Wednesday, July 15, 2009
Session 95:Christian Denominations
Ford, Chevy, Saturn, Mercedes, Dodge, Kia, Toyota, Nissan, Buick, GMC, Chrysler, Jeep, Hyandai, if it is spelled correctly, Geo, Hummer, Land Rover, Bentley, ... I guess I could go on and on. But, you get the picture. There are many ways to travel by using these different types of cars. There is one way to get to heaven...Jesus! Many of our youth and adults as well probably don't understand way there are so many different denominations. Well, let me put this out there for you, teacher, just why are you a Baptist? Did you really understand before you started studying this lesson. My eyes were opened to the fact that if we poll our Sunday crowd we would probably get a very vast amount of different answers. I didn't grow up Methodist because my dad was a Baptist. I guess you could say i had no choice in the matter...until I became an adult. I can remember my dad preaching and saying that he was a christian by the grace of God and he was a Baptist by choice because he firmly believed it was the closest to what the Bible teaches us . And...if you were sitting here today and didn't believe that, you needed to get right or go find a place where you believed what was being taught. I have a real problem with anyone who tries to change what we believe as Southern Baptists. Baptism by immersion is the first distinctive that separates us as Baptists. Can you show me a scripture where people were sprinkled? Does it save you?...Absolutely not! But, we are baptised because of our obedience to Christ. Speaking of which...pray for those who were saved at camp that they would publicly make it known at FBC and be baptized. Distinctive number two is that we believe in the priesthood of the believer. We all equally have access to God through prayer. Just thinking out loud...those people who get mad because the pastor does not come and pray for them at the hospital...do they not understand that they have equal access to God as the pastor does. His prayer goes no higher that the next believer. We believe we don' t need to go through a priest or anyone else to speak to God. The third distinctive is the we put a strong emphasis on missions and evangelism. We should start our missions right in our own backyard. It would be great to travel the world and help other people but I believe we should start here and then broaden our scope as we reach the entire world. We send our money to trained missionaries so they can go to places that we can't. I firmly believe that we have the best convention as believers with the best plan in place to reach the world. And... if you don't believe that or support that philosophy that we have then you should find a philosophy that you believe is the closest to what the Bible teaches and support it 100 percent. An organization is only as strong as the individuals who make it up and if we are not supporting our organization fully, then we are not performing to the capacity in which we should. Why are you a Baptist? Do you agree with this post?
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4 comments:
I agree wholeheartedly! I grew up Methodist and when Mark got saved, it was in a Methodist church. However, looking back, we think the minister was actually a closet baptist! After Mark was saved, he spoke with the preacher about baptism, asking exactly where sprinkling was in the Bible. Ben (the pastor) told him that it wasn't and he really didn't think it was biblical, so we should go to the neighbor's pool and immerse him. He then asked if I was sprinkled in the past (which I had been) and offered to also baptize me Biblically! We were therefore baptized together in a swimming pool in February by a Methodist minister! After that minister was moved from the church, we were given a very liberal pastor who belived more in protocol than grace. When the board decided to send a chunk of money to refurbish an old unused church into a museum instead of funding missionaries, we decided that it was time to move on. After studying and praying, we were led to the local Baptist church. I say all that to say that after much study, baptism by immersion, active missionary ventures and discipleship are all found in the New Testament! I don't see anything about funding museums... I feel very blessed to be part of the body in Screven where our leadership is subject to the leading of the Holy Spirit and not popular opinion! God bless you all for being faithful to God's calling!
Debbie
Billy, with regard to your statement about the preacher praying for someone at the hospital, I totally agree. But, to what do you attribute this kind of thinking? I wonder if its that we don't hear enough on the preisthood of beleivers, or if we don't believe it? Does anyone see the irony? Jesus died for us to restore our relationship with God, yet some still want an agent.
I have learned so much from studying these lessons. It has been very eye opening to me and interesting. I grew up in a Pentecostal Church that was so very strict. I always believed in the Bible, Baptism, and Jesus it was all the rules that confused me. Some were a woman’s hair was her glory – so women could not cut their hair. We also could not wear shorts, pants, make-up, etc. We could not go to the movies, skating ring, listen to any music that was not Christian. It was like the main focus was controlling every persons move instead of serving God. When Billy and I starting dating again and I learned about the Baptist doctrine, it made much more sense to me. I think all my life I was a closet Baptist and did not know it. Even though I must say, it always seemed too easy to me at first because Pentecostal’s believed you could lose your salvation. Now I completely know that this is where God wants me to be also I look better with make-up.
Crystal
John, I think the fault lies on preachers. They often want the sole title of leader by raising a bunch of welfare recipients, and then whine when these folks get mad because one of their needs was not met. If they are discipled right they will be mature believers. Now the other side of that coin is people don't read the 66 love letters written to us by God, but some how in the same breath confess to love Him.
Crystal, from the Pentecostal corner, I agree with you. It is amazing the legalism they came up with. However, their intent was righteous, I believe. For instance in my case most Church of God that I knew were poor as Job's turkey and not educated. So when they tried to obey the command of holiness in dress, they brought in legalism by mandating the length of sleeves for men, dresses for women, and of course the makeup. They viewed the baptist as being at the other end of that spectrum. As typically happens, they have swung the pendulum to the other end. I can now go to a COG and see more breast and leg than I could eat at Sybils.
P.S. I really liked this lesson. I knew I was changing from Pentecostal while I was teaching in the COG. We ended up in Screven because of several reasons, and I have really found my home theologically. This lesson made me articulate those reasons.
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