Why I am a Baptist: An Introduction

In an endeavor to understand why I am a Baptist, I also understand that this is going to be a series of topical style discussions. Thus, the best way I feel to go about this is to go through the The Baptist Faith and Message article by article. This document is a fairly comprehensive  statement of faith concerning Baptists. A statement of faith is simply a statement of the core beliefs of a particular religious group; in this case, Baptists.

The most recent BFM was adopted in 2000. There have been several revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM): 1925, 1963, 1998 (an Amendment added), and 2000. So, which one should serve as the grounds for understanding what Baptists think and believe? Reasonably, the 2000 edition would serve as the most up to date, and perhaps the most accurate in understanding what Baptists believe. This stands as personal opinion, I grant you, and there are many who would disagree with my last statement. After all, there are still several churches who recognize the 1963 edition, but not the 2000 addition. That could very well be attributed to them not knowing there is a newer edition, or it could be they do not want an updated edition and they feel as though the older edition serves just as well.

In either case, I do have my reasons for using the 2000 edition as I pursue this endeavor. With the help of the Preamble to the BFM, I hope to show why.

First of all, the committee that was commissioned to revise and update the most recent edition of the BFM was given the charge by none other than Dr. Paige Patterson who was serving as the President of the Southern Baptist Convention. Indeed, in 1999, the exact charge to Dr. Patterson was, “I move that in your capacity as Southern Baptist Convention chairman, you appoint a blue ribbon committee to review the Baptist Faith and Message statement with the responsibility to report and bring any recommendations to this meeting next June in Orlando.” Thus the committee was formed. He brought together a team that included Dr. Adrian Rogers (Chairman and Pastor of Bellevue Baptist in Memphis), Dr. Albert Mohler (President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary), and Dr. Jerry Vines (Pastor First Baptist Jacksonville, Fla). These men were pillars within the Convention. These men did not take their responsibility lightly and they pursued this objective with a heart to see Jesus glorified.

Moreover, Baptists have a long history. In fact, the Southern Baptist Convention alone is 170 years old. The Preamble to the BFM illustrates this point “Baptists are a people of deep beliefs and cherished doctrines. Throughout our history we have been a confessional people, adopting statements of faith as a witness to our beliefs and a pledge of our faithfulness to the doctrines revealed in Holy Scripture.” That is all well and good, but another part of their focus in this revision was to update it in such a way as to acknowledge that as we are “facing a new century, Southern Baptists must meet the demands and duties of the present hour.” The committee understood the challenges and issues were changing, and thus, the BFM needed to be updated in order to meet those demands. “Now, faced with a culture hostile to the very notion of truth, this generation of Baptists must claim anew the eternal truths of the Christian faith…we have been charged to address the ‘certain needs’ of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile to Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life.’ ” Their recognition that the statement of faith needs to change and adapt to the culture and the times is one more reason why the 2000 edition serves as the underlying framework for this discussion.

Finally, even though this revision was sought and adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention specifically, it is not restricted to the SBC. The 1925 edition alludes to this idea. That edition was a “statement of the historic Baptist conception of the nature and function of confessions of faith in our religious and denominational life.”  “That they constitute a consensus of opinion of some Baptist body, large or small, for the general instruction and guidance of our own people and others concerning those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us.” Or, “as in the past so in the future, Baptists should hold themselves free to revise their statements of faith as may seem to them wise and expedient at any time.” Lastly, this statement from the 1963 edition is perhaps the most telling, “certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified.” This statement of faith is considered to be for all Baptists in light of their history. This is not a Southern Baptist document, as much as it a Baptist document which holds as a, “ statement of religious conviction, drawn from the Scriptures.”

My prayer as I seek to show why I am a Baptist, is that I will also come to better understand and communicate why I am a Baptist. Also, I hope that somewhere along the way, perhaps this discussion will help someone else better understand why they are a Baptist or even begin to ask more questions about their denomination. From here, we will seek to look at each article of the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM): The Scriptures, God, Man, Salvation, God’s Purpose of Grace, The Church, Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, The Lord’s Day, The Kingdom, Last Things, Evangelism and Missions, Education, Stewardship, Cooperation, The Christian and Social Order, Peace and War, Religious Liberty, and Family.

