FAQ … Frequently Asked Questions – Baptist Church History https://baptistchurchhistory.com Teaching the history of the New Testament Churches as well as their doctrine. Sat, 23 Jan 2021 18:28:42 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.1 185848610 THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATHOLICS, PROTESTANTS, AND BAPTISTS https://baptistchurchhistory.com/the-difference-between-catholics-protestants-and-baptists/ https://baptistchurchhistory.com/the-difference-between-catholics-protestants-and-baptists/#comments Sat, 23 Jan 2021 18:28:42 +0000 http://baptistchurchhistory.com/?p=421 Dan Nelson 01/22/2021

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CATHOLICS, PROTESTANTS, AND BAPTISTS

Many people do not understand the difference between Catholicism, Protestantism, and Baptists. Catholics believe in the tradition of the church through centuries as a higher authority than the Bible although those practices or not taught and even rebuked by the Bible. They believe in the magic of the sacraments in primary transubstantiation saying the elements are changed to the body and blood of Christ. They believe in the Pope as the ultimate authority of the “Church”. They believe in a works salvation through keeping the sacraments. They believe in the priestly intermediator between God and man with confession, absolution of sins, and prayers for them. They believe in purgatorial remission. That is one goes to purgatory when they die and has to be prayed out or bought out by indulgences. They believe in the deification of Mary, the veneration of the saints who have been approved by the church. They believe in one universal church which is supplemented by various parishes that are not churches. They believe in the celibacy of the priesthood for priests, monks, and nuns. They believe in the marriage of the church with the state who has been their ally in the past and has been used to persecute and slaughter dissenters. They believe in infant sprinkling which gives a false assurance they are Christians when they are not. They have suppressed the Bible and groups who oppose those teachings. There are many more practices too numerous to mention here which have not only led to an ignorance of the masses about biblical Christianity but persecution and silence of those who believe in it.Protestants came out of the Reformation believing in biblical authority and justification by faith. There are certain vestiges of Catholicism still retained to some degree or another in their faith and practice. Many mainline groups still sprinkle infants. They have a hierarchical church government that appoints local congregation church leaders and patterns church faith and practice. They believe in a Universal church that requires only faith in Christ to get into; whereby they in essence create two churches; the universal and local. They have traditionally been in league with the state leading to persecution of Baptists in martyrs like Felix Manz being drowned in Switzerland and others like Balthazar Hubmaier being chased and caught by Catholics who burned him, Michael Sattler, and Jacob Hutter plus a host of others. In America, they banished Roger Williams, imprisoned over 40 pastors in one decade in Virginia. They have a loose view of church membership that filters into many Baptist churches. Generally, there is at least one practice or more that can be traced back to Catholicism. A Baptist is someone who believes the church is a visible assembly of baptized believers joined together for the faith of the gospel. A Baptist believes in believers’ baptism by immersion as the only mode and purpose of baptism. That baptism needs to be administered by and under the authority of a New Testament church. A Baptist does not believe in a state church or civil government controlling and restricting religion. A Baptist believes in a free independent congregation ruled by the Lordship of Christ and governed by that local congregation under the Spiritual leadership of the Pastor called of God. A Baptist believes in individual accountability when it comes to conversion. No one can be sponsored or come into the Kingdom of God and church by their parents are others coattails. We will all be individually accountable to God for our souls as we understand the gospel. A Baptist, ministers in a local congregation and does not hire a designated clergy to minister for them, for the interpretation of Scripture, witness, and serve for them in the body of Christ. A Baptist does not substitute tradition, personal revelation contrary to Scripture, denial of the basic teachings of God’s Word, and diminishment of its teachings to fit the contemporary culture for the Bible. They believe the Bible is God’s Word without error and our only authority of faith and practice. The head of any Baptist Church is our Lord Jesus Christ born of a virgin, God in human flesh, who lived a life without sin, died as a substitutionary sacrifice for our sin on the cross so that when we believe in His atoning work God imputes His righteousness to us and sees us in Him. He rose bodily and visibly from the grave. He ascended into heaven after authorizing His church and sending them into the world with the gospel. He empowered them by the Holy Spirit and is coming back again to establish His kingdom on earth as well as heaven. Baptists are biblically oriented with the Bible as our only Authority and Christ as our only head. If you don’t understand these differences who just don’t understand Christian History and who Baptists are. Yet, to know all this gives you liberating freedom to continue the work God has given us till Christ comes again.

