Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
Pentecost 17
September 23, 2007
Baptist Heritage Sunday
W. Gregory Pope
WHY WOULD ANYBODY
WANT TO BE A BAPTIST?
Galatians 5:1, 13-15
What do Jesse Jackson and Jesse Helms, Jerry Falwell and Jimmy Carter, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Trent Lott, Bill Clinton and Aretha Franklin, Bill Moyers and Marian Wright Edelman, Al Mohler and Bill Johnson have in common? That’s right, they are all Baptist! Now you see why being Baptist is so confusing and why Baptists are always fighting.
We are quite diverse. You will find Baptists from the far left of the theological and political spectrum to the far right - and most places in between. Some burn incense and others bay at the moon. Some practice modern biblical criticism and others handle snakes.
Today we celebrate our Baptist heritage as part of our Centennial celebration. And a good question to ask is: As we find ourselves in the 21st century where very few people choose their church based on denominational affiliation, does being Baptist really matter anymore? Should we continue to call ourselves Baptist in a culture where the word means the opposite of what it originally meant and most deeply means?
Though the name “Baptist” is an obstacle getting many people in our community through our doors, I tremble at the thought of casting the name away. Our forebears suffered and died for Baptist convictions which are still needed today. Whether or not we are Baptist runs deeper than what we put on the sign out front. It has to do with what we stand for, no matter what the name of our church.
A Brief History
Before I talk about the convictions that mark our Baptist heritage, let me offer you a two-minute Reader’s Digest condensed history of Baptists.
We began in sixteenth century Europe as “Anabaptists,” which means “Re-baptizers.” The name was given us by our enemies. (So was “Christian” by the way.) This radical reformation group known as “Anabaptists” declared that infant baptism was not true baptism. Baptism came when you had chosen to follow Jesus, not when your parents carried you to church in their arms.
Anabaptists also felt Christianity had sold out to culture. Being Christian it seemed was little different from being born European. And so, in their attempt to stand true to the gospel, Anabaptists adopted some highly irregular practices which put them at odds with their culture. There was no taking of oaths, which meant they would not serve in the military nor in the courts. They adopted pacifism and disavowed violence. They lived simply. They stood for a radical separation of church and state. And some lost their lives for such convictions.
Baptists began in England in the seventeenth century as part of the larger Dissenter, or Separatist, movement. John Smyth, not the flame of Pocohantas, but another John Smyth, is known as the first Baptist but had to move his Baptist congregation to Amsterdam in 1608 to escape persecution. Thomas Helwys established the first Baptist congregation on British soil in 1612. He wrote a treatise on religious liberty which defended the spiritual liberty of all people, not just Baptists, but Catholics and Quakers, Jews, Muslims and atheists - a position that cost him his life. Thrown into prison in 1612, he died there in 1616.
In America it was Roger Williams who began the Baptist movement. He was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his defense of religious liberty. In 1644 the Massachusetts General Court banned all Anabaptists, labeling them “the infectors of persons in matters of religion and the troublers of churches in all places.” Baptists have always been deemed trouble-makers to enemies of freedom. Williams left and began a new colony of religious toleration called Rhode Island where to this day sits the First Baptist Church of the United States of America. This new colony in Rhode Island gave sanctuary to a number of persecuted religious minorities including Quakers and Jews. (By the way, in Rhode Island in 1650, Obadiah Holmes, ancestor of our own Bossy Thompson, became a Baptist.) Our Baptist roots run blood deep.
Now jump 200 years to 1845. There the Southern Baptist Convention was formed, breaking away from what is now the American Baptist Churches, USA, over the issue of slavery. The SBC held slavery more dear than Christ’s message of freedom - not the most honorable way to begin.
But we have done many honorable things for the Kingdom of God in our history, establishing the greatest missionary movement anywhere. Crescent Hill Baptist Church has joined in that heritage. And we remain firm in that heritage.
I will let you know now that I do not intend today to talk about the SBC controversy that raged in the 1980's and 90's, except to say this: Do not ever let anyone tell you that Crescent Hill Baptist Church left her Southern Baptist Heritage. We did not. The Southern Baptist Convention left its Southern Baptist Heritage. And because we are so deeply Baptist, we could no longer maintain a close connection to the new Southern Baptist Convention of the past twenty years. One could say we have gone back further and more deeply to our Baptist heritage by uniting with the American Baptist Church.
