Baptist Distinctives

rural_preacher · Oct 4, 2004

Hi. I am the pastor of a church that is part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). We have what are known as the "baptist distinctives", those beliefs that are distinctive of a baptist church. I know these are held by the churches in our fellowship, I am wondering what kind of agreement/disagreement you all would have to these. They are as follows:

Saved, baptized church membership
Priesthood of all believers
Biblical Authority
Autonomy of the Local Church
Two Ordinances - baptism and the Lord's Supper
Two church Offices - Pastor (elder) and Deacon
Individual Soul Liberty
Separation of Church and State

I would be happy to elaborate on any or all of these if there is a question.

daveleau · Oct 4, 2004

Separation of church and state? What do you mean?

Bulldog · Oct 4, 2004

Another biggie is believer's-only baptism.

Diakoneo · Oct 4, 2004

rural_preacher said:
Hi. I am the pastor of a church that is part of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches (GARBC). We have what are known as the "baptist distinctives", those beliefs that are distinctive of a baptist church. I know these are held by the churches in our fellowship, I am wondering what kind of agreement/disagreement you all would have to these. They are as follows:

Saved, baptized church membership
Priesthood of all believers
Biblical Authority
Autonomy of the Local Church
Two Ordinances - baptism and the Lord's Supper
Two church Offices - Pastor (elder) and Deacon
Individual Soul Liberty
Separation of Church and State

I would be happy to elaborate on any or all of these if there is a question.

Hi Pastor! We follow a very similar set for which we use the word Baptist..

B - Bible is the sole authority
A - Autonomy of the local church
P - Priesthood of the believer
T - Two ordinances (The Lord's Supper, Believer's Baptism)
I - Individual soul liberty
S - Separation of church and state
T - Two offices of the church (pastor, deacon)

It's a handy way to remember them!

Diakoneo · Oct 4, 2004

daveleau said:
Separation of church and state? What do you mean?

I'm pretty sure he means that the church does not accept any help from the government, we do not accept grants or funds except those relating to our tax exempt status...

daveleau · Oct 4, 2004

Why? I do not understand that. The government is the appointed leadership of God.

And, we do accept tax-exempt status, which is a benefit from the government that my church receives.

rural_preacher · Oct 4, 2004

daveleau said:
Separation of church and state? What do you mean?

God established both the church and the civil government, and He gave each its own distinct sphere of operation. The government's purposes are outlined in Romans 13:1-7 and the church's purposes in Matt. 28:19, 20. Neither should control the other, nor should there be an alliance between the two. Christians in a free society can properly influence government toward righteousness, which is not the same as a denomination or group of churches controlling the government.

daveleau · Oct 4, 2004

Interesing. A good way of putting it. Thanks. I understand now.

I am relatively new to Baptist (grew up as a Pentecostal), so what does Believer's only Baptist mean?

BT · Oct 5, 2004

Hey yeah, that's a good explanation!

rural_preacher · Oct 5, 2004

daveleau said:
Interesing. A good way of putting it. Thanks. I understand now.

I am relatively new to Baptist (grew up as a Pentecostal), so what does Believer's only Baptist mean?

Individuals who give a testimony of personal faith in Jesus Christ should publicly identify themselves with Christ in believer's baptism (immersion). When we do this, we are identifying ourselves with His death, burial and resurrection. Going into the water symbolizes His death, going under the water symbolizes His burial and coming up out of the water symbolizes His resurrection. This baptism is only for those who have already been born again by God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ. Jesus commanded it in Matt. 28:19 and it was clearly practiced from the very beginning of the church - Acts 2:41, "Then those who gladly received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them."

We also see here that they were not added to the church (membership) until they had believed and were baptized. The proper order is received the Word (salvation), baptized, then added (membership).

Crazy Liz · Oct 5, 2004

I don't know if you'll consider this question off-topic or not, but what is the importance of denominational distinctives? WHY do you teach them? What is their real significance?

rural_preacher · Oct 5, 2004

Crazy Liz said:
I don't know if you'll consider this question off-topic or not, but what is the importance of denominational distinctives? WHY do you teach them? What is their real significance?

We believe that these distinctives are biblical. They define a properly formed New Testament local church. These teachings of Scripture are the basis of what we believe and why we believe it - the basis for the doctrine and adminstration of the church.

There are churches that do not call themselves "baptist" that believe these same things. We would consider them to be "baptistic" in their belief and practice.

These biblical distinctives of a local church are called "baptist distinctives" because they describe the historical position that baptists have held.

Gold Dragon · Oct 5, 2004

Many of these aren't all that distinct to Baptists.

Diakoneo said:
B - Bible is the sole authority
P - Priesthood of the believer

These two are shared by almost all protestants

Diakoneo said:
A - Autonomy of the local church
I - Individual soul liberty

These are shared by all congregational churches

Diakoneo said:
T - Two ordinances (The Lord's Supper, Believer's Baptism)
S - Separation of church and state

Most protestants only have Communion and Baptism as their two ordinances with slightly different understandings of them.

