Sole Authority for Faith and Practice
In this day and age, there are many religions that claim their book to be the Word of God. Many books claim to be inspired, but only one of them is the true, living, Word of God, and that is the Bible.
As Baptists, our primary, foundational distinctive is that of sole authority of the Bible. This means that the Bible is our first authority in faith and practice. If we have other authority that tells us something contradicting it, we must realize that because of the Bible’s sole authority in our lives, it comes before everything else. Because of the Bible’s Godly nature, true Baptists refuse to place any other writings, doctrine, or creeds above it.
Sole Authority is easily recognized in the Scriptures. I Timothy 3:16 tells us, “All scripture is given by inspiration of God…” The Bible clearly states that it itself is the very Word of God. And if we believe in a just, righteous, omnipotent God, we must believe and give heed to His words.
We believe that the Bible is supernaturally inspired. This means that God used men to pen His Words. We believe that those Words were translated perfectly into the KJV Bible we now hold in our hands. Because of its perfectness, it is the ONLY Bible in the English speaking language to correctly provide the words of God.
We believe that the Bible is supernaturally preserved. If God inspired the Word, would He not preserve it in all its perfectness? Of course! But not only that, He also promises us in Scripture that he would preserve it.
We believe the Bible to be entirely correct. Not one letter is wrong, not one word off. We can reason this because God is not a liar; therefore his words are not and cannot lie.
We believe that the Bible is God’s complete reve...
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...em the doctrine of the Bible. The church should practice the Lord’s Supper only with fellow believers. Why? Because the Bible commands us to do so.
If the modern age local church of God ever strays away from the old time local church doctrine, it is not accomplishing what God has for them, and is even hindering those in the church from reaching their full potential as Christians. Unlike many churches have already done so; let us stay on the right path that God has intended for us to follow.
Priesthood of the Believer and Soul Liberty
Unlike the Catholics, Baptists believe that every born again believer has direct access and communication to God. He does not need to go through any other man to confess his sins and commune with God.
Soul Liberty, on the other hand, gives the right to every individual to decide what he believes based on how he interprets the Bible.
Originally, the Baptist had the same beliefs as the Protestant church had, with the exception of baptism. For Baptists, only true believers could be baptized. Furthermore, when baptized, Baptists are completely immersed in water, rather than following the Protestant method of having a few drops of water sprinkled on the forehead. Baptists do not acknowledge man-made authority within the church and therefore do not select humans as leaders of the church. The Presbyterian Church was developed with the influence of John Calvin. He believed that the church was led only by Jesus, and all of its members we equal under the authority of Christ. Anglicans have a devout admiration for Mary, the virgin mother of Jesus Christ. The communities of the Anglican include a spiritual life of prayer and worship. They also emphasize a life of giving of oneself. For example, Anglicans traveled with Florence Nightengale on her trip to Crimea and worked as nurses (www.encyclopedia.com). The Methodist church developed with the help of John Wesley was was an evangelist. The message of the church is to create the life of God within men. The Lutheran church originated from the philosophical views of Martin Luther. The Lutherans are considered one of the three major branches ...
In his book Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology, John S. Hammett, professor of systematic theology at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, attempts to provide a biblical and distinctively Baptist ecclesiology that is relevant for the Church’s contemporary setting.
The Hebrew Bible, better known as the Old Testament, is a collection of tomes that form part of the Biblical canon. Many scholars around the world do not think that a single author wrote the books contained in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that it represents centuries of stories frequently compiled after the events they describe . The stories were created with visions for the future, in order to allow audiences insight into communities and beliefs that were common thought during their era. The stories responded to the issues and problems of their time, but also addressed contemporary climates. While the stories themselves may not be true, they convey truth without needing literal readings. For example, the creation stories in Genesis, portray God as creating the universe, and while this is considered as not ‘literally true’; the stories communicate theological truths about mankind’s relationship with God through the eyes of Hebrew writers .
