Baptist fundamentals

Foreword

I

^T^HIS treatise on the faith of Baptists is the result -■- of quiet study and investigation through the years on the part of the author. The study was first begun soon after leaving the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary some years ago, for the purpose mainly of satisfying the author's own mind, and incidentally to be able to offer help to others who might desire his assistance.

Very recently Editor E. C. Eouth of the Baptist Standard, Dallas, Texas, requested the writer to prepare a series of articles for that publication, on **What Baptists Believe.'' The request was complied with, and for some four months the articles appeared consecutively, and were given a hearty reception by many persons from different parts of the state and elsewhere. Many requests were made to the author that the articles be put into permanent form for the help they might afford to younger persons especially. This little book is the answer to those requests.

If any are helped to better understanding of the doctrines of our Lord and Saviour, and thereby become better and truer followers of Him, the time and labor spent in the book's preparation will not be considered in vain.

THE AUTHOR, San Angelo, Texas.

Introduction

nPHE author of this book on *^ Baptist Fundamen- -^-tals/'— Pastor E. F. Lyon of the First Baptist Church, San Angelo, Texas, — has here given us a book that is not only distinctly informing and constructive, but is also exceedingly timely. He is nobly fitted for such a task as this, for he has long wrought in a constantly growing ministry, both with his voice and with his pen in helping to carry forward our great Master's cause, both at home and abroad.

Every chapter in this book is on a subject of vital import, and the author marshals his facts and his arguments with unusual clarity and conviction of statement. He calls his readers back to a consideration of the central, vital, and fundamental contentions of our Baptist people. Every chapter is a discussion of some truth that is fundamentally vital. As one reads these vital chapters he thinks of the old Bible question: **If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?"

The book should have a prompt and faithful reading by our Baptist people everywhere. It is especially suggested that wise use may be made of this book in The Study Classes, which are coming to mean so much in our churches.

I bespeak for the book an immediately wide circulation, and have not a doubt that its message will be both temporally and permanently helpful.

GEO. W. TRUETT, First Baptist Church, Dallas.

Contents

CHAPTER PAGE

I. Who the Baptists Are 9

II. The Deity 17

CHAPTER I Who the Baptists Are

HP HERE is no more fascinating story in all literature ■*■ than the history of that great company of Christian people known as Baptists. They have the most glorious heritage of all religious denominations. While every Christian should be able to give a reason for the faith that he holds, it is particularly true that every Baptist should be able to give a reason for the faith that is within him. Could our Baptist people but know their own worthy lineage there would be far greater loyalty to Christ's cause in our own ranks and much less intimidation often on the part of others. It is always the informed Baptist who is strong and loyal in his alignments, as well as proud of his priceless heritage.

At the very outset of our study of ^^ Baptist Fundamentals/' let us bear in mind that we have bloodbought principles which distinguish us from all other Christians. We are not among those who can either think or say that one denomination is as good as another. Were this true, we would have no valid reason for a separate existence, nor have any of those who do so say any valid reason for their separate existence. Baptists are either right or they are wrong. If right, they should hold tenaciously to their principles and propagate them to the ends of the earth. If wrong, they should get right or else surrender their separate existence and merge themselves with other denominations. As to the latter alternative, there is not the slightest ground for such a possibility. History, language and Scripture unmistakably justify our distinctive principles and our continued mission as true exponents of New Testament truth.

The Baptist Name

A name is indeed significant when it genuinely represents honorable persons or noble principles. But too often good names are used by the unscrupulous, and hence become mere passwords for popular favor. Then it sometimes happens that worthy names are allowed to lose their original significance and thus represent a mere form rather than the true substance. To be sticklers for a name shorn of its original significance is worse than folly. In New Testament times the followers of our Lord were called believers, saints, disciples, brethren, children, faithful, etc. A little later, some ten years after the death of Christ, they were called Christians, but three times only in the Scriptures is this word used, and it seems certain that at first this term was applied in derision. Finally, however, it gained an honorable estate and was gladly worn by the disciples of Christ and is still so worn by all of his true followers. But even a casual observer is now mindful of the fact that vast companies of persons and numberless organizations attach the name Christian when their lives and their tenets are far from the substance which the name in its original significance embodied. The Christian should truly represent Christ in all the glorious things for which He stood, and when he fails to do this the name not only becomes worthless but positively hurtful. This is evidenced by the many false cults which attach the **name'' as a mere label to make current the most glaring counterfeits were they stripped of the honorable title falsely used.

