Different Kinds of Baptist

I am a member of an Independent Baptist church. That means we have no official ties and our church constitution is how our church "goverenment" is laid out for legal reasons as well as what the leadership feels to be most God honoring. The different denominational Baptist churches (such as American Baptist, Southern Baptist, etc.) have a set church governing group and they often reley on the group for pulpit supply, missionaries and even funds in some cases. Their doctrinal beliefs are also layed out for the denomination.

Am I right or totally off base? That is what I think is right but you never know!

 

Mom, it's not quite as strong is that. The baptist cooperative groups like the Southern Baptist Convention, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the National Baptist Convention, the Alliance of Baptists, etc.. are not governing bodies. They are a means for churches to pool resources for common works.

Increasinly, the Southern Baptist Convention has been acting for a higher level of theological orthodoxy among its cooperating churches, but the only "authority" it has over those churches is to stop taking their money. There continues to be considerable diversity among SBC, CBF, NBC, ABC, and Alliance churches.

In fact, I would argue that IFB churches are far more doctrinally uniform than those baptist churches that belong to cooperating bodies.

Joshua

 

Each Southern Baptist church is self governing. We are a part of a group of other SBC churchs(SBC, Ky.SBC, and our local association <Liberty Association of Baptists&gt, but we govern ourselves, we are not obligated to follow or do anything decided by any of the groups.

 

Cality,

There is still tremendous doctrinal diversity even among churches in conventions that strive for orthodoxy. The Southern Baptist Convention, for instance, officially opposes the ordination of women; but I can think of several Southern Baptist Churches with ordained women on staff. Likewise, the official stand of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is that homosexuality is a sin, but there are churches in the CBF with gay clergy on staff.

Joshua

 

Yes Cality, you've got it. Even if it says "baptist" or even "Southern Baptist" on the sign out front you have no idea what's going on inside.

Interestingly, from what I can tell here, if it says "Independent Fundamental Baptist" on the sign, you probably can have a pretty good idea what's going on inside. The irony here is that IFB churches are the most resistant to "cooperation" in national bodies.

Joshua

 

Hello there:
The big majority of Baptist churches, whether SBC, or independent, agree on the major fundamentals of the Christian faith (salvation by grace thru faith, eternal security of the believer, baptism for believers only, the virgin birth, the efficacy of the blood of God's lamb etc) but differ in many practices.
For example, traditional solemn hymns vs today's modern, contemporary songs, or feet washing vs just communion and no feet washing, or tithes and offerings vs offerings only, or open communion vs
closed communions.
But one thing this big majority of Baptists will not claim is to be Protestants. We are not, and never have been Protestants, there were Baptists long before the Reformation when the Protestants came.
And, oh, yes, the big wedge among Baptists is the Election vs Whosoever theologies. I belong to the Primitive Baptists which are, by and large, electionists (but not Calvinists) and came from the Bible Baptist church which was, by and large,
Arminian (whosoever).

 

I'd be careful about saying "big majority" here. I doubt that even "majority" would be appropriate if you mean all baptists.

The "Trail of Blood" thinking has been widely debunked by baptist historians.

Joshua

 

Joshua said

I don't understand what you mean by this Trail of Blood thinking? Could you elaborate more so I can give you a logical and reasonable answer?... Brother Glen

 

Glen, Trail of Blood was a "historical book of questionable scholarship that asserted that baptists had been around since the Book of Acts. It was a product of the rabid anti-Catholicism of the group of baptists that produced it, and was an attempt to claim a heritage for baptists that was independent of mainstream Christianity and particularly the Roman Catholic Church.

Because the book told people what they wanted to hear, it was widely popular for a period; but to my knowledge it never held any credibility among actual church historians.

Joshua

 

Rev Josh, I have found the many if not most midwest Baptists would not question most of the Trail of Blood. Most Baptists I know would not consider themselves Protestants.

 

Mark, are you including American Baptists and in that "most?"

Joshua

 

I believe that you can do a doctrinal trace all the way back to the River Jordan. It started with John The Baptist and there has never been a break in that doctrine. This is the only way a trace can be made by doctrinal truths and those that held them through out the ages!... Brother Glen

[ April 15, 2002, 05:43 PM: Message edited by: tyndale1946 ]

 

Amen, Brother Glen! Jude says our faith is "the faith once delivered to the saints." It only had to be delivered once because it never died out, and has always been here. There has never been a time starting with the ministry of Christ when "the faith" did exist on the earth. I stand in that old time religion, once delivered, and over which the gates of hell will never prevale!

 

Sir:

Though your answer was addressed to Bro. Glen, let me, with your permission, refer you to the following link:
Primitive Baptists from Apostolic Times to Present

I do not pretend to be a scholar. Just a poor city boy from a poor country whom God had seen fit to bless with residence in this great country.

I'm pretty sure you'll enjoy researching the links and claims in that site considering the resources available to you for research.

 

Bob, at some point we'll have to talk about how things like new evangelicalism and neo-orthodoxy (a conservative response to liberalism) are "liberal" in your book.

On a related note, if you look in the Baptist History Threads you'll see a newsletter link I posted. In that newsletter, one of the more prominent mainstream baptist historians argues that the CBF/Alliance/Mainstream baptist churches should return "home" to the ABC.

Joshua
(P.S. No thanks on the Methodism, I like to be able to get articulate answers back from the candidate when I baptize them.)

 

Dr. Bob:

After reading Josh and his friends on Baptist Life.com bulletin board...I would suggest that your last line described he and his friends perfectly!