{"id":1285,"date":"2013-03-03T04:39:08","date_gmt":"2013-03-03T04:39:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/march-qwhats-in-a-name-why-we-should-retain-the-name-baptistq\/"},"modified":"2014-02-02T08:25:52","modified_gmt":"2014-02-02T08:25:52","slug":"march-qwhats-in-a-name-why-we-should-retain-the-name-baptistq","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/march-qwhats-in-a-name-why-we-should-retain-the-name-baptistq\/","title":{"rendered":"What’s In A Name? Why We Should Retain the Name Baptist (Part 1)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/span>This article will appear in two parts.\u00a0 The first part is written by Rick Shrader, president of Aletheia Baptist Ministries.\u00a0 The second part will be written by Matt Shrader, Educational Consult<\/span>ant at <\/span>Aletheia Baptist Ministries.<\/span><\/h1>\n

Part I<\/span><\/p>\n

The question continues to be asked, \u201cwhy should we keep using the denominational names?\u201d\u00a0 My answer is because they are needed as much now as ever and probably more.\u00a0 The use of the name Baptist has never been without controversy with multiple detractors and supporters.\u00a0 In this first part I want to give some historical and practical reasons why I am a supporter of keeping denominational names, especially our name, Baptist.<\/span><\/p>\n

To denominate something is to name something.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think there is anything in this world without a name, a description that tells us what the thing is and a little something about it.\u00a0 God started this in the six days of His creation.\u00a0 Whether sun, moon, stars,\u00a0 land and sea, heaven and earth, all were given names so that we would know them.\u00a0 Adam\u2019s first job in God\u2019s creation was to participate in this task and give the animals names that would describe and denominate them.\u00a0 Scientists, Botanists, Zoologists, and the rest have continued this practice with amazing descriptive preciseness.\u00a0 As I look around the room in which I am sitting, I can\u2019t find an object without a name, whether chair, lamp, shelf, or picture.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad for that.\u00a0 It makes everything useable and knowable.<\/span><\/p>\n

If I am asked what I believe, I use names also.\u00a0 These names may be very specific such as pretribulational, or very broad such as Christian, but the more I use, the more you know about me.\u00a0 In fact, I can\u2019t deny something without a name, e.g., I am not charismatic, I don\u2019t do that practice named speaking in tongues.\u00a0 Now you know even more about me.\u00a0 This is good.<\/span><\/p>\n

Baptists have jokingly but somewhat seriously referred to John in the Bible because God gave him a descriptive name, \u201cBaptist.\u201d\u00a0 This means he was the baptizer.\u00a0 I am not making a case that John the Baptist was a Baptist in the denominational sense, I am pointing out that such a name served a good purpose and described what John did.\u00a0 This is good.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When some independents were first called \u201cAnabaptists,\u201d it was a good descriptive name because they were re-baptizing their converts.\u00a0 Later when certain of them decided to give themselves a name, they chose Baptist because it continued to describe a specific and major doctrine which they practiced, even with threat of life or death.\u00a0 Even those who haven\u2019t liked the traditional labels still must label themselves something, whether \u201ccharismatic,\u201d \u201cevangelical,\u201d \u201cconservative,\u201d \u201cliberal,\u201d or \u201cnondenominational.\u201d\u00a0 Everything has a denominator or name and this is good also.<\/span><\/p>\n

I also want to admit that Baptists, as all other religious groups, have had their embarrassments.\u00a0 There have been those who did or believed things that brought despite to the name.\u00a0 Sometimes people will become too loyal to a group at the expense of truth.\u00a0 This is especially true of those in cults and liberal denominations.\u00a0 There have been those in the Shrader family tree that did not help our name, but we keep trying to better the name, since we must be called something.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Many have pointed out that a postmodern generation doesn\u2019t like the traditional \u201cbranding\u201d of past generations.\u00a0 Millard Erickson wrote,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

