by Steve Grose
Our Baptist Distinctives do not need to be rewritten. One of the greatest problems I perceive as a Baptist in New South Wales in 2008 is that some pastors and most church members are not clearly aware of the historical development that led to our assertion of our Baptist distinctives.
Our year book has a page that attempts to encompass those Baptist Distinctives within the Statement of Principle approved by the 2000 Annual Assembly. It was with a great deal of wisdom that our forebears only a few years ago proposed this Statement of Principle, and we should do all we can to endorse and encourage our churches to understand the importance of the distinctive beliefs that make us “Baptists” as distinct from other evangelicals.
Our Baptist distinctives flow from one solitary belief: that a person can know the living God personally. To move way from this one central idea is to participate in the depersonalisation of our society and the depersonalisation of our religion.
Regenerate membership means we understand that a church is the community of individual believers who have come to know God.
The Lordship of Christ means that we are a community of believers who have recognised that the only way to know God is through Jesus Christ, and the only way to continue to know God is through a continuing personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
Biblical authority: we hold to the concept that the daily Lordship of Christ is found in daily communion with God as He has revealed Himself through His Word. This means that we submit to the authority of the Bible as God’s self-revelation, by which we may know Him.
Soul liberty: we appreciate that each person has the right to find their own way to God and to understand their own truth. We do not demand that all people should be like we are. We respect the right of association for fellowship and encouragement so that others who like us have chosen to know God in Christ through his Word may be able to meet together for such mutual encouragement and exploration of God’s will for their lives. This soul liberty is often termed the Priesthood of all believers as it recognises the individual’s relationship with God as paramount.
Autonomy of the local church: because we believe that people who know God should have the liberty to band together as they wish, we respect the right of every group of people to associate themselves together on the basis of their shared relationship with God in Christ through the Word. This means that people of like belief should associate together on the basis of their common faith and common life. A manner of association together recognising the directive of the Lord Jesus Christ and the agreement to common life and faith in the context of the local church is the Baptist Distinctive of Believer’s Baptism.
As the local church is an association of like minded souls with liberty to pursue their relationship with God, as described in their common life and belief, therefore the Baptist distinctive of a free church in a free state is an outcome we should respect. Neither church nor state should control the other, nor should there be an alliance between the two. Christians in a free society can properly influence government toward righteousness, which is not the same as a denomination or group of churches controlling the government or the government controlling the churches.
Whilst it may not seem necessary to affirm the last principle at this time, yet in some places this is an important basic tenet of Baptist belief. We signify our solidarity with other believers in other countries not as blessed as we are with our liberties by affirming this belief.
As we move forward at this time, we must at the same time look backwards to our past to see where we are coming from and who we are as Baptists distinct within the evangelical community.
Steve Grose is senior pastor of Newcastle Baptist Tabernacle.
About Me
- Rod Benson
- Rod Benson is an ethicist and public theologian with the Tinsley Institute.
2 comments:
Steve is partly correct. My question how often are they taught or preached about. Very seldom from my oberservations
The Baptist Distinctive of "Baptist Distinctives"
It seems to me that "Baptist Distinctives" is a bit of a Baptist distinctive. I might be wrong, but from my experience few if any of the other denominations approach their distinctives in the way we do. I doubt very much that if you went to an Anglican or Pressie or Catholic college that you'd receive instruction in their distinctives as such. Instead they seem to handle their distinctives as part and parcel of their entire theological vision, a vision which may have a lot in common with the theological visions of other denominations.
This is an eminently sensible approach. The problem with isolating our distinctives is that they can either be easily made into a be-all and end-all which they were never intended to be, or they can seem as somewhat isolated addenda to the rest of our theological position.
Baptists grew out of the Puritan-Separatist rearticulation of Reformation theology, enlivened with evangelical conviction. Baptists have sought to thoroughly apply Sola Scriptura, Solus Christus, Sola Gratia, Soli Fide and Soli Deo Gloria. Our distinctives are the consistent results of evangelical principles we share with others. I am a baptist, and I hold to some distinctively baptist beliefs because I believe that it is consistent evangelicalism. No doubt my Sydney Anglican and Pressie brethren might disagree, but given the light I have recieved from the Word I can do no other.
By all means lets not let go of our 'distinctives' but lets hold onto them as the consequences of our core evangelical commitments.
Post a Comment