Ten Affirmations Concerning Our Baptist Heritage

WHAT?

I love how denominations identify anything contrary to their views as being associated with the antichrist. I remember chatting with a SDA person, and she told me that worshiping on Sunday was "the badge of antichrist".

 

Just a couple items of note .

Bellar equates Arminianism with fervent gospel preaching . I say Arminianism truncates the Gospel .

Reformed means union of Church and state ? Ask any Presbyterian the same thing .

If Baptists protest against Roman Catholicism they should still not be considered Protestants ?

Presbyterians and other Protestant groups practice infant baptism . ( Many of these denominations do not believe in baptismal regeneration ) . The Roman Catholic Church is not the only "Church" to do so .

Rippon's proposition : Ignorance of the Calvinistic heritage of our forebears is pervasive these days in Baptists groups .

 

So what exactly do you think you're going to do if you run into a Baptist who does not necessarily affirm to these 10 according to your suiting? Give them a history lesson?

 

Sorry, I don't get it. Can you be more specific? Are you one of those who believes that the whore is the Catholic church or something?

 

Documented proof please....

Where are the facts?

And don't use other heretical branches to prove we didn't come from the Roman Catholic Church.

Because which heretic do you want to prove we came out of?

 

Just asking out loud. Is there a point where it becomes dangerous if one has too much self association, pride or focus on being part of a group or denomination rather than just focusing solely on Christ. Shouldn't are desire be more exclusive to be driven to be more Christlike? I am just asking because my mind never thinks like this, I am a member of a Baptist church because that is where I believe the Lords wants my family at this time, and because I think it holds to what I find closest to the biblical requirements of a church. But I don't have this blinding loyalty to a name or denomination. This almost comes across to sound as if to say, "we are saved, most others probably not". I am not saying this is what you are saying, only that is starts to sound a little like that, or the beginnings of how something like gets started. At the very least it sounds like "we are better".

 

The Landmark Times reported today that a DNA sample had been taken from the bones of Peter, and he is a direct ancestor of Frank Page.

 

The problem with this list of "affirmations" is that little is affirmed in it. Rather the list is negative in its statements in most cases and in it's tone in all. Not the kind of list that I want to be defined by.

 

I think that I only fully agree with items 7 and 10 from this list. However, if #10 means teaching the view expressed in the other nine items on this list, I don't agree with it. Our Baptist heritage extends beyond the views of particular denominations. It also includes beliefs and practices that most Baptist churches today would not follow (e. g., Anabaptist views of the radical separation of believers from the state). I am also strongly opposed to the derogatory comments made about the work of Leon McBeth (with whom I am familiar) and Walter Shurden (with whom I took classes in college).

Tim Reynolds

 

OK, so what? I don’t mean to be disrespectful but who cares? I am not going to heaven because I am a Baptist. I am going to heaven because I am a Christian. There have been saved believers who followed Jesus Christ inside and outside of every Church and denomination since Jesus came. If you widen you definition slightly, there have been men and women who followed God and kept his commandments since Adam was created in the Garden. There has always been a core of believers. But they have not always called themselves Baptists.

Some of these believers may have been Baptists, but my Christian heritage includes many believers in Christ who were definitely not Baptists.

I would agree with #10 if it were changed to say

Would you throw out those ‘heroes’ of the faith because they did not call themselves Baptists?

Would you throw out Bob Jones for being a Methodist?

Would you throw away your Scofield Bible because Cyrus Scofield was a Presbyterian?

Would you refuse to use a King James Bible because James was Anglican?

I don’t mean to ramble, but if we take the non-Baptists out of our Christian heritage we are leaving a void larger than what would be left.

 

I think we can embrace and appreciate our Baptist heritage without discounting the faith and works of other Christians. But these affirmations are, uh ... well, they don't represent my heritage.

 

Now that thar's some funny "Baptist Brider" "trail of blood" humor! :laugh: