"It is no novelty, then that I am preaching; no
new doctrine. I love to proclaim these strong old doctrines, that are called by
nickname Calvinism, but which are surely and verily the revealed truth of God
as it is in Christ Jesus. By this truth I make a pilgrimage into the past, and
as I go, I see father after father, confessor after confessor, martyr after
martyr, standing up to shake hands with me. Were I a Pelagian, or a believer in
the doctrine of free-will, I should have to walk for centuries all alone. Here
and there a heretic, of no very honourable character, might rise up and call me
brother. But taking these things to be the standard of my faith, I see the land
of the ancients peopled with my brethren; I behold multitudes who confess the same
as I do, and acknowledge that this is the religion of God's own church."
- Charles H. Spurgeon
If I were to be
asked "What kind of a church are you?" I would not hesitate to reply,
"We are a
I would also
reply that we are a "Reformed Church" inasmuch as we hold to the
great doctrines of the Reformation in the areas concerning the salvation of
men. In this sense, I am not at all averse to our church being referred to as a
"Reformed Baptist" church, and I want to speak on the subject
"What is a Reformed Baptist Church?".
I. The
Scriptures
First of all, a Reformed
Baptist Church is a local church which acknowledges the supreme authority of
Holy Scripture. In all matters of faith, that is in the things we believe, and
of practice, that is the things which we do, our sole authority is the Word of
God. If something, whether of faith or of practice, is contrary to the Bible
then no matter who pleads for it, no matter what clever arguments are produced
in favour of it, we cannot endorse it.
We recognize
that in the operation of a local church there may be items introduced for which
there may be no specific Biblical warrant. For instance, I am thinking of a
church secretary as an illustration. It would be hard to find chapter and verse
which states that we ought to have one, but we recognize that such things are necessary,
and in accordance with the Biblical principle that all things should be done
decently and in order.
However, we
would state emphatically that when there is no express Biblical warrant for
something, we are not going to look upon it as sacred and binding. When the
Word of God does not warrant something, we are not going to be brought under
bondage to it; but where the Scriptures clearly call for something, no
consideration ought to make us do without it. We desire to have our conscience
bound to the Word of God, for there we believe is true freedom. It is my
opinion that a number of items in present day Baptist churches have no true
Biblical warrant. They are a part of the church because they were introduced
some years ago and are now "Baptist tradition." Perhaps many people
take it for granted that they are Scriptural, but if they were challenged to
produce Scriptural evidence for these practices they would be hard pressed to
find any.
In other areas
there are things which Scriptures clearly calls for which have dropped out of
most modern Baptist churches, and we ought to call for them to be brought back.
The eldership would be an example of this point. Baptist churches used to have
an eldership years ago; in most Baptist churches today you cannot find it. But
we believe that if we are going to be truly patterned on the New Testament
churches we need to return to the concept of eldership. The Scriptures present
it; we ought to have it!
So Reformed
Baptists are not governed by tradition, not by the opinion of man, not by
sentiment, nor by pragmatism, but by the Word of God alone. We believe in the
authority of Scripture, and we desire in our church life to be patterned after
and conformed to the Word of God. We should always be seeking for God to deepen
our understanding of His Word, and we should always be ready to reform any of
our practices if it becomes apparent that we are out of line with the
Scriptures. The attitude which says, "It doesn't matter what the Bible
says, this is the way we have always done it," is to us frightening;
indeed sinful. It must be "to the law and to the testimony"; or what
saith the Scriptures?
II. Preaching
Secondly,
Reformed Baptist believe in the pre-eminence of the preaching of the Word of
God. We believe that the preaching of the Bible must have the central place in
our services. We believe that nothing can or should take the place of the
preaching of the Word!
Our conviction
is that the
III. The
Doctrines of Grace
Thirdly,
Reformed Baptist unashamedly declare their belief in those doctrines which are
sometimes called the doctrines of grace. By this expression we mean in
particular the doctrines of total depravity, unconditional election, definite
atonement, effectual calling, and the perseverance of the saints. We rejoice in
those glorious truths which uphold the sovereignty of God in the salvation of
men, and which so gloriously affirm the great central reality that salvation is
all of grace, and that salvation is of the Lord!
We rejoice that
the doctrines of grace are clearly set forth in the Second&127;
London Confession of Faith of 1689, and in
many other historic Baptist creeds. We note that in 1861 when Charles Spurgeon
opened the great Metropolitan Tabernacle in
We recognize
that we live in an age when these great fundamental truths are ignored, and
even blatantly denied by many professing the name "evangelical" and
the name "Baptist". We know that they are unpopular truths, but truth
they are, and we receive them and rejoice in them.
