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HERE IS THE FULL-TEXT VERSION BY THE AUTHOR
"Beliefs and Practices Historically Held by
those People now called Baptists"
The history of the Lord’s Old Testament people found in the Bible shows periods of time when they drifted into the practice of false religion. God gave clear instructions at the hands of men such as Moses, Joshua, and the prophets so that His people could remain a separate people and serve Him in the truth. God called these His statutes and judgments. The Bible record shows how they left off keeping these statutes and judgments by adopting the practices of the peoples around them. In the end, this always led to them losing power with God and weakening them in the world.
In the history of the Lord’s true New Testament Church, we find them facing a unique period in their existence. After going through 1260 long years of persecution, they came to a time of guaranteed freedom. The union of Church and State practiced by Catholics and Protestants resulted in the death of millions of Baptists and their forefathers. However, when the constitution of the United States was signed and ratified, they found freedom granted at a level they had never experienced before. The constitution was signed in 1787. Once enough states ratified this document, it was agreed that the government under the U.S. Constitution would begin on March 4, 1789. The Bill of Rights was finally ratified in 1791 granting Baptists throughout the country the privilege of freedom of religion.
Just like God’s Old Testament people, the true New Testament Church soon began to drift into beliefs and practices which would lead them away from the Head of the Church. Brother J.R. Graves took note of the condition of Baptists in both the southern and northern states when he became editor of a newspaper titled The Baptist, located in Nashville, TN. In 1846, he found that pulpit affiliations, union meetings, receiving the immersions of Protestants, and inviting the ministers of these groups to seats in associations had become the general practice in a number of southern areas. In the north, the ministers of Protestant groups were also invited to assist in Baptist ordinations. Needless to say, seeing how God responded to such practices of His Old Testament people, it could only be anticipated what would happen to New Testament Churches who remained entangled with Protestants. So, a number of brethren responded to the situation.
Three men who wrote widely on this topic have recently been researched to discover what beliefs and practices they found that preserved Baptists down through time. These are the historical beliefs and practices held-to by Baptists from the time the Lord established His Church to their present day in the 1800s. These men include Jesse Mercer in Georgia; J.R. Graves in Tennessee; and D.B. Ray in Missouri. The information they discovered and advocated is grouped below by topic.
In 1880, after thirty-four years of declaring these teachings as editor of The Baptist, Brother Graves noted marked improvements in Baptists in the South and the North. He said he found only one weekly Baptist paper in South, out of the sixteen in print, that would approve alien immersion or pulpit affiliation. More than that, he found no association in all of the South that would endorse an alien immersion. The “heavy drift of sentiment” in the West and Northwest was strongly in favor of Baptist Churches doing their own preaching, ordaining, and baptizing. They favored restricting participation in the Lord’s Supper to the membership of the Church practicing it.
The teachings are grouped below:
JM = Jesse Mercer; JRG – JR Graves; DBR = DB Ray
Nature of the Kingdom of God, Heaven, etc…
JM The Kingdom of God is made up of the true Churches.
JRG The Kingdom of Christ was established by the Lord Jesus Christ during the days of John the Baptist consisting of all of the Lord’s true Baptist Churches.
DBR The Kingdom was established by the Lord Jesus Christ during His personal ministry. It consists of the sum total of true Baptist Churches during any period of time.
Origin of the Church
JM There is only one true Church and the Lord established it during His personal ministry.
JRG It is obvious from the teachings of Brother Graves that he held that the Lord personally established His own Church during His personal ministry before His crucifixion.
DBR The Origin of the Church occurred during the Lord’s ministry before His crucifixion.
DBR The Baptists, as a church or kingdom, recognize Jesus Christ alone as their founder and head.
Nature of the Church
JM By considering the teachings of Brother Mercer on the Church, it is apparent that he held it to be a local, visible organization.
JRG The Church is defined as a company of scriptually immersed believers who have voluntarily entered in a covenant relationship with each other.
JRG The Church is a local and visible organization.
