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Baptist Doctrine
John David Clark, Sr. - January, 2004
One of the more prominent Christian cults in this part of the world is that cult that calls themselves "Independent Baptist". Today, we examine elements of their particular brand of Christianity. I located one such church in my state, and on this Baptist church's web site, I found these teachings under the heading "Articles of Faith". Some of their Articles contained true statements about God and the gospel of His Son, but as always in Christianity, those good things were mixed with evil. This is how Satan has worked against the children of God from the beginning, in the Garden of Eden offering to Eve truth cleverly blended with a deadly lie. Unfortunately, that cunning trick still succeeds in leading souls to hell.
Here are the lies that he has mixed with truth among conservative Baptists in our area:
Excerpts from the "Articles of Faith" of a large Independent Baptist church in North Carolina, USA: I. "Of the Scriptures . . We believe that the Bible was written by men supernaturally inspired; that it has truth without error for its matter; and therefore is, and shall remain to the end of the age, the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man; the true center of Christian union and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds and opinions should be tried. 1. By "The Holy Bible" we mean that collection of sixty-six books, from Genesis to Revelation, which as originally written, does not only contain and convey the Word of God, but IS the very Word of God." Comment:
(1) God’s people will never be united as long as they try to make the Bible "the true center of union". Trying to do that has produced nothing but division and controversy among those who are trying to serve Christ. The Bible was never intended to "lead men into all truth"; it cannot do it. Jesus said the holy Ghost would do that (Jn. 16:13), and he told us that the holy Ghost would "teach you all things" (Jn. 14:26). The "true center of union" of God’s family is the Spirit that Jesus purchased for us with his blood, and he did that so that we may be in perfect harmony with one another, as he and the Father are one.
(2) The Bible is not "the supreme standard" of anything in the body of Christ; Jesus is the supreme standard by whom "all human conduct, creeds, and opinions" will be measured. We must be careful not to honor the holy Bible so greatly in our hearts that it encroaches upon Jesus’ sacred place.
(3) The Bible never claims to be the Word of God. It never claims to be. It is only reasonable to ask how, if these people truly believe the Bible to be "the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man", that they can also believe the Bible to be something that it plainly proclaims Jesus to be?
Dear friend, think about it. You know that Jesus has helped you through the years. You know of times when you didn’t know what to do, but the Spirit of God then showed you God’s will for you. Do not trust what this sect teaches about the Bible: that the Bible is the "only revelation of the will of God to man", that it is the "complete revelation of the will of God to man", and that it is "the final revelation of the will of God to man." That isn’t anyone's experience, if he would admit it. All of us have had guidance from God apart from the Bible.
These are some things the Bible contains , among many, many others, about the Word of God:
(a) The Word of God is "alive and sharper than any two-edged sword".
(b) The Word of God was "in the beginning with God, and was God."
(c) The Word of God will ride a white horse, followed by the armies of heaven, and then reign on earth a thousand years (Rev. 19).
Wise men do not ask, "What is the Word of God?". They ask, "Who is the Word of God?"
(4) Finally, to say that the Bible is "the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man" is implicitly to deny the precious work of the heavenly Spirit that is leading, guiding, and revealing the will of God to the saints and some sinners constantly. To say that the Bible is "the only complete and final revelation of the will of God to man" is to deny the living work of Christ with his people and to cling to the dead letter instead. When Paul wrote, "The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life", he was referring to the Bible as "the letter". The Word gives life; the Bible, taken as one’s only and final guide, kills.
It was to such men as the ones who devised this Article of Faith that Jesus gave this warning: "Search the scriptures; in them ye think ye have eternal life. And they [the scriptures] are they which testify of me, and ye will not come to me that ye might have life" (Jn. 6:39-40).
II. “Of the True God . . We believe that there is one, and only one, living and true God . . that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost . . . "
This is a Gentile, philosophical notion (a divine being divided into three persons) that is foreign to both the Bible and simple reason. It is an idea that was even resisted by a huge number of Christian bishops until the Emperor Constantine sided with Trinitarian bishops and, in effect, outlawed the truth at the council of Nicea. Not even the earliest "Fathers of the Christian Church" knew of such this doctrine. Their writings are contained in Volume One of The Ante-Nicene Fathers. Anyone can read what those men wrote and see for himself. They referred to Jesus many times as the servant and Son of God, which he himself said he was. (Of course, those "Christian fathers" knew nothing of "getting saved" or of "salvation by faith alone”. By modern standards, the "fathers" of the Christian faith would not be considered to be good Christians.)