A further characteristic of the postmodern age is a reduced sense of commitment.\u00a0 There was a time when people possessed brand loyalty. . . Brand loyalty was also manifested in commitment to a religious denomination, so a Presbyterian would look for a Presbyterian church when moving to a new community, as a Methodist would seek out a Methodist church to attend.\u00a0 This was a lifelong commitment, and would not be deviated from without a very strong and compelling reason for doing so.<\/span>1<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

George Barna said,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

America is transitioning from a Christian nation to a syncretistic, spiritually diverse society.\u00a0 It is shifting from a denominational landscape to a domain of independent churches.\u00a0 It is a country where past defenses against ecumenism are giving way to the perceived benefits of cooperation, understanding, and consensus.\u00a0 The days of theological rigidity are history; America is now a theologically pluralistic and encompassing society.<\/span>2<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Barna, not the most conservative of evangelicals, is just stating the facts and so is Erickson.\u00a0 Much of our decision about the use of denominational names will depend on how far we can walk with the culture which they describe. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Denominational names have a good history.<\/span><\/p>\n

Like so many subjects today, our thoughts of history are shaped by the latest thing we hear on the evening news or read on a blog.\u00a0 From what some say one would think that denominational names were invented by the devil himself.\u00a0 For example, one statement of faith from a well-known evangelical organization admonishes readers, knowing that all believers are part of the larger body of Christ, to \u201crise above all sectarian prejudices and denominational bigotry\u201d and just to love one another.3<\/sup>\u00a0 Actually, denominations were started to guard against that very thing.<\/span><\/p>\n

A good history of the beginning of denominations is given by Bruce Shelley, Professor of Church History at Denver Seminary, in his book, <\/span>Church History In Plain Language<\/span>, (p. 303-308).\u00a0 Following the Reformation, Germany was headed into the Thirty Years War (1618-1648) because Catholics and the new followers of Luther were trying to make Germany either Catholic or Lutheran.\u00a0 Historically, a land or country had to be the religion of its ruler or king and so fighting for territorial rights was a religious fight.\u00a0 The peace of Westphalia (1648) was a landmark decision that allowed Catholics, Lutherans, and even Calvinists, to exist in the same territory without giving up their own interpretation of Christianity.\u00a0 England would wrestle with the same problem in deciding whether the country was to be Catholic or Anglican or Puritan.\u00a0 Each believed it ought to be their interpretation exclusively. \u201cThe use of the word <\/span>denomination <\/span>to describe a religious group came into vogue about 1740 during the early Evangelical Revival led by John Wesley and George Whitefield.\u00a0 But the theory itself was hammered out a century before by a group of radical Puritan leaders in England and America.\u201d<\/span>4<\/sup><\/p>\n

The great American \u201cexperiment\u201d was the natural setting for the solution.\u00a0 In the old countries, a land had to be controlled by one religion and that religion had to be enforced by law.\u00a0 The Puritans who first came to America tried to set up their colonies this way with miserable results and with no more individual freedom than\u00a0 in England.\u00a0 It was Roger Williams, whom most regard as the first \u201cBaptist\u201d in America, who solved the dilemma.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In his book, <\/span>Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul,<\/span> John Barry describes this problem in the enforcement of the ten commandments.<\/span>5<\/sup>\u00a0 The Puritans, especially John Winthrop, John Cotton, and Thomas Hooker in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, set up a government that controlled and punished citizens for their adherence to the ten commandments, even to the extent as to whether they loved the Lord their God enough (much less church attendance, daily prayers, and whether one should pray before or after the meal).\u00a0 Williams had come firmly to believe that human government could enforce the second half of the Decalogue (man to man) but must not infringe on his relation to the first half (man to God).\u00a0 Out of this Williams eventually founded Providence, Rhode Island with a separation of church and state where the state could not enforce or punish an individual concerning his relationship to God.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Also, the territorial problem had to be solved.\u00a0 Can anyone in a Puritan colony worship God in any other way, or would they have to move out of the territory?\u00a0 Denomination was the answer.\u00a0 Shelley explains,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Denominationalism, as originally designed, is the opposite of sectarianism.\u00a0 A sect claims the authority of Christ for itself alone.\u00a0 It believes that it is the true body of Christ; all truth belongs to it and to no other religion.\u00a0 So by definition a sect is exclusive.<\/span><\/p>\n