DBR A Church (i.e., a true Baptist Church) is an assembly of baptized believers associated together in the doctrine and fellowship of the Gospel.
Baptist Succession
JM The Church will continue in an unbroken lineage down to the return of the Lord.
JRG A succession of true Baptist Churches exists from the Church the Lord organized during the days of John the Baptist to this day.
JRG The Church is to perpetuate the doctrine of the divine origin and sanctity of the churches of Christ, an unbroken continuity of Christ’s Kingdom, “from the days of John the Baptist until now.”
DBR All well-informed Baptists are agreed in the belief that we, as a people, have continued from the time of Christ until the present time resulting in Baptist Succession.
DBR True Baptist Churches can be traced down through history by the beliefs and practices they held rather than by any particular name explaining the nature of the Baptist Succession.
Status of “Other” churches
JM Churches organized since the Lord organized His are out of gospel order and should not be recognized as true Churches.
JRG The Church is to protest against all human societies as scriptural churches and remain separate from them lest any construe by the recognition of them that the Church deems them to be equal with the Lord’s true Church. It is inconsistent for true Baptist Churches to admit otherwise.
Preaching Ministry and Ordinations
JM Only ordinations performed by a true Church are valid while such as are performed by churches which are out of gospel order cannot be recognized as such.
JM The ordained membership of a true Church is subject to the Church rather than being in charge of it.
JRG Preaching of the gospel is an official act or duty of the local church.
JRG The ministers of religious societies who fail to meet the model of a true Baptist Church need to be barred from the pulpits of Baptist Churches.
JRG The Church is to preserve the doctrine of a divinely called and scripturally qualified and ordained ministry to proclaim the gospel and administer the ordinances under the direction of the local Church.
The Church is to Consist of a Regenerate Membership
JRG The Church is to consist of a regenerate membership and none are to be received as members without confessing personal faith in the Lord.
DBR The Baptists perpetuate the Bible order of the commandments; they teach repentance, faith, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper.
Authority, Government of the Church
JM There is no higher authority on the earth than that found in the Church meaning a true Church is subject to no other Church or association of Churches.
JM Churches are independent of each other.
JRG The Lord only gave authority to His true Baptist Church to carry out the work of the ministry including the administration of the ordinances.
JRG The Church is to preserve the divine, inalienable, and sole prerogative of the Church to: preach the gospel; select and ordain her officers; and absolutely control her own ordinances.
JRG The ordinances of the Lord Jesus Christ were enjoined on the Church and are to be maintained in number, mode, order, and symbolic meaning until the Lord returns.
DBR Each true Baptist Church is fully authorized to administer the laws of the kingdom of Christ in its community, including the discipline of its membership.
DBR Each true Baptist Church has the authority to conduct the work of God bestowed on them by the Lord Jesus Christ.
DBR Baptists recognize equal rights or privileges in the execution of the laws of the kingdom of Jesus Christ.
Scriptural, Valid Baptism
JM Only the baptism administered by true Churches who descended through the ages of time and still maintain the gospel order is valid. JRG Baptism was entrusted to the true Baptist Church as the method whereby born again people are brought into it.
DBR The right to administer baptism has been entrusted solely to the Church. The Church is provided with officers who are her agents to administer this ordinance.
DBR Baptists immerse, or bury with Christ in baptism, only those who profess to be dead to, or freed from, sin.
Scriptural, Valid Observance of the Lord’s Supper
JM True Churches are to only administer the Lord’s Supper to themselves inviting none other to participate with them.
JRG The Lord gave His true Baptist Church guardianship of the Lord’s Supper such that a Church can only administer it to its own membership.
DBR Baptists observe the Lord’s Supper at His table in His kingdom.
Bible as the Standard for Belief and Practice
JRG The New Testament, and that alone, is the only and sufficient rule of faith and practice.
DBR The Baptists regard the Bible alone as their rule of faith and practice.
Church Persecution
DBR Baptists have never persecuted others; but have themselves always been peculiarly persecuted and every-where spoken against
Starting 7/01/21
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