In Walter B. Shurden’s The Baptist Identity, he looks at four of the core elements, or freedoms, that shape and mold Baptist theology and their identity. The four core concepts he explores in his book are Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom. While looking at these four values, he examines how they mold and shape the Baptist identity and how they came to be. The origin to each of these values in the Baptist tradition is addressed as well as their benefits and draw backs. He explains their purpose and necessity in the Baptist denomination and how it effects the denomination as a whole.
Bible Freedom The first freedom explored by Walter Shurden is Bible freedom. Shurden tells us that while Bible freedom is a Baptist
This concept boils down to the idea that even though they are a church, they are all still individuals. This is based upon the idea that every single person is created in the image of God. Due to this idea, Baptists are known as some of their individualism (p. 24). This idea of individualism is present even from the beginning of ones walk with a Christian. Saving faith is something that is personal to Baptist, not impersonal. This was an idea that was borrowed from the early reformers, most notably Martin Luther. The Baptist would agree with him in saying that salvation is between the individual and God (p. 25). Some would understand this to mean that this idea of individualism is one of human self-sufficiency, or man being able to save himself. This is far from the truth, we are saved by God’s grace; however, we are saved individual by individual and person by person. We are personally save. We are personally called to ministry or to join a church. And, we are personally called to the baptism and the Lord’s Supper along with being personally called to many other things (p. 26). The Christian walk, to Baptists, is one that is between God and an individual first and
The Second Great Awaking consisted of new applications of religion that deviated from rationalism, which sparked promotion of democracy and freedom. The message of salvation rather than condemnation was evident in this movement as spoken by Charles G. Finney. He sought to remove sin from reformed churches and organize sinners to unity and freedom (Doc B). This practice showed the crucial democrati...
“But what is freedom? Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.”
lord is the spirit and where the spirit of the lord is there is liberty." Du
In the novel Cold Sassy Tree (1984), Olive Ann Burn's plot focuses heavily on religion and its role in society. Mary Willis Blakeslee, a Baptist, is tried for heresy by the deacons of the Baptist church for marrying Hoyt Tweedy, a Presbyterian. “The deacons voted to put it in the church records that ‘Mary Willis Blakeslee has swapped her religious birthright for a mess of matrimonial pottage’” (11). After her father Rucker Blakeslee confronted the deacons they agreed to remove the pottage element from the document (11). Although this confrontation with Grandpa intimidated the deacons it didn’t impede them from excommunicating Mary Willis from her “birth church.” As it ended up she decided to attend the church of her husband, Hoyt Tweedy. As Cold Sassy Tree illustrates, in Georgia in the early 1900’s religion played a major role in marriage decision along with membership to the church. This sort of attention that Mary Willis acquired was very hard for her to tolerate emotionally. It was important to her to appear respectable to the community. Regardless of this embarrassment caused by the Baptist...
Religious institutions have always been a fundamental piece of American culture, and their influence is evident in many aspects of American life. Especially during the 20th century, the spread of Christianity became more competitive as churches vied against one another to draw in new members. This was particularly evident in the development and growth of conservative Protestant groups. Protestant leaders responded to this competition for followers by developing radically new methods for the worship experience. They used their charisma and entrepreneurial spirit to send their messages to the masses. Protestant leader’s manipulation of these methods of outreach was able to attract many new members to the conservative protestant cause, and encouraged Americans to join these large groups of worship.
Unknown. 2014. Basic Beliefs.Southern Baptist Convention SBC.NET 2014 [cited May 15, 2014]. Available from http://www.sbc.net/aboutus/basicbeliefs.asp.
Freedom from what? There is nothing to take a man's freedom away from him, save other men. To be free, a man must be free of his brothers. That is freedom. That and nothing else.” He and liberty have finally escaped the community and achieved freedom. This ties in to the original quote, “To be free a man must be free of his brothers.” They have finally escaped their brothers and sisters, they are free from them, they are free to do as they please and be
People sometimes ask, “Why should I have to give money to this project? I cannot possibly make that much of a difference.” The founder of the Cooperative Program, or the CP, thought differently. Since Ecclesiastes 4:9 says, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil,” how much more can one hundred people do? How much more can 16 million people do? Well, through the CP, an immense amount of success comes from its rich history, its concise system, and by its evidence of life-changing stories. Most importantly, the success of the CP cultivated a revolution in today’s world.
In the first chapter of Nathan Hatch’s book, The Democratization of American Christianity, he immediately states his central theme: democratization is central to understanding the development of American Christianity. In proving the significance of his thesis, he examines five distinct traditions of Christianity that developed in the nineteenth century: the Christian movement, Methodists, Baptists, Mormons and black churches. Despite these groups having diverse structural organization and theological demeanor, they all shared the commonality of the primacy of the individual conscience.
“Reaching Out without Dumbing Down” seems to be constructed for the church leader, elder, or pastor who is considering altering their current, historic worship style for a more modern one that may attract greater numbers of unsaved people. She provides excellent standards to help Pastors and Worship Leaders plan, execute, and evaluate worship services. These same standards provide a great opportunity to educate the church family on the reasons behind the use of certain worship elements. Although written for church leadership, the everyday church member would also benefit from understanding the very concepts that Dawn is directing at God-empowered leaders.
American Protestantism struggled in the 1920’s with the issues of biblical criticism, sources of authority in Christianity, and the theory of evolution. Presbyterians and Baptists experienced splits in their denominations as the events of this decade began to chip away at fundamentalism. For example, John T. Scopes was put on trial for the teaching of evolution, which violated a Tennessee state statute. The growing controversy between Fundamentalists and Modernists as to biblical criticism and evolutionary theories is not what is important in analyzing American Fundamentalism. What is important to analyze is, “in view of the acknowledged impact of these forces, why a minority of Christians responded in one fashion while the majority reacted in another”(Sandeen xi). It was this split in Christianity that made many people believe that fundamentalism should have died out seventy years ago. But fundamentalism survived and there has been a recent resurgence in its’ popularity.
into a richer experience of worship and a more effect life of service" (Crabb, 1977, p.31). The method to establishing an
Boyd, Gregory A., and Paul R. Eddy. Across the Spectrum: Understanding Issues in Evangelical Theology. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2009.
Freedom is a human value that has inspired many poets, politicians, spiritual leaders, and philosophers for centuries. Poets have rhapsodized about freedom for centuries. Politicians present the utopian view that a perfect society would be one where we all live in freedom, and spiritual leaders teach that life is a spiritual journey leading the soul to unite with God, thus achieving ultimate freedom and happiness. In addition, we have the philosophers who perceive freedom as an inseparable part of our nature, and spend their lives questioning the concept of freedom and attempting to understand it (Transformative Dialogue, n.d.).
Some view their Christian liberty as a license to sin. As Bible-believing Christians, we know this is absolutely not the case! Indeed, we are saved by grace, and not through our good works. But what happens when a Christian falls from the path, into his old ways? A Calvinist would say that a true believer cannot lose his salvation, while an Arminian would say that one can lose his salvation (Dunham 41). The purpose of this paper is to look at the issue of eternal security, and to determine whether “once saved, always saved” does hold true, or whether a Christian can lose his salvation.