"The purpose of this book is both to articulate the Baptist distinctives and to discuss some of the practical issues that arise from applying them"--P. 12.In Baptist Distinctives, Kevin Bauder not only spells out the beliefs that make Baptists different from others, he shows the Biblical bases, discusses differences between Baptist groups, and explains how the Baptist distinctives affect believers' lives, especially their church life--from publisher description.
The Baptist Way is an introduction to the principles that distinguish Baptists from other Christians. In some cases these ideas were once peculiarly Baptists, though they are now more widely held among other groups. For Stan Norman, healthy Baptist churches intentionally and diligently adhere to their Baptist distinctives.
This title offers a comprehensive analysis of Baptist theology. Embracing in one common trajectory the major Baptist confessions of faith, the major Baptist theologians, and the principal Baptist theological movements and controversies, this book spans four centuries of Baptist doctrinal history. Acknowledging first the pre-1609 roots (patristic, medieval, and Reformational) of Baptist theology, it examines the Arminian versus Calvinist issues that were first expressed by the General Baptists and the Particular Baptists; that dominated English and American Baptist theology during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Helwys and Smyth and from Bunyan and Kiffin to Gill, Fuller, Backus, and Boyce; and, that were quickened by the 'awakenings' and the missionary movement. Concurrently there were the Baptist defense of the Baptist distinctives vis-a-vis the pedobaptist world and the unfolding of a strong Baptist confessional tradition. Then during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the liberal versus evangelical issues became dominant with Hovey, Strong, Rauschenbusch, and Henry in the North and Mullins, Conner, Hobbs, and Criswell in the South even as a distinctive Baptist Landmarkism developed, the discipline of biblical theology was practiced and a structured ecumenism was pursued. Missiology both impacted Baptist theology and took it to all the continents, where it became increasingly indigenous. Conscious that Baptists belong to the free churches and to the believers' churches, a new generation of Baptist theologians at the advent of the twenty-first century appears somewhat more Calvinist than Arminian and decidedly more evangelical than liberal.
What makes the Baptist witness unique in the Christian tradition and in the world? When Baptists celebrated the 400th anniversary of their distinctive tradition in 2010, the faculty of the George W. Truett Theological Seminary at Baylor University delivered a unique chapel series to proclaim the Baptist identity. Beginning with those sermons and expanding upon them, this book offers this generation a relevant understanding of Baptist faith and identity, based on the proclamation of 14 classic and emerging distinctives¿from soul competency and the priesthood of believers, to local church autonomy and congregational polity, to religious liberty and separation of church and state. Also includes chapters on vocation and calling, Christian mission, and social justice! Intended first to encourage and equip Baptist preachers, Distinctly Baptist will also be a useful tool for Baptist identity studies in congregations and seminaries alike as we disciple new generations of Baptists in an increasingly post-denominational culture.
Now in its third edition and featuring a new foreword by New York Times best-selling author David Platt, pastor Mark Dever’s classic book is not an instruction manual for church growth. Rather, it is a wise pastor’s recommendation for how to assess the health of a church using nine crucial qualities often neglected by many of today’s congregations. Church leaders and church members alike will resonate with the principles outlined here, breathing new life and health into the church at large. In this newly revised edition, fresh arguments have been added (for example on expositional preaching, about the nature of the gospel, on complementarianism), illustrations have been updated, appendices have been changed, and cover has been improved.
A recent conference at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary featured speakers addressing topics set forth in the article on “The Church” in the Southern Baptist Convention’s Baptist Faith and Message statement. Upon This Rock gathers those presentations and answers such questions as: • What is the basis for our denominational distinctives? • Are they merely a collection of “faded traditions” or true doctrinal necessities rooted in the Bible alone? • Are they theologically rich cornerstones of faith that easily transcend time, culture, and preference? Contributors include Malcolm B Yarnell III (“Upon This Rock I Will Build My Church: A Theological Exposition of Matthew 16:13-20”), Paige Patterson (“Observing the Two Ordinances of Christ”), Thomas and Joy White (“Church Officers and Gender: Can Women Be Pastors? Or Deacons?”) and Bart Barber (“A Denomination of Churches: Biblical and Useful”) as well as Jason G. Duesing, David Allen, Emir F. Caner, James Leo Garrett, Jr., and Byron McWilliams.
Fifteen sermons that aid both laity and clergy in a better understanding of the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers, the most basic of Baptist principles.
Pascal Denault's careful labors over the theological texts of both Baptist and Pedobaptists of the seventeenth century have yielded an excellent study of the relation of baptism to a commonly shared covenantalism. At the same time he has shown that a distinct baptistic interpretation of the substance of the New Covenant, that is, all its conditions having been met in the work of Christ its Mediator resulting in an unconditional application of it to its recipients, formed the most basic difference between the two groups. His careful work on the seventeenth-century documents has yielded a strong, Bible-centered, covenantal defense of believers' baptism and is worthy of a dominant place in the contemporary discussions of both covenantalism and baptism. -Thomas J. Nettles, Ph.D.
Through critical analysis of writings on Baptist distinctives, Norman shows there is a continuous body of theological components common to all Baptists.
In Baptists and the Christian Tradition, editors Matthew Emerson, Christopher Morgan and Lucas Stamps compile a series of essays advocating "Baptist catholicity." This approach presupposes a critical, but charitable, engagement with the whole church, both past and present, along with the desire to move beyond the false polarities of an Enlightenment-based individualism on the one hand and a pastiche of postmodern relativism on the other.