A Gospel Heresy: Pat Robertson’s Unequivocal Denunciation of the Gospel.

Unfortunately, there are some people who claim to be Christians, that give true believers a bad name. A REALLY bad name. One of these circumstances happened this week when host of the 700 Club, Pat Robertson said it was alright to divorce a spouse if they have Alzheimer’s Disease. The reasoning was because, ‘it is like a death.’

Really?

Was that not our problem before Christ? Were we not dead? In fact Paul tells us that  in Colossians 2:13–14 (NASB95) —  When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. We were dead, we were gone.  He had every reason to not even lift a finger. Yet, He did. In fact, as this verse tells us, He nailed our death and sin to the cross. But why? Why did He die for us? Because of His love for us. Romans 5:8 (NASB95) — But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. More telling is 1 John 3:16 (NASB95) — We know love by this, that He laid down His life for us; and we ought to lay down our lives for the brethren.

Now, we understand that we have a Savior who rescued us from the Kingdom of Darkness (Colossians 1:13). He rescued us because He loved us. Are we not supposed to exemplify that love, ESPECIALLY in our marriages? Just look at what Paul tells us in Ephesians 5:22–33 (NASB95) — Wives, be subject to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife, as Christ also is the head of the church, He Himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her, so that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, that He might present to Himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that she would be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself; for no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church, because we are members of His body. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. This mystery is great; but I am speaking with reference to Christ and the church. Nevertheless, each individual among you also is to love his own wife even as himself, and the wife must see to it that she respects her husband. It is because of our love for each other that we willingly sacrifice, no matter the cost. That is the least we can do because that is what Christ did for us. Indeed, Jesus gives the Pharisees a harsh rebuke when they asked Him if a man and woman could divorce for any reason at all. Matthew 19:3–6 (NASB95) — Some Pharisees came to Jesus, testing Him and asking, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife for any reason at all?” And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? “So they are no longer two, but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.” 

This is not to say anything about 1 Corinthians 7 which Paul underscores the entire chapter talking about marriage and the mere idea of divorce being wrong. For instance, 1 Corinthians 7:10–11 (NASB95) — But to the married I give instructions, not I, but the Lord, that the wife should not leave her husband (but if she does leave, she must remain unmarried, or else be reconciled to her husband), and that the husband should not divorce his wife. 

However, if one was wanting to rip a verse out of context, that would support Robertson’s claim, it could be this one: 1 Corinthians 7:39 (NASB95) — A wife is bound as long as her husband lives; but if her husband is dead, she is free to be married to whom she wishes, only in the Lord. Unfortunately, the Greek text betrays this idea. It says, “To cause to lie down to sleep” and is used in terms of “the sleep of death, to die, be dead.” Not any figurative uses here (cf. Matthew 28:13; John 11:11; Acts 7:60; 13:36; 1 Corinthians 11:30; 15:6, 18, 20, 51: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-15; 2 Peter 3:4). Again, there is not any figurative usage when talking about death here. So this garbage about Alzheimer’s being “a kind of death,” is just that: garbage. His full quote: ”I know it sounds cruel, but if he’s going to do something, he should divorce her and start all over again, but make sure she has custodial care and somebody looking after her,” Robertson said (view the article here).

I believe what Robertson said was inexcusably, profoundly and  Biblically wrong. What he said is against everything the Bible teaches on marriage. “In sickness and health, til death do you part” must not mean very much to him. His idea of a covenant is easily broken if he sustains this heretical view. I am just thankful that God has not given up on me even when I strayed and could have been counted as dead (remember the story of the prodigal son, Pat Robertson).

Dr. Moore from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY was spot on (thanks Bitsy!):

I close with this clip from Dr. Robertson McQuilkin, who resigned his position as a Bible College president to care for his ailing wife who was suffering from Alzheimer’s. I think this man had it right: