The
glorious gospel of Christ has been enshrined in New Testament Baptist
churches,
and this gospel has been cherished, preached, and preserved pure by
them
for two thousand years. Baptist churches have not had the elaborate
cathedrals,
massive choirs, clerical collars, and polished crosses, but they have
biblical
Christianity with its simplicity, authority, and presence of God.
The
name “Baptist” was given to the Lord’s little flocks by their enemies
with
an evil intent. However, we can by retrospect clearly see the hand of
Divine
providence taking their efforts to stigmatize the Lord’s churches, and
causing it to redound to the glory of God, and the good of His
churches.
Even though the name “Baptist” is no longer a definitive, it is the
name
by which the Lord’s virgin and age climaxing churches will enter the
bridal
chambers in glory. Thus it is, Baptists say to their would-be
detractors:
“Ye meant if for evil, but God meant it for good”.
While
it is true, the Lord’s churches did not go by the name “Baptist” during
the first fifteen hundred years of church history, it is equally true
that
there were churches during this entire period which espoused the same
doctrines,
and adhered to the same practices that contemporary New Testament
Baptists
propagate and practice. “A rose by any other name is still a rose”; and
a Baptist church by any other name is still a Baptist church.
It
is an incontestable fact that from New Testament times unto the
fifteenth
century there were churches that tenaciously followed the teachings of
Christ, and these same teachings are found in present day New Testament
Baptist churches. Therefore, it is within the realm of propriety to say
those early churches were Baptists, even though they went by various
names.
The
following passage is taken from the “History of the Reformed
Church
of the Netherlands”, by Doctors Ypeig and Dermont, Ministers of
the highest standing in that church: “We have now seen that the
Baptists,
who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites,
were
the original Waldenses, and have long, in the history of the church
received
the honor of that origin. On this account the Baptists may be
considered
as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the
Apostles;
and as a Christian society which has preserved pure doctrines of the
gospel
through all ages”.
One
identifying mark of Baptists by whatever name they have been called in
the past two millenniums has been their undeviating insistence upon a
biblically
prescribed morality. Owing to their strict adherence to heaven’s code
of
conduct, they were often called the “Cathari”, a word meaning, pure.
There
is in our present time ecclesiastical offsprings of the Cathari, going
by the name “Baptist”, who fully realize the perpetuity of their
respective
churches is contingent on their practice of abstention from moral evil
and doctrinal deviation from the biblical standard. (I Thessalonians
5:2).
The
name “Baptist” was at one time a disparaging epithet in the reckoning
of
Catholicism and Protestantism. However, in the last fifty years much of
their rancor toward the Baptist name has diminished, for the simple
reason
the name in the generic sense has become hardly more than an expletive.
By far and large, churches wearing the “Baptist” name, beguiled by the
spirit of ecumenism have denounced the claim of Baptist perpetuity from
New Testament times, and have historically identified with
Protestantism,
which is the first and irreversible step toward spiritual Babylonianism.
The
apostasy mentioned in the above paragraph should not in any way
discourage
Baptist churches who have been blessed with the glorious truth of their
New Testament origin, and have been given the hell defying promise of
age
long perpetuity. Let us disdain every false way, even if it wears a
“Baptist”
name; for we know the people divinely honored with that name are easily
distinguished from their God debasing counterfeits.
As
to doctrine and practice, the “Baptist” name is as old as the church
which
Jesus started while He was on earth, for only in Baptist churches is
the
whole counsel of God preached, and the ordinances kept as they were
delivered
to the first church by Christ the Lord. Baptist hearts are filled with
gratitude, precious memories, and admiration for the pioneer Baptist of
America, and for the Baptists of England and Holland from whence they
came;
but our Baptist heritage antedates our European ancestry by fifteen
hundred
years.
However,
there are today, especially in America, a great number of churches
wearing
the name “Baptist” for the simple reason they immerse their membership
candidates. Scriptural baptism is the door whereby a person enters the
membership of a Baptist church, but there is a lot more to a Baptist
church
than a door. Nowhere in Scripture is the church metaphorically referred
to as a door, but the church is often alluded to as a house, and there
is much more to a house than a door. (I Timothy 3:15; Hebrews
3:6). There is more in the commission of the church than baptism,
for
there are numerous other doctrines delineated in Scripture, and
everyone
is profitable unto the church. (Acts 20:20, 27; II
Timothy 3:16).
While
it is true, the name “Baptist” is not absolutely essential to the
constitution
of a New Testament church, it is equally true that there is not, nor
shall
there ever by any sufficient reason for the Lord’s churches to deny
that
time honoring name. New Testament churches should not let people who
feign
and fictionalize the “Baptist” name diminish their love and respect for
that name which God in His all wise providence has given to His blood
bought
churches. Let us not drop the name “Baptist”, but keep it, and add to
it
whatever prefixes and suffixes that are necessary to distinguish our
churches
from all false churches, by whatever name they may be called. “A good
name
is better than riches”, and there is no better name than “Baptist”.