Why are you a Baptist

OK, I not only understand but plead guilty myself!

 

Here you go Mr. Salty

I answered the poll "I believe Baptist are most biblical". :thumbsup:

I grew up in a different denomination and for the majority of my life attended church there, over the years we occassionally had Baptist preachers come to do our revivals, I always enjoyed hearing them speak with passion. I'll always remember one of them saying "Do you know, that you know, that you know?" In High School I never saw a lot of the other kids who went to church really living it, the handful that did were Baptists. In college I visited a non denominational church for a while, and attended services at various campus ministries including the Baptist Student Union. Truth be told at this stage of my life I was probably more interested in meeting a nice girl than learning more about the Bible, but my time in BSU helped me grow and solidify what I had known for a while "I must be Baptist". A few years after college I met my wife and the Lord eventually ended up leading us to a solid SBC church.

 

Why am I a Baptist? Ummmm...because I go to a Baptist Church?
:laugh::laugh:

And I like fried chicken.

 

While I have always had my name on a Baptist church role, but I am a Christian and nothing else.

 

I put other because I've studied in many different churches. And to be honest the Pentecostals drove me off with their emotionalism and lack of rational. Charismatic Churches are nice but they have a commonality of extremes where you can get real weird teachings (Benny Hinn for example) and their music ministry is their primary one. I went to Alliance and they are much like the Non-Denominational and seem some what dry. I mean a sermon was about fencing. I even ventured to learn with an SDA church and I found them too legalistic. I visited a few Non-denominational and they can be very varied. Presbyterian, and Methodist are kind of Old School and kind of liberal. Epicopals are too Catholic. So I found my home in a baptist church and to top it all I met my wife there as well.

 

I am a Christian by new birth. I am a Baptist by choice.

I was raised in a Lutheran home. I switched denominations to United Methodist when I wanted to marry my bride (the Lutheran church would not marry us unless she converted). The Methodist had no such stipulation so I decided to unite with them. It was meaningless, however, as I went from a liberal Lutheran church that merely preached the liturgy as contained in the back of the hymnal to an even more liberal church that had many leaders who did not even believe that Jesus was Messiah (among other things). My wife and I left the church (all church) entirely after the pastor (who was married to a Buddhist wife) had no biblical answers when we went through a life crisis. We became, first, agnostics, then later atheists.

At that time, if one would have asked, I would have said that I was a Christian. That was by default. I was not a Hindu, not a Buddhist, not a Muslim, and attended church once in a while, so I must be a Christian. What other option was there? But, I was not actually a Christian... I was merely religiously aligned with a movement called Christianity. To be a Christian, one must (MUST) be born anew by the power of God based in the completed work of Christ. That, neither myself nor my wife had ever done. It was very easy to walk away from the sort of Christianity that my wife and I professed, for it was merely an agreement by default, not a true born again experience. When we were no longer "Christians" we became what we really were -- atheists. That would change, however, after about seven years of trying to live like hell.

I professed Christ apart from the actions of any local church. It was God and I, and not even my doing. I was not searching for God and had I "found" Him, I would have done my best to wipe Him from the face of the earth. But God, being full of mercy and grace found me. He drew me to Himself. He challenged my assumptions and gave me cause to fall in love with Him until that day when I fell down and professed that Jesus was the Christ! It was two years later that I finally united with a local church once again, this time intentionally. I searched the various denominations and found that the Baptists were the closest to the NT Scriptures, so that is where I went on purpose.

Since, my salvation experience and the baptism that followed our uniting with a local Baptist church, I have also become licensed to preach, and ordained both deacon and pastor. I have since been called to seminary, where I have graduated with a degree in missiology (SBTS). I now work to build up existing and start new churches. Praise God! Yes, I am a Baptist -- Southern Baptist -- but only because I am first a Christan.

 

When I was saved as a boy my parents used to attend a Church of Scotland for several years. We ended up moving house and, after doing a bit of church shopping, we started going to a Baptist church. After about a year there we were all Baptised (I was 15). After a few years there, there was a huge church split (the old Church of Scotland we used to go to used to have lots of rows about doctrine too). So we left the Baptists and did some more church shopping. After a brief stint with the Brethren we ended up at some Charismatic place. My parents embraced it fully but I was somewhat sceptical.

Anyways, I'm in my 30's now. I've been to loads of different churches since then but I still have a soft spot for the Baptists. My parents could best be classed as independent Charismatics; they used to go to a Pentecostal church a few years ago but stopped. I find Pentecostal churches (and Charismatic ones in general) noisy and emotional and everyone wants to be a prophet for some reason. I've had a few too many "Thus saith the Lord"'s done to me. That's another reason why I prefer the Baptists; they're quiet. So, after all my wanderings I'm still happy to think of myself as Baptist.

 

My selection is meant as a joke - I'm not being serious. I just thought it was such a funny option to have in a poll like this - are there really people who choose to be Baptist to spite someone else? LOL.

 

Tom Butler said:

Amen, brother Tom!

Sounds like he and I did close to the same thing! Major difference was I believed at 18, and immediately began studying to see what the Bible (and Baptists) said. Over the next 2 years, I attended many other denominations, but ended up being a Christian believer first, and a Baptist second.

Bill :godisgood:

 

Bill, I hope everyone goes through the exercise you and I did. It is not always pleasant to test what you believe against other views. But it should be done, because we are dealing with eternal matters, and we must get it right.

Now, I have changed my views on a number of things, particularly my eschatology (which is not a test of fellowship with me). But I have also been forced to re-evaluate what I have been taught about how we Baptists present the gospel, even the very language we use. That was not pleasant either, because the invitation system, the Roman Road and the Sinner's Prayer, walking the aisle and altar calls were simply taken for granted as the way it is done.

This is not the forum to discuss these things in detail, but it worth the time and trouble to take them apart and see if you can put them back together.

 

I will go point by point.

* I grew up in a non-Christian home
* I was saved in a non-denomination church
* I married my wife whom I met at a Baptist Church service.
* Our church is less than 200 yards from our home. Sometimes we walk.
* I went to Bible College at a Church of Christ school, however after learning to apply proper hermeneutics to my Bible studies, and learning how to exegete God's Word correctly I believe the Baptist's Beliefs hold very closely to what is taught in the Greek scriptures.
* I attend, and intend to spite the devil.
* Being a part of a Christian fellowship and living the life we are commanded to live definitely helps keep peace in the family.
* I do like our Pastor.

 

I am a Baptist by conviction. I was raised Catholic and never really studied the bible until I was an adult. My study of scripture led me to embrace Bapist doctines because they most closely resembled what I read in the bible.

I suppose that sounds rather simplistic, but it's true.

 

Hello Priscilla Ann

Nice to hear from you.

You said............

But you never mentioned your salvation experience.

Would you like to share that?

 

If you refuse to be identified as a Baptist, then quit posting in the Baptist only section.

 

I believe what he is saying is that it is Christ's church not the Baptist denomination's.

 

I personally like the pastor!...

LOL

Seriously, I marked a few, but the main reason is that I feel Baptists... specifically ABC/USA are Biblically sound.