Baptist Catholicity

Introduction

In 1644, representatives from seven Baptist churches in London came together to sign and affirm what became known as the First London Baptist Confession of Faith.[i] Among the signatories were Baptist leaders like William Kiffin, Thomas Killcop, and John Spilsbery.

In the preface of that confession, those men wrote that they were summarizing the beliefs of “churches which are commonly (though falsely) called Anabaptists,” and they said that they wanted to “take off those aspersions [or attacks] which are frequently both in pulpit and in print (although unjustly), cast upon them.”

In other words, they wanted the world to know that they were not like the radical Anabaptists (many of whom rejected biblical authority, civil participation, and the centrality of the local church). And those Baptist Londoners also wanted everyone to know that they were in keeping with most other Protestant churches (i.e., that they affirmed many of the same beliefs and practices that were embraced by Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Reformed churches).

They meant to be (and they understood themselves to be) neither schismatics nor innovators, neither isolationists nor heretics. And Baptists on both sides of the Atlantic (in Europe and in America) have historically shared this same perspective.

I think it’s important for us to know that the radical individualism that so permeates American Evangelicalism today is not to be blamed on the Baptists. History is complicated, and there is almost never just one person or group or idea to blame for any social or religious development. But Baptists are just as much a victim as everyone else in Western society of the acidic notion that I can (all by myself) define my own religion, form my own church, create my own doctrine, decide my own identity, and even invent my own gender. The same spirit animates all sorts of detached ways of thinking (detached from history, detached from society, and detached from reality). And the acid of total libertarianism or complete self-sovereignty will eat away at everything it touches until there are no truths to be known, no virtues to be praised, and no vices to be condemned.

Friends, Baptists have not (at least not historically, not until Evangelicals started talking this way about 100 years ago) argued for a Christianity that is “just me and Jesus,” a sort of privatized Christianity. And Baptists have not at all been interested in promoting a religion that jumps onto the pages of history out of nowhere. This anti-institutional, anti-historical, and anti-communal kind of religion is a sign of our cultural and political times (in the post-Enlightenment West).

And yet, over the last several years, many American Evangelicals have become dissatisfied with the shallow and privatized religion that so often centers around Christian-sounding jargon, self-help content, community activity, and entertainment programming.

Most of those former churchgoers (over the last couple of decades) have become the “I’m spiritual, but not religious” crowd. They say they believe in Jesus, but they haven’t the first clue about the Jesus of the Bible. They say they are Christians, but their version of Christianity would be unrecognizable to most any Christian who lived more than 50 years ago.

I talk to a guy like this at my gym all the time, and I’ve met at least four guys in East Texas who have formed some version of a “church” with a doctrine-lite, anti-institutional, and personal-experience emphasis as their starting point. They seem to think it’s a positive thing for pastors and church goers to not care much about how Christians have thought about church or doctrine or Christian living before their own lifetime.

Friends, you wouldn’t trust a mechanic that can’t tell the difference between a motor and a transmission… you wouldn’t trust a doctor who doesn’t know the difference between a heart and lungs… and you shouldn’t listen to someone talk about “real Christianity” or “authentic Christian community” if they don’t know the basic anatomy and function of a church… if they don’t know the what the Bible says about what to look for in genuine Christians and what signals might indicate that a person only thinks he or she is a Christian (but is self-deceived).

On the other hand, many of those Evangelical dropouts who have not left the local church behind have gone searching for a kind of church experience that seems more historical, more structured, and more tangible (like Roman Catholicism, Eastern Orthodox, and high-church Protestants – like Anglicans or Presbyterians). Baptists are often ignorant about their own rich history, and we often don’t realize just how much we share with all other true churches – those that preach the true gospel and administer the ordinances as signs (not as rites which contribute to salvation).

What I want to argue today is that Baptists are actually well-grounded in historic Christianity. Baptists share a great deal of common ground with other Protestants. And Baptists can happily cooperate with other Christians and churches for the sake of evangelism, discipleship, and church planting & revitalization (i.e., those activities that fall under the category of missions, both foreign and domestic).

In other words, I want to help us all understand that the story of Baptists (the historic Baptist beliefs and practices that led us up to our present day) is actually much richer and much more united and cooperative than the common narrative.

Baptists (and broader Evangelicals) often don’t know that their own Christian tradition did not begin with Billy Graham or with their own grandmother. Many Baptists don’t know (or at least they don’t act like they know) that their own church is necessarily connected with all other true churches.