 

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WHY DO YOU TEACH BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY AND CAN YOU GIVE ME SCRIPTURES TO BACK IT UP? https://baptistchurchhistory.com/why-do-you-teach-baptist-church-history-and-can-you-give-me-scriptures-to-back-it-up/ https://baptistchurchhistory.com/why-do-you-teach-baptist-church-history-and-can-you-give-me-scriptures-to-back-it-up/#respond Sat, 28 Nov 2020 00:26:55 +0000 http://baptistchurchhistory.com/?p=224 WHY DO YOU TEACH BAPTIST CHURCH HISTORY AND CAN YOU GIVE ME SCRIPTURES TO BACK IT UP?

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Why Study Baptist History
Short answer: The vast majority of “Christendom” is a masquerade and built by the father of lies. (John 8:44). When satan could not defeat Christ, vanquish his Holy Scripture or martyr all Christ’ disciples ‘ol Beelzebub created a counterfeit church. By studying Baptist history we can identify the New Testament church that Christ built during his earthly ministry.
Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, who cannot lie (Titus 1:2) promised the perpetuity of his church (Mt.16:18) to which he founded and built upon the foundation of the Apostles of which he was the Chief cornerstone (Eph. 2:20)
Church by definition is a “called out local assembly” (ekklesia) of baptized (immersion) believers who are organized to preach the Gospel to the lost, and teach/make disciples of all professed and baptized members. It has officers and elders as described in Eph. 4:11, 1 Tim 3:1,10; 5:17; 1 Peter 5:1,5 and has the Lord’s table (Mt. 26:28-30; I Cor. 12:23-29) & Baptism (Mt. 3:13-17; 28:19-20; I Cor. 12:13) as the only two visible ordinances and an autonomous Biblical theocentric church governance (Col. 1:18, Eph. 3:21, I Cor. 1:3;12:12).
Scriptural baptism – the authority, subject, method and purpose has separated the true NT church from pseudo church organizations since the days of Romish apostasy. Countless millions of our Baptist forefathers have been martyred (many by professing “Christians”) for “the faith which was once delivered unto the saints.” (Jude 1:3)
For this purpose NT churches are founded under the ordaining authority of NT churches (Acts 13:1-3, Heb. 6:1-2). When individuals start a church & baptize w/o authority they are operating by means of the earliest doctrinal divisions in Christendom. Their doctrine will ultimately reveal an invisible, universal church synonymous with salvation. (Folks who believe the body of Christ is composed of all the saved & who believe the “true church” is the realm of salvation to which they are Spirit baptized into this universal body of Christ) Thus their baptism depicts their doctrinal root that is tied to the great whore (RCC) and her daughters (Protestants) of a federal church/state. We find many Baptists have traded the apostolic faith for the deluding influence of ecumenical, Protestant fundamentalism particularly evident since the Niagara Conferences of the 1890’s and early 1900’s of which the protestant Scofield gained much influence among unsuspecting Baptists. Since baptism was not considered a “fundamental” of the faith it was effectively marginalized and therefore “Protestantized”.
We see from Christ’s example that baptism is not simply a matter of immersion. It is a matter of God-ordained authority. Jesus Christ identified with John in receiving his God-ordained baptism (John 1:6, Mt.3:15-16). It was that same baptism that He gave to His disciples, who baptized under His authority (Jn. 4: 1-2, Mt.28:19-20). We have external evidence that the Lord’s church practiced this ordinance from the early part of His earthly ministry. The commission came with a promise of an empowerment (Acts 1:8) on the day of Pentecost. The preaching of the word on that day resulted in 3k souls being saved & then “ADDED UNTO” the Lord’s church by means of baptism (Acts 2:41).
Many peoples in history have held to the Biblical doctrines delivered by Christ and his first church and are recognized throughout history as the Waldenses, Donatists, Novations, Albigenses, Henricians, Petrobrussians, Paulicians, Anabaptists and Baptist.
It is incumbent upon us not only to publish our history, heritage and distinctives as a beacon of light for every generation to follow but to honor those folks who have sacrificed their life and treasure for the cause of Christ and his kingdom.
To God be the glory!
Thomas E. Kresal

 

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