Even though humans wrote the text, translating it and passing it down from generations to generations, God’s truth is unchanging. Debates of the inerrancy of the bible cannot usurp God as the King of grace. Instead of focusing on the inerrancy of the Bible, individuals who wish to seek a life of faith should focus on the inspiration God is showing them in his word. These revelations should move them into applicable, daily life changing implications from what they have learned. God shows revelations of himself through the Bible, and his character is revealed time and time again throughout scripture. Any faulty facts or discrepancies in grammar or data, should not take away from the value that scripture holds. When we read scripture we bring new meaning of interpretations of the truths God shows us, since new eras and environmental factors will be influential on how we process information. The bible is not just a fact book, telling humans stories of the past, but instead the bible is inspired instructions for how we can deal with spiritual and ethical encounters we
The Bible is the basis of truth in Christianity. If the Bible says something then Christians typically consider it is true. Just like how most atheists believe that the big bang and
The Old Testament and the Bible itself has been studied extensively for centuries. Archeologists and Scholars have labored and pondered over texts trying to decipher its clues. It does not matter how many times the Old Testament has been studied there will always be something new to learn about it or the history surrounding it. In the book Reading the Old Testament: an Introduction, the author Lawrence Boadt presents us with a few different authors of the Old Testament that used different names for God and had a unique insight into the texts. These four sources are titled P for priests, E for Elohim, J for Jehovah, and Y for Yahweh (95). These four unique sources help us realize that there is more than one author of the Pentateuch. These authors took the text and adapted for their culture. This independent source is used by scholars to help gain insight into what was behind the texts of the bible so we are not left with an incomplete picture of what went into the creation of the bible. Julius Wellhausen used these four sources to publish a book to able us to better understand the sources and to give it credibility with the Protestant scholars at the time (Boadt 94). These sources that is independent of the bible as in the DVD Who Wrote the Bible? and the Nova website aide in shedding light on the history that surrounded the writers who wrote the text and what inspired them to write it in the first place. The DVD shows the discovery of The Dead Sea Scrolls and the extensive history of the texts and all its sources in an effort to try to find exactly who wrote the bible (Who Wrote). These scrolls have aided scholars immensely by giving us some of the oldest known manuscripts of the bible in the world today. It shows that the bible w...
Writings of historical scholars, Josephus, Aristotle, and Plato, to name a few, are taken as truth and fact, yet the writings of the Scripture are constantly disputed. Why? Perhaps because of the ethical imperatives imposed to which people do not want to adhere. Perhaps because of man’s ego and pride that disallows them to submit to a Higher Authority. Nonetheless, The Bible has been, and still remains, the most widely read and revered book of all
Ask most people today if they have heard of Baptist and Catholic religion and most would say yes. In many ways the two are very similar. For instance, both are based on the Christian faith, belief in the trinity, and that God is the one true God. The two religions agree that Jesus died on the cross and rose again to atone for our sins. They share a 27 book New Testament and insist that salvation comes from Christ alone. On the other hand, while the Baptist and Catholic religions do have similarities, they also have differences, such as their services, communion, and views regarding salvation.
The homily opens up with a quotation from the Apostolic creed, (the shortest of the three Christian creeds), which reads “I believe in the holy catholic church; the communion of saints.” (qtd. Reese 163) This excerpt from the Apostolic creed, outlines ultimately what Christians believe about their church. That it is one holy catholic (universal) church, and that it is bound together by everyone who has been apart of the Christian Church, both living and dead. To better understand the church itself, we must look to the very book that is universally recognized, the bible. In Ephesians 4:4-6, it outlines the very foundation of what the church is. “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your vocation. There is one Lord, one Faith, one Baptism.One God and Father of all, which is above all, and through all, and in you all.” This excerpt truly does capture the unity that is found in the church through the communion of saints. That ultimately, the Spirit is in each and every one of us. This unites all of the members of the Christian Church on a spiritual level, and as such expresses unity.
