I'm a Missionary Baptist. That's not to say that I'm like most other Baptists. My beliefs and convictions lie with Baptists of previous generations. Most of the Baptists of today's generation have compromised and changed so much from the foundational beliefs of historical Baptists that they are not recognizable as Baptists at all othen than the name. I'm different because I still believe in the landmarks of the faith that defined the Baptists of old. These being...
I believe in a Lord's Table restricted to the members in good standing of the particular local church where the ordinance is being observed. I won't go into detail here but you can read my arguements on this subject
here.
I believe that the 1611 King James Version of the Bible is the only english version that has not been diluted and perverted. All other versions diminish the deity of Christ, the security of the believer, the virgin birth, the all-sufficiency of Christ, and many others. God is not the author of confusion, but confusion abounds in churches where each member of the congregation is reading from a different version of the Bible and getting different meanings from the same passage. I've sat in some of these churches and am witness to the questions that always start with, "...but my Bible says this..."
I believe that true, New Testament churches are planted by an existing church by the sending out of men for such a purpose. A man who decides to go to a certain area and start a new church does so without scriptural authority. That is not to say that the church that does the planting then has authority over the new church, but the new church becomes an autonomous body when it is planted.
Look at the Bible example in Acts 13:1-3. Here we see men who were called of God to begin a work. The church where they were members fasted and prayed, laid their hands on the men (signifying a sanctifying or “setting apart” for the work they were to do) and sent them on their way. The Holy Spirit told the church in effect “I have chosen these men for a work.” This is the way churches ought to be planted. A man cannot just decide to begin a church and then expect to have authority bestowed on him from God. If a man is truly called, the church at which he is a member will also know and can properly prepare the man for the work.
I believe that the holidays of Christmas, Easter, Valentines Day, and Halloween all originate from the same pagan source. For a church to embrace three but shun the fourth is hypocracy. Halloween is the only one we couldn't substitute a Christian theme so we call it what it is and avoid it. The others we dress them up in Christian clothing and accept them into God's worship. This dishonors God and we should flee from this idolatry. Check out my arguments on this subject
here.
I believe that we ought to follow the teachings and examples from the Bible over what men may say is the right thing for today. Too many Christians read religious books more than the Bible. Too many pastors follow the teachings of men such as Jack Hyles or John McArthur. When I go to church, I want to hear the Word preached; not the espousings of a so-called godly man.
I believe that Baptists are not Protestants and have always existed both before, and separate from the reformation. Many Baptist clergy today preach as though we are indeed come from the reformation, and many Baptist lay-people know no other teaching. I asked one of the pastors of a local Baptist church here in my town after hearing him preach a series on "The Solas of the Reformation" if he considered himself and the church as Protestants. His reply was, "I don't have a problem with that." I'm sorry but I do have a problem with that. The Baptists, by whatever name they were called in times past, were persecuted not only by the Catholic church, but also by the leaders of the reformation, Luther and Calvin included. Here is a passage from "Origin of the Baptists" by S H Ford:
In 1519, six years before Luther appeared before the Diet of Worms, a letter was addressed to Erasmus from Bohemia, thus describing this people:
"These men have no other opinion of the Pope, cardinals, bishops, and other clergy than of manifest Antichrists. They call the Pope sometimes the beast, and sometimes the whore, mentioned in the Revelation. Their own bishops and priests, they themselves do choose for themselves, ignorant and unlearned laymen, that have wife and children. They mutually salute one another by the name of brother and sister. They own no other authority than the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament. They slight all the doctors, both ancient and modern, and give no regard to their doctrine. Their priests, when they celebrate the offices of mass, (or communion,) do it without any priestly garments; nor do they use any prayer, or collects on this occasion, but only the Lord’s Prayer, by which they consecrate bread that has been leavened. They believe, or own little or nothing of the sacraments of the church. Such as come over to their sect, must every one be baptized anew in mere water. They make no blessing of salt, nor of water; nor make any use of consecrated oil. They believe nothing of divinity in the sacrament of the eucharist; only that the consecrated bread and wine do, by some occult signs, represent the death of Christ; and, accordingly, that all that do knee down to it, or worship, are guilty of idolatry; that that sacrament was instituted by Christ to no other purpose but to renew the memory of his passion, and not to be carried about or held up by the priests to be gazed on. For Christ himself, who is to be adored and worshipped with the honor of Latreia, sits at the right of God, as the Christian Church confesses in the Creed. Prayers to saints, and for the dead, they count a vain and ridiculous thing; as likewise auricular confession and penance enjoined by the priest for sins. Eves and fast-days are, they say, a mockery and disguise of hypocrites."
Every word in this description points out Baptists. Two of these brethren waited on Erasmus at Antwerp, to congratulate him on his bold statements of truth. He declined their congratulations, and reproached them as Anabaptists. (Adversarii nobis hunc titulum-ie., Anabaptistarum, Apud Lydium. Robinson’s Researches, p. 506). Luther and the German Reformers, whom they joyfully welcomed into the light, turned from them with antipathy and cheerlessly they returned to their concealment in the depths of their native forests to tell their brethren "They are adverse to us because of our name - i.e. Anabaptists." (Erasmus’s Answer is in Camerarus de Eccl. Fratrum, p. 125). They acknowledged the charge; they owned themselves Baptists. But their concealment, their principles, and their numbers were known. Entreaty, sophistry, and threats were used in vain to influence, pervert, or intimidate them. They appealed to God’s word, and were unwavering.
Their destruction was planned and brutally executed. An edict for their banishment was obtained from the Emperor, and Protestants and Catholics rejoiced in its enforcement. About forty thousand Baptists were proscribed. His majesty, in the edict, expresses his astonishment at the number of Anabaptists, and his horror at their principal error, which was, that they would submit to no human authority on matters of religion. The edict was published just three weeks before the harvest and vintage came on, that these poor people might not be able to carry away the produce of their toil. Their lands were to be forfeited to the emperor, and they banished to beggary. And three weeks after the proclamation of the edict, death would be inflicted on any of them found in the borders of the country. (Carafa, p. 133, quoted by Robinson in Researches).
I am a Missionary Baptist. The Missionary Baptists hold to those things I believe to be truth. So don't confuse me with just any old Baptist. I thank God that I wear the name. Read the
Things Most Surely Believed Among Us.