We would like to
emphasize also that we not only believe them but we further believe that they
ought to be clearly preached and taught from the pulpit!
We have a tragic
situation today when men in the pulpits say that they believe the doctrines of
grace but they refuse to preach and teach them to their people.
The result is
that the churches are full of people uninstructed in the great truths of the
Scriptures (and of the historic Baptist faith), and these people then imbibe
the very opposite doctrines -- which they easily receive over the radio and via
religious periodicals. Often when a man comes into such a congregation and
preaches the truths of grace, uproar and opposition ensue. This is tragic, but
common. We believe that our day needs the doctrines of grace, and that our
people need to be instructed in them.
VI.
Evangelism
In the next
place, we would like to affirm that Reformed Baptists believe in the necessity
and responsibility of evangelism. We have no more liking for Hyper-Calvinism
than we have for Arminianism.
We do not believe
that there is an inconsistency between God's sovereignty in the salvation of
His chosen people and His command to us to preach the gospel to every creature.
If there seems to be a difficulty in our minds reconciling any of the truths of
His Word, we see it as the result of the darkness of our own understanding, and
we believe that our duty is to obey the Word whether we understand it all or
not. We believe in evangelism!
Now it is true
that we do not believe in much that goes under the name of evangelism in this
twentieth century. We believe that much that is called evangelism today is
little more than psychology and salesmanship; we are appalled by the
superficial work which goes under the name of evangelism; we are appalled by
the pressures, gimmicks and schemes all calculated to produce
"decisions" and impressive statistics but which work such havoc in
the souls of men. No!
Because we
believe in evangelism does not mean that we are going to cooperate with every
scheme which bears that name. We believe that in evangelism as in everything
else, as we said earlier, we must be governed by the Word of God. The message
of evangelism must be according to the Scriptures, and the method of evangelism
must be governed by the Word of God! Nevertheless, we repeat that we do believe
in evangelism, and our prayer is that God would ever keep us mindful of the
need to evangelise. May God ever give us a burden to evangelise, knowing that
it is for His glory and for the salvation of men.
We believe that
it is our responsibility to make known the gospel first in our own community,
and in
V. Worship
Finally, let me
say that a Reformed Baptist Church is a local church with a serious approach to
worship. The God we worship is a God of majesty, glory and holiness. And the
God of the Bible is one before whom the angels of heaven constantly cry,
"Holy, Holy, Holy", they worship Him day and night; He is great and
greatly to be praised. We believe that when we come together to worship this
great and glorious God of the Bible we ought to do so with reverence and with
godly fear. We believe that there ought to be a sense of AWE in our hearts when
we gather to worship this God!
You say,
"But surely there must be joy as well." Yes indeed, we agree, but
equally surely it must be a joy which is a joy in God; a joy not arising from some
natural "good feeling" but a joy arising out of the knowledge of the
Lord, and a joy tempered and controlled by reverence.
We believe that
there is a world of difference between a "dead" service and a
serious, spiritual service. The first is not desired; the second is. Now
because of this desire for serious worship, we believe that anything which
would detract from that ought not to be allowed among us. Frivolity and
childishness seem to us to be out of place and incongruous with the worship of
God.
We also believe
that our music in the church ought to be governed by the great central fact of
the One whom we worship. So much of the music invading the churches today seems
little more than carnal imitation of the world. There is very little difference
between that which is presented on the church platform and that which is
presented on the television or the worldly floor show -- except, of course, the
"religious" words are uttered rather than "secular" ones.
But the spirit is of the world; the appeal is to the flesh. This we abhor and
reject as having no place in the worship of God. That which is sacred ought not
to be prostituted and used as entertainment. If men want to be entertained let
them be hones enough to go to some secular hall of amusement and be
entertained; let them not pretend to be worshipping or in a service when
entertainment is the order of the day. No! When we gather to worship, we want
to keep the world out; we want to appeal not to the flesh but to the spirit; we
want not the sophistication of the world but the simplicity of Christ. Oh that
when we worship we might feel the awe of the God in our souls. Oh that we might
see something of the glory seen by Isaiah and by the servants of God of old!
This, then is
the kind of church we are seeking to build. Other things could be said, but we
have sought to touch on some of the basic points.
May God raise up
many such churches all over the land and all over the world which desire the
same things and strive towards them. May God be pleased to visit His people
again with showers of blessing that God might be glorified in and through His
church!