Well, the name Independent Baptist Church might or might not mean anything to you, but after going through our church doctrines in a new members class we recently completed, I wanted to share some of the teachings that are fairly common among Independent Baptist churches. Now, our core doctrines we share quite broadly with many evangelical Christian churches, but it is in the collection of some of the specifics that we start to separate out a little bit. Any one of these things might be found in any church out there, but this is more the collection of all of these kinds of teachings that are found in most Independent Baptist churches, and maybe the whole collection would not be found in Bible churches or nondenominational churches. These were a help to our new church members as we went through them at Calvary Baptist Church in Temecula, and I wanted to share them here, hoping they can be a help to you if you are seeking some kind of clarity on the doctrines of the church.
Eternal Security
Well, one of the distinctive doctrines of Independent Baptists is eternal security. Many churches would teach that salvation is by grace through faith, but many denominations would teach that a Christian can lose his salvation, as if the granting of it was from God but the keeping of it is up to us. Well, we believe God grants everlasting life at the moment of the new birth, and nothing can separate us from the love of God. All true believers in Christ will be saved forever. Now, some might have had a false profession of faith, and others who are saved might have backslidden; they are living in sin, you know. But God knows those who are His, and the doctrine of eternal security says that they are eternally secure. We cannot jump out of the hand of God.
A Normal, Literal Interpretation
Another unique teaching would be the normal, literal interpretation of the Scriptures. When we interpret the Scriptures by the normal, literal, grammatical method, that leads us to a dispensational position, which would largely be accepted among most Independent Baptist churches. It would also lead to a premillennial, pretribulational eschatology; that is the study of the end times. So this dispensational position, this premillennial, pretribulational eschatology, and this normal, literal interpretation of the Scriptures would also lead us to a distinction between Israel and the church, and a future plan for ethnic Israel. We would believe that Israel is separate from the church. The normal, literal interpretation of Scripture would also lead us to understand that hell and the lake of fire will be an eternal torment and punishment, and we would also believe in young-earth creationism. So those would be some unique teachings.
The Ordinances, the King James Bible, and Reverence
Another set of unique teachings would be on the ordinances. We would not call them sacraments. They are not a means of grace, but they are pictures: baptism by immersion, and communion, as ordinances for, and administered by, the local church. And there would be the exclusive use of the King James Bible, for philosophical and practical reasons, which would be largely shared by many Independent Baptist churches. For our church, it would be worship in an atmosphere of reverence. Our services reflect the nature of God as revealed in Hebrews 12:28–29: “Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear: For our God is a consuming fire.” So not just approaching Him in a casual manner, but in a more reverent tone. That is how our services are mostly conducted.
Non-Calvinistic
Another unique trait might be that we are non-Calvinistic. While recognizing that each of the points of TULIP, the doctrines of Calvinism, does have biblical merit, we believe that each point has sufficient counterarguments in Scripture. So rather than being defined by what we are against, most broadly, we believe that all of mankind is provided an equal opportunity to respond to the free gift of salvation by grace through faith.
Worldwide Church-Planting Missions
Another unique aspect might be our focus on worldwide church-planting missions. Many organizations exist to do good around the world, but we believe the local church is God’s plan to spread His Word throughout the world. So most of the missionaries we support, while they would be socially minded, and we just had a missionary in from Papua New Guinea last week who is digging wells and building roads and all of that, they will do good for their communities, but the best good they can do is to plant churches where people are saved and baptized and discipled, to multiply the gospel throughout the world. So most Independent Baptist churches would have a church-planting focus to their missions ministry. So again, although we would share many orthodox doctrines broadly with many denominations, it is in some of these kinds of specifics that we start to see why there are so many different kinds of churches. It is like that old saying, “You might be a redneck if…,” but our take on it would be, “You might be an Independent Baptist if…,” and you fill in some of these specifics we talked about in this video. Well, that about wraps up some of the distinctive features of being an Independent Baptist. I hope it was a help to you, like it was to our church. God bless you, and we will see you in the next video.