The word <\/span>denomination <\/span>by contrast was an inclusive term.\u00a0 It implied that the Christian group called or denominated by a particular name was but one member of a larger group\u2014the church\u2014to which all denominations belong.<\/span>6<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The idea of denominations solved the territorial problem and allowed different interpretations of theology and polity to exist in the same area.\u00a0 Rather than promoting \u201csectarian prejudices,\u201d they actually solved that problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

If a good thing has fallen on hard times, it ought to be restored.<\/span><\/p>\n

The alternatives to denominations are not proving to be any better and will probably end up far worse.\u00a0 As Barna pointed out in the above quote, theological pluralism is growing within Christian circles.\u00a0 The lack of specificity in a church or in a group of churches will only end in chaos and bad teaching.\u00a0 Denominational names and specifics help to guard against this problem and also allow the seeker to know a few things up about a church\u00a0 up front.\u00a0 It was a better day in America when the average citizen knew what the names meant, knew what his neighbors were, and got along fine with them.\u00a0 Strong religious fences make good neighbors too.<\/span><\/p>\n

In the early 1980s the church I worked for sent a staff member to California to start a church.\u00a0 He thought it would be a good thing if he selected a generic name for his new church and not be identified with any particular denomination.\u00a0 After weeks of making visits on people he found that the most common question he was asked was, \u201cWhat kind of church are you?\u201d\u00a0 He also found that his most common answer was, \u201cWe\u2019re Baptistic.\u201d\u00a0 In the end he added the name Baptist and avoided the problem.\u00a0 Those who don\u2019t know what the denominational names mean don\u2019t care and those who do know want to know what you are.\u00a0 The name over the door saves a lot of time.<\/span><\/p>\n

The details of what we believe are important<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Denominational names have always kept a good parameter around the beliefs of any denomination.\u00a0 Baptists have fought and died for the authority of Scripture and the priority of the New Testament in defining the church; the absolute necessity of a regenerate church membership; the exclusive use of immersion of adult converts; the autonomous authority of the local church to govern itself; the separation of the state from church affairs; and the belief in soul liberty in matters of conscience before God.\u00a0 These are historically identified with the name Baptist.\u00a0 We should not take lightly the discarding of a name that carries such weight for the sake of some who might not even believe these things.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, what we believe is important to the seeker, even if he overtly disagrees with us.\u00a0 Doesn\u2019t he deserve a straight answer from us?\u00a0 Why is it better (it is certainly not more honest) to hide our beliefs from another human being who has shown interest in our church?\u00a0 This is something cults do because they know their doctrine would be astonishing to the average person, especially to a Christian believer.\u00a0 I am not talking about pushing theological minutia ahead of the gospel, but rather of simply being up front about what we believe with our fellow man.\u00a0 Even if he has had a bad experience in another Baptist church, our beliefs are important enough to correct his estimate of us and to honestly portray what our great heritage has believed.<\/span><\/p>\n

We are trading external divisions for external but false unity.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is probably no coincidence that our generation is losing a clear conscience and understanding about the coming of Christ and the tribulation to follow.\u00a0 A generation ago R.V. Clearwaters wrote,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Any casual observer of the Protestant world can easily see that there is a rapid shifting from a state of many external organizational divisions, called denominations, which through the years have had a large measure of internal unity based on their fidelity to the Word of God, to a state of external organizational union in the National Council of Churches with increasing internal divisions.<\/span>7<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