From apostolic days there have been disciples of Jesus who were true to the simplicity of Gospel teaching. At different periods and in different countries these followers were called by different names, and just when and where the name ** Baptist'' was applied is not certain, but was first applied in scorn by the enemies of those who refused to be bound by ecclesiastical powers and sought their faith from the New Testament alone. The name Baptist means literally ' ' baptizer, ' 'and was so applied to John the forerunner of Christ, thus it was flung at them because they would not accept the so-called baptism of the Roman church and kindred ecclesiastical organizations, but persistently insisted upon immersion alone as being at all valid. Baptism was soon corrupted by these state institutions, both as to form and meaning. First, it took on the form of regenerating efficacy, even though administered by immersion. Then the logical sequence was ** infant baptism" and on to perversion of the form from immersion to sprinkling and pouring. All of this the people who became known as Baptists rejected and insisted upon immersion, following a public profession of faith, as the only scriptural baptism. In other words, a scriptural baptism was that of believers, and believers only, as prescribed and practiced in apostolic days. This the hierarchal authorities resented bitterly, in persecutions of ridicule, imprisonments, banishments and even death, and among other things stigmatized our progenitors as '* Baptists'' because of their consistent plea for and practice of the one baptism inaugurated by our Lord and practiced by His apostles.

The name ''Baptist'' has now become a synonym of the most glorious principles ever enunciated by any company of Christians — in fact, the very principles given by our Lord Himself. While we did not choose the name for ourselves, we are now proud to wear it for the glorious tenets it embodies and the unparalleled history it bears. To the informed person the name ** Baptist" not only signilBes an open Bible, a regenerate soul, a Gospel church, scriptural baptism, proper observance of the Lord's Supper, but soul liberty without reservation.

Differentiating Principles

That Baptists have differentiating principles, no well informed person will deny. It is true that much that only Baptists advocated in the past is now gladly received by others, but it is also true that these ^'others" still retain ^ * extra-scriptural doctrines" as well as '' anti-scriptural" doctrines, which hinder them from giving to the world the Gospel of our Lord in its simplicity and its purity. Upon Baptists, and Baptists alone, depends the task of giving to all mankind, in each succeeding generation, the whole Gospel message, making free access to God for every believer, untrammeled by ecclesiasticism of any and all forms.

Wherever Baptists have gone, an open Bible has been given to the masses, which, when allowed to speak to the seeking soul, always means death to hierarchies in both church and state, with the rise of democracies in both of these realms. The doctrine of a regenerate church membership has always been dear to Baptists, and they are now almost exclusively its adherents. This is shown to be true from the fact that they reject baptism as having any part in regeneration, however administered, and whether to infants or adultS'. Among all of the principal denominations of the world. Baptists stand alone on this doctrine. They alone insist upon a Gospel church, properly organized and directed from its local affairs on to its part in world evangelization and training. Also they stand alone in the logical scriptural observance of the two ordinances of a New Testament church, which are baptism and the Lord's Supper. Then in soul liberty, the golden thread of freedom for all alike runs through all of our glorious history from the time the Son of man, who was the Son of God, brought this heaven-born gift down to mankind. (A special treatise is given on this subject further on in our study.)

