What Is A Baptist 1 - An Acronym

Even when I was very young, the meaning of being a Baptist was important to me.  As fate would have it, it was an important issue for my family.  The next few posts contain some basic information about Baptists and some personal thoughts.  These are my notes and thoughts; some things I do not want to forget.

1 John 4
7 Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.

Like other Christians Baptists fear God, they love God, Jesus Christ is the center of their lives and their spiritual communities.  Unlike many other Christians, Baptists ave a need for personal, conscious decision to accept the grace of God: to be born again, to become a new man, to put one's vile past behind him. Also unlike many other Christians, Baptists have an extra-ordinary interest in the Bible.  Baptists have a desperate need to symbolize this relationship in front of God and man through Baptism. 

There are other characteristics, distincitives, of being a Baptist, which can be seen in this acronym.  It was never clear if some of these distincitives are more important than others. 

Acronym Baptist Baptist Distinctives

• Biblical Authority
• Autonomy of the Local Church
• Priesthood of the Believer
• Two Ordinances
• Individual Religious Liberty
• Saved, Baptized Church Membership
• Two Offices (Pastor and Deacon)
• Separation of Church and State

Over the years, I have come to believe that these distinctives are God's truth revealed in the Bible.