It is worth remembering that we live in the latter days and a world conglomeration of religions is coming that will deceive the whole world.\u00a0 No one will be willing to resist but will believe the lie told to them (2 Thes. 2:3-12).\u00a0 It would be hard to argue that this lie of the antichrist is based on clear divisions of beliefs rather than on an unclear mixture of truth and error.\u00a0 Will we be found faithful to the truth of the Word in these last days or be found apologetic and maybe embarrassed about what we believe?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Are there not already many who have traded fidelity to truth for ease and peacefulness?\u00a0 Don\u2019t we live in a day when many are seeking to get along in the world and are afraid of rejection especially on religious grounds?\u00a0\u00a0 Although I am sure that many who drop their denominational name believe they are doing it in order to reach more people and believe that such a name is a hindrance to evangelism, but I have to believe that such decisions are giving up a mile to gain an inch.\u00a0 The contribution to pluralistic syncretism, will in the last days, do much more to harm men\u2019s souls than to win them.<\/span><\/p>\n

And So . . .<\/span><\/p>\n

G.K. Chesterton (who was a practicing Roman Catholic) said,<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

Hence the difficulty which besets \u2018undenominational religions.\u2019\u00a0 They profess to include what is beautiful in all creeds, but they appear to many to have collected all that is dull in them.\u00a0 All the colours mixed together in purity ought to make a perfect white.\u00a0 Mixed together on any human paint-box, they make a thing like mud, and a thing very like many new religions.\u00a0 Such a blend is often something much worse than any one creed taken separately, even the creed of the Thugs.<\/span>8<\/sup><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

No one I know is arguing for denominational names over Scripture.\u00a0 When such sectarian attitudes occur, they are immediately expelled by those who know better.\u00a0 Yet everything under God\u2019s sun has a name and that is a good thing.\u00a0 It is the way God has made us and made His world.\u00a0 History and honesty argue for the keeping of those names, even when detractors detract and naysayers nay.\u00a0 It is better for those of us who hold specific doctrines and practices to say so publically, and it is better for an honest seeker of the gospel to know that as well.\u00a0 Ours is to be faithful to what we believe the Scripture teaches and pray like the apostle Paul, \u201cThat I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak\u201d (Col. 4:4).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Notes:<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Millard Erickson, <\/span>The Postmodern World<\/span> (Wheaton:\u00a0 Crossway Books, 2002) 31.<\/span><\/p>\n

2. George Barna, <\/span>Index of Leading Spiritual Indicators<\/span> (Dallas:\u00a0 Word Publishing, 1996) 130.<\/span><\/p>\n

3. CEF doctrinal statement, #9.\u00a0 \u201cThat the Church is composed of all those who truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as Savior.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Bruce Shelley, <\/span>Church History In Plain Language<\/span> (Dallas:\u00a0 Word Publishing, 1995) 306.<\/span><\/p>\n

5. John Barry, <\/span>Roger Williams and the Creation of the American Soul<\/span> (New York:\u00a0 Viking Books, 2012) part IV.<\/span><\/p>\n

6. Shelley, p. 306.<\/span><\/p>\n

7. R.V. Clearwaters, <\/span>The Local Church of the New Testament<\/span> (Chicago:\u00a0 CBA, 1954) 63.<\/span><\/p>\n

8. G.K. Chesterton, <\/span>Heretics\/Orthodoxy<\/span> (Nashville:\u00a0 Nelson, 2000)\u00a0 45.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This article will appear in two parts.\u00a0 The first part is written by Rick Shrader, president of Aletheia Baptist Ministries.\u00a0 The second part will be written by Matt Shrader, Educational Consultant at Aletheia Baptist Ministries. Part I The question continues to be asked, \u201cwhy should we keep using the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_crdt_document":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[123],"tags":[155],"class_list":["post-1285","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-baptist-baptists"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat's In A Name? Why We Should Retain the Name Baptist (Part 1) - Aletheia Baptist Ministries<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/aletheiabaptistministries.org\/Blog\/march-qwhats-in-a-name-why-we-should-retain-the-name-baptistq\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What's In A Name? Why We Should Retain the Name Baptist (Part 1) - Aletheia Baptist Ministries\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0This article will appear in two parts.\u00a0 The first part is written by Rick Shrader, president of Aletheia Baptist Ministries.\u00a0 The second part will be written by Matt Shrader, Educational Consultant at Aletheia Baptist Ministries. 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