Baptists
Baptist churches are independent of each other, completely autonomous, not subject to any higher ecclesiastical body. It was true, Baptist churches are banded into associations. Such an association was purely voluntary, however, and had no legislative functions whatever. It cannot enact anything binding any church which was connected with it. The most that a Baptist association can do was to advise, and to recommend. Many speak of the principle of the autonomy of the congregation as of a Congregational principle, and are apt to attribute its origin to the Congregationalists. But it was the Anabaptists of the 16th century who first advocated this democratic principle. It was highly probable that the English Congregationalists received their democratic conception of the Church from the Anabaptists.
The typical Baptist aimed to restore primitive Christianity, and laid much stress on the imitation of Jesus, on a literal obedience to his words, especially as his teaching was found in the Sermon on the Mount. This tendency led to a peculiar literalness in the interpretation of the New Testament with him. This literalness was one main reason why many Anabaptists rejected the bearing of arms, warfare, capital punishment, judicial oaths, the exercise of magistracy on the part of Christians, as well as recompense for ministerial services.
The most fundamental principle of the Baptists is their demand for an exclusively regenerate church-membership. The typical Baptist draws a sharp line of distinction between the consciously regenerate and those who make no claim to a regenerative change. He believes in the necessity of regeneration, and demands that regeneration should precede church-membership. He maintains that the New Testament idea of a local church is that of a body of believers who have been regenerated and sanctified. He insists that a church must be composed exclusively of regenerate persons, of individuals who are assured of their conversion. He rejects infant baptism largely because it is incompatible with a regenerate church-membership. The Baptists, therefore, make regeneration and baptism on a profession of faith conditions of entering into their fellowship, and set up separate churches of the regenerate on the basis of believers' baptism. The demand of the first settlers of New England for a church-membership giving "creditible evidence" of regeneration was an Anabaptist demand.
The Baptist completely rejected the Church dogma of "baptismal regeneration". He was out of harmony with all denominations which stand for sacerdotalism, ritualism, or ceremonialism. Professor Newman speaks of the pagan view that water-baptism possesses in itself magical efficacy to secure salvation. The Baptist rejected infant baptism, and does so on the ground that it has no Scriptural authorization, either by precept or by example. He maintained that infant baptism was not only non-Scriptural, but distinctly contra-Scriptural; that it was not merely the introduction of a rite which was not authorized by the Bible, but a complete perversion of an ordinance which Jesus established for the symbolical setting forth of regeneration. But the Baptist rejected infant baptism not simply because it was un-Scriptural, but even more because it was incompatible with a regenerate churchmembership.
The typical Baptist was distinguished by a peculiar literalness in his interpretation of the New Testament. Like the Calvinist, he maintained the doctrine of the supremacy and the sufficiency of the Bible as the only norm of faith and of practice. He insisted on applying the letter of the Bible, positively and negatively, as the ultimate test to every detail, both of doctrine and of practice. He does not recognize the right to exist of anything either in doctrine or in practice, which was not distinctly a matter of Scriptural precept or example. Today, the Southern Baptist Convention proclaims that "The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God's revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy."
But the Baptist carrieed out this principle of the sole authority of the Bible in practice without any regard to the consequences, while the other Protestants have omitted to do so when they thought that the practical carrying out of the principle would lead to objectionable consequences. The logical application of the principle of the sole authority of the Bible on the part of the Baptist was due to logical consistency, which was one of their chief characteristics. Thus most Christians have discarded the practice of immersion of adult persons on account of considerations of expediency. The Baptists thus practice immersion because they regarded it as the only Scriptural mode of baptism.
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