"Baptist Identity" Articles by Nathan Finn

Dr. Finn's articles are helpful to me because they reminded me that we share common beliefs and practices with other faith groups, and Baptists are not the only ones who believe what we believe.

Even so, we have paid more attention to our differences than our similarities. And that fact has limited our cooperation with those other faith groups. And I suggest that those limitations are warranted to some extent.

I have heard the gospel preached in Methodist churches, Presbyterian churches, charismatic churches, and others. I have been comfortable in my worship in those churches.

But there are a number of reasons that I don't go to a Methodist, Presbyterian, Lutheran or charismatic church each Sunday (and Wednesday). One reason is that I believe that my Baptist church teaches Biblical truth and practices Biblical ecclesiology. And if Baptists are right, then they are not. And the areas where I believe they are not cannot be relegated to the "secondary" category.

They are, in fact, tests of fellowship. And unless we agree, we cannot consistently walk together.

To be sure, I count many of those of other faith groups as brothers and sisters in Christ. In the right circumstances I can gladly fellowship with them and worship with them. And I can certainly join with them to stand together on some social issues.

But there are some doctrinal and ecclesiological differences which I fear are fatal to any successful cooperation in evangelism, missions and other outreach efforts.

Otherwise, we will have to simply set aside much of what we believe as unimportant. If we're willing to do that, we might as well be Methodists, or whatever.