The scriptures teach that we should ‘repent and be baptised’ and so the only people who should be baptised are those who have turned to God and accepted His free gift of Salvation through Christ. Only baptised believers should become covenanted members of a local Baptist fellowship.

Baptist churches are not independent but are autonomous: self-governing and self-supporting (when possible). But these churches co-operate together into Associations, Unions and Conventions to support each other and wider ministries such as colleges and seminaries, mission and relief programmes. Baptist churches in a locality can turn to nearby Baptist churches for help and advice, as is the case with moderators during interregnums.

Each believer has a direct access to God through Christ and the Holy Spirit. God reveals Himself to us as individuals and God also reveals Himself and His Will for a particular time and place to the body that makes up a local church. The Body of Christ (the Church) seeks the Mind of Christ when it meets together such as in a Church Members’ Meeting. When someone is appointed to a leadership position (as pastor, deacon or whatever) by the Church after it has sought God’s Will, that authority has been recognised by the Church, but those appointed as still accountable to God through the Church which can, if necessary rescind any decision made by the leadership or can revoke the leader’s authority if he or she is clearly not in harmony with the revealed Mind of Christ to the Body of Christ as a whole.

Although there are Baptist churches that refer to believers’ baptism and communion as sacraments – to indicate a symbol of deep spiritual significance – the preferred term is “ordinance” as these are things that Jesus ordained that His followers should do.

Baptism is a one-off event for each individual where he or she publicly identifies the self with Christ who was buried and raised to life for that individual who now desires to die to self and life for Christ. Communion is a regular and repeated communal celebration which reaffirms those baptismal vows as we recall what Christ has done for us.

The word ‘baptise’ is a transliteration of a Greek word for which there is no adequate translation in English. Although it can mean “dip” or “immerse” it means much more. Baptism into and under water is symbolic of true Christian Baptism which is a spiritual baptism into Christ. This is not a one-off ceremony but is an ongoing and life-long process where the disciple is immersed into Christ. Just like a biscuit is changed when it is ‘dunked’ into tea, so in Christian baptism the disciple takes on more and more of Christ as this spiritual baptism is administered by the Holy Spirit.

Baptism into and under water is a one-off symbol of the spiritual baptism that has already begun and will continue afterwards.

Although we adhere to the great creeds we understand and interpret them in the light of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible. The Bible is our textbook of what we believe and how we should live. We study the Bible to understand what it originally meant and how these timeless biblical principles can be applied in the here and now. We use our God-given intellects to understand the Bible but it is the Scriptures that is the “measuring stick” of orthodoxy not the latest intellectual fad.

We believe that the freedom to worship, and the freedom to believe or not believe, cannot be given to one group and not another. We may not share other people’s beliefs or religions but how can we insist on religious freedom for ourselves and deny it to others? We believe that even if we strongly disagree with what another person believes they have as much right to express their beliefs or non-beliefs as we do. We simply ask that religious toleration be available for all and not just for some and that everyone should be free to worship without discrimination or threat of punishment.

By this we mean that no state should favour one church or religion over another and that no political entity should exercise control over any body of believers that make up a church. Do we mean that religion should play no part in civic or state affairs? No. It is often right and proper that State-sponsored entities should be allowed to pray for God’s help or seek wisdom in the Scriptures. But no church should control a State (a national civic government decision-making body) and no State should control a church.

These are not doctrines they are particular emphases which, although views no longer unique to Baptists, help us to understand aspects of the distinctive way we operate as Christian communities (or local churches) as being “Baptists”. 

Peter Idris Taylor