They may happily pray for world missions or send money to “Christian” organizations in some other state or country, but they seem unaware that there are other churches in their own city or town where genuine brothers and sisters in Christ are gathered for the same purpose every Sunday… and they often don’t know how to cooperate with other Christians as they scatter throughout the week (in schools, on the job, and in the community).

What I’m arguing for today might be called Baptist catholicity.

Now, if you know me, then you know I’m not saying that Baptists are united or ought to unite with Rome. No, Evangelicals and Roman Catholics are not fundamentally together on some of the most important issues of Christianity, and if you want to know more about why, then let’s talk after the service.

The word “catholic” simply means universal or whole. And “catholicity” is the understanding that the whole of all Christians in the world is actually scattered about as various local churches each Sunday.[ii] It’s the idea that Christians are in agreement and united in meaningful ways, and the churches they form are too.

On the first Sunday of each month this year, I’ve been arguing that Baptists are distinct from other Protestant Christians… and I still stand by all that I’ve said. But today, I’m arguing that our particular church is (while distinct) quite united with all other true churches… and we (as Baptists) are also necessarily connected with other Christians who may not share some of our beliefs and practices.

Let’s read a passage from Scripture that speaks to some Christians beliefs as of “first importance,” and let’s consider together some implications of this sort of thinking for our various relationships today.

Scripture Reading

1 Corinthians 15:1-8 (ESV)

1 Now I would remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you, which you received, in which you stand, 2 and by which you are being saved, if you hold fast to the word I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.

3 For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received:

that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,

4 that he was buried,

that he was raised on the third day in accordance with the Scriptures,

5 and that he appeared to Cephas, then to the twelve.

6 Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.

7 Then he appeared to James, then to all the apostles.

8 Last of all, as to one untimely born, he appeared also to me.”

Main Idea:

Baptists can and do embrace creeds, confessions, and cooperation; and these can help us maintain Baptist distinctives while enjoying meaningful relationships with others who do not agree with us.

Sermon

1. Creeds

Today, I’m preaching a topical message (not an expositional one), so I won’t be walking through the text of 1 Corinthians 15 (as I normally do each Sunday). If you’re interested, I did preach through 1 Corinthians last year (and the first part of this year), and you can find my expositional sermon on this passage (both my notes and the recording) on our church website by clicking the “sermons” tab.[iii]

When I did preach through this passage expositionally, I pointed out that these verses most likely contain a very early creed or creedal statement. Notice how the Apostle Paul (while writing to a disordered church in Corinth) took some time to “remind” them of the “gospel” he preached with content that was of “first importance” (v1-3).

Brothers and sisters, we’ve tried to highlight the reality (again and again) that there is a hierarchy of Christian doctrine or theology or belief.

1. Some things, we can agree to disagree about.

a. What percentage of your income should you designate as contributions or offering to the ministry of the church?

b. Should Christians use contraceptives of any kind?

c. Should Christians promote government policies for creation care?

d. Should a Christian ever drink alcohol, or smoke or chew tobacco?

i. Good Christians can disagree about how to answer these questions, but that does not mean they have to break fellowship, join different churches, and avoid each other.

ii. We’ve regularly put questions like these in the third category of importance. We believe the Bible speaks to them by way of principle and inference, but not by direct command.

2. Some things are not essential to the gospel, but they are essential to churching together.

a. Should a church have only one pastor or a plurality of them?

b. Should we baptize believers and their children or only believers?

c. Should the whole church vote on membership coming in and going out or is this a decision only the pastors or elders should make?

i. Good Christians can disagree about how to answer these questions as well, but when they do, they cannot church together… because these are not only theological matters but also practical and decisive ones in the life of the church… We either will or won’t… but we can’t do both.

ii. These are questions of second importance. We believe the Bible speaks to them (by implication and command), and each church body must agree together about how they will do church.

3. Some things are of “first importance;” they are essential to Christianity.

a. Did Jesus really die (v3)?

b. Did Jesus truly come back from the dead (v4)?

c. Is Jesus the only sacrifice for our sins (v3)?

i. Friends, these are questions that good Christians do not and cannot disagree about… because to deny any of these positive statements which Paul “delivered… as of first importance” (v3) is to deny what Christianity is.

What we seem to have here (in 1 Corinthians 15) is a “creed.” The word creed comes from the Latin credō, which simply means “I believe.” And the only Christian response to all that the Apostle Paul has listed here is “I believe.”

Friends, take a moment and ask yourself, “Do I believe this stuff?”