Distinctive Mission of Baptists

Baptists unquestionably have a distinctive mission. With them is found the trust of holding forth the Bible as the true Word of God, maintaining its integrity and its binding authority for all time. The Bible, and the Bible alone, is to be always and ever the book of Baptists. They have ever been and are always to be the greatest defenders of this book as the inspired Word of God and the rule of faith and practice for all true followers of Jesus Christ. While others ruthlessly ignore, or set aside much of the Bible as of no binding effect. Baptists insist that every precept is to be followed and every command to be obeyed. With them it is not a question of what men may deem necessary, but rather what does God's Word enjoin. Their faithfulness to the Scriptures has shown them to have less heresy among them and more unity than any other body of Christians. This is not an accident, but the result of faithful adherence to divine commands.

With Baptists also rests the task of keeping clear from every sacerdotal taint the message of salvation and giving to the world a spiritual religion. They were the first to teach that all dying in infancy are saved. Not only are adult believers dying without baptism saved, but those dying in infancy, too, are saved without baptism. The world is still in need of emphasis on this doctrine, and it rests almost exclusively with Baptists to herald the message of salvation by grace alone, free from every form of sacerdotalism, ordinance or works of any kind. *'By grace have ye been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God ; not of works, that no man should glory" (Ephesians 2:8-9).

The corruption of the ordinances, baptism and the Lord's Supper has proved to be the greatest curse to the cause of Christianity. Wresting them from their original setting and perverting their meaning have made them magic charms in the hands of the ignorant and unscrupulous, rather than signs and symbols of the atoning work of the Saviour. They are not intended to procure either salvation nor to merit favor with God, but rather to point in beautiful symbol the meritorious work of the Lamb of Calvary. Baptism portrays death — the death of Christ as the atoning Lamb, also the death of the subject to the old life. And then it pictures resurrection to the new life in Christ, thereby becoming an outward expression of an inward experience. The Supper memorializes the sacrificial death of Jesus, bringing vividly before the communicant that ** without the shedding of blood there is no remission," and this blood is that shed on Calvary's Cross, which takes '^all our guilt away."

In the matter of democracy. Baptists have always been and still are its true exponents. They stand for *Hhe priesthood of the believer," maintaining the right of each and every soul to approach God according to the dictates of his own conscience, without the intervention of extra-scriptural powers or binding effects handed down by clergy or council or formulated by decree or creed. They claim that there is no more valid reason or claim for hierarchy in church than in state. It is a noticeable fact that many of those who clamor loudest for democracy in civil affairs will most readily bow without protest their necks to the yoke of ecclesiasticism in religion. For this inconsistency Baptists will never stand. They steadily maintain that in its last analysis the state can be no freer than are the souls of men who make the state. Everywhere state hierarchies are found, they are propped up by ecclesiastical hierarchies, and in the same ratio that these ecclesiastical props fall away does the lordship of civil rulers diminish. This was strikingly observed by King James I when opposition to the episcopacy was maintained in Scotland. We hear his wail, *^No bishop no king,'' thus showing the close intimacy of ecclesiastical and state hierarchies. History, both religious and secular, reveals the indisputable fact that civil democracies rise or fall as they wax or wane in the realm of religion. Let Baptists then never forget their noble contribution to democracy in the past and their continued mission for its advancement and maintenance in the future.

CHAPTER II The Deity

"DELIEP in a Supreme Being is the source of all re- -■-^ ligion. There can be no theology, and no divine worship apart from belief in God, or a god to whom is ascribed supernatural powers. No nation or tribe, however high or low, has ever been found without some sort of faith in a being, or beings upon whom they felt dependent for life and favor. True, many of these are pitiably crude, and often degrading, but all show that implanted nature of the human soul, which can be satisfied only in lifting helpless hands, and pleading voice to some supposed higher than earthly power.

Baptists, to be sure, are concerned for themselves in having a proper knowledge of the true and living God, as revealed in Christ, and for others in bringing them to know and serve Him. It is a sad fact that many of those who call themselves Christians have no clear conception of the true God. For this reason the world is full of vagaries concerning Him, and of false cults in matters of conduct and worship.

