Jesus Christ Is Lord!
The good news of the gospel is that Jesus Christ is Lord (Philippians 2:10-11). This is the starting point for all of Christ's disciples, and certainly for those who belong to Baptist churches. Jesus Christ is our Master and our King.
- He is the way (John 14:6). We are His obedient servants, His subjects who desire to live in the way He commands.
- He is the truth, the ultimate authority for all thinking and acting.
- He is the life. He is God the Son, through whom everything came into being, and before whom all people will ultimately fall on their knees. Jesus Christ is Lord, and head of His body, the Church in whom He lives.
Christians are people who, individually and collectively, constantly ask, "What does our Lord want us to believe, and what does He want us to do?"
The Bible: God's Word
This leads us immediately to the Bible, in which the mind of Christ is revealed. We accept it as the word of God written, His authoritative guide for our faith and practice. "All scripture is god-breathed" (2 Timothy 3:16), the trustworthy record of the mighty acts and utterances of God in the history of His people Israel, fulfilled in the life, teaching, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Christians who belong to Baptist churches are encouraged to be keen Bible people, seeking with an open and reverent mind what God is saying to us today. Sometimes we won't find specific answers to modern problems in the Bible, but we'll always find God's guiding principles. The greatest principle or commandment, said Jesus, is: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is this, you shall love your neighbour as yourself."
For us then, God alone is the sovereign Lord. We have always tried to follow the New Testament principle, "We must obey God rather than any human authority." We reject doctrines or practices that either contradict or are not in harmony with God's revealed will in the Bible. For every question we seek to find a balanced answer to another question: "What does the Bible say?"
Disciples: Humble Learners
Two additional points must be made. First, this does not mean we arrogantly believe we are the only ones who are right. God alone knows all the truth. We are humble learners with others who search the Scriptures and submit to them. An early Baptist statement still holds true: "God has yet more light and truth to break forth from his Holy Word". We say to other followers of Jesus Christ, "You are my brother and sister, not because we agree on every detail, but because we are God's children by grace through faith." Second, Baptists have produced written confessions but never a written creed. Creeds tend to lock people in to set formulae which become outdated as issues change, and can make us exclusive rather than inclusive of other believers. The bond between us is not that we assent to a creed but that we are disciples of Jesus, followers in a personal relationship with him.
Church: The Company of The Committed
The New Zealand Baptist model church constitution begins: "The Church is a community of those who believe in God the Father, in his Son Jesus Christ, and in the Holy Spirit, one God; who are repentant of sin and have been saved by personal faith in Jesus Christ through his atoning death and resurrection; who have publicly confessed their faith in him through believer's baptism; and who are willing to be committed to the church's aims and functions".
Since 1611, whenever Baptists have been asked, "Who belongs to the church?" their answer is always, "Only those who've deliberately chosen to follow the way of Jesus; regenerate, born again disciples!" Baptists were once persecuted for holding this view. Only now can it be said that most churches (in the west at least) accept this as the truth.
The Radical Reformation
We trace our spiritual ancestry back to people like the Anabaptists (re-baptizers) in 16th Century Europe during the Reformation under Luther, Calvin, and other protestant reformers, people were urged to go back to the Bible for their instructions about faith and living, and to reject unbiblical doctrines and practices of the Church of Rome. For example they spoke of the priesthood of all believers. The Church of Rome made ordinary people dependent on the mediation of priests, but the reformers proclaimed the right of every believer to have access to God through Christ alone. They encouraged ordinary believers to read the written Word of God (a practice forbidden by church authorities at that time). They said that every believer has the Holy Spirit to teach them, and that we do not need church authorities to tell us what to believe, especially if it is contrary to Scripture!
The radical reformation went further. The Anabaptists believed the reformers stopped short of a fuller biblical understanding of the Church. They objected to the close alliance of Church and State, which although it had continued for over a thousand years, was unbiblical. They rejected the practice of baptizing infants for the same reason. The practice of infant baptism perpetuated state churches which consisted of nominal Christians or outright unbelievers!
A Free Church
Meanwhile in England a puritan movement emerged within the Church of England, calling that church back to the Bible. One learned man, John Smyth (a fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge) became a city lecturer at Lincoln at the turn of the 17th Century. This post allowed him to expound the Scriptures to the townspeople who were not satisfied with the teaching they were receiving in the churches. Things became too hot for these radicals, so some like Smyth fled to Holland where there was religious freedom. There, in 1610, John Smyth became the leader of the first English-speaking "Baptist" church. (The nickname stuck). He saw, with the Anabaptists, that infant baptism leading to automatic membership of a parish church (of which every dweller in the parish district was a member) bore little resemblance to New Testament Christianity. He read there that only those who responded personally to the call of Christ could belong to the Church. a Christian must be repentant of sin and committed to live for Christ.
So Baptists have always been wary of alliances between state authorities and churches. They've maintained that governments shouldn't influence or interfere with a person's freedom of choice to follow Christ.
High Standards of Discipleship
Because people willingly choose to belong to the church, a high standard of Christian behaviour and discipleship is expected of those who belong to Baptist churches. By the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to obey biblical guidelines and live on a higher plane than non-Christians. Sometimes church discipline must be lovingly extended to those who bring the name of Christ into disrepute. Others have sometimes thought that to belong to a Baptist church would demand a more rigorous commitment than was required at their own church. That may be true, if New Testament Christianity is taken seriously. Many Anabaptists and early baptists were willing to be martyred for their beliefs, often by drowning! |