Why Baptist Theology
The Simple Church for True Believers who Govern Themselves
The final doctrinal distinctive that guides my writing is Baptist theology. In some ways, this distinctive might not be that distinctive at all. In certain circles, Baptists are so numerous that they are the subject of various jokes. Some of these jokes involve committees about carpeting, fellowship around bad coffee and stale donuts, or church meals including more casseroles than can count. However, the jokes aside, I want to explain why I value Baptist Theology. Like with any other distinctive, the final authority is the Word of God. However, explaining some of the strengths and answering some critics about Baptist theology is warranted. In some ways, Baptist theology is the area I may write least about. It is not that it is not important. But, I perceive that there is already a lot of material that is available explaining Baptist distinctives.
Baptists and Non-Denominationalism
Many are more Baptist than they realize or care to admit. Today’s moment is one where theology is sloppy, people don’t like sharp lines explaining different ideas. More often than not, differences of beliefs are regarded as “just different opinions” or “insignificant.” In the end, modern people tend to be very pragmatic, and so many decisions are left open to simply “what works.” This shows up in church life by avoiding denominations - including Baptist denominationalism. One church movement I was involved in when I was younger would emphasize in their official statements that they weren’t a denomination, and that they were suspicious of denominations due to their divisiveness.
However, it seems to me that many churches in this broad non-denominational approach may be sympathetic to some aspects of Baptist theology if they learned.
Baptists and American History
There was a strong element of Baptists in the North. Some of the major Baptist theologians of the 1800s were from the Northeast at places like Newton Theological Institute in Massachusetts, Colgate Theological Seminary in Central New York, and eventually Rochester Theological Seminary in Rochester, New York.
On the frontier, Baptists were not irrational, of course, but they did not have the same requirements as say Presbyterians. So, the frontier was marked by two major religious groups -Baptists and Methodists. This helped Baptists to be stronger in the south. Baptist life (as well as others) did make a sharp division with the Civil War, and in the south Baptists are very common but also associated with the structures that were created in the South such as The Southern Baptist Convention. Baptist were organized in the North too, but the proportions were just different so it doesn’t quite feel that there are Baptist churches on every corner (certainly not in New York City and in the rest of New York State).
It is also noteworthy that when we talk about Baptists in American life, we do well to recognize there is a major stream of life that is Baptist among African-Americans. It’s telling that on the CBS show featuring an Irish Catholic cop family, the white police commissioner compares himself as a Catholic to a Black mayor who is identified as a Baptist. One book that introduced me to some of the history of Black Baptists with a focus on the more conservative stream was Black Fundamentalists by Daniel Bare (Amazon paperback and Kindle).
What makes a Baptist?
All these things point to the fact that Baptists do have a clear place in the current landscape of American life. However, some mock Baptists of any number of things. I want to outline the ideas the practices that are persuasive to me.
Among the Baptist circles I have been closest with, there is an acrostic that outlines several key beliefs according to the word BAPTISTS (formulated by a New York Baptist pastor):
Biblical Authority
Autonomy of the Local Church
Priesthood of the Believer
Two Ordinances (Communion and Baptism)
Individual Soul Liberty
Saved Church Membership
Two Officers (Pastor and Deacon)
Separation of Church and State
Now, this is just a summary. You won’t find a text of Scripture that outlines just this list in just this form. However, I believe it is helpful to describe some of what makes a person a Baptist. However, there is more to draw out of this summary.
The Church is For Believers - Including Baptism!
First, we believe in that only saved people - believer’s - are proper candidates for baptism or for membership of the church. This is a belief that was persecuted significantly in history by both Protestant churches (I’m a little bashful about calling myself a Protestant) and Catholics. In the acrostic, this belief shows up especially in the concept of saved church membership. However, the reason that the idea has been so opposed by many throughout history, is that the trend from A.D. 300 until around the time of America’s founding was to link the church and the government so closely where Christianity existed. To deny baptism and church membership to some of the community, especially children, was seen as theologically problematic (considering the Jewish practice of circumcision on eight-day old children) and catastrophic for a “Christian society” (i.e. Christendom). The concept that only saved people should be a full part of the church makes sense.
The People Have the Final Say
Second, the single most important distinctive from a church governance perspective is the question of who, before God under Scripture, has the final say in the church. The answer for Baptists is the congregation, not the pastor or any other officer. The group is responsible. This flows from the concept of the priesthood of the believer, a terminology that really has to do with the believer’s direct access to God while recognizing God’s role for two officers in pastors and deacons. Non-Baptists who may otherwise deny the baptism of infants frequently scoff at congregationalism. I too when I first came to understand things thought this appeared to be a position that we inherited from American politics more than the Bible. However, I came to understand that congregational polity was a reasonable deduction from the scriptures that speak of the church being commanded to do things. As a representative sample, Acts 6:3 shows the apostles telling the church to “select from among you” certain people to serve. 1 Corinthians 5:4 may imply that the people assembled were the ones to exercise church discipline rather than pastors or deacons. More texts can be marshalled in this way, but these two stand out to me. This is a deduction from Scripture, but I do rest on the tradition that there is something to this decentralized approach to church governance.