Baptist Principles and Convictions
Being Baptist does not require a connection to the Southern Baptist Convention or the American Baptist Church or any other Baptist organization. Being Baptist does not require that we adhere to any list of doctrinal beliefs or particular worship parctices. Being Baptist has to do with holding on to certain Baptist convictions, distinctives, and principles, all of which are rooted in freedom. We have carried Paul’s banner: “For freedom Christ has set us free.” There are four historic Baptist principles of freedom central to the Baptist heritage: Soul Freedom, Bible Freedom, Church Freedom, and Religious Freedom. And these are the reasons why I believe some people just might want to be a Baptist.
Soul Freedom
Anyone who believes they have direct access to God and that the church should not tell them otherwise just might want to be a Baptist. We call it Soul Freedom. Also known as the Priesthood of All Believers. We affirm the freedom and responsibility of every person to relate directly to God without the imposition of creed or the control of clergy or government.
Baptists have always placed a great emphasis on freedom of the individual in matters of faith. We do not want to be told what to believe or coerced into belief. That is why Baptist Christians have a healthy distrust of religious hierarchy and creeds. We believe that each individual has direct access to God through Christ and does not need pastor or priest to gain that access. Pastors and priests hopefully help, but they are not required.
The Bible says we are a royal priesthood, every believer a priest, with direct access to God. No priest, no pastor, nor any other person has the right to interfere in your personal relationship with God. No pastor or denomination can tell us what to believe or where we are being called. If an individual feels God leading them to do something, even if it’s a woman feeling called to preach, no one has the right to tell her otherwise. A Baptist believes the soul and conscience of an individual must be free.
Contrary to popular belief and current usage, “Baptist” is not a synonym for fundamentalist, literalist, judgmental or intolerant. By definition, true Baptists will be the most theologically open people in the Christian family.
Baptist congregations prefer “covenants” or “confessions” to “creeds.” Covenants describe the kind of people we want to be to one another and in the world. Confessions give us a theological foundation, but they do not dictate what one must believe. Baptists have often said, “Our only creed is the Bible,” with the freedom to interpret scripture as God leads us.
When the Southern Baptist Convention adopted their 1963 Baptist Faith and Message, the preamble said: “Confessions are only guides in interpretation having no authority over the conscience . . . and are not to be used to hamper freedom of thought or investigation into other realms of life.”
Today the Southern Baptist Convention requires theological agreement in order to be employed by an SBC agency, using the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message as a litmus test. But that is not the way Baptists have used confessions throughout their history.
In a true Baptist church, every person is free, every person has direct access to God. We need no human creed, pastor, or pope (especially a pastor named Pope) to tell us what to believe. And if you treasure that freedom, you just might want to be a Baptist.
Bible Freedom
This Baptist conviction of soul freedom leads to a second conviction, what has been called: Bible Freedom. Anybody who wants the freedom to interpret scripture as they are led by the Spirit just might want to be a Baptist.
Baptists believe in the authority of Scripture. We believe the Bible, under the Lordship of Christ, must be central in the life of the individual and church. Historic Baptists affirm the freedom and right of every Christian to interpret and apply Scripture under the leadership of the Holy Spirit. In a Baptist church, pastors and scholars do not have sole claim to the interpretation of scripture.
Now because we are all fallible human, no one person has the right to believe that they have arrived at the only interpretation that God’s Spirit might reveal. We need the help of scholars and spiritually mature persons to guide us in our interpretations. We need the help of other Christians because we are all to some degree blinded by our own biases and limited by our own experience. We need to listen to those in the past and how the church has felt led by the Spirit to interpret the Scriptures. But we need not always be bound by interpretations of the past because all interpretations are influenced by culture and experience. God’s Spirit continually brings new insights out of the boundless riches of scripture.
It’s important I think to maintain a balance between the rights of the individual and the connection to the faith community. We should have an openness to learn from the faith community while having the freedom to ultimately decide for ourselves.
Baptists have often been called People of the Book. That is one reason we gave Bibles to our first and sixth graders last Sunday. That is why they are learning Bible “skills, drills, and thrills” on Wednesday evenings. Baptists, perhaps more than any other religious group, are known for our knowledge and love of the scriptures. And that’s something of which to be proud.
We must treasure our freedom to interpret scripture as we feel God leading us. And we must always allow everyone else the freedom to be led by God’s Spirit in their understanding of the scriptures. It takes both to be a good Baptist.
Church Freedom
This Baptist conviction of soul freedom for the individual as it seeks to understand God’s will and the Bible is a freedom that also extends to each Baptist congregation. We call it: Church Freedom or Local Church Autonomy. And anybody who wants to be a part of a church where the local congregation has the freedom to do what it feels led to do without any hierarchy above it just might want to be a Baptist.
