Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – B.H. Carroll – Distinctive Baptist Distinctives – PART THREE THE NEW TESTAMENT—THE LAW OF CHRISTIANITY
Roger Fulk posted B.H. Carroll – Distinctive Baptist Distinctives – PART THREE – 6/25/20.
THOMAS E KRESAL ADMIN · 4 HRS JUNE 25, 2020
Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – B.H. Carroll – Distinctive Baptist Distinctives – PART THREETHE NEW TESTAMENT—THE LAW OF CHRISTIANITYDoubtless many of my fellow-Christians of other denominations may be disposed to smile at the announcement of this as a distinctive Baptist principle. But let us not smile too soon. Patiently await the development of the thought. To expand the statement: All the New Testament is the Law of Christianity. The New Testament is all the Law of Christianity. The New Testament will always be all the Law of Christianity.This does not deny the inspiration or profit of the Old Testament, nor that the New is a development of the Old. It affirms, however, that the Old Testament, as a typical, educational and transitory system, was fulfilled by Christ, and as a standard of law and way of life was nailed to the cross of Christ and so taken out of the way. The principle teaches that we should not go to the Old Testament to find Christian law or Christian institutions. Not there do we find the true idea of the Christian church, or its members, or its ordinances, or its government, or its officers, or its sacrifices, or its worship, or its mission, or its ritual, or its priesthood.Now, when we consider the fact that the overwhelming majority of Christendom to-day, whether Greek, Romanist or Protestant, borrow from the Old Testament so much of their doctrine of the church, including its members, officers, ritual ordinances, government, liturgy and mission, we may well call this a distinctive Baptist principle.This is not a question of what is the Bible. If it were, Baptists would not be distinguished from many Protestants in rejecting the apocryphal additions incorporated by Romanists in their Old Testament. Nor is it a stand with Chillingworth on the proposition, “The Bible, and the Bible alone, the religion of Protestants.”If it were, Baptists would not be distinguished from many Protestants in rejecting the equal authority of tradition as held by the Romanists. But when Baptists say that the New Testament is the only law for Christian institutions they part company, if not theoretically at least practically, with most of the Protestant world, as well as from the Greeks and Romanists.- To Be ContinuedPresented by Thomas E. Kresal from: BAPTISTS And Their Doctrines Sermons on Distinctive Baptist Principles BY B. H. CARROLL, D.D. PRESIDENT, SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1913 pg. 6-7
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