Why We Are Baptists: Session 1

Baptist Distinctives:

  • Believer’s baptism
  • Regenerate church membership
  • Congregational church governance
  • Separation of Church and State

Where Did Baptists Come From?

  • The New Testament
    • All of our Baptist distinctives are found in the pages of the New Testament, even if they may be lacking periodically throughout the pages of Church History.

  • The Early Church
    • “But before the baptism let the baptizer fast, and the baptized, and whoever else can; but you shall order the baptized to fast one or two days before.” - The Didache, late 1st century

    • “As many as are persuaded and believe that what we teach and say is true, and undertake to be able to live accordingly, are instructed to pray and to entreat God with fasting, for the remission of their sins that are past…they are brought by us where there is water and are regenerated [i.e., baptized].” - Justin Martyr, 2nd century
    • Tertullian’s treatise, On Baptism, is the oldest, extant work singularly devoted to the ordinance of baptism we have. In it, he writes against a new practice that has begun to take place: infant baptism. “This new instance was fraught with difficulties: infants had no sin that needed to be cleansed; infants were unable to commit themselves to live a Christian life, which baptism called them to do; and their sponsors could not be held liable for the infants’ potential future lack of pursuit of Christ.” (Shawn Wright, “Baptism in History, Theology, and the Church,” in Baptist Foundations, 108).
    • Hippolytus, mid-3rd century, in his Apostolic Tradition, states “that there is to be a three-year period from conversion to baptism in which the catechumen was to be tested regarding his or her faith and Christian lifestyle.” (Steve McKinion, “Baptism in the Patristic Writings,” Believer’s Baptism, 177).
    • Cyprian’s Epistle 58 writes of “the decision of an African synod in 253 AD to require the baptism of infants…That a synod would even need to meet to decide this matter suggests that pedobaptism was not universally practiced. In fact, were it merely a few who opposed it, such as Tertullian, would an African synod be necessary?” (Steve McKinion, “Baptism in the Patristic Writings,” in Believer’s Baptism, 174)
    • The practice of infant baptism does not become essentially universal till after Augustine, writing in the 4th-5th century. Augustine claimed that baptism cleansed an infant of original sin and was similar to the work of circumcision in the Old Testament. Through baptism, the life of Christ was implanted in the infant, and established their salvation. “In the Western church out of which Protestantism sprang, Augustine’s teaching that original sin made infants liable to future punishment and concern about high infant mortality rates appear to have been the theological and pastoral impetuses, respectively, behind the universal adoption of infant baptism.” (Shawn Wright, “Baptism in History”, Baptist Foundations, 110).

  • The Medieval Church
    • Augustine’s Fides Aliena: “So, when the others answer for them, in order to fulfill for them the celebration of the sacrament, it certainly avails for their consecration, since they themselves are not able to answer.” The church is the “mother” who offers her “maternal mouth for her children…for they cannot as yet with their own hearts believe unto righteousness, nor with their own mouths confess unto salvation.”
    • Peter Lombard, in the 13th century, moved beyond the Fides Aliena view and developed Virtus Infusa Baptisme, the virtue of faith was infused to the infant via baptism.
    • “It is crucial, especially for modern Baptists, to observe that, in the medieval discussions, baptism was always regarded as the sacramentum fidei (Augustine’s term), the sacrament of faith. Nobody discarded faith; nobody said that baptized infants simply do not believe. The NT continued to exert its influence. And this conviction that faith must somehow be present in baptism was preserved liturgically for all to see on frequent occasions, in the baptismal ceremony, when the priest asked the infant: “Do you believe in God, the father Almighty? Do you believe in Jesus Christ is only son our Lord, who is born and suffered? Do you believe in the Holy Spirit the holy Catholic Church, the remission of sins, the resurrection of the flesh?” To which questions the sponsors replying for the infant answered: “I believe.“ The ceremony clearly harks back to the time when baptismal candidates were adults, capable of confessing their own faith in the creed. By circa 500 the liturgy had to make certain adjustments for the fact that almost all recipients of baptism or infants, and could not answer the faith questions, but the liturgy still proceeded as if they believed. The theological nexus of faith and baptism, though encumbered and compromised, was still visible in the baptismal liturgy, just as it was preserved in the doctrine of the theologians.” (Jonathan H. Rainbow, “Confessor Baptism,” in Believer’s Baptism, 192).