III. "Of the Holy Spirit . . That the Holy Spirit is a divine person; equal with God the Father and God the Son and of the same nature . "
This is only a part of the doctrine of the Trinity, described above. The Spirit of God, my Reader, is God’s Spirit. That’s it. Nothing else, and nothing hard to understand. The word "spirit" is never capitalized in the original Greek. It is not a name.
Your spirit is not another person, and you were made in God’s image. The holy Spirit is the eternal life that dwells within God (Rom. 8:10); it is not another person. This holy Spirit is the eternal life of the Father that He gave to the Son (Jn. 5:26); and it is the eternal life that, in the name of Jesus, comes to us when the holy Ghost comes in (Jn. 14:26).
What is particularly sad to me about this little section of the "Articles of Faith" on the "Holy Spirit" is what is not mentioned. There is no reference to the baptism of the holy Ghost, the most important experience on this side of the grave. There is not the first reference to the baptism that Jesus died for. Is it reasonable, my fellow believer, for any of us to give our hearts, our time, and our substance to support men who omit from their statement of faith the very experience that Jesus suffered and died for? It is doubtful the authors of these Articles even believe in the holy Ghost baptism, with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.
IV. "Of the Atonement for Sin . . We believe that the salvation of sinners is wholly of grace . . "
An important part of what Paul said about this is often omitted, as in this case. He said that salvation is "by grace through faith". Without an obedient response to God’s grace on our part (faith), God’s grace will save no one. God’s grace alone is useless; it saves no one. It is wrong to teach people that salvation is by grace alone.
The number of things that salvation rests upon are too many to list here. Some of them, off the top of my head, but from the Bible: We are saved by hope (Rom. 8), by enduring to the end in the love of God (Mt. 24), by baptism (the one that washes our souls, not our flesh - 1Pet. 3:21), by the patience of Christ (2Pet 3), by doing good deeds (Rom 2), by sanctification and belief of the truth (2Thess. 2), and many, many other such things.
You see? The Bible never says that salvation is by grace alone, or even "by faith alone", as some teach. (On the contrary, James emphatically states that salvation is "NOT by faith only" - Jas. 2:24).
XIII. "Of the Church . .We believe that a Baptist Church is a congregation of baptized believers associated by a covenant of faith and fellowship of the Gospel; observing the ordinances of Christ; governed by His laws; exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word . . "
Child of God, never submit your sanctified temple to a baptism of water at the hands of a Christian minister. It is an affront to the grace of God bestowed on you in Christ to add to His baptism of the heart a baptism that men perform in the flesh.
XIV. "Of Baptism and the Lord's Supper . . We believe that Christian baptism is the immersion in water of a believer; in the name of the Father, of the Son and of the Holy Ghost, with the authority of the local church, to show forth in a solemn and beautiful emblem our faith in the crucified, buried and risen Savior, with its effect in our death to sin and resurrection to a new life; that it is prerequisite to the privilege of a church relation and to the Lord's supper, in which the members of the church, by the sacred use of bread and the fruit of the vine are to commemorate together the dying love of Christ; preceded always by solemn self-examination. Acts 8: 36-39; Matt. 3:6, John 3:23; Rom. 6:4-5, Matt. 3:16, Matt. 28:19, Rom. 6:3-5; Col. 2:12; Acts 2:41-42; Matt. 28:19,20, 1 Cor. 11: 23-28."
There is no such thing as "Christian baptism" found in the Bible. The closest thing to "Christian baptism" in the Bible is the baptism of Apollos, described in the last verses of Acts 18. Paul’s friends took him and "explained to him the way of God more perfectly".
Romans 6:3-5 and Colossians 2:12 refer to that holy baptism that Jesus gives. It is evil for Christian teachers to use these precious, holy scriptures to justify what amounts to crimes against Christ. What do I mean by "crimes"? I mean such things as teaching people in their congregations that their water baptism is ordained by God for those who believe, instead of proclaiming the baptism that was purchased for us by the sufferings of Jesus. I can’t use any other word. It is evil for them to do that.