For centuries now Christians have claimed to possess the special revelation of an omnipotent, loving Deity who is sovereign over all of His creation. This special revelation is in written form and is what has come to be known as The Bible which consists of two books. The first book is the Hebrew Scriptures, written by prophets in a time that was before Christ, and the second book is the New Testament, which was written by Apostles and disciples of the risen Lord after His ascension. It is well documented that Christians in the context of the early first century were used to viewing a set of writings as being not only authoritative, but divinely inspired. The fact that there were certain books out in the public that were written by followers of Jesus and recognized as being just as authoritative as the Hebrew Scriptures was never under debate. The disagreement between some groups of Christians and Gnostics centered on which exact group of books were divinely inspired and which were not. The debate also took place over the way we can know for sure what God would have us include in a book of divinely inspired writings. This ultimately led to the formation of the Biblical canon in the next centuries. Some may ask, “Isn’t Jesus really the only thing that we can and should call God’s Word?” and “Isn’t the Bible just a man made collection of writings all centered on the same thing, Jesus Christ?” This paper summarizes some of the evidences for the Old and New Testament canon’s accuracy in choosing God breathed, authoritative writings and then reflects on the wide ranging
Spanning fifteen hundred years with over 30,700 manuscripts, extensive archaeological evidence and 2000 prophecies that have been fulfilled, the Bible is God 's word to us. (Yohn, 2013). In the Bible, the Father is essentially giving us a picture of the history of the world and is also leading us to a place where we must make a decision that involves whether we choose to accept his son or reject him and remain guilty. Additionally, the Word of God tells us what happened that caused this breach between us and God, the result of this and how God has rectified it through the blood of his son. In fact, from the beginning of the Bible (written 1400 B.C.) to the last book (A.D. 96), God is showing us why we need Jesus and how to find him. Just as a plant’s root system propagates and occupies the pot that encloses it, Jesus permeates the entire Bible. Therefore, the motif of the Bible is the story of the redemption of mankind and it all points to Jesus as the messiah and savior who secures this for all.
The Baptist faith believes in the precepts of Trinity, Heaven, and Hell. Surprisingly Mary does not have a special place in the Baptist religion. They don’t teach the assumption of Mary because Mary is seen as just Jesus’ mother. As for the belief in Saints, they really don’t designate saints because they believe that we all have been saved and we are all God’s messengers. Unlike Christianity, Baptists don’t have bishops or Cardinals. The Baptist religion has a much more loose structure than the Catholic faith.
The nature of Scripture and the authority of Scripture are two characteristics carefully entwined in such a way that creates an impossibility for them to not affect each other. They directly influence each other. Evangelicalism, Liberalism, and Neo-Orthodoxy all have differing views of the nature and authority of Scripture. Evangelicalism takes up the view that the Bible, Scripture, is infallible (Lane, 2006, p. 255). Scripture is God’s word and is therefore fully truth (Lane, 2006, p. 256). People under Evangelicalism equate Scripture with God’s spoken word, and they believe that though God and humans are both authors, the human author was divinely prepared by God to write out His word (Lane, 2006, p. 257). They believe that “the Bible is the supreme authority for faith and practice” (Bingham, 2002, p. 162). Liberalism takes a different view on the Scripture. In Liberalism, religion is “nothing but feeling and experience” (Lane, 2006, p. 238). This reduces the authority and value of Scripture. Scripture is not seen as God’s word or His revelation but as a written record of the experiences of humans, which takes away from its divinity and authority (Lane, 2006, p. 239). Schleiermacher, the father of Liber...
The Church is the body of Christ where God brings his people together. St. Paul the apostle himself calls the Church the Body of Christ where all those who believe in God join in as its members (New American Bible, 1 Cor. 12; 27). Jesus also refers to the Church as the House of the Father where God should be worshiped and served, although not in the physical sense of the word (NAB, Matt. 21.13). As the House of God, the Church serves as an instrument of salvation for the people of God. God continues to call all His children to come under one roof and dine at His table. There has always been this concern about sharing the Good News and baptizing all the nations in order to bring people under one roof and one belief in order to unify their faith and thus, form one family and one ecumanical Church. The Church still strives to fulfill Jesus’ desire so that all may be one (Ut unum sint 7).
the Bible were “God - breathed” making each a Word from God and not the words of the