Baptists view of the Church Part 7 Baptists and Other Religious Groups on the Church – by Dan Nelson
Dan Nelson 03/12/21
Baptists view of the Church Part 7 Baptists and Other Religious Groups on the Church
There is an ongoing misunderstanding today on what the church is in mainline Protestant denominations and Non-denominational circles of Evangelical Christianity. Baptist’s view of the church stands in stark contrast to what New Testament Baptist Churches believe today but also what they have believed through the centuries. It is helpful to understand that the benchmark for Baptist churches is how faithful they are to the Great Commission. First, we must believe the gospel and preach it wherever we go and not just affirm it in our churches. Then we must baptize believers by immersion for fellowship and membership in a gathered assembly of believers practicing New Testament teaching and constituted as a church commissioned by our Lord Jesus Christ. Then we teach those we win to Christ and baptize believers through the commands of our Lord. They become a part of a disciplined body that instructs them in the teachings and commands of the Bible. Having positioned ourselves in the Scripture it is easy to contrast how these groups view the church. There are really three big teachings today that stand in contrast to the Baptist’s view of the church found in the New Testament.1-The church as a denomination: Almost all mainline denominations have a top-heavy view of the church. They talk about their church as all in that particular group. They have a hierarchal structure that makes statements and opinions on behalf of all who call themselves members of their denomination. This puts their members who are even people loosely affiliated with them in a bind because they trust others who decide for them on matters of faith and practice. When they are wrong on immorality or doctrine, they can’t do much about it because the church is the denomination. This results in the denomination moving Pastors around and overruling the congregation’s decisions. It is not a New Testament precedent. In many cases, they practice infant baptism and do not view baptism by immersion for fellowship in the church with any significance since they still carry a Catholic mentality in regard to baptism and church membership. The Baptist view of the church is different. The New Hampshire Baptist Confession states in Article XIII. “Of a Gospel Church: We believe that a visible church of Christ is a congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by his laws; and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by his word.”1 http://baptiststudiesonline.com/…/the-new-hampshire…. 2-The Church as everyone that is saved Non-Denominational Evangelicals believe this because they just accept everyone saved as the “one big church.” They mistake the Kingdom of God for the church and make church membership of no significance since we are part of the one big church if we are saved according to them. They have no church membership and, in many cases, preach against it in favor of a group centered around a charismatic pastor or a lot of stuff they have going on that ministers to a lot of people. You will hear them use the word Church to refer to all believers which leave little room to have a definitive understanding of what the Bible says the church is. Yet this is not how Baptists have viewed the church in history and the Bible, ” English Baptists of the seventeenth century were clear on what makes a true church. They regarded the church as a gathered community of redeemed men and women who had covenanted to walk together under the discipline of the Word of God and, with a properly appointed leadership, to proclaim the gospel and observe regularly the ordinances.”1 Robert Torbet, A History of the Baptists 3rd ed. (Judson Press: Valley Forge, PA:, 1950), 55. 3- The Church as two entities: You have the big church made up of all believers and the little church made up of those who assemble. This sounds good to many, but in reality, the church is seen as functional not just all believers. The word church in the New Testament is not used to represent two groups. Usually, the big church gets more attention and emphasis over the little church which is not the New Testament pattern. A famous Christian leader today gives much more attention in his study Bible to the Church as all believers than to the church congregated and functioning. This to me is the biggest deception when it comes to Baptists today. A lot of literature and Bible teaching you get today has this view which has been very persuasive to many through different perspectives. I cannot try to correct these views in this one article. My purpose for this writing is just to give you the views that are in contrast to what Baptists have believed and practice today. I will give Scripture and contrast these views to the true constitution of a New Testament church next week. I want you to see how these views though have weakened the true teaching of the church and put us in the position we are in today.
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