· Do you believe that the Scriptures predicted the coming of Christ?

· Do you believe that Jesus was a real man who actually lived and died and rose again?

· Do you believe that the resurrected Christ appeared to His disciples and others, who saw Him and worshiped Him as the resurrected Messiah?

· Do you believe that Jesus’s life and death (as a sacrifice and substitute) is the only way God can forgive your sin?

· Do you believe that only those who receive these truths as good news and who hold fast to them will be saved on the last day?

If you are not sure, if you are hesitant, or if you would like more time to consider, then that does not mean you’re not welcome here! But it probably means that you are not a Christian… and we should not pretend otherwise. This is a safe place to explore what it truly means to be a Christian, even if you are not one.

Of course, non-Christians are excluded from some of the Christian and “churchy” stuff we do (like baptism, Lord’s Supper, and church membership), but non-Christians are very welcome to be here and to enjoy friendship with us.

And yet, there is a different kind of fellowship that Christians have with one another… a fellowship that we simply cannot share with non-Christians. If we believe the essentials of the gospel together (even if we disagree on all sorts of other issues), then we have a brotherhood (a familial bond) that is supernatural. And this is true whether we’re Bible-believing Baptists or confessional Presbyterians or faithful Anglicans or sincere-but-naive non-denominational guys.

Baptists have in the past… and Baptists do today… embrace the use of creeds (especially the Apostles’ Creed[iv] and the Nicene Creed[v]). We believe that there is an irreducible minimum of Christian belief. To believe anything less is to lose Christianity. But to share these essential beliefs with others is to enjoy a Christian fellowship that is far bigger than our own church and denomination.

Friends, these are matters of “first importance.” These are the first-tier beliefs of historic and biblical Christianity. We believe them, and our shared belief on these points is fundamental to what makes us Christian.

Baptists who continue to hold these Christian beliefs are well-grounded in historic Christianity, and we may celebrate our fellowship with other Christians who believe the same.

2. Confessions

If creeds (like the one we see here in 1 Corinthians 15) define the basic beliefs of all Christians everywhere, then confessions are those longer and more detailed summaries of our beliefs and practices which define how we church together. Creeds are those first-tier doctrines, and confessions typically deal with second-tier doctrines.

When Thomas Helwys wanted to form a Baptist church in London during the early 1600s, the first thing he did was write a confession of faith (which included various commitments that later Baptists would distinguish as a second document – a membership covenant). And when Isaac Backus wanted to form a Baptist church in New Hampshire in the mid-1700s, the first thing he did was write a confession of faith, a membership covenant, and a church order or constitution.

So too, when Baptist churches in the New World wanted to come together for mutual fellowship and cooperation, they formed Baptist associations by adopting a confession of faith as the shared summary of their beliefs and practices. The earliest Baptist associations in America used the Second London Confession of Faith (officially published in 1689), and the Philadelphia Association added two articles to that confession in 1742 and adopted a nearly identical version of it.

If you look in the Bible for a section on church membership, or baptism, or church government, or pastoral ministry, or the Lord’s Supper, or the relationship of the local church to the civil government, then you will search in vain. There isn’t one! Christians have believed that the Bible speaks to all of this (and much more), but Christians have drawn their conclusions about what the Bible says about all of this by pulling various passages of Scripture together in order to form a cohesive and consistent framework.

The best use of a confession of faith is to summarize what a group of Christians believes about those matters that are related to churching together (This can be an individual church, and it can also be an association or group of churches). And every church has one, even if they don’t write it down.

Ryan Sinni, and Barry Ward, and I participated in a “church fair” at LeTourneau University a couple of Saturdays ago, and there were all sorts of churches represented in the room. Various people from churches in the Longview area came to answer questions for incoming students about what church options are available to them during their time in school.

We were asked questions about what we believe, or what we preach and teach, or how we do church. But those folks were not asking Ryan, Barry, and me what we individually believe or how we individually live. The students (and some parents) wanted to know what we (FBC Diana!) believe and teach. They wanted to know what we collectively and communally share as our convictions and practices.

If our answers were good ones, then those answers line up well with our confession of faith at FBC Diana.[vi]

Now, of course, we believe that the Bible is our ultimate authority for what to believe and how to live… but all of the true churches represented that day could say the same thing. The folks from Kilgore Bible Church and Christ the King Presbyterian and Mobberly Baptist are all pointing to the Bible to define and defend their beliefs and practices.

