What is a Baptist?

Try to forget that you are a Baptist. Pretend you are a person who has never been to church, and your friend, who is a Baptist, has invited you to visit church on the next Sunday. You agree to attend, but later start wondering what will be taking place. Your friend told you he attends a Baptist church so you sit down and Google, “What is a Baptist?” Lots of results pop up, and you select the Wikipedia site. You become overwhelmed as you scroll through the hundreds of different kinds of Baptists, divided by continents. You decide to narrow your search to the Baptists just in the USA, but you find the list has 63 different types of Baptists. The list reads like a strange code with entries including :

Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists

Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists

Baptist General Conference

Conservative Baptist Association of America

Conservative Baptist Association of America

Free Will Baptist

Free Will Baptist

General Six-Principle Baptists

General Six-Principle Baptists

Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America

Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America

Indian Bottom Association of Old Regular Baptists

Landmark Baptists

Landmark Baptists

National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul Saving Assembly of the U.S.A.

National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul Saving Assembly of the U.S.A.

Old Regular Baptist

National Primitive Baptist Convention of the U.S.A.

Old Regular Baptist

Old Regular Baptist

Old Time Missionary Baptist

Original Free Will Baptist Convention

Primitive Baptist Universalists

Separate Baptist

Separate Baptist

Separate Baptists in Christ

Seventh Day Baptist General Conference

Southern Baptist Convention

Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists

Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists

Unregistered Baptist Fellowship

Unregistered Baptist Fellowship

After looking at the list, you consider calling your friend and asking him if he knows what type of Baptist he is and what is the difference with the others?

Baptist Distinctives

Your friend tells you he is a Southern Baptist, and he gives you a publication that The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) publishes concerning there beliefs. The publication is named the Baptist Faith and Message 2000 and you begin to read.

The BFM 2000 contains 18 major articles, with two of them containing several subpoints. The major articles are:

1 Scriptures

1 Scriptures 2. God [ A. Father B. Son C. Holy Spirit] 3. Man

4. Salvation [ A. Regeneration B. Justification C. Sanctification D. Glorification]

5. God’s Purpose of Grace 6. The Church 7. Baptism & Lord’s Supper

8. The Lord’s Day 9. The Kingdom 10. Last Things

11. Evangelism and Missions 12. Education 13. Stewardship

14. Cooperation 15. The Christian and the Social Order 16. Peace & War

17. Religious Liberty 18. The Family

This a well written document, and it tells you much about the beliefs of Southern Baptists. But do all Baptists hold to these same beliefs. As you investigate further, you discover the answer is NO; not all Baptist groups hold to these 18 major belief systems. What you then discover is that, when compared to other denominational Christian groups, each Baptist group does have certain distinictives that each hold in common with other Baptists.

The careful reading of various documents (Baptists & their Doctrines, by B.H. Carroll; Distinctives of Baptists, by Paul Chappell; Eight Baptist Distinctives, By Oregon State Univ.; and others) reveal the core Baptist distinctives are as follows:

Biblical Authority

Biblical Authority Autonomy of the local church

Priesthood of all Believers Soul Competency (Freedom of Religion)

Regenerate Church Membership Separation of Church and State

2 Offices (Pastor/Elder & Deacon) 2 Ordinances (Baptism & Communion)

To be a Baptist is to share and practice these core convictions. The differences within the Baptist family derive from additions or tweaking of these positions. Given the convictions of the autonomy of the local church and the religious freedom found within Soul Competency and the Priesthood of all believers, there is a very slim chance that any 2 Baptist churches will be identical in worship practices or the missions / evangelism thrusts. But, due to the high allegiance to the Bible as the governing authority, these elements will be carried out.

As Christians who are members of a Baptist Church, it should be important for each of us to know WHAT we believe and WHY we believe it. And we should be able to share these truths with others.