Secondly, the Christian ceremony of eating natural substances such as bread and wine is not what Jesus wants us to do. (How can I tell the truth without sounding angry or malicious?) What Christians celebrate as "the Lord’s Supper" is a tragic misunderstanding of what Jesus intended. If we were dealing with money, it would be called "fraud". The supper the Lord died for us to share is in the Spirit, not in the flesh. We could be sharing meals of natural bread and natural wine even if he had never suffered on the cross.
There is no such thing as "the sacred use of bread and the fruit of the vine". Those words are "smooth as oil", as David once said, but they are also "full of poison". The best possible use of "bread and the fruit of the vine" is to give it to a needy person. The worst possible use of those things is to use those gifts from God to mislead innocent souls. Jesus broke the bread to his disciples during his last supper with them because the body of Christ did not yet exist because the Spirit had not yet come. He served them wine after the meal, and washed their feet before the meal, only to demonstrate for them the holy attitude of a servant.
Paul told the saints in Galatia that members of the congregation who added ceremonies to their life of faith had "fallen from grace". He said, in that case, that"Christ has profited you nothing." Your participation in those ceremonies, child of God, endangers your soul. If, as Paul said, children of God who carry out ceremonies after they taste of the Spirit and its truth have “fallen from grace", should you be involved in those things? What did it profit you to repent and receive the baptism of eternal life that Jesus gave you if you add to that unique blessing the ceremonies of men who do not know God? What about Jesus? What was lacking in his baptism in spirit or his communion in spirit so that any of us should participate in another baptism of communion in the flesh? That is the real issue. It is not about us; it is about Jesus. How highly do we esteem him and his grace?
There are no "ordinances of Christ" in the kingdom of God, as mentioned in XIII above. I know that phrase sounds good, but it is non-Biblical. The "ordinances of Christ" mentioned in these Articles are the inventions of men who misunderstand Jesus. Neither Jesus nor any of his apostles ever instituted a ceremony for the saints to "observe".
Jesus is enough. What Jesus does for our souls is enough. The Bible is not enough. We need the Jesus that the Bible tells us about. In order to be saved in the end, we need his baptism, his family, his doctrine, and his saving power all the way home. The Bible cannot baptize us; it cannot teach us; it cannot deliver us along our journey.
Jesus is calling His children. He is saying,"Come out of her, my people!" In time, the children of God are going to recognize that Voice. It is not my voice. It is not the voice of the other men that God is using to echo His cry. It is His Voice, and it is pleading with you. When God’s children finally hear it, there will be a massive exodus of the saints out of Christianity and all of its sects, an exodus that might well make Moses jealous!
XV. "Of the Perseverance of the Saints . . We believe that such only are real believers as endure unto the end; that their persevering attachment to Christ is the grand mark which distinguishes them from superficial professors . . "
This is incredibly crafty. Can you see through this cleverly worded statement? Do these teachers really think that only those saved in the end were ever truly born again? The Bible is clear that some of God’s children, born of the Spirit, will be "given their portion with the unbelievers" (Jesus said that). Jesus was serious when he said that the kingdom of God on earth [the body of Christ] was made up of both foolish and wise believers.
The men who wrote this are unwittingly confessing that they do not know when a person is born again, telling us instead that we must wait till the Final Judgment to find out who really belonged to God and who didn't. And if that is so, why then do those same ministers tell people that they are "saved"? If no one knows who is born again until the end, then on what basis do they tell sinners who repent that they are new-born children of God?
The "grand mark" which distinguishes those who have received God’s Spirit and those who have not, is the sign of the covenant that was foretold by David, Isaiah, Zephaniah, and others: speaking in tongues. The men who wrote these Articles of Faith for the Central Baptist Church do not seem to have this holy experience. They certainly do not esteem it as they should.
The only conclusion that is possible, based upon the clear evidence of their own doctrine, is that the Baptist religion, as represented by this particular Baptist church's doctrine, is not of God. Stay away from it. There is too much poison there for your soul to endure.