Dr. Ron Sumners
June 27, 2004
What are the historic Baptist principles? We confess with all Christians the doctrines of Holy Scripture, the nature of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
We believe that God is the creator who chose to share His freedom with the human family He created. Despite human rebellion and sin, He kept on loving the creation enough that His only Son would be born of a virgin, live an obedient and sinless life, die in our place, and be raised up in power so that the tomb was empty.
He was seen by many witnesses and is coming again to judge the world and usher in His kingdom. This good news, that God loves a disobedient world and provides a way for sin to be forgiven and life made new, is to be preached everywhere in the power of the Holy Spirit so that sinners might repent, believe and be saved.
We believe all that, but Baptists are not the only ones. There are other Christian, evangelical denominations that share those same beliefs.
We believe in the inspiration of Holy Scripture and in God is breathing on and through the writers, so that the book of our faith is a true and trustworthy record of what God has done through creation and redemption of the world. It is truth without mixture of error.
We believe that life is of great value and that the decisions we make here have consequences in time and in eternity.
We believe that the church is the body of Christ and is therefore the continuing incarnation of Christ in the world.
We believe that the church is a body of baptized believers. It is manifested as a family of faith in a given place, a place all people can find and are welcomed. It is a place where people are embraced by love and the presence of God.
We believe that this local body of believers is to be free from the authority of any ecclesiastical governance, choosing freely with whom we will cooperate with in the work of the larger Kingdom of God.
We believe that the church and state or civil government should remain separate. We believe that religion should influence the affairs of state but not dictate them, nor should the government make laws concerning the free exercise of religion unless the practice of that religion violates the civil right of others.
These convictions flow from biblical truths that Baptists have adhered to from the very beginning of our existence.
First, the gospel must be fervently, plainly preached and people called to faith and repentance in Christ.
If we do not begin with that as our first principle, it will be easily forgotten. The reason Baptist preachers wanted freedom was not so they could claim, “I am free.” They wanted freedom to preach the gospel! They wanted men and women to hear of and know the grace of God ñ and to be saved. And they wanted to be able to preach fervently and persuasively.
One man in Virginia said, “Pray that when you are on your way to a meeting that you do not meet a Baptist, for he will stop you in the road, and hold your horse by its bridle while he preaches to you and persuades you to become a Christian.”
Baptists have participated in the great revivals in America. Our preachers were not always highly educated, nor have they ever been overly concerned about formal papers of approval. All the worry about ordination seems a little strange to Baptists. You know what Charles Spurgeon said about ordination – “empty hands on empty head.” He was forever Mr. Spurgeon and God used him to turn a nation toward Him.
Baptists have always been a free people. Sometimes that is disturbing and messy, but soul competency is a cornerstone of our belief.
Secondly, we accept only believers’ baptism. Baptism follows faith and is the outward witness to the inner working of God is Holy Spirit in redeeming the repentant sinner. Baptists believe that this is a personal experience. Our faith is not conferred on us by someone else’s faith or religious act. Not even by our parents. The influence of our family certainly has an effect on us, but we wait for the Spirit’s stirring in the life to move the heart and draw to faith those that God calls to salvation. Our God has many children, but no grandchildren.
Every Baptist can remember when they were baptized. I was just a boy but I remember well the cold waters of Logan’s Creek that April Sunday afternoon. Has it ever occurred to you that, at that moment, though it was not the last time, God smiled on you? Feel the warmth of that! When Jesus was baptized, the voice spoke, “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.” God smiled on His Son.
A man that everyone called Chief became a Christian at age 83. On the day of baptism at a local pond the water was freezing cold. The pastor told Chief that the water was really, really cold. He replied, “Pastor, I’ve waited this long. I’m not going to let a little cold water stop me.” Chief waded into the water and gasped, “Its cold!”
Later on, his wife said to the pastor, “I know now that Chief is really saved. If he wasn’t, he would have said something else.”
We believe in experiential faith that God comes and draws us to Himself.