A confession of faith is not a higher authority than the Bible, but it is a summary of what we believe the Bible teaches on those matters that are important enough to compel us to be members of different churches.

Friends, this might seem like the sort of thing that only nerdy theologians or persnickety pastors ought to care about. Probably none of us had a conversation last week that made us think “I wonder what the FBC Diana confession of faith says about this?” It’s highly likely that the only time many of us remember that we have a confession of faith is when I bring it up at church.

But our confession of faith actually plays a big role in our relationships with one another and our relationships with other churches. Let me try to make this a bit more practical in my next point – on cooperation.

3. Cooperation & Relationships

We’ve talked about creeds (those summaries of basic Christian belief) and confessions (those longer summaries of the beliefs and practices we share as a church family), and now I’d like to try to pull all of this mostly theoretical stuff down onto the everyday field of practice.

What role does creeds and confessions play in our relationships with one another (as church members)? How do these summaries of our Christian belief and our Baptist practices affect our relationships with Christians from other churches? And how might these categories help us think and act well in our relationships to non-Christians around us at school, at work, or in our communities?

Let me invite you to think about all of this like three concentric circles of relationship – shared confession, shared creed, and shared proximity; or church membership & partnership, Christian fellowship, and neighborly friendship.

The tightest and most meaningful relationships we have in this world are with those other Christians who share at least most of the doctrine and practice outlined in our confession of faith (red). We also share Christian fellowship and love with those Christians who believe along with us the fundamentals of our creed (blue). And we share a common neighborliness (a general love and friendship) with others around us who do not believe as we do at all (green).

Now, as a brief caveat, I acknowledge that (practically speaking) our own immediate family members (whether they are Christian or not) will be in a close circle with us even if they are not Christians. The Bible commands husbands to love and provide for their wives, for wives to love and submit to their husbands, and for children to obey and honor their parents (Eph. 5:22-6:4). These relationships are often the most meaningful of all our worldly connections.

But leaving the family relationship off to the side for our purposes this morning, I’m trying to help us think well about how we generally relate to others who fit into these different categories or concentric circles.

· What sort of relationship should we aim to have with our Christian co-workers or friends who are members of other churches?

· How can or should we cooperate with our non-Christian neighbors to help poor or needy families in our community?

· Should FBC Diana partner with Christ the King Presbyterian in Longview for the purpose of evangelism? What about church planting?

I’m not trying to create a list of rules today, but I am trying to provide some principles that we would be wise to consider as we embrace our Baptist distinctives, as we celebrate our shared fellowship with all true Christians, and as we live in a real world where many people we know are not Baptist or Christian.

1. Church membership & partnerships (confession)

The closest and most meaningful relationships we have are with those who share at least most of the beliefs and practices of our confession.

a. These are the people we church with each Sunday.

i. These are the people we regularly pray for,

ii. those we gather with to edify,

iii. and those who hold us accountable, help us in times of need, and tangibly encourage us to remain faithful to Christ.

b. These are also the churches with whom we partner for the sake of starting new churches and revitalizing old ones.

i. We are glad that true churches exist in the world (whether they be Baptist or Presbyterian or Methodist), but we want to give our time and resources to starting and revitalizing Baptist churches (both near and far).

ii. We want to encourage and train men (young and old) to be Baptist pastors.

iii. We want to pray for and support missionaries in their efforts to evangelize the lost in cross-cultural contexts and to start Baptist churches with those new converts.

c. So too, when our friends and co-workers are Baptist Christians, we will have more in common when we are encouraging one another to grow as disciples and to be faithful witnesses.

i. When Barry has a Bible study during lunch with some of his co-workers, those who share Barry’s confession of faith are able to get further into the details of a conversation because of all that they have in common.

1. But this doesn’t mean that we can’t have Bible studies or Christian conversations at work or at school or at our dinner table with only Baptists!

2. Christian fellowship (creed)

All true Christians (those who share fundamental belief in a common creed) have a genuine fellowship and a shared purpose in the world.

a. Many of our Christian friends and co-workers and classmates might not be Baptist, but we can still have genuine concern and care for on another… we can partner for evangelism together… and we can work together for Christian education.

i. I had a good and challenging conversation with a Presbyterian friend recently, and I believe he was expressing care for me and for FBC Diana.

ii. Ryan Sinni is working with a fellow professor at LeTourneau to form a fraternity for Christians on campus who share convictions that are not unique to Baptists.

iii. Various homeschool moms among our church join with other families in an effort to educate children (their own and others) according to a basic Christian worldview.

iv. Josh Tanner has worked for decades with a parachurch organization in East Texas that aims to help Christian young men prepare for life in the real world, but (so far as I know) you don’t have to be a Baptist to participate.

v. Russell Turner (for years now) has given the first Monday of most weeks to teaching a Bible class at a men’s shelter, and his aim is not necessarily to make them Baptist but to help them understand the gospel of Christ.

vi. David Logan and Donald Vickery have been Gideons for as long as I’ve known them, and the aim of this volunteer group is not to promote Baptist convictions, but to make the Scriptures accessible to as many people as possible.

