Does the Name Still Matter?
This is the last study in the series, and it asks the plainest question of all. Many churches have taken the word Baptist off their signs. Many believers have never given it a thought. Someone looking for a church is more likely to ask about the children's classes than about church government. So why keep the name, and why care?
Our answer has two halves, and you need both. The name itself is worth nothing. What the name stands for is obedience to Jesus Christ. If the word Baptist vanished tomorrow and every church obeyed all that Christ commanded, nothing would be lost. If the convictions vanished and the word stayed on every sign, a great deal would be lost.
“Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.”MATTHEW 28:19–20 · KJV
Jesus told His churches to teach all things whatsoever I have commanded you. He did not tell us to keep the popular parts, or the parts that unite the most people. This whole series has been an attempt to take that sentence seriously, and this last study draws the threads together.
If your church took the word Baptist off its sign, what would you still insist on, and why? If you can answer that from Scripture, you understand what the name is for.
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For Deeper Study
- To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram JudsonAmazon Courtney AndersonThe classic biography of the Judsons and their work in Burma.
- Faithful Witness: The Life and Mission of William CareyAmazon Timothy GeorgeA readable life of Carey, with the full text of his Enquiry. It stresses his evangelical Calvinism, where we differ.
- Why I Am a BaptistAmazon Tom J. Nettles and Russell D. Moore, eds.Testimonies from contemporary Baptists, many of them Southern Baptists. Some contributors are Calvinists; we differ on that.
- Baptists in America: A HistoryAmazon Thomas S. Kidd and Barry HankinsA readable history by two university historians. We hold that Christ's churches are older than the story it tells.
- Outsiders: Fifteen Leaders Who Followed Christ and Changed Their WorldAmazon Paul ChappellShort studies of believers the world rejected, by an Independent Baptist pastor.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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What Makes a Baptist?
A Baptist is a Christian who holds the Bible as the only final authority for faith and practice, and who gathers with other saved and baptized believers in a self-governing local church under Christ.
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