  • Luther
    • “That Luther meant that infants truly believe is clear from his exchanges with Andreas Bodenstein von Carlstadt and the Bohemian Brethern in the early 1520s. Carlstadt and other radical followers of Luther, building on Luther‘s premise that “faith and baptism belong together“ and the common sense observation that infants cannot believe, were moving towards the rejection of infant baptism itself. Luther struck back with clarity: “In baptism, the infants themselves believe and have their own faith.“ (Jonathan H. Rainbow, “Confessor Baptism,” in Believer’s Baptism, 193)
    • “Luther’s emphasis on faith in baptism cannot be understood, however, without the recognition of his emphasis on the role of the Word of God. Faith and the Word were always in tandem for Luther. Whether in the case of the “reasonable” adult taking communion or the infant being baptized. For Luther, as for Augustine, faith was no human work, but the gift of the grace of God, and the faith which Luther insisted was necessary in baptism was faith granted, created, and bestowed through the Word itself, specifically the Gospel word spoken in the baptismal ceremony. That an infant cannot reasonably understand the Word is no obstacle to the Word; the Word performs its work of creating faith without our cooperation. In baptism, the infant comes under the hearing of the Word, which penetrates his heart and creates faith. He answers the baptismal questions through the mouths of his sponsors.” (Jonathan H. Rainbow, “Confessor Baptism,” in Believer’s Baptism, 194)
    • “Here, Luther argued from the validity of the sacrament to the faith of the children: because the sacrament is valid, there must be faith on the part of those being baptized. Moreover, this faith is a gift of Jesus Christ into whom infants are baptized. Luther bolstered this view with Scripture that demonstrates faith on the part of infants. Luther cited John the Baptist as an illustration of one who believed while still in his mother's womb. Yet, Luther insisted, even if one is not certain that children believe, infant baptism should still be practiced because the sacrament is not based on infant faith. Here, he argued that infant baptism was the practice of the apostles and the historical position of the Christian Church. To say that infant baptism is wrong would be to say that there has been no true baptism—thus, no true church—for well over 1000 years. Of course, Luther rejected this absurd conclusion. And he added God would never have allowed such a practice to continue in his church for all this time if it were an error.” (Greg Allison, Historical Theology, 624)
    • Yet, when interacting with Anabaptists, in his tract On Rebaptism, Luther seems to contradict himself: “Whoever bases baptism on the faith of the one to be baptized can never baptize anyone…baptism does not depend on faith…True, one should add faith to baptism. But we are not to base baptism on faith…Even if they could establish that children are without faith, it would make no difference to me.”
    • “In a point of difference from Roman Catholic theology of baptism, Luther denied the absolute necessity of baptism in order to be saved: “A man may believe even though he is not baptized, for baptism is no more than an outward sign to admonish us concerning the divine promise. If one can have it, it is good to take it, for no one should despise it. If one cannot have it, or is refused it, he is not damned if he only believes the gospel. For the gospel is there is baptism and everything a Christian needs.” On the other hand, taking a stand against those who denied the importance of baptism—they maintained that “baptism is an external thing and that external things are of no benefit”—Luther insisted on its necessity: “Baptism is no human trifle, but instituted by God himself. Moreover, it is most solemnly and strictly commanded that we must be baptized, or we cannot be saved, lest anyone regard it as a trifling matter.” Thus Luther rejected the necessity of baptism for salvation against the Catholic insistence on the sacrament, while he underscored its necessity against those who would dispense with it.” (Gregg Allison, Historical Theology, 625).
  • Zwingli
    • In De Baptismo: “In this matter of baptism—if I may be pardoned for saying it—I can only conclude that all the doctors have been in error from the time of the apostles.”
    • “Zwingli did what nobody had yet done: he severed baptism from faith. His willingness to take this step grew out of one of the fundamental premises of his theological thinking: the cleavage between the material and the spiritual. Most traditional Christian theology distinguished matter and spirit, but allowed for some degree of interpenetration; Zwingli divorced them. Applying this premise, Zwingli identified baptism as an external, material thing and faith as an internal spiritual thing, and concluded that the traditional theology had been guilty of mingling and confusing them.” (Jonathan H. Rainbow, “Confessor Baptism,” in Believer’s Baptism, 197)
    • Zwingli believed that baptism functioned like circumcision—an outward sign to establish a visible covenant community.

  • Anabaptists
    • Balthasar Hubmaier: “The baptism in water is called a baptism in remissionem peccatorum (Acts 2), that is, in the pardon of sins. Not that through it or by it sins are forgiven, but by virtue of the inward “yes” of the heart, which a man openly witnesses to on submitting to water baptism, declaring that he believes and feels in his heart that his sins are forgiven through Jesus Christ.”
    • Frederick Manz, George Blaurock, and Conrad Grebel lead the Anabaptist movement in Zurich, all of whom were “re-baptized” in the city river in response to Zurich’s Order to Baptize Infants. They were executed for their crime by being drowned to death.
    • Both Roman Catholics and other Protestants supported their persecution. “The martyrs were many—probably more than those who died during the three centuries of persecution preceding Constantine,” (Gonzales, The Story of Christianity, II, p. 71)
    • In 1527, leaders of the Anabaptist movement created the Schleithem Confession which held to seven fundamental principles of the movement. The first of which was that infant baptism was the “worst of all the abominations of the Pope.”