1. I could go on, and I’m sure that there are many examples that I don’t know about among us… And certainly, there are countless informal ways that many of us are building relationships with other Christians around us… in the public school, on the job, and in the community.

2. Each of these relationships fit well into this second category of Christian fellowship and shared purpose.

a. These are relationships with other Christians who share the same basic creed for the purpose of fellowship, evangelism, discipling, and education.

3. Neighborly friendship and love (proximity)

Whether they are Christian or not, we all live within communities that are made up of people who share common needs and desires with us.

a. With this third category or concentric circle, I’m not arguing for how things ought to be, but I am describing the way things are.

b. Many people in our proximity are not Christians.

i. Most of these (the overwhelming majority in East Texas) are nominal Christians or cultural Christians… they think of themselves as Christians, but they are not in any observable or meaningful sense.

ii. And some of them are participants in some of other religion.

c. But this does not mean that we cannot or should not have good relationships with them.

i. We should befriend them for the sake of evangelism.

1. We want them to know Christ and follow Him.

2. We want to show them what real Christianity looks like, and we want to persuade and call them to it.

3. And we generally care about the well-being of others around us.

ii. We should partner with them for the good of our society.

1. We all (Christians and non-Christians) want gainful employment.

2. We all want safer streets.

3. We all want a good education for our kids.

4. We all want good doctors, mechanics, accountants, welders, project managers, electricians, dentists, and engineers.

5. We all want similar “goods” in our communities… God has made us to want them, whether we believe Him or not.

d. We ought not think of non-Christians as our enemies; in many cases, they are our friends, our co-workers, our neighbors, and members of our own family.

i. But neither should we pretend that non-Christians are Christians just because they share some of our same needs and desires.

ii. We should love them as neighbors, and we can certainly enjoy them as friends, but we should remember that our relationships with them necessarily have limitations.

Conclusion

Friends, what I’ve tried to do today is help us understand our Baptist distinctives in connection to all the relationships we have in the real world – as a church and as individual Christians. You might say that my overarching point today has been that we simply cannot live as isolated or individualized people. There is a whole history behind us, and there are many others around us today, and we cannot ignore them or live without them.

We must not isolate ourselves from other Baptists (past or present). We are a confessional people, and that means that we share a whole bunch of common beliefs and practices with other Baptists. As church members, we depend on one another for mutual discipleship and accountability. As a church body, we partner with other churches who share our beliefs and practices for the sake of church health and growth beyond our own.

We must not isolate ourselves from other Christians (past or present). We are a creedal people, in the sense that we share the fundamental beliefs of Christians from every age and geography. As Christians in this world, we may learn from one another, share our resources, and even join together in the common goal of bearing witness for Christ.

And we must not isolate ourselves from non-Christians either. Though they do not share our confession or our creed, they live in our proximity; and we have much in common with them as well. Our greatest desire for the non-Christians around us is that they come to know and follow Christ, but until or unless they do, we must aim to live in good relationship with them (so far as it depends on us).

May God help us to know what we believe and why we believe it. May God help us to hold fast to those beliefs that are of first importance, and may He help us to be both thoughtful and charitable with the rest. And may God help us to be faithful witnesses of Christ in the world, especially to those who do not share our confession or our creed.

Endnotes

[i] See a reproduction of this confession here: http://www.romans45.org/creeds/bc1644.htm

[ii] See this great summary article by Jonathan Leeman: https://www.9marks.org/article/what-is-catholicity-and-what-does-it-require/

[iii] Here’s a link to the “sermons” page at fbcdiana.org: https://fbcdiana.org/sermons

[iv] See a simple version of the Apostles’ Creed in modern English here: https://www.ccel.org/creeds/apostles.creed.html

[v] See a simple version of the Nicene Creed in modern English here: https://www.ccel.org/creeds/nicene.creed.html

[vi] See the FBC Diana confession of faith here: https://fbcdiana.org/confession-of-faith