Thankful to be a Reformed Baptist

I am so thankful to be a Reformed Baptist.

In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on Friday, February 15, 2013 at 1:00 pm

I am so thankful to be a Reformed Baptist.  Of course, when I first heard of the name on a tape from the Phoenix Reformed Baptist Church I pulled out of a small display at a Christian bookstore many years ago, I had to find a “handbook on denominations” to figure out what it meant.  Our tribe is growing, but we have a lot of room for growth.  But I am thankful to be a part of our small tribe.

Now I know many see us, to borrow Verduin’s phrase, as the stepchildren of the Reformers.  Some refuse us even the term Reformed.  Our retirement plans are not nearly as good as some others, that is for certain.  Our conferences do not seem nearly as large and flashy either.  But that is alright.

I am thankful to be a Reformed Baptist for many reasons. Today, being an elder in a Reformed Baptist church means I get to meet and minister with some of the best preachers and teachers I know, men like Jim Renihan, Richard Barcellos, and Sam Waldron.  I have the honor, and the privilege, of ministering in sister churches all across the landscape, and our unity of spirit and faith is encouraging. But the main reason I am thankful to be a Reformed Baptist comes from the work to which the Lord has called me.  Over the past nearly two decades now I have engaged in over sixty formal, moderated public debates with the leading apologists representing Roman Catholicism, Mormonism, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Oneness Pentecostalism, and of late, Islam.  Those debates have forced me to engage objections to the Christian faith on every level, from biblical sufficiency to the Trinity to the cross to justification and everything in between.  And that is why I am thankful to be a Reformed Baptist.  Why?  Because of the consistency of our faith.  One’s apologetic can be no stronger than the consistency of the faith it defends.  And when I call my opponents to consistency, I can do so with a clear mind and a clear conscience, because I know of no statement of the Christian faith more consistent, more thorough-going, than that we as Reformed Baptists profess.  When I challenge Rome’s errors on the basis of her traditions, I know my faith consistently confesses sola scriptura and presents a meaningful doctrine of inspiration and perspicuity.  When I challenge Mormonism’s false gods, I know my faith presents a thorough biblical Trinitarianism.  When I meet the best Jehovah’s Witnesses have to offer in battle, I know I as a Reformed Baptist confess the truth about Jesus Christ, drawn from a consistent interpretation of God’s inspired Word.  And when I combat the Islamic apologist who stands upon Surah 4:157 and its denial of the crucifixion of Christ, I can provide a consistent, biblical, and historically accurate, defense of the centrality of the cross of Christ.  And when I stand before men like Bishop John Shelby Spong and engage his defense of homosexuality in the name of “Christianity,” I can boldly proclaim God’s truth, God’s law, God’s provision in Christ.  And what truly makes me thankful is the fact that I do not have to shift my methodologies or beliefs to respond to each of these groups, or any others.  I could not do so even if I wanted to (out of simple loyalty to the truth), but given the consistency of my Reformed Baptist faith, I do not need to anyway.  And that is why I am thankful to be a Reformed Baptist.

So the next time you eye the big fancy church down the road on your way to your Reformed Baptist church, consider this: the value of the consistency of divine truth, the treasure of having a firm foundation upon which to live a God-honoring life, is truly priceless.

James White

Alpha and Omega Ministries

What is a Reformed Baptist?

Note: Several articles I have posted mention the Sabbath Day or Lord's Day - I believe that Christ's purchase gave us entry into Sabbath-ing with Him.  That keeping one day as a Holy Day is not commanded.  I affirm and believe that we are NOT to forsake the assembling of ourselves with other believers.  That we should, as much as possible, make effort to assemble with our brethren.

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In Reformed Baptist Fellowship on Sunday, January 1, 2012 at 12:01 am

The term ‘Reformed Baptist’ best refers to those who adhere to the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689) in practice as well as in theory.

Reformed…

The name ‘Reformed’ refers to the distinctive historical and theological roots of these Baptists. There is a body of theological beliefs commonly referred to as the ‘Reformed’ faith. Such great biblical truths as sola fide (justification by faith alone), sola gratia (salvation by God’s grace alone), sola scriptura (the Bible alone is the basis for faith and practice), solus Christus (salvation through Christ alone), and soli Deo gloria (the fact that God alone is to receive glory in the salvation of sinners) are all noted hallmarks of the Protestant and Reformed faith.

Yet, the Reformed faith is perhaps best known for its understanding that God is sovereign in the matter of man’s salvation. This is to say that God has, before the foundation of the world, chosen or elected certain sinners for salvation. He has done so sovereignly and according to His own good pleasure. Additionally, the Reformed faith teaches that, in time, Christ came and accomplished salvation by dying for the sins of those elected by God. Furthermore, the Reformed faith teaches that the Holy Spirit, working in harmony with the decree of the Father and the death of the Son, effectually applies this work of redemption to each of the elect in their personal conversions.  As a result of this emphasis on the sovereignty of God in salvation, the Reformed faith also promulgates the ‘doctrines of grace’: doctrinal truths which set forth the total depravity of man, the unconditional nature of God’s election, the limited or particular nature of Christ’s atonement, the irresistibility of the effectual call and the perseverance and preservation of the saints.

The Reformed faith, however, touches on far more than these foundational truths regarding God’s glory in salvation. It is also concerned with God’s glory in the church, in society, in the family and in the holiness of the believer’s life. The Reformed faith has a high and God-centered view of worship, regulated by the Word of God alone. The Reformed faith embraces a high view of God’s law and of His church. In short, the Reformed faith is no less than a comprehensive world and life view, as well as a distinctive body of doctrine.

Out of this theological understanding came a great stream of confessions and creeds: the Synod of Dort, The Savoy Declaration, The Westminster Confession of Faith and The Heidelberg Catechism. Similarly, this Reformed tradition produced some of the great names of Church history. John Calvin, John Knox, John Bunyan, John Newton, the famous Bible commentator Matthew Henry, the great evangelist George Whitefield, the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards, Adoniram Judson, William Carey, C.H. Spurgeon, A.W. Pink and a host of others all held tenaciously to the Reformed faith. We must underscore that Reformed Baptists do not hold these truths because of blind allegiance to historic creeds. Nor, do Reformed Baptists hold them merely because great men of church history stood in this tradition. Rather, Reformed Baptists hold these truths because Jesus and the apostles so clearly taught them.

The confession of faith embraced by Reformed Baptist churches takes its place among, and is deeply rooted in, these historic Reformed documents. In most places the 1689 Confession is an exact word for word copy of the Westminster and the Savoy.  Consequently, the term ‘Reformed’ Baptist is not a misnomer.  Reformed Baptists stand firmly on the solid ground of the Reformation heritage.

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