Baptists believe in the freedom of every local church. We believe our church is free, under the Lordship of Christ, to determine its membership and leadership, to order its worship and work, to ordain whomever we perceive as gifted for ministry, and to participate as we deem appropriate with other Christians in the larger Body of Christ, as well as with people of other faiths. Every congregation is free to open the Bible and interpret it for its life and faith, to discern the Spirit of God in their midst.
Every Baptist congregation is self-governing and self-supporting. There is no higher ecclesial body, presbytery, bishop or pope who determines what we believe or what God is calling us to be and do in the world. We are free to govern ourselves and set our own course. It is our glory, and sometimes it is our demise.
A true Baptist church is governed not by the pastor or a few but the whole congregation. It can be beautiful and it can be messy. Baptist church polity is by nature conducive to conflict. Will Rogers said: “I’m not a member of an organized religion. I’m a Baptist.”
Every Baptist church is autonomous and independent, but it is important that we not be isolationist. We should acknowledge our interdependence with other Christians in our city and throughout the world and work with them in mission and ministry.
So anybody who wants to be free in their relationship with God, free in their interpretation of scripture, and belong to a congregation free of outside control might just want to be a Baptist.
Religious Freedom
But there is one final group of persons who just might want to be Baptist, and that is, anybody who wants the freedom to believe as his conscience dictates and practice her faith as she feels led. And if you happen not to be a Baptist, but live in another room of God’s house - be it Methodist, Anglican, Presbyterian, Buddhist, Jew, Muslim, Hindu, Unitarian, atheist, or agnostic - and you want that freedom of conscience, you should at least thank a Baptist for making sure this country allows it - for now.
Religious Freedom and the Separation of Church and State is perhaps the most controversial Baptist conviction, but it is a fundamental Baptist distinctive. Baptist historian, Robert Baker writes that “the first appeal for religious liberty in the English language came from Baptists.” Many secular historians have called religious liberty the greatest contribution of Baptists to the world. Baptists were largely instrumental in securing the passage of the First Amendment, which declares that “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” It is a freedom of religion, freedom for religion, and freedom from religion.
Religious freedom applies to all people, and Baptists have historically defended it for all, not just for ourselves. We have done so because we know that only a voluntary faith is a real faith. In his call for absolute religious freedom Baptist pastor John Leland wrote in 1791,
Let every man speak freely without fear, maintain the principles that he believes, worship according to his own faith, either one God, three gods, no god, or twenty gods; and let government protect him in doing so.
Historic Baptists have always had a healthy distrust of any alliance between the powers of church and the powers of government. True Baptists always defend the rights of religious minorities, defending to the death the right of every individual to worship or not worship any way they see fit, and will not force anyone to participate in any religious practice.
Separation of church and state, however, does not mean the separation of personal religious convictions from political action. It does not mean the church is silent regarding the political activity of its government or any government. Scripture is full of prophets preaching to kings and governments about their oppression of the poor, violation of human rights, and overzealousness for war. The church must always speak truth to power.
Being Baptist honors and defends the religious liberty of all people. Being Baptist means we do not coerce other people to pray to our God or read our scriptures in public or private. Yes, some of our founding fathers were Christians and expressed their conviction that we as a nation should look to God for guidance. And like the founding fathers we too can express those convictions. However, the founding fathers respected the freedom of the individual enough and respected faith enough to make sure no one was coerced into any religious practice.
To say we are a Baptist church is to say we want to offer each individual the opportunity to worship and believe as dictated by his or her own conscience. To say we are a Baptist church is to protect the Jew, the Muslim, the Hindu, the Christian, the atheist and every other person from participating in any religious practice that violates their conscience.
We must always protect the rights of all people to follow the dictates of their conscience no matter what their religion, as long as it brings no harm to others. We must always allow people the freedom to believe or not believe as they choose. We must always stand against coercive religion, realizing that when we force people to participate in religious practices or make others uncomfortable in public settings by abstaining from religious practices according to their conscience, we do more harm than good to our faith.
And as Southern Baptist historian and Crescent Hill member Glenn Hinson reminds us, Baptists must never “assume that there is no danger” to religious liberty or that “the danger is too slight to bother. Religious liberty,” he says, “is a fragile child. If not carefully nurtured and guarded it may die. Only continuous attention to its health and well-being will assure its survival.”
Conclusion
In this age when we hold loosely to denominational affiliation, Baptist principles are still important. Being Baptist still matters because of the convictions that Baptists hold dear.
Of all the things that may characterize a Baptist - messy, quarrelsome, missions-minded, Billy Graham disciples - the historic Baptist mark upon the world is the mark of freedom. And Crescent Hill Baptist Church proudly bears freedom’s mark.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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