Transcript Baptist Confessions & Theology - NOBTS

Baptist Confessions
& Theology
Copyright 2007 NOBTS, Rex D. Butler and Lloyd A. Harsch
Purpose
•
•
•
•
•
Clarify Baptist teachings to others
Inform and Educate their own members
Provide a basis for fellowship
Deal with Controversy
Baptists use confessions of faith, not
creeds
– Creed is an officially binding statement
that one must believe
Common Points
• Religious liberty for all
– Formed in the crucible of persecution
– Appealed to nature of faith
• Cannot be coerced
• Must be voluntary or is meaningless
– Practical arguments
• Freedom leads to more peaceful and stable
society
• Persecution harms both state and church
– Magistrate had authority only in civil
matters
Common Points
• Reliability and authority of scripture
– Did not develop theories of how
inspiration worked
– Basis for fellowship
• Particular Baptists emphasized doctrine as
basis for fellowship
• General Baptists emphasized experience as
basis for fellowship
Common Points
• Church composed of visible saints
voluntarily assembled and baptized
– All believers formed the invisible church
– General Baptists viewed congregations as
local units of the larger church
– Particular Baptists viewed each
congregation as complete and
independent
Common Points
• Pastors served life-time pastorates
unless move agreed upon by both
congregation and pastor
• Baptism is for believers only
• Communion gradually moved from
closed to open
• Required spontaneity in worship
• Evangelistic
General Baptists’
Confessions of Faith
General Baptists
• Declaration of Faith (1611)
–Issued by Thomas Helwys’
congregation
General Baptists
• Faith and Practice of Thirty
Congregations (1651)
– Issued by an association
– First GB confession to represent more than
one church
– Rejects free will unaided by God (art. 25)
– Makes oblique reference to immersion
(art. 48)
• “Go into the water, and to be baptized”
General Baptists
• Standard Confession (1660)
– Issued by the denomination
– First GB confession to specify immersion
– Includes laying on of hands (art. 12) - six
principles of Heb 6:1-2:
• Repentance, faith, baptism, laying on of hands,
resurrection of the dead, eternal life
• Orthodox Creed (1678)
– Adds a third office of messenger who oversees
congregations in an area and plants churches
Particular Baptists’
Confessions of Faith
Particular Baptists
• First London (1644)
• 1646 revision
– Submitted to Parliament seeking legal
toleration
– Less antagonistic to Parliament
– Clarified religious liberty and role of
magistrate
– Strengthened Calvinism
• Puts them in line with Presbyterians in
Parliament
– Reduced ministry to pastors and deacons
like General Baptists
Particular Baptists
• Somerset Confession (1656)
– Written by Thomas Collier
– Response to Quakers
– Represents earliest attempt to bring
together Particular & General Baptists
Particular Baptists
• Second London (1677, revised 1688/89)
– Written by Benjamin Keach
– Modifies the Westminster Confession
(Presbyterian-1647) & Savoy Confession
(Independent-1658)
– First confession to use “infallible” about
Bible (chap 1.1)
– Baptism is sign of fellowship, not sign and
seal of covenant of grace
Particular Baptists
• Second London
– Introduces covenant of grace (chap 7.2-3)
– Possibility of elect being saved without
the gospel (chap 10.3)
– If not elect, nothing can be done about it
(chap 10.4)
Calvinism vs. Arminianism
• CALVINISM
–
–
–
–
–
Total Depravity
Unconditional Election
Limited Atonement
Irresistible Grace
Perseverance of the
Saint
• ARMINIANISM
–
–
–
–
–
Positive View of Humanity
Conditional Election
Unlimited Atonement
Resistible Grace
Falling from Grace
• Emphases of Each System
– Calvinism emphasizes God’s providential control
– Arminianism emphasized human free will & responsibility
to obey
– “For by grace you have been saved through faith” (Eph.