How God Reveals Himself

The Bible, known as the Holy Scriptures, is the one Book wherein God has revealed Himself to mankind, and here alone are we to seek for our fuller knowledge and direction pertaining to Him. While nature and our inner conscious experience will assist, they alone will not suffice. Right conceptions of God are never found apart from the Bible, as the history of all the past bears witness. Individuals and nations rise or fall according to their conceptions of the Deity. When man fashions his own God he always makes sorry work of it. When he lets God fashion him he invariably comes forth a new creature in ''the image of Him who created him.''

No effort will be made in this treatise to deal in profuse philosophical, or theological terms, but rather to present such cardinal truths as will help give that conception of God that Christians generally need to have. It is indeed impossible to perfectly define God, and yet we can have a real knowledge of Him through the revelation He has given us in creation, in His Word, and in our own hearts and lives.

Space here necessarily forbids extended Scripture references, so these shall be brief, yet to the point. First of all let it be clearly understood that God is a person, and not a mere impersonal influence. From Gen. 1:1, and on through the whole Bible, with the single exception of the book of Esther, the personality of God is revealed. He creates, sees, acts, speaks, directs men and nations, blesses, curses, exercises providential care, hears and answers prayer, and in every way functions as a personal Being. No Bible reader of ordinary intelligence will fail to learn that God is the most vital and living personality in all the universe. And thus it is that His creatures are moved to pray, not to an abstract idea, or a finely woven theory, but to the living God. As to substance, Jesus tells us (John 4:24) that '^God is a Spirit,'' and thus cannot be thought of as having the form of man, nor of dwelling ^4n temples made with hands," nor are we ^Ho think that the Godhead is like unto gold or silver, or stone, or graven by art and device of man." With this conception of God idolatry completely breaks down, while spiritual worship alone engages us and brings us to know Him, and fills and satisfies our souls.

The Bible teaches that God is the creator of all things (see Gen., first chapter). *^In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth." *^I am the Lord that maketh all things" (Isaiah 44:24). ^^For every house is builded by some one; but he that buildeth all things is God" (Heb. 3:4) — and so on through the Scriptures the accounts of God as creator are unmistakable. And as to the origin of man, the Bible account is sufficient to settle the question for the Christian. *^And Jehovah God formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life ; and man became a living soul ' ' (Gen. 2:7). This is the all-sufficient and final proof for all persons who accept the Bible as the inspired Word of God. Baptists of all others have their faith and hope grounded in this Book.

As to the nature of God, He is holy, — *^He is a holy God" (Josh. 24:19); He is a God of love,— '^ God is

I love" (1 John 4:16); also He is just,— '^For all His ways are justice: a God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and right is He'' (Deut. 32:4). Thus it is that God rewards and punishes, for there can be no intelligent love apart from the sense of justice. All moral law is grounded in God as its author, and who is Himself the embodiment of all moral perfections. Punishment for sin is not inconsistent with His love, for justice is the complement of love, and God is both loving and just. Also God is self -existent, infinite, and eternal, thereby free from all imperfections. He is clothed with omnipotence, or all power; omniscient, or having all knowledge and wisdom; and omnipresent, or capable of exercising His infinite power at all points in all realms at the same time. *' Whither shall I go from thy Spirit? Or whither shall I flee from thy presence?" (Ps. 139:7, — see verses 1-18). Perhaps an attempt for a concise definition of our conception of God would not be out of place here, and that of Dr. A. H. Strong is doubtless as good as any one is likely to find : * * God is the infinite and perfect Spirit in whom all things have their source, support and end."

The Deity of Christ

The Messianic promise runs like a scarlet thread through the entire Old Testament. He is called ^*Immanuel," — God with us (Isa. 7:14). Also, '* Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isa. 9:6). Thus prophecy portrays Him as the God-man, and thus He announced Himself when He came, and thus must He still be regarded to the end of time.

