Baptist Succession Poll

Here's another yes/no. It seems to me there have always been baptists with a lower case b. By that I mean there have always been a remnant of New Testament believers who held to the basics of Baptist beliefs. To try to see an unbroken line such as in The Trail of Blood, however, is strained.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by swaimj:
Do you, as a Baptist, believe there is an unbroken line of Baptist churches from the present time to the early church? <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Not just no, but... well... ok, no. There have always been true Christians, both within and without the Roman church, but there very likely have been long gaps of years without any who could be identified as distinctly Baptist, nevertheless Christians they were.

 

No, there is not an unbroken chain of baptist churches. No, Santa Claus is not of the devil. No, the KJV is not the only Bible. No, slacks on women is not a sin. No, tithing is not a NT commandment.

 

Hi I just wanted to respond to "Roadrunner" and the last post that was posted by this person.

No Santa Clause is not of the devil but it takes away the real reason we celebrate Christmas. I personally never understood Christmas anyway. We come together as a family to celebrate the birth of the Lord Jesus and it is to celebrate his birth and what do we do we give each other presents. I don't know where that was ever done in the Bible when you come to celebrate one person who is no longer with us but lives in heaven and we give each other presents????? If you have an explanation for this I would love to hear it. But Santa Clause takes away the real meaning of Christmas. It takes away that we come together to celebrate the birth of Christ. I personally allow my children to watch the Santa Clause movies and tell them that he is pretend and I tell them the real reason for Christmas is because of the Lord Jesus.

But as far as women and pants. It is not wrong to wear pants but I personally would not do it in church. I dress up out of respect of the Lord. I said this somewhere else and I would not go to a fancy restaraunt in pants so I can at least give the Lord the same kind of respect.

God bless.
Cyndi

 

Hi Baptist Mom,
I thought I'd get a rise outta somebody. I will certainly agree with you that in American culture (Is that an oxymoron?)Christmas is secularized, and the reason is that most Americans do not know Christ in any real saving way.

I am sorry though that you do not understand Christmas- let me explain. We are inspired by Christ's gift to us to give gifts to others. Pretty simple, eh?

To me, and I am sure to you also, Christmas is a blessed time. I frankly get irritated with "super spiritual" Christians who try to ruin it by preaching on "Satan Claws," etc.

On the pants issue, I am glad to hear you dress up for church. Keep it up. I came out of the Jack Hyles movement, which teaches that it is definitely a terrible sin for a woman to wear anything but a dress at all times.

grace to you,
RR

 

There was certainly always true believers. I believe Augustine was a true believer, and he certainly had some very unBaptist views. Perhaps the paticular set of doctrines and theology that we emphasise now is rather modern, but that doesn't mean the Spirit of the Baptist was always around.

 

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by pure and simple genius:
There was certainly always true believers. I believe Augustine was a true believer, and he certainly had some very unBaptist views. Perhaps the paticular set of doctrines and theology that we emphasise now is rather modern, but that doesn't mean the Spirit of the Baptist was always around.<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Well friend, I dunno what the Spirit of the Baptist is. But I do know a Baptist is a particular theological position, in other words it's definiable.

 

swaimj asked:

Do you, as a Baptist, believe there is an unbroken line of Baptist churches from the present time to the early church?

No. Why should I be looking for such a thing? Our authority is the Scriptures, not some kind of apostolic succession.

A supposed "trail of blood" doesn't give the Baptist church any more legitimacy than the Scriptures alone. If a Bible fell out of an airplane and landed in the middle of an isolated village, and the villagers believed the Gospel, and the Baptist denomination was the result, it would be no less legitimate.

[ July 13, 2001: Message edited by: Ransom ]

 

I think the great succession comes only in the fact that we can know Christ and have a relationship with him.

 

No. Lollards were Lollards. Waldensians were Waldensians. I am a Baptist. The Baptist movement took hold in 17th century England.

Chick

 

The question is did the Lollards or the Waldenses hold to Baptist/baptistic beliefs? The question is not if they were perfect, as none of our Baptist churches are either. But were they evangelicals who held to the Baptist positions on believer's immersion?

 

1) There is more to being a Baptist than the issue of immersion.

2) If I worked for Coke and you worked for Pepsi, both companies that produce similar but distinct products, would someone come along a few hundred years later and conclude that we both worked for Coke?

Chick

 

J.R. Graves asked:

But were they evangelicals who held to the Baptist positions on believer's immersion?

Are you now going to contend that present-day Mennonites, Pentecostals, and Brethren are really closet Baptists? All of them practice credobaptism by immersion.