Baptist Distinctives

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By Dr. David E. Garland, Interim President of Baylor University and Dean of George W. Truett Theological Seminary

The Quaker scholar Elton Trueblood told of an earnest Baptist informing him that Baptists date back before Jesus. He was surprised and asked, "How so?" The man replied, "Haven't you ever heard of John the Baptist?' Dr. Trueblood responded, "By that logic, you are far too modest. Baptists certainly go back to the time of Abraham." It was the man's turn to be surprised, "How so?" The answer came, "Don't you remember when Abraham said to Lot, ‘You go your way and I'll go mine'? Surely, that was when Baptists began."

In the accompanying article, Dr. Weaver highlights the beginning of Baptists in 1609 when John Smyth and Thomas Helwys led a group of English expatriates to start a Baptist church in Holland. From the outset, Baptists were dissenters. They rebelled from the perceived corruption of the Anglican Church and its affiliation with the English government, and they parted company with the English Separatists who did not separate themselves sufficiently enough from the Anglicans for their tastes. That first Baptist church in Holland then split the next year over issues surrounding baptism.

To some, Baptists must seem an ornery group that can only agree that church should be over by 12 noon. Baylor was founded by and continues to be supported by Baptists, and there are distinctive Baptist principles that accord well with the ideal of a university based on academic freedom and a democratic society based on separation of church and state. Universities and democratic societies can also have their ornery moments when people dissent. Perhaps this quote applies to Baptists: "In larger things we are convivial. What causes trouble is the trivial." The faculty of George W. Truett Seminary selected 10 larger things that taken together have made Baptists distinctively Baptist:

1. Christian Faith. Faith comes through a personal, individual conversion by grace through repentance and faith. No one is born Christian or made Christian by any ritual or ceremony. Christian existence begins with the individual's encounter with God through Jesus Christ that starts with mature, conscious witness to faith in Christ together with repentance for sins.
2. The Scriptures. The Bible is God's written, authoritative Word normative for Christian faith and practice. The Bible stands above every tradition, and tradition must be measured by Scripture.
3. The priesthood of all believers. Every Christian is equally worthy and able to come to God through Christ. No Christian requires a human mediator other than Jesus Christ for salvation and access to God. This doctrine comes as both a privilege and responsibility. Christians are charged to act as priests to one another (e.g., we serve each other communion, pray for each other, and minister to each other's needs).
4. Baptism of believers. Baptism is the visible representation of a previous, inward work of God called regeneration. The rite is administered only to believers old enough to profess their faith publicly. Baptism is an act of personal commitment and public testimony to God and the church and is not to be regarded as a saving sacrament.
5. The Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper in the church today is symbolic. It is not a sacrament in the sense of conveying saving grace through the elements of bread and wine (or juice). The elements are to remind believers of the broken body and spilled blood of Christ in giving his life for others. Thus, the meal is a public representation recalling Christ's death and return and symbolizes each believer's union with Christ and the believers' union with one another. None is worthy to participate except by the grace of God.
6. Soul competency. Each person is accountable for himself/herself before God. No hierarchy of spiritual authorities is needed to dictate to Christians what they must believe or how they must practice their faith. While the church and its leaders are ordained to give spiritual guidance, God also made each person with the capacity to respond to God directly without requiring any human mediation. Each Christian has the right and ability to interpret Scripture, though they may not always do so rightly.
7. Religious Liberty. Religious liberty stems from the idea that God has made each of us in God's own image. A person's conscience should not be coerced; worship should never be required or rewarded by government or any other power except God. Likewise, each local church is free to carry out its work without governmental or ecclesial interference.
8. Believers' church. The church is a voluntary membership of those confessing Jesus Christ as Lord. It is not a mixed assembly of confessing Christians and others.
9. Autonomy of the local congregation. There is no other visible church than the local congregation that is the organized manifestation of the body of Christ. Each congregation of believers has the right and responsibility to govern itself and decide for itself how to worship and practice the Christian faith.
10. Separation of church and state. The secular state must not dominate or control the church in any way. No church or religious tradition should dominate or control the secular state. All peaceful religious groups should be treated equally by the state and should not receive special favor or treatment from government. While at times the work of both institutions may be mutually related, Herschel Hobbs rightly noted: The church shall not seek to achieve its spiritual goals through political power. Nor shall the state commandeer the church for political ends.

Those Baptists who founded Baylor in 1845 had a vision that this university would train persons on the basis of this tradition. But in true Baptist fashion, it is not something that should be coerced. The right to dissent is a freedom long supported by Baptist tradition.

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