Upon the deity of Jesus Christ is our holy Christian religion based, and when those who wear the name ** Christian'' cease to stand upon this one foundation they will cease to have a religion from God. It may become a philosophy, or a school of ethics, but certainly not the religion of Christ. All the triumphs of Baptists in the past have been gained by acceptance of Jesus as God manifest in the flesh. He was conceived by the Holy Spirit, bom of the Virgin Mary, lived ^ sinless life, and announced Himself as the Son of God. All of His claims and all of His works rested upon this foundation. For a period of three years He based His earthly mission upon this claim, inculcated it into the minds of His apostles, as well as all of the disciples He won to Himself. He was crucified upon Calvary's Cross as the Lamb of God as an offering for sin. He rose from the dead, ascended to the heavens whence He came, sat down at the right hand of the Father, and **ever liveth to make intercession for us." Discard the deity of Christ and the very foundation of our faith is gone, and the appeal to a sin-cursed world is gone with it. One of three things is true about Christ: He was either insane, or an impostor, or else He was what He claimed to be, the Son of the living God. Neither an insane being, nor an impostor could enunciate such sublime principles, or start such a movement for the happiness and well-being of the

I human race, and change the channel of human thought and history throughout all generations. The only choice left is to accept His claim as the one who came from the bosom of the Father, and hath for us *'full atonement made/' As New Testament Christians, Baptists accept in full the deity of Christ, His miraculous birth, His sinless life, atoning death, resurrection from the grave, ascension on high. His intercessional work, and His promised return to earth. Upon these points the Scripture unmistakably speaks, and our eternal hope certainly rests. Jesus is shown from the Bible to possess the attributes of God, among which are self-existence, immutability, truth, love, holiness, eternity, omnipresence, omniscience, and omnipotence. Also the works of God are ascribed to Him, as well as equality with God, and He is to be honored and worshipped as God. Undeniably the Bible portrayal of Christ must be discarded before His deity can be dis credited. Baptists then, of all people are to rest their claim, and find their eternal hope in the deity of Jesus Christ.

The Deity of the Holy Spirit

Equally true is it that the Holy Spirit is a person, and is spoken of as God. Let it be stated unhesitatingly, and realized fully that the Holy Spirit is a person and not a mere influence. To Him are ascribed both the attributes and works of God. He is to receive honor due only to God, and is associated on a footing of equality with God, as noted in the baptismal formula, and in the apostolic benedictions. He knows, speaks, searches, reveals, testifies, convinces, guides, creates, inspires, intercedes, guides the church, and works miracles.

Then the Holy Spirit is affected as a person by acts of others, such as grieved, vexed, blasphemed, and against Him alone can the unpardonable sin be committed. Again, He manifested His personality in distinct and visible form from the Father, and the Son, at the baptism of Jesus. There can indeed be no denial of the personality of the Holy Spirit if the Bible account of Him is to have any weight whatever. Everywhere was the Holy Spirit present with Jesus, imbuing Him with power for His Messianic work, and through His power was Jesus raised from the tomb. He convicts the heart of sin, regenerates it, and guides it into the truth. He purifies and keeps the believer amidst temptation, and all earthly struggle. The Spirit works directly with the individual heart, rather than through any ecclesiastical body, or hierarchy of any form.

Baptists are particularly interested in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, because of their stand for a regenerate church membership, their individualism, local church government, and open Bible, and the right of private interpretation. Thus they are especially dependent upon the Holy Spirit for direction in all their work. They should ever seek His blessed presence, and so strive to live as never to grieve Him.

The Trinity

The term '^Trinity'' is nowhere used iji the Bible, but the doctrine of the Trinity is clearly taught. The Godhead consists of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit — three distinct personalities, but one in nature, essence or being. This is not a speculative, but practical doctrine. The Scriptures show it to be the great underlying truth of the whole Christian revelation. Here we have God the Father as the author of Eedemption, God the Son who achieves Redemption, and God the Holy Spirit who applies Redemption to lost souls, thereby bringing them into the glorious light and liberty of salvation.