A non-Baptist pastor will sometimes quip that he is accountable to God, the church didn’t hire him. This is true. However, it is noteworthy that Baptists have hardly been immune from leaders that were too strong for their own good - Baptist pope’s we sometimes refer to them. There is a dynamic relationship in how a pastor relates to the congregation. Ultimately, yes the final authority is the congregation. However, the term we use is that we call a pastor - that term has theological overtones that point to the church’s recognition that God is leading them to invite the man to come shepherd them. This comes with real authority, delegated authority like a president of a college, but authority still. Congregationalism is not inconsistent with either pastoral leadership or multi-elder leadership where there are multiple qualified men. It is also not inconsistent with the congregation having the final authority. It is surprising sometimes to see how even outside of Baptist religious groups you still hear sometimes of the church having a vote about some things. Perhaps there is more truth in these ideals than many of us want to give credit.
Religious Liberty in America
Third, I also have come to understand that perhaps the direction of influence may have been in reverse concerning America. Baptist theology, already committed to the idea of individual soul liberty and the separation of church and state, managed to gain the influence on the American founding. The result was that instead of the Pilgrim model of church and state established as a so-called perfect Christian society, the Baptist impulse of conversionism (every person has to come to faith for himself or herself) was the right one and that such conversionism can only happen when there is no state control in the church. Certainly, as Thomas Jefferson’s letter to Baptists from Danbury, Connecticut (just across the New York State Line in the Hudson Valley north of New York City), the Baptist vision was that Christian ideals would influence the government but that the “wall of separation” would keep the state out of the church. This all points to the theological grounding of congregational government of the church.
Simple Church
Built on these three key distinctives, it is worth noting that Baptist churches give supreme importance to the explicit instructions of the New Testament. Acts 2:42 is a description, not held only by Baptists, of the essentials of church life - preaching, fellowship with each other, communion, and prayer. Our model for doing church is simple, lacking in elaborate hierarchies. There have been both associations (like the Southern Baptist Convention) and other service organizations that have enabled to bring Baptists together to work for shared causes. Certainly, the New Testament illustrates cases of true believers coming together to consider questions (e.g. Acts 15). But ultimately, there is not an official hierarchy. Each church is on its own before the Lord. I believe (though some Baptists question this) that we are part of the universal body of all true Christians, but that especially each Baptist church fits into God’s plan in the simplicity of, I trust, living under Christ as our head.
Baptist Theology Fits with Dispensationalism and Fundamentalism
I do believe that Baptist theology aligns very well with two of my other distinctives. The first is dispensationalism, and the second is fundamentalism. Concerning dispensationalism, a lot of the founders of dispensationalists were not Baptist. Many Presbyterians were involved in the early days of Dispensationalism. As time went on, however, it is notable that Dallas Seminary did get a large contingent of Baptists coming to study there (several leaders of the General Association of Regular Baptists did some training at Dallas). But in general, the Baptist impulse to focus on the New Testament, and especially the epistles, for church order aligns well with the discontinuity dispensationalism sees between the Mosaic system and the New Testament church. Additionally, dispensationalism’s focus on a future kingdom of God aligns well with Baptist impulses to keep the church and state separate. Contrary to public opinion, it is not conservatives who are also Baptists who are calling for the biggest scale Christian Nationalism. Some of the most vocal and robust Christian nationalists are Presbyterian though some Baptists might be said to be flirting a bit with it.
Fundamentalism also aligns well with Baptist theology and practice. The Baptists aligned with the normal basic orthodoxy in their earliest days as they used language from other confessions in their own early confessions of faith. Furthermore, the emphasis on local church autonomy setup a context in which the Baptists could naturally come out and separate when they were unsuccessful in winning their fight within the existing Baptist structures. That separation does point to the reality that there are Baptist churches that deny the truth in my judgment according to Scripture. Now, it is not to suggest that fundamentalists should only be Baptists, but it does seem that Baptist fundamentalism is more likely than say Presbyterian fundamentalism at this point in history (conservative Presbyterians tend to be more evangelical in outlook). Also, the Baptist belief in Believer’s Baptism and regenerate church membership aligns well with fundamentalism’s pursuit for a pure church. I believe both dispensationalism and fundamentalism fit nicely with Baptist theology though not all Baptists subscribe to these other two positions.
Conclusion
Denominations are not wrong. They express the maximal Christian fellowship I briefly noted in Why Fundamentalism. When I understood better the basis for congregationalism and experienced some potential issues for other models of church governance, it was easier for me to embrace Baptist church government. I do believe that there is room for differences of opinion about various practical details. However, the general perspective of congregations expressing themselves in self-governance and having the final authority under Christ for the congregation rather than the pastor is good in my opinion. Congregational government and believer’s baptism are the two essential areas of Baptist theology. Alongside these two things are the very important application of Baptist theology to political life that leads to religious liberty. The liberty of conscience to live according to how one perceives God is one of the most impacting ideals of Baptist theology. There is room for more study and development and defense for me as I write in this venue. While Baptists in the south were stained by taking a pro-slavery position, one should not throw the Baptist baby out with the bathwater. Despite our flaws, the foundational ideas make sense and are demonstrable from the New Testament. I am happy to be a Baptist, and I aspire to be a faithful one. I many who do not baptize infants would do well to consider the bigger scope of Baptist theology.
Book Recommendations on Baptist Theology
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Kevin Bauder, Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church Order (Amazon paperback).
John S. Hammett, Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology (Amazon paperback).
Baptist Political Theology, edited by Thomas S. Kidd, Paul D. Miller, and Andrew T. Walker (Amazon hardback and Kindle).
This Day in Baptist History III (Amazon Kindle, a daily devotional of stories from Baptist history. Available to Kindle Unlimited)