About Baptists - from other points of view

That makes at least two of us who make a faith and practice connection from Baptistic churches to the New Testament churches referenced in the Book of Acts. Jesus promised He would keep Her through the end of the age--He has kept His promise.

Such a notion surely undermines the hallowed halls of Christendom. The consternation is understandable. It is kind of like having the Natural History Museum director realizing evolution is bunk. What will he do with all the plaster of paris and artist's concepts? If he comes out of the closet, he will probably be ridiculed and discharged for scientific heresy.l

The reality of it: salvation is by grace through faith; that not of ourselves it is the gift of God; not of works lest any man should boast. The RCC and her daughters do not believe this in practice--they have some sort of admixture--grace and works; or works and grace.

This issue gets even wider when one considers the fine points of Arminius and Calvin.

There are more of us out there--kind of a silent minority.

Peace,

Bro. James

 

My experience has been diferent than that above. I attended what you would call Arminian churches for about 30 years. For the past 18 years, I attended a SBC Baptist church using SBC literature. My Baptist church puts much more emphasis on the importance on works that any of the Arminian churches I attended.

Of course, my Baptist church properly teaches that works have nothing to do with obtaining or retaining salvation. However, it also teaches that a true Christian will show some good works after becoming a Christian. If some good works are not evident, then there is a question if the person is really a true Christian. So, works have nothing to do with obtaining salvation, but will be important to the true Christian.

BTW, Arminian churches also teach the works have nothing to do with obtaining and retaining salvation. Granted there may be some small Arminian churches that connect works with salvation as well as the RCC, but the main Arminian denominations agree with the Baptists that works have nothing to do with obtaining or retaining salvation.

My limited experience is that Baptist churches put more emphasis on the importance of works in a Christian's life than Arminian churches.

 

You still have to interact with other Christians....do you explain to them you hold this special place in time & history? I personally cant see the relevance of it all....sorry but it doesnt cut it with me. This would be my least concern in my walk with Christ.

now here is what I profess ....that Jesus is Lord....(see 1 john 5: 11 & 12) So it is our belief in the SON that matters. He who has the SON has life...... I dont think it says....... well you know where Im going with this.

Blessings & peace.

 

Huh....Sorry what are you asking me ....about RC's?

Are you asking if they believe they are the one true religion? If your asking that, than I view that as bunk as well. I hope your not comparing RC's to Baptists however.

 

Certainly the origin of baptist doctrine is pre-Reformation, but no individual baptist alive today is.

But my point was that here in the UK, it is quite usual for baptists to be spoken of (and even sometimes to speak of theselves) as protestant. I understand that the word "protest" can mean "to declare solemnly". Indeed, an online etymolgical dictionary says that the first recorded use of "protest" in the sense of expressing disapproval was not until 1751. That same dictionary says that "Protestant" is "member of any Western church outside the Roman communion;" a sense first attested in English in 1553. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "Protestant" thus:

"In the 17c., 'protestant' was primarily opposed to 'papist,' and thus accepted by English Churchmen generally; in more recent times, being generally opposed to 'Roman Catholic,' or ... to 'Catholic,' ... it is viewed with disfavour by those who lay stress on the claim of the Anglican Church to be equally Catholic with the Roman."
​

So the label "Protestant" doesn't need to mean "out of the Reformation".

A reason why I and some other Christians over here might feel disinclined to use the term "Protestant" of ourselves is that the word has been hijacked for political use in Ireland.

 

I believe you make a good point in your reply to Jim199, and others not of the UK. Of course the Church of England could be classified as pre-Protestantism as we know it today, yet she too was from the Catholic Church.

It would seem to some degree of understanding we did come from the Church of England.

Do we come from John the Baptist? Highly unlikely.

Do we come from the Jerusalem Apostolic church? Highly unlikely, however we are kin to them.

I would like to think our roots began in Antioch, for it is here we (both Gentile and Jew became equal), and there we received a name distinguishing from all others. We are Christians, and not tied to the Jewish Temple/synagogues. We still went to the Jewish synagogues with the two messages. But as the Body of Christ church/Temple became known we were to leave off the Old, and put on the New.

I see we still have some of that Old hanging on.

 

Protestant, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary: A member or follower of any of the western Christian churches that are separate from the Roman Catholic Church in accordance with the principles of the Reformation.

Hence, the defined meanng of the name is out of the Reformation, no matter that some deny this definition to-day through profane usage.

I am not a protestant. I am a baptist! When I was Church of England, I was a member of the holy catholic church; still not a protestant of the Reformation.

Cheers,

Jim

 

Fully agree Baptist doctrinal identity does show identity to Jesus of the earth. So do all others that hold to the Great Commission. However some believe all of the Great Commission, and some do not.

I personally do not look to Acts 2:37-38 for the remission of my sins.

 

Woo doctrinal identity! Thats one I never heard before. Tom is that stated anywhere in print?

 

I agree that baptist are not a denomination. In fact, we were so named first by our enemies long before the Catholic Reformation.

Cheers,

Jim

 

I do understand that; indeed I wince at phrases like "the baptist denomination", and "the Baptist Church", not least because they imply (here, at any rate) some kind of national or international hierarchical organisation of baptists akin to the Anglicans, with their parish churches arranged into dioceses, each diocese having a bishop, and dioceses arranged into provinces, under an archbishop, and the provinces all come under the leadership of the Archbishop of Canterbury.

I am not sure what you and others mean by the three words, "we come from".

I assume you don't mean what individual baptists once were, before conversion, because some were atheists, some muslims, some Roman Catholics, some hindus...... Speaking personally, before I was converted to Christ, I was a member of a very high (= with Roman Catholic tendencies) Anglican church. So I can rightly say that after my conversion, I came out of, or from Anglicanism, but that isn't true of all baptists, so I cannot say, "We (Baptists) come from Anglicanism." (Well, I could say the words, but they wouldn't be true ).

I also assume that you don't mean that any local baptist church (either today, or in history) claims that it was once a Roman Catholic or Anglican church or similar, but came out from that to become baptist.

And if "we came from" doesn't refer to individual baptists, and doesn't refer to individual baptist churches, what is left? As far as I can see, baptistic doctrines or teachings. And yes, some of them are the same as Roman Catholic doctrines - we and they both believe in the Trinity, in the holiness of God, in the virgin birth of the Saviour, for example. But baptists believe those things because they are in Scripture, not because Roman Catholics believe them.

 

The Great Commission is straightforward for His people, and proselytes. We see the great commission before Pentecost, and at Pentecost, and afterwards. But is it for those in the Body of Christ?

You are posing the "chicken and the egg" merry-go-round. Good idea, but impossible to prove either.

Can you find in scripture salvation by the Grace of God, without a work first being done by the hands of man? This did not happen until …

 

Good try....keep pitchin....havent seen any fastballs yet.

 

So do Presbyterians.