The only reason I am a Baptist

My, my, won't you be surprised when you get to heaven!

You'll find a strange thing.

It's not how close we were to the biblical idea of a church that is important.

It's the faith we have in it's founder and how we lived out that faith in our lives.

Rob

 

so you support bbeing part of a church that isn't biblical in it's teachings?
maybe we could all be jw's in that case.

 

Today, I am a Baptist by conviction. I arrived at that long after I began attending a Baptist church, mainly because that's where my parents wanted me. It was also right around the corner from where I lived.

I'd venture to say that many people who are saved in a Baptist church when they are young, and are baptized, have no clue as to the basic beliefs of that church.

Few of them began attending because they agreed with its doctrines. Only as they were taught, did they understand and embrace those doctrines and become Baptist by conviction.

I also wonder about many adults who originally choose a church for reasons other than doctrine. Does this fit any of you out there?

 

I diddn't choose my church as a child I was Catholic, my parents chose for me at my infant baptism.

I was saved while in the military and stayed in the Catholic Church for about 2 years. After being convinced of the Scripture that the Church of Rome was practicing serious error, I left.

For a few months, I attended several "Protestant" type churches but finally was attracted to Baptist churches because (although at the time, I didn't know the defintitive descriptions of the "baptist distinctives") of the Baptist distinctives which set them apart from other so-called "Protestant" churches.

I was especially attracted to the preaching from the "raw" text of the Scriptures, the practise of believers baptism by immersion, and was amazed that the congregation actually voted on the administration of the church.

HankD

 

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Same here, If it were not for infant baptism I would probably be a Presbryterian.

 

I became a baptist out of necessity. The Plymouth Brethren didn't have full time ministers, so I joined a baptist church, went to their Bible College and entered the baptist ministry. That was my beginning.

Grew up in the Church of England, then joined the PB's where I was baptized. I am now a baptist by conviction and have been all my ministry.

Cheers

Jim

 

I'm a Baptist because of all the unity that comes from saying why I'm Baptist...

 

I grew up a Methodist and was confirmed at 13 (no idea what that meant) then fell away and was saved at age 28 where I first heard the gospel in a SBC church. I still claim to be Baptist even though I currently don't attend a Baptist church (the ones in my area are too purpose driven).

 

I became a Baptist because of family, but as I learned about doctrine and studied the Scriptures, I became a Baptist by conviction and I subscribe to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as my statement of faith.

 

My wife and I are actually more Plymouth Brethren by conviction, but we have not lived in an area with a PB assembly since 1994. The local churches that are closest to our beliefs have been Southern Baptist.

When our son was murdered in June of 2008, we received a tremendous amount of help from three SBC congregations in the area (Dallas, Frisco and Celina). Although we disagree with them on certain matters of church polity, they have pretty much won us over. We have so many close friends among them now that I'm not sure we would leave even if a PB assembly was planted nearby.

 

I'm a baptist because:
I was raised Catholic and wasn't remotely interested in God. In fact, I was on my way to being an atheist. I went to a Non-Denominational Missionary Boarding School and saw what lives Chrisitians had and desired it. I heard an evangelist preach the gospel and desired that so I Trusted in the Lord for my salvation. Not having any real christian roots I asked a lot of questions about denominations because I still had the "Catholic Church" view of Orthodoxy. I left the Church and sought bible teaching churches. I was interested in a while in Penticostal churches the Lord permitted me to attend a Pentecostal University where I learned about them and ended up rejecting that type of faith. During that time I visited many churches and found the ones that consistently taught from the bible and focused on the bible more than anything else were baptist though I also noticed there were many types of Baptist and baptist beliefs. However, the churches I was most comfortable were the SBC so I go there.

 

Everyone thinks their own church is closest to the Bible. If they didn't think it, they wouln't be attending that church.

I'd be careful not to play the "my church is better than your church" game. Not only are we usually proven wrong, but playing the game only makes us look infantile and pretentious.

 

http://trevinwax.com/2008/06/10/7-types-of-southern-baptists/
Here is an interesting piece from David Dockereys Book listing what he believes are the seven different types of Southern Baptist. I thought it would fit very well in this thread and also see in which group you fit. I find myself in the traditionalist. (No Combos)

 

I think it would be a good idea to change your login name from "stilllearning" to "stilljudging".

Yet you're playing it. The fact that you think your church is better than others is evidence that it's not.

 

And you know this how?

 

Methinks there is some circular reasoning going on there: "My church puts the Bible first, therefore my church is better, therefore your church puts the bible second, therefore your church is not better than mine, therefore my church is better than yours".

The immature Christians says "My church is better than all the rest". The mature Christian says "I found the best church I could, but then I joined it".