Since God is infinite, and man is finite, we cannot fully grasp the interior economy of God respecting the Trinity. And while it is mysterious, yet it is not absurd, for a mystery is some fact comprehended only as far as God chooses to reveal it. He has certainly revealed the fact of the Trinity, making the doctrine intelligible in various relations, and modes of outward manifestations, but unintelligible to finite minds in its interior nature.

Upon the doctrine of the Trinity the Christian religion rests, for if there be no Trinity, there is no deity of Christ, nor deity of the Holy Spirit. Without the doctrine of the Trinity nothing is left but merely a natural religion, with the far-away deism, which tends to resolve itself into the eternity of matter and ultimately into pantheism. Baptists are unmistakably Trinitarians, believing in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, and whenever this doctrine is abandoned the chief articles of the Christian religion, as the atonement, regeneration, etc., disappear, and we are left with a lifeless system of philosophy, or code of ethics. The history of the triumphs of Christianity but confirms the vitality of the believer's faith in the Trinity. Let it ever be clear to all our people that Baptists are not and cannot be Unitarians, and that it is equally clear that Unitarians are not Baptists.

CHAPTER III Sin and Salvation

HPHE Bible certainly teaches the reality of that some "*• thing called sin, and the experience of the human race the world over in all generations confirms its reality. That there is a discord in the soul of man destroying perfect harmony with God and our fellowmen, no sane person will deny. It is a fact which confronts us on every hand from the time of accountability on to the grave. The Bible tells us this aliena tion from God and the disturbances with one another are caused by sin, which began with the disobedience of our first parents in the Garden of Eden and through them has been transmitted to all generations of men.

Sin is failure to conform to the moral law of God, in action, disposition and state. The words ordinarily translated ''sin,'' or used synonymously mean literally ''missing the mark, failure, or coming short." This applies to dispositions and states as well as to acts. Regarding the origin of man's sinful nature, no light is afforded save from the scriptural account of the voluntary act of our first parents in turning away from God, thereby corrupting themselves and coming under the penalties of the law. This account is neither mythological nor allegorical, but historical (See Genesis 3:1-7, also II Corinthians 11:3.) This account connects the origin of sin with the creation of free and intelligent beings given the power of contrary choice. That man chose evil, the Scripture undoubtedly teaches and history universally confirms.

The consequences of sin are everywhere manifest. It has been said truly that ''when man fell he fell all over.'' He was totally depraved, which does not mean that he became as bad as he could possibly be, but that every element of his being is corrupted by the fall, intellect, feeling, heart and will, and that all mankind since has been born in a state of depravity, guilt and condemnation. After the fall man's nature became such that he uniformly sins, this being as certain as that he lives. He exercises his moral powers in transgression as surely as he begins to speak and act, and this depravity is such that it begins to show itself from the earliest volitions of childhood.

The Results of Sin

The results of sin show themselves among all generations from Eden's expulsive hour down to the present. Hence there must have been a common source from which sin has been transmitted by heredity to all the race. This is proven by the facts which show the unity of mankind, together with the moral and spiritual history of the race, as well as by Scripture teaching. (See Romans 3:10-18.)

There naturally follows then the various consequences of sin as guilt and penalty with their corollary effects. Guilt is the dinner's ill-desert on account of his sin. This arrays him against divine justice and brings him into personal opposition to a personal God, thereby taking the form of self-condemnation by a sense of God's disapproval. Then follows penalty, which is God's reaction against sin. Men reap what they sow in both material and spiritual realms, whether through transgression of the law of nature or the more direct action of God in His punishment of the sinner. Let it ever be remembered that all penalty against sin is based ultimately on the nature of God's holiness. The essential quality of God's righteousness moves Him to punish sin because it is sin and His nature of necessity reacts against it, which is the prime motive for punishing the sinner. To be sure, punishment reacts for the good of both the guilty sinner and for society, of which he forms an important part, but we must never lose sight of the fact that punishment is first and foremost because of the essential righteousness of God, which necessitates the sinner's punishment.