{"id":4653,"date":"2020-06-12T12:27:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T16:27:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/?p=4653"},"modified":"2020-06-12T12:27:35","modified_gmt":"2020-06-12T16:27:35","slug":"why-study-baptist-history-part-4-to-understand-the-difference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/index.php\/2020\/06\/12\/why-study-baptist-history-part-4-to-understand-the-difference\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Study Baptist History – (Part 4) To Understand the Difference"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Dan Nelson<\/a> June 11, 2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

Why Study Baptist History – (Part 4) To Understand the Difference<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cry for unity is a very enticing move to get everyone together. When I was a pastor, a religious group in town wanted to get “the One church” in town together so they asked everyone to dismiss their services and go down to the high school football stadium and get everyone together not to necessarily preach the gospel but show how we were the church of Camarillo. I did not participate, nor did I lead my church to participate because a bunch of believers who have no structure or confession of faith but just say we are a bunch of Christians is not the church. One pastor even went as far as to say all Christians are the church and we just go to different places because of the people we know, the style of music, and what we are comfortable with. All these suppositions are wrong for Baptists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baptists through the centuries have been killed because of their differences. All they had to do was give up believer’s baptism join the state church, don’t be troublemakers and they would have it “made in the shade.” My question is: “How much do you have to give up to be unified?” The ecumenical movement said to give up your dogmatic beliefs in the Bible, accept Catholicism as a legitimate faith (they say the one we all left), and we can be unified. Oh, and accept the corrupt Revised Standard Version of the Bible which removes the Virgin birth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Charismatic movement used to say tongues, healing and prophecies would transcend denominational barriers, so give up your forbidding tongues in service and be open to all as one pastor used to say “healing, feeling and squealing and you can be unified.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today contemporary music is a big unifier that thrives on feeling and what they call “true worship” when we continue to repeat words repeatedly as mantras. Let your inhibitions go they say and get into that feeling that this music produces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you study Baptist History, you will understand that all Baptist had to do was give up something to get nothing and that\u2019s what you get. Baptists took stands because they refused to give up Biblical truths. Some might say that the Anabaptist and English Baptist movement was a recovery but a free church, believer’s baptism and the biblical idea of the church had been highjacked by false-doctrine and never should have been abandoned. After all you see steady groups of people even in the dark ages and joining of church and state in Rome practicing these principles. We are not adding anything new as Baptists; we are going back to what the New Testament church practices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some might say, ” We all will be one in heaven and why don’t you drop your rigid stands on the Bible and accept other’s belief’s today?” I would respond in two ways to this reasoning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, I am going to heaven with the truth and not an error. I am not going to stand before the Lord and say, “I could have believed more of your Word but in the interest of unity and to be one, I didn’t want to rock the boat.” Vance Havner used to say, ” We need people who will save the boat, and don’t worry about rocking it. I had rather rock the boat than wreck the boat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, all the justification for being one is the basis for much false belief. Catholicism started on one unified state religion which was corrupt from the start and got more corrupt and violent as they went along through the centuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am proud of the differences Baptists have had throughout history because they have saved Christianity and perpetuated the Great Commission. If it had not been for Baptist’s insistence on believer’s baptism the Great Commission would have ceased to be implemented in the world thus making Jesus’s statement void by saying “I am with you till the end of the world.” The amplification of the passage means as long as you do these things make disciples, baptize believers (correctly), be obedient to my commands I will be with you and empower you. How do we expect God to bless us if we are disobedient to His commands?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are many other differences among Baptists. Every other Protestant group or non-denominational group has some trace of Catholicism in it through infant sprinkling, the church as the denomination, a hierarchical church structure just for starters. Why don’ we emphasize the difference and not just to find out what we have to bend and shape to be in fellowship with doctrine that contradicts what we believe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every Baptist should not know that we baptize believers by immersion, the church is not all believers and the state should not control or oppose religious differences. The Bible teaches these truths abundantly and history verifies them. When you study Baptist History and line it up with Scripture there are many ways, we are different and not just a one with a bunch of other Christians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let’s celebrate the differences instead of being ashamed of them. We don’t have to hedge on what we believe to be popular with people. When Baptists started meeting in England over the threat of imprisonment by the King because of the state church they were not ashamed of being different or else they would not have started churches independent of the state. They not only separated to form churches, they spoke out against infant baptism which has no Scriptural foundation and has deceived so many for thinking they are Christians just because their family had them sprinkled as a baby when they knew nothing about it. No, popularity was not what Baptists were after, but the truth was what they sought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many will say I’m in a Non-denominational church and we have dropped all types of labels to appeal to more people and not get bogged down on secondary doctrine. When Manz and Grebel kept baptizing with a death threat for doing so, it was not a secondary doctrine. It was a belief in the Bible that meant life or death to them. It meant truth or false doctrine. They chose to die and truth as opposed to being popular. It is a deep error to say we are not going to be involved with doctrine when doctrine is the reason real New Testament churches were started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment a Non-Denominational preacher starts preaching or teaching or a church makes a statement on something it reveals what they believe about certain things. My contention is why don’t you be honest and let people know where you get your theology. I am not ashamed to admit mine comes from a Baptist influence. I can prove that historically and theologically. The only thing you need to ask to any Non-Denominational church or pastor is which Denominational Church are you most like? There is some influence, preacher, type, doctrine that has influenced you if you think you are Non-Denominational. Really you are more Multi-denominational. Denominational only refers to classification, type, and methodology. If you want to go ahead and be nothing, just be nothing but I will stand for something lest I fall for anything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truly we believe in the gathered assembly of believers baptized by immersion as the church. We do not believe in state-sponsored religion or a church from the top down identical to the denomination. We believe in the Bible as God’s Word and its basic teaching about Christ, salvation that is not sponsored but individually entered into through personal faith in Christ. We believe in who the Bible says Jesus was. These are highlights of Baptist churches and not many other groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes Baptist churches unique is we have no false practice of Catholicism that has been carried into all other Protestant churches and hereby taint their belief and practice with non-biblical teaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead of Non-Denominational, I challenge you to stand with me in affirming true biblical doctrine as has been practiced by Baptist churches through the ages and is like ours today. Just because you take the name off it doesn’t make it correct and just because our name is identifiable doesn’t disqualify us. We are affiliated with Christ and His Great Commission. There is no greater affiliation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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