Thirdly, we coerce no one to follow Christ. We preach, pray, and plead, but no threat to the physical body, no restriction of civil liberties, no boycotting of another’s business and livelihood, no banishment from the city or town. God desires free worshippers and no other kind. God has made man free to accept or reject Him. A coerced faith is no faith at all.
Fourthly, there must be no ecclesiastical or governmental authority that can control the church or compel the conscience.
After the American Revolution, Patrick Henry wanted to establish a church relationship with the government. He wanted it to be the Anglican Church. There was a public outcry from Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists and men who fought for separation of church and state.
Patrick Henry thought that they could establish the Christian religion, including all of these denominations and have them funded by the government. John Leland and the Baptists stepped forward to say, “We will not take your money. The taxes of the people do not belong in the pockets of the churches.” The Presbyterians and Methodists followed suit. The idea of a state funded church died.
In 1777, Thomas Jefferson wrote a draft that later became the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom. He once said that the two accomplishments of which he was the most proud were the founding of the University of Virginia and this article on religious freedom. He didn’t even mention the Declaration of Independence.
Under whose authority does a local church abide? Who has the authority of the conscience of another believer? The local church, being the Body of Christ, with Jesus Christ as the head, operates with Christ as the final authority!
Fifthly, the obligation of the free man or woman in Christ is to obey God and grow up in Christ, that the image of Christ might be formed in us. We are called that we might have freedom for service, not license for evil. The Christian faith knows nothing of the philosophy of “the end justifies the means.” The bombing of an abortion clinic is evil. It has no place in the Christian endeavor.
Sixthly, Christians and churches are called to cooperate with one another and be united in their work. The churches in this community that believe the right things about Jesus Christ are not our enemy or competition. They are our coworkers and members of the Body of Christ.
Seventh, the Baptist vision of the church is, therefore, not as the church triumphant but of the church as servant.
People go really wrong in their interpretation of the Revelation if it is interpreted out of a mentality of triumph. The Revelation was written to the church as it was in the midst of persecution. They were weak, alone, persecuted, dying and they didn’t know if the church or the gospel would survive. God gave them hope through a great vision of triumph.
But when the church feels itself triumphant and in control and goes to the Book of Revelation, it comes off not as a word of hope in our weakness, but as a threat against everyone else in our power.
When the church seeks control, rather than to bear witness, to force rather than persuade, to ask for service rather than to serve, it loses the power of the Holy Spirit!
The church ought to be influential, but not established; powerful for good on behalf of others, but not seeking privilege and power for itself.
Those who do evil and corrupt the lives of citizens should know that the church will call it to attention, but the church should not seek the levers of power to force all citizens to their particular religious or moral view.
Baptists have sought to influence public policy with the best of them. When we have felt that there was a danger to public principles informed by biblical principles we have taken positions about alcohol and its abuse, drugs, gambling, slavery, civil rights, abortion and others. Those are the kinds of issues that Baptist people have addressed, not to coerce but to persuade and invite public opinion to be sensitized to the higher vision we find in God’s will.
In our lifetime, we have seen a fierce defense of the separation of church and state sputter into acquiescence to the forces of our culture, who, being afraid of the freedom and the license they observe, want to bring under their control the actions and public expressions of our citizens. Or, finding that religious freedom includes Muslims, Mormons and Moonies, they want to create barriers that protect only our Christian ideas.
I am not against prayer in school. I want more prayer everywhere. As long as there are Christian children there will be prayer in school! I am not in favor of government-sponsored prayer in school. If that is the case you have a secular government deciding what prayer is and whose prayer to use. Do we pray to God one day, Allah one day, Buddha the next day? Will we have a standardized, non-offensive, generic prayer to offend no one?
We cannot have it both ways. Freedom of religion must also be freedom from religion!
I believe that these Baptist ideas are crucial ideas, true to scripture, that encourage the greatest possible freedom for all.
I believe in God, Jesus Christ, and the Church. I also believe that the traditional Baptist beliefs are still viable in this age in which we live.
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