Who Are the Baptists?

TRUTH FOR TODAY

Jun Malazo

SAGADA, Mountain Province -- It is a question I have been asked many times in Sagada where we minister.   I believe this is an honest question because most people do not know our history.  Usually people think of religious groups as a denomination, so whenever I explain that we are not part of a denomination people often get confused.  So in this article I will try to explain who we are as Baptists.  But first there are a few things to consider.

Have you ever wondered where all the religious denominations of today came from?  Church history is a lengthy but interesting subject.  Most religious groups of today that identify as “Christian” can be traced from an era in history called the Protestant Reformation. 

It all started when men like Martin Luther, John Calvin, John Knox and many others grew tired of the tyranny of the hierarchal state church known as the Roman Catholic Church.  From its inception in the 4th century, the Catholic Church has been the dominant religion all over Europe. 

Until one day in the year 1530 Martin Luther nailed his 95 Thesis on the Catholic Church door in Wittenberg, Germany.  The thesis exposed the heretical teachings in the Catholic Church that went against clear Biblical doctrines.  Years later, others like John Calvin in France in 1541, and John Knox in Scotland in 1560, followed suit and left the Catholic Church.

Meanwhile in 1535, the king of England, Henry VIII, also grew tired of the absolute iron rule of the Catholic church.  However, his intentions were more personal than doctrinal.  King Henry VIII was mostly known for his six marriages.  He wanted to annul his first marriage to Catherine of Aragon.  He was not granted the annulment because the pope and the Catholic Church did not allow such an activity.  This led King Henry VIII to separate England from authority of the Roman Catholic Church and started what we know today as the Church of England, also known as the Anglican Church.  Later on it would be called the Episcopal Church in the United States of America.

From the Church of England sprang the Puritans and Quakers, both of which saw many problems in the Church of England philosophically and doctrinally.  They saw that, even though the Anglican Church separated from the state church, they still held to many of the heresies held by the Roman Catholic Church.  Because of their efforts at purifying the Church of England, intense persecution ensued from England’s state church, which prompted the Puritans to look for other places to live and freely worship.  Eventually, the Puritan forefathers found themselves aboard a ship called the Mayflower en route to the “new world.” 

Years later in the “new world” many prominent religious groups sprang from the Puritans.  First it was the Congregationalist Church.  From the Congregationalist Church came out men like Charles Taze Russell of the Jehovah’s Witnesses and the Watchtower Society and Joseph Smith of the Mormon Church (also known as The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints).  The Modern day Pentecostal and Charismatic churches can also be traced from the Congregationalist group. 

What I have just described to you covers centuries of church history.  It is a very basic model that shows where most of the denominations came from.  My initial aim was to show our readers that most Christian religious groups known today can be traced back to the Roman Catholic Church, which was established by Emperor Constantine in the 3rd Century.  Secondly, I wanted to show our readers that nowhere in this basic model of church history will you find a group of Christian believers called the Baptists. 

Who are the Baptists?  Where did they come from, and why is it that they were never part of the Protestant Reformation? 

In order to answer this question, we must trace back in the Scriptures and see the kind of church that Jesus established in Matthew 16:17-18 which reads:

"And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Barjona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven. And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it"  (Matthew 16:17-18, KJV).

The preceding verses describe the establishment of the New Testament Church.  It is important to note that when Jesus established the church He did not established a denominational group or any particular religious organization.  He established the New Testament Church.  The church would continue even after the ascension of Christ though His commission to the disciples to carry on the work of Gospel in all the ends of the earth.  The New Testament  Church is an organized body of believers carrying out the Great Commission with established doctrines.  These doctrines were taught by Jesus Himself and the other apostles as recorded in the Book of Acts and in the Epistles. 

It was these doctrines that separated the New Testament Churches apart from any religious groups from the time of Christ’s ministry and throughout church history.  It was also because of these doctrines that many Christians paid the ultimate price of death for not recanting their deep convictions based on these doctrines.  The first 500 years of church history marked one of the bloodiest time periods of history when Christians were continually persecuted by the Roman Empire.  Yet, the more these Christians were brutally persecuted, the more they grew in numbers and in their faith. 

Even when Emperor Constantine sought to legalize Christianity in AD 313 by amalgamating the Christian religion with Greek and Roman Mythology to what we know today as the Roman Catholic Church, separatist groups that identified with the New Testament Church refused to join because of deeply held convictions and doctrines. 

What are these convictions and doctrines?  In summary these Christians believed that the Bible is the final source of authority for faith and life (see 2 Timothy 3:16).  They also believed in the autonomy of the local church.  This simply means that each church is independent from any type of hierarchy or denominational authority because it is supposed to be self-governing (see Colossians 1:18; Ephesians 1:22-23).  They also believed in the priesthood of the believer. God’s Word assures us as believers that we have direct access to God through our relationship with Christ (see 1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 4:14–16).  They believed that the Scriptures only mention two church offices—pastor (also referred to as elder or bishop) and deacon (see 1 Timothy 3:1–13).  They believed in individual soul liberty which means each person must make a personal decision of repentance and faith in Christ (see Romans 14:12). 

Additionally, they believed in separation of church and state.  This means that the government and the church should be independent of one another and that salvation must be a personal decision of faith, free of any outside coercion.

They believed that there are only two ordinances in the church—communion and baptism.  Christ instructed His disciples to practice both baptism and communion ( see Matthew 28:19; Matthew 26:26–28; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26).  Both of these are ordinances commanded to be administered by the church and are for believers only.  They cannot redeem us, but they are practiced by the redeemed.  They identify us with the church body and are part of our fellowship through Christ in the body.

These are some of the basic doctrines of the New Testament Chuch.  Most importantly, they believed that the salvation of mankind only comes in the person of Jesus Christ by grace and faith alone (see Ephesians 2:8-9; Titus 3:5).

Where do the Baptists fit into this picture?  All throughout church history there were groups of people who refused to identify with the state church and the other churches that came out of the Reformation Age.  As mentioned before, they separated because of issues of salvation by grace alone, infant baptism, and baptism by immersion among other issues.  They held to their beliefs; and as they fought against heresy, millions of them paid the ultimate price of losing their lives. 

Many of these of groups were called by their oppressors the “Anabaptists” which means “ones who baptizes again.”  Those who were enlightened and turned away from the state church to join these groups were baptized again because their baptism in the church state by sprinkling as an infant was deemed unscriptural.  Hence, the term “Anabaptist.”  The name eventually was shortened to Baptist.

As Baptists we have a deep heritage.  Our forefathers held to Biblical convictions that we still hold to so dearly today.  Baptist history is written by the blood of the martyrs that withstood intense persecution during their time.  We were never part of the Protestant Reformation because the Baptist Church never came out of the Roman Catholic Church. Though it was not called a Baptist Church, we identify with the church that the Lord instituted in Matthew 18.

I understand that not all Baptist Churches are alike today.  Our church, Central Sagada Baptist Church, still holds to the traditional beliefs of our forefathers.  Though not perfect, we strive by God’s grace to uphold each of these Biblical doctrines.