Baptist, What Do You Believe? #10

In this lesson we are going to look at Article six of the Baptist Faith and Message 2000, concerning the doctrine of the Church. What is the church? Who makes up the church? When did the church begin? Who is in charge of the church? What is the duty of the church? Let’s see if we can answer some of these questions as we look at Article six: The Church.

What is a church?
Let’s begin by defining what a church is not. A church is not a building. There were no church buildings for the first 300 of the church’s history. Believers gathered in homes or barns or out in the open, or if they were being persecuted, even in caves and catecombs. The building is where the church meets – thus the New England Puritans spoke of the Meeting House – the house in which the church met.

A church is not simply an organizational unit of any particular religion. You will never hear anyone talking about the Buddhist church or Jewish churches. In that sense the church is a thoroughly Christian term. The New Testament word for church is ekklesia. The prefix ek means out, and the root kalien means to call. Thus the church or ekklesia is literally the called out ones.

Now, on the positive side. According to the NT, the church is primarily a body of people who profess and give evidence that they have been saved by God’s grace alone, for His glory alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. The church is the collection of people committed to Christ and to one another in a given area. (Acts 2:41-47)

The word church also carries a broader meaning, which is reflected by the second brief paragraph of Article six. The word ekklesia appears in the New Testament 115 times, and 93 of those occurences refer to the local assembly of believers. The other 22 occurences refer to the church in a universal, or catholic sense. The word catholic, when used with a small c, is a very good word. It is used to signify the redeemed of Christ in every place, in all ages. In this way the church is divided into two categories: the church militant, and the church triumphant. The church militant is made up of all believers currently living; those who are still fighting the fight here on earth. The church triumphant is made up of all those believers whose rest is won, all those who have gone on to be with the Lord. Let us look now at Article 6, on the church.

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ is an autonomous local congregation of baptized believers, associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel; observing the two ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws, exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth. Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes. In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord. Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.

A New Testament church of the Lord Jesus Christ…
The church is the possession of the Lord Jesus. It is the bride of Christ. We must not loose sight of the fact the church belongs to the Lord Jesus (Ephesians 5:22-32).

is an autonomous local congregation…
What is meant by autonomous? It literally means a law unto itself. Is each local Baptist church really its own boss? Well, yes and no. In the sense that there is no church hierarchyabove the local level, each individual church is autonomous. The associations and conventions a church might be member of have no authority over that local church. In the sense that Christ is the head of the church, then He governs over each and every local church, as the later phrase governed by His laws points out. Every local congregation is under the lordship of Jesus Christ.

of baptized believers…
This is one of the hallmarks of the Baptist church. We are a “believer’s” church, unlike some Christian denominations that baptize their infants and consider them members of that local church body. Granted, these denominations, Presbyterians most noteably among them, do not grant full membership priveledges, or consider these little ones to be saved, but they do consider them a part of the church family.

Associated by covenant in the faith and fellowship of the gospel…
What does it mean to be in covenant? To be in covenant with a local body of baptized believers means that you are not there just for your own benefit, but for the benefit of others. We are agreed serve one another, as in Galatians 5:13, Colossians 3:16, and 1 Peter 4:10. We voluntarily unite ourselves to one another around common beliefs. In this way we are doing physically on earth what we are spiritually in Christ, that is united (Romans 12, 1 Corinthians 12). In our fast paced, mobile society, this is a fact that is very often overlooked in many churches. This short phrase in Article 6 could and should be strengthened by adding and union with Christ.

Observing the two ordinances of Christ…
And they are baptism and the Lord’s Supper, which will be discussed in our next article. Here the BF&M 2000 gets it right. The church belongs to Jesus Christ, and so too do these two ordinances belong to the Lord Jesus Christ. They are not ordinances of the church, as Article seven claims. In our next lesson we will look at the differences between these two views, and what difference it makes..

governed by His laws,
We are governed by His word, the Scripture. Even this Baptist Faith and Message 2000, that we are studying, is not what governs us.

exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges invested in them by His Word, and seeking to extend the gospel to the ends of the earth.
This phrase continues the thought of our governance by God through His Scripture, and especially emphasizes our desire and responsibility to evangelize (Matthew 28:19)

Each congregation operates under the Lordship of Christ through democratic processes.
Though the local church seeks the Lord’s will through prayer and study of His word, the day-to-day implementation of governance is carried out by its congregation in a democratic fashion.

In such a congregation each member is responsible and accountable to Christ as Lord.
This sentence should be one that makes each one of us, as members of a local church, to take seriously the decisions we do make as a congregation. Nothing we do is without consequence, and we will have to give an account to our Lord for decision we make, both in church matters and elsewhere, therefore we should approach all church business prayerfully and carefully. (Romans 14:12)

Its scriptural officers are pastors and deacons. While both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.
That second sentence is an addition to the 1963 edition, and has created quite a stir among some. Note first, that those officers which are prescribed from Scripture are pastor and deacons. That does not mean that the local church is limited to those two offices. The church can, as they see the need, have lesser officers such as Sunday-school directors, ministers of music, or other ministry administrators. Secondly, note that the limitation of men only to the office of pastor is not an issue of gifts or abilities, but rather an issue of Scriptural mandate (1 Timothy 2:9-14). Men are are further limited based on qualifications deliniated in Scripture. The pertinent passages on this subject are 1 Timothy 3:1-13 and Titus 1:6-9, and the role and origin of the office of deacon is found in Acts 6.

The New Testament speaks also of the church as the Body of Christ which includes all of the redeemed of all the ages, believers from every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.
What a thought. The church is not only a local body of believers, but the body of all believers of all ages in every place. One of the practical implications of this concept is how we view the church thorughout all of history. Humanly speaking, what we have of our faith as Christians in general, and Baptists in particular, has been handed down from one generation to the next, many times at very great expense. Many have even lost their lives for the sake of the Gospel. We have a responsiblilty to treasure up what has been entrusted to us, and pass it on to the next generation. What a great responsibility and priveledge. Paul uses the word entrust(ed) twelve times in his epistles. Look how he instructs Timothy to pass on what has been entrusted to him by Paul, so that the process can continue on till the end of the age (1 Timothy 2:1,2).

Also, the unity (again, Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12) that all believers have by virtue of all being in Christ, combined with his being in our midst (Matthew 18:20) when we gather in His name, then each and every local worship service is quite a gathering. That can best be described by quoting Hebrews 12:18,19,22-24:

For you have not come to what may be touched, a blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. . . But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel.

I would again like to thank my pastor, Rod Harris, for supplying his study notes on The Baptist Faith and Message 2000, of which I have leaned heavily, especially on this lesson. You can listen to his Wednesday evening messages on The Baptist Faith and Message 2000 at http://web.mac.com/pwhatch

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