Baptist Distinctives

You'll notice that Pinson did not include feeding the hungry or housing the homeless as part of what he called the "Baptist Recipe."

The core distinctives were listed as:


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The Baptist recipe includes several key beliefs or doctrines:

--the Lordship of Jesus Christ

--the Bible as the sole written authority for faith and practice

--soul competency

--salvation from sin and eternal death to forgiveness and eternal life only by faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior who is the grace gift of God

--the priesthood of each believer and of all believers in Christ

--believer’s baptism

--baptism and the Lord’s Supper as wonderfully symbolic but not essential for salvation

--church membership composed only of persons who have been born again

--religious freedom and its corollary, the separation of church and state

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He then identified secondary secondary practices and emphases that are a part of being Baptist but not the primary distinctives. You're rejecting the distinctives based on one of these related practices.

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Built upon the foundation of these beliefs are certain practices or polities that are part of the Baptist recipe:

--congregational church governance under the Lordship of Christ

--the autonomy of churches

--voluntary cooperation for various causes


Closely related to these beliefs and practices are a number of emphases that characterize most Baptists:

--evangelism

--missions

--Christian education

--ministry

--social concern

This is what Jesus said on the topic of loving and helping our neighbors.

Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:34 Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
Mat 25:35 For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:
Mat 25:36 Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.
Mat 25:37 Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed [thee]? or thirsty, and gave [thee] drink?
Mat 25:38 When saw we thee a stranger, and took [thee] in? or naked, and clothed [thee]?
Mat 25:39 Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?
Mat 25:40 And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done [it] unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done [it] unto me.

 

And I would say that I believe all denominations are doing the same thing. They all come with their various flaws and are trying imperfectly to reach the goal of becoming the church that Christ and His word teaches. Who is closest? I don't know but I see only benefit to Satan and his forces when Christians feel that their job is to compete against each other for perfection.

There is definitely a place for denominations to debate and correct each other to change but we do so in brotherly love, not as competitors for supremacy. That was the purpose of the Jerusalem council of Acts 15 and other ecumenical councils.

I am not a Baptist because I believe we are the closest to some abstract standard of perfection on a heavenly scoreboard based on a checklist of theologies. I am Baptist because God has placed me here to minister to Baptists and the world to make his name and will known.

 

I would say that denominations that are denying the Bible's teachings or changing them, and have leaders who deny the essentials of the faith but do nothing about these leaders are not trying at all to be the church Christ established. And I think there are a lot of them out there like this.

I do not agree with competition among denominations but frankly, I don't see that. Those that claim to be perfect or claim to the be the true NT church are usually cultic or they are full-blown cults.

 

Satan benefits when the world sees the lack of unity (not uniformity) among Christians because Christ said that our unity shows the world that Christ is from God.

As I said in my last post, there is a place for challenging heterodoxy and heteropraxy. At the community level that may look like the 1st ecumenical council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. At the personal level, it involves discipleship and possibly church discipline. But the attitude is always one of seeking unity in brotherly love.

The reason I say abstract standard is because the concept of "New Testament Church" is an abstract standard. While Baptists may be closer to the "New Testament Church" in some ways, Pentecostals may be closer in others. I find churches that claim to be a "New Testament Church" really are using themselves as the standard for others to fall short of. Isn't that an aspect of the Pharisees that Jesus was warning us not to be like?

I am all for orthodoxy and orthopraxy. But the problem is why we seek it. Do we seek it so that others and ourselves can become more orthodox? Or do we seek it so that we can claim superiority, resulting in disunity amongst Christians? I find that the motivation to seek orthodoxy is more often one that tries to justify that which we already believe or have been taught to believe while demonizing everyone else rather than becoming more orthodox ourselves.

 

You are right about the face to face thing. I don't feel you have been particularly confrontational and I hope I haven't been either. We strongly disagree on the concept of "New Testament Church" and have done so in the past but I always enjoy them as civil disagreements with a brother who passionately wants baptist churches and I hope all churches to be more biblical. This we can easily agree on.

And that is why Paul wrote Ephesians 4. Because it was so hard, he had to urge them to be tolerant, humble and loving in the midst of their disagreements and continue to strive for unity in the face of disunity. It is not just a worthy goal but a key pleading of Christ (John 17) and key teaching of the "New Testament Church" (Eph 4).

Unity is not the same as uniformity. We can be united and yet have different doctrines just like most Baptists are united and have all sorts of various doctrines.

 

Unity can only be found in Doctrine:

Rom 16:17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.


Eph 4:11 And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;
Eph 4:12 For the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ:
Eph 4:13 Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ:
Eph 4:14 That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive; Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:

 

I think it demonstrates the problem of having such lists. Why do we have these lists and why are some things on them and other things not? I'm not suggesting that there aren't doctrines that are more important than others. But do we really think about why they are more important to us and whether that importance is valid?

 

You are correct, I have a list. My point wasn't that I don't have one, but that these lists themselves are part of the problem of lack of unity, even mine. They need to be constantly re-evaluated because to be honest, many of them have very poor basis for being there, even the ones on my list.

The doctrines on our lists may have very good scriptural reasons for being valid doctrines, but they may also have very poor reasons (often personal, historical or traditional) for being disfellowshipping doctrines. Just because someone is wrong doesn't mean you should disfellowship them.

 

There is certainly a core set of beliefs which determines whether or not someone is a Christian and the diety of Christ is absolutely a core belief. However, most of the things that are debated around here are not. If you believe that your subset of Baptists are the only persons who will go to heaven then your attitude is appropriate. If not, you're putting yourself above God and rejecting those He accepts. That's not a good place to be.

 

Actually, I feel perfectly fine at a Presbyterian Church. One of the most awesome, spiritual times I have had in my life (with the exception of one to one witnessing), was the "Together for the Gospel" conference, this past April. I don't think there were ten people their whose beliefs were identical to mine: I know not a single speaker had beliefs that matched mine perfectly. Yet all of this paled...

We are joined together by the Gospel itself, I believe. In fact, I get along far better with a Reformed Presbyterian, than I generally do with a non-reformed Southern Baptists, even though I am SB, and attend a SBC church.

 

Hey Tom, I've been gone for a couple of weeks with little access to get online. I have completely missed out on being able to participate in this interesting thread, but I do appreciate you posting the distinctives.

I do not remember what originally sparked this thread, but I think the point has been well demonstrated that the term Baptist has become diffused and many people who attend Baptist churches today do not know what it means to be baptist or what a baptist is supposed to believe. I cannot walk into any Baptist church and know what that particular group of people believe, without getting to know the pastor and people.

I believe that many baptist churches in an effort to be successful according to the measure of men (i.e. statistics, membership #s and $s), have allowed many non-baptists to join their churches and have set aside those doctrines that in times past made us distinct from other churches. We have, to a degree, set aside evangelism and discipleship for sheep rustling. Hence, Baptists for all practical purposes (yes I am intentionally making a generalization) are no longer distinct in their beliefs, but are diverse and at times polar opposites.