done to show forth to the
world the change that God has performed in the heart of the believer. The
scripture teaches full immersion under water as a picture of the death, burial,
and resurrection of Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:13-1 7). The second ordinance would
be the Lord's Supper or Communion. This is to be administered by ordained
brethren to symbolize the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. We first take of the
unleavened bread, which symbolizes the sinless body of Jesus Christ, and then we
take of the fruit of the vine, which symbolizes the blood that Jesus shed upon
the cross. We are instructed to do this in remembrance of that holy sacrifice
(Luke 22:14-20).
The fourth difference that we would have to recognize would be in our church
government. We wholeheartedly believe in the sovereignty of the individual
church. We believe that each congregation is a solemn and solitary power. We do
not believe that any church has the right to obtain power or authority over any
other church. We learn this so often in the Bible. We see this practice being
performed by the New Testament churches in Acts 11:29,30; Acts 13:3; 1
Corinthians 16:3; 2 Corinthians 8:18,19, In these scriptures and many more we
see where the members of old sent messengers, received members, sent
missionaries, and in some cases excluded members. They did all of this
independent from outside influence or from the influence of another church.
Decisions and authority were always given by the decision of the majority, and
that is still how we practice today.
The fifth difference of us as "true" Baptists would be in our practice of church
discipline. Many churches have developed their own method of discipline, and so
many more have adopted the theory of no discipline at all. Again, the Bible
teaches plainly how that we should carry out discipline. Matthew 18:15-20 tells
us that if one of our brethren offends that we should first get him alone, then
take others, and then bring him before the church. The Bible asks for no more
and no less. We are not to condone sin in our churches, but we are not out to
embarrass or harass each other either.
The final difference that we posses are in our duties as a church. Jesus Christ
set up His church in His lifetime, and before He left He bestowed upon us some
responsibilities. He commanded us to practice the ordinances that He left
behind, and He commanded that we carry the blessed gospel into the entire world.
Along the way, we are to teach these same truths that we have come unto the
knowledge of by the grace of God almighty. Further, in Acts we see where it is
also the responsibility of the church to care for the widows and the needy in
the community. It was for this purpose that the office of deacon was first
instituted. Therefore, we can see the importance of all of these duties.
When you speak of the faith and practice of a true Baptist, you speak of a lot.
The true Baptist's faith is in Jesus Christ completely. The true Baptist
practices the Bible in its entirety. We stumble and fail as humans do, but we
cannot leave out any portion of the truth that has been passed down to us from
the saints of old. We must learn it, understand it, and pass it on to our
children. After we've done that, we can have confidence in the fact that Jesus
proclaimed that the gates of Hell would not prevail against His church.
|