Symbolic Communion is shared by most post-Reformation protestants.
Believer's Baptism is shared with Anabaptists.
Separation of church and state is shared with Anabaptists and Quakers.

Diakoneo said:
T - Two offices of the church (pastor, deacon)

I'm glad I grew up in a church culture that didn't emphasize denominational distinctives and differences that often divide but instead sought to work together with the different denominations in our community.

Crazy Liz · Oct 5, 2004

rural_preacher said:
We believe that these distinctives are biblical. They define a properly formed New Testament local church. These teachings of Scripture are the basis of what we believe and why we believe it - the basis for the doctrine and adminstration of the church.

Does this mean you consider any church that doesn't follow these distinctive is un-biblical or improperly formed?

There are churches that do not call themselves "baptist" that believe these same things. We would consider them to be "baptistic" in their belief and practice.

These biblical distinctives of a local church are called "baptist distinctives" because they describe the historical position that baptists have held.

I think I understand they characterize the historical position of Baptists, but what is your view of the importance of observing them? If you ceased to observe them, you would no longer be Baptist, but could you continue to be Christian? Do you see the Baptist distinctives as superior to the distinctives of every other denomination, or simply as the ones you prefer?

Crazy Liz · Oct 5, 2004

Gold Dragon said:
Diakoneo said:

I - Individual soul liberty
S - Separation of church and state

Click to expand...

These are shared by all congregational churches

I'm not so sure about the concept of "individual soul liberty." I don't think I completely understand what Baptists mean by it. I do know that Baptists and Anabaptists interpret scripture differently, and I have heard Baptists say the idea of "soul liberty" is their rationale for interpretation of scripture by private individuals, rather than by the community together (as the Anabaptists do).

To the degree that we believe that humans have free will and come to faith (or not) as individuals, I think Baptists and Anabaptists agree. However, I don't quite understand how Reformed Baptists interpret the concept of "individual soul liberty," or if they believe in this at all.

I'm sure the reason I don't understand how this concept applies to the particular issues of interpretation of scripture or to predestination stems from the fact that I really don't know what this phrase means at all.

However, unless I totally misunderstand what this term means, I would say that this and autonomy of the local church are the two Baptist distinctives that Anabaptists would disagree with. Anabaptists tend to be much more group-oriented, while Baptists are more individualistic.

rural_preacher · Oct 5, 2004

It is true that many of these beliefs are held by many different groups. It is this set of eight beliefs as a whole that has become known, historically, as the "baptist distinctives". This is simply to say that these beliefs are what generally characterize a baptist church. They are not regarded as exclusively baptist.

Some baptists are hard core and would say that a church not holding to all of these is not a proper local church. I, personally, would not go that far. But I do think that there is biblical support for these beliefs.

There appears to be some questions concerning the precise meaning of two of these in particular. Here is an explanation:

Autonomy of the Local Church

The local church is an independent body accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. All human authority for governing the local church resides within the local church itself. Thus the church is autonomous, or self-governing. No religious hierarchy outside the local church may dictate a church's beliefs or practices.

Individual Soul Liberty

Every individual, whether a believer or an unbeliever, has the liberty to choose what he believes is right in the religious realm. No one should be forced to assent to any belief against his will. Baptists have always opposed religious persecution. However, this liberty does not exempt one from responsibility to the Word of God or from accountability to God Himself.

I hope this helps to answer some questions.

Crazy Liz · Oct 5, 2004

rural_preacher said:
It is true that many of these beliefs are held by many different groups. It is this set of eight beliefs as a whole that has become known, historically, as the "baptist distinctives". This is simply to say that these beliefs are what generally characterize a baptist church. They are not regarded as exclusively baptist.

Some baptists are hard core and would say that a church not holding to all of these is not a proper local church. I, personally, would not go that far. But I do think that there is biblical support for these beliefs.

There appears to be some questions concerning the precise meaning of two of these in particular. Here is an explanation:

Autonomy of the Local Church

The local church is an independent body accountable to the Lord Jesus Christ, the head of the church. All human authority for governing the local church resides within the local church itself. Thus the church is autonomous, or self-governing. No religious hierarchy outside the local church may dictate a church's beliefs or practices.

Thank you for clarifying this. Although Mennonites don't have a hierarchy, we do have conferences that are more authoritative than Baptist associations (although the SBC seems to be headed in a direction of limiting local autonomy a bit). WRT relationships between local churches and denominational conferences, I would say Mennonites are more similar to Presbyterians, except with fewer rules!

Individual Soul Liberty

Every individual, whether a believer or an unbeliever, has the liberty to choose what he believes is right in the religious realm. No one should be forced to assent to any belief against his will. Baptists have always opposed religious persecution. However, this liberty does not exempt one from responsibility to the Word of God or from accountability to God Himself.

I hope this helps to answer some questions.

Thanks! Mennonites and Quakers would agree with this definition.

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