2:8) – Calvinists emphasize grace; Arminians, faith
History of Arminianism
Jacob Arminius (1560-1609)
• Dutch pastor & theologian, trained
under Calvin’s successor,
Theodore Beza
• In debate over predestination,
Arminius came to reject this
Calvinist doctrine
• Calvinists accused Arminius & his
followers of heresy
• After Arminius’ death, Arminians
were condemned at Synod of Dort
(1619), fined, deposed, exiled,
beheaded
• 1610, followers described his
views in Remonstrance
Arminian Theology
• Unlimited Atonement
– Also called General Atonement
– Christ died for all humans (Heb. 2:9; 1 Jn. 2:2)
– Anyone who believes in him can be saved
– Universal redemption, not universal salvation:
Jesus died for all sin & sinners, but only
believers are forgiven
Arminian Theology
• Conditional Election
– God determined in eternity that persons
believing in Christ will be saved
– Faith is condition of election
– Grace is still divine basis of election
Arminian Theology
• Conditional Election
–Understood in terms of God’s
foreknowledge
(electing those he knows will believe)
instead of predestination
(God’s determining who will believe)
Arminian Theology
• Positive View of Humanity
– Higher view of human free will after fall
– Compatible with God’s sovereignty
– Human cannot save himself or herself without God’s grace
– Fallen humanity can do nothing good without being “born again of
God in Christ, through his Holy Spirit, and renewed in
understanding, inclination, will, and all his power, in order that he
may rightly understand, think, will, and effect what is truly good”
– All persons are able to believe or to meet the conditions of salvation
• Prevenient grace is given by God to all persons, so everyone is
capable of accepting God’s offer of salvation
Arminian Theology
• Resistible Grace
– God’s Spirit shows the truth of the Word & enables
belief but can be rejected
– Every person has genuinely free will
– For human will to be genuinely free, person must be
allowed to make independent moral decision
• Possible to Fall from Grace
– It is possible for one who once believed to reject, or fall
from, God’s saving grace
(Heb. 6:4-6)
History of Calvinism
John Calvin (1509-64)
• Systematic theologian of Reformation: Institutes of the
Christian Religion
• Sovereignty of God
– God’s purposes are unquestionable
& unchangeable
• Total depravity of humanity
– Every individual is sinful & unable
to respond to God’s offer of grace
• From eternity, God has
predestined some to salvation,
others to destruction
History of Calvinism
Theodore Beza (1519-1605)
• Calvin’s successor at
Geneva
• Developed doctrine of
limited atonement – Christ
shed his blood only for sins
of the elect
• Opposed idea that Great
Commission was still in
effect
History of Calvinism
Synod of Dort (1618-19)
• Called to deal with
Remonstrants &
Arminian theology
• Defined strict Calvinism
using Beza’s
interpretation of Calvin’s
theology
• Codified “TULIP” – five
points of Calvinism vs.
Arminianism
TULIP
• Total Depravity
• Unconditional Election
• Limited Atonement
• Irresistible Grace
• Perseverance of Saints
Total Depravity
• Doctrine is linked to original sin
• Every human is utterly sinful & can do
nothing morally good in his or her own power
(Rom. 3:10-12)
• Individual is incapable of initiating salvation
experience (John 6:44)
Unconditional Election
• In eternity, God elected some to salvation
(Eph. 1:4-6) & chose others for damnation
– Calvin taught Double Predestination
– Augustine taught Single Predestination
• God’s election is based only on his sovereign
will, not on basis of merit or foreknowledge
Limited Atonement
• Also called Particular Atonement
• Christ died only for the Elect
• Otherwise, part of his blood would have
been shed in vain, in violation of God’s
economy
Irresistible Grace
• Elect will be drawn irresistibly to God by his
Holy Spirit
• Spirit will cause elect to affirm their election
• Irresistible grace results in elect believing in
Christ & performing good works
Perseverance of the Saints
• Elect will persevere in salvation until end
(John 10:29)
Theological Extremes
• Calvinism
– Hyper-Calvinism
• Overly emphasized election
• To share the Gospel with those not surely elect is
more than futile; it is disobedient
– Antinomianism
• Exaggeration of doctrines of atonement &
justification by faith
• Whatever the elect do, it is not sin
– Universalism
• Conclusion that God elected everyone
Theological Extremes
• Arminianism
– Arianism
• Optimistic anthropology led to weak Christology
• Salvation of humans did not require Christ to be fully divine
– Socinianism
• Christ was good man & prophet but not God
• Works-oriented salvation
– Unitarianism
• Rejected traditional Trinity as illogical
• Atonement was an example of how people should obey God
(cf. Peter Abelard’s Moral Example Theory of Atonement)
– Universalism
• Doctrine of universal atonement led to conclusion that all
would be saved