Description
When people identify themselves with a label like "Lutheran," "Presbyterian," or "Baptist," they're really identifying themselves with a combination of convictions. The labels help distinguish one set of convictions from another.
Dr. Kevin Bauder says, "Increasingly, church members display an astonishing lack of knowledge about just what Baptists believe." In Baptist Distinctives, he not only spells out the beliefs that make Baptists different from others, he shows the Biblical bases, discusses differences between Baptist groups, and explains how the Baptist distinctives affect believers' lives, especially their church life. If the Biblical, "Baptist" convictions are worth holding, they're worth understanding and standing for. Read Baptist Distinctives for a contemporary look at Baptist beliefs and life.
Part One: The Baptist Distinctives
The Authority of the New TestamentBeliever's BaptismPure Church MembershipIndividual Christian ResponsibilityCongregational GovernmentSeparation of Church and StatePart Two: New Testament OrderBaptists and OrganizationsChurch CouncilsLandmarkismBaptismal RegenerationOrganizing a Baptist Church
Reviews
I believe Kevin’s approach to Baptist distinctives is close to mine. I was especially pleased that the emphasis on the New Testament approach to the Church or – as Kevin says it – New Testament authority was dealt with first. I was also happy that [RBP said] that this single distinctive is the lynchpin for the other distinctives in the package that Baptists generally believe.
I think it is possible the Baptist historians have been better at identifying this lynchpin than Baptist theologians down through the years. At least discussions about the so-called “primitive” church are plentiful. While Baptist peoples have disagreed among themselves about whether the primitive or early biblical churches passed down the pattern for doing church in an unbroken chain through history (e.g., the landmark debate), one thing is clear. Baptists look to the New Testament for doing church. This makes them somewhat dispensational in disposition even if they don’t claim that label. Baptists do not go to the OT for the pattern for how to do church even though OT wisdom can certainly be a guide for life in applicatory ways. But the model is distinctively a NT one.
Out of this comes the main contribution of the modern Baptist movement in my opinion – the clarification of the significance of the local church. This concept moved into mainstream evangelicalism over time and became a major competing model for doing church.
Dr. Michael Stallard
Author Bio
Kevin Bauder (DMin, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School; PhD, Dallas Theological Seminary) is research professor of systematic theology at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Minneapolis, where he served as president from 2003 to 2011. Prior to joining the faculty as associate professor in 1998, he served in various pastoral roles for 18 years. His current position affords him the opportunity to further pursue his interests in ecclesiological issues, Baptist history and polity, and the study of American fundamentalism and evangelicalism.