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Hello everybody, it's Moojatall23 back in another video. In this video, I want to talk about the Baptist acronym, and that's an acronym which is commonly used to, I guess, lay out or outline the beliefs of Baptists. Now, I am an independent, fundamental Baptist. I go to a Baptist church, and I think, for the most part, this acronym is correct. This is based, all of these things are based on what the Bible says in Biblical doctrines. Now, there's one thing I think should be changed just a little bit, and I'll go through that as I explain what the acronym is. So, the acronym itself is just the word Baptists. And the B stands for Biblical authority and foundation. A is autonomy of the local church. P is priesthood of all believers. T is two ordinances, which would be baptism by immersion and the Lord's Supper. I is individual soul liberty. S, the first S, is usually saved and baptized church membership, but I think it makes more sense to put this as salvation by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. And the reason for changing that is because one important belief of independent, fundamental Baptists, and I guess just Baptists in general, is that salvation is by faith, and that extends to eternal security, because anybody who rejects eternal security or the doctrine of once saved, always saved, doesn't really believe it's by faith alone or in Christ alone or grace alone or anything like that anyway because they think that you can still make the decision to, I guess, turn away from God, that one of your sins or one of your own works can cause you to fall away from your salvation. So, anybody who doesn't really believe in eternal security doesn't really believe that salvation is by grace alone through faith alone. So, that is a Baptist's distinctive, because pretty much every Baptist believes in once saved, always saved. Now, the second T is two offices, pastor and deacon, and the second S is separation, and that would be from both the world and church and state. I'm going to go through all of these things and just briefly give an explanation and talk about some verses which support these doctrines and why these are all Biblical and why this distinguishes, I guess, Baptist churches from other denominations, or I guess Baptist isn't really a denomination, especially independent churches, and that goes into A, autonomy of the local church, and I'll explain exactly what that means. So, the first one is that the Bible is our sole authority for faith and practice, okay? We have Biblical authority alone, okay? It's the inspired Word of God and it governs all of what we believe, all of our doctrines, all of what we do. It's the foundation for everything that we hold to, everything that we proclaim is from the Bible. And 2 Timothy 3.16 says, All scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness. In 2 Peter 1.22.21, it says, Knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture was of any private interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man, but holy men of God spake, as they are moved by the Holy Ghost. So these two verses teach that the Bible itself, the scriptures, were inspired by God as the Holy Ghost moved the prophets and the other people who penned down the Word of God. So this means that what we see in the Bible are the very words of God. Now, the Bible also says that Jesus is the Word made flesh in John chapter 1. The Bible has the same authority as Jesus Christ himself and we should listen to it as the words of God above any of man's commandments or man's doctrines, above any traditions or personal experiences and things like that. Instead, we should just focus on what the Word of God says, and that's where we get our doctrine from, not from what the world tells us. So the second doctrine in the acronym would be autonomy of the local church, and that is that the church is a local congregation of saved, baptized believers in Christ. It's not an organization, it's not an institution, it's not a universal church that just includes all believers, but a church is a congregation. It's an independent assembly under the authority of Christ alone, meaning that there's no one person that rules over a set of churches or over all churches. Rather, Jesus is the head of every single individual church. Now, the evidence for this in the Bible, first of all, there's Hebrews chapter 10, verse 25, it says, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is, but exhorting one another and so much the more as you see the day approaching. So this is a commandment to not forsake ourselves when we assemble together, which would be going to church. Now, in Psalm 22, 22, it says, I will praise thee in the midst of the congregation. But in the New Testament, it quotes from this and changes the word congregation to church. It says in Hebrews 2, 12, I will declare thy name unto my brethren. In the midst of the church will I sing praise unto thee. Now, this is quoting from Psalm 22 and it changes congregation to church, which means that it's interchangeable. Congregation and church means the exact same thing. A church, in order for something to be a church, it needs to be a group of believers gathered together. Now, obviously, everybody who is a Christian in the world is not gathered together. They've never been gathered together and they won't be gathered together in one until the rapture, when we're all up in heaven. So there's no universal church. Now, concerning the purpose of church and things like that, it says in Ephesians 4, verse 11 to 15, And he gave some apostles and some prophets and some evangelists and some pastors and teachers for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, till we all come in the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, and to a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sight of men in uncraftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive, but speaking the truth and love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth according to the effectual working and the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love. So basically what this is saying is the purpose of teachers and pastors and positions inside of the church and for these things to exist inside the church, and this kind of ties in with the second T, or the second T as well, the two offices. The purposes of these positions inside of the church is to help us grow, help us learn how to work for God, help us learn how to serve God and understand the doctrines of God. It says for the edifying of the body of Christ, edifying means to build us up. So the purpose is to build us up to help us learn and to help us increase in the knowledge of God and what the Bible says. So that's one of the purposes of going to church. Now the third doctrine is the priesthood of all believers, and that is that all believers, regardless of their spiritual status, have the ability to come to God in prayer and worship, for Christ alone is the mediator between God and man. This distinguishes from the, this is a doctrine which is held by most Protestants and it distinguishes from the more traditionalist, Catholic and Orthodox doctrines that only the priests can really come to God for. You need to confess your sins to them. You can't just confess to God, or you need to pray to Mary or the saints or something like that. Well, no, the Bible doesn't teach that. It says in 1 Peter 2.9, but ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, and holy nation of peculiar people that ye should show forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. So it calls us a royal priesthood. We are priests ourself, meaning that we can come to God on our own. Now 1 Timothy 2.5 says, for there is one God and one mediator between God and man. One mediator does not mean two mediators or three mediators or however many mediators there are. There's only one person who connects us as men to God, and that is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. So the fourth doctrine, the first T, is the two ordinances, and those two ordinances are baptism and the Lord's Supper, and baptism should be performed upon a saved Christian, meaning somebody who already believes, by immersion, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. It's not by sprinkling or pouring or anything else. It's not upon an infant or any unbeliever, only on somebody who believes. And the Lord's Supper, the second ordinance, is a fulfillment of the Passover Feast in the Old Testament, and it should only be taken by members of the Church in remembrance of the sacrifice of Christ. Now concerning the first ordinance, baptism, and how it should be only by immersion, it says in Matthew 3.16, and Jesus, when He was baptized, went up straightway out of the water. All right, so it's saying that He was in the water and He went up straightway out of the water, which means nobody poured water on His head or sprinkled water on His head. He was immersed in the water and He went up out of the water. That's why it says in Romans 6 that baptism is a picture of the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. You have the death, the burial, and the resurrection. Okay? Look, you're immersed in the water. It's not just you just pour water on your head. That doesn't make any sense. How does that symbolize the death, burial, and resurrection? It doesn't. And then in John 3.22, it says, after these things came Jesus and His disciples into the land of Judea, and there He tarried with them and baptized. That's verse 21. Verse 22 says, and John was baptizing in Enon near Salim because there was much water there. So it says that He was baptizing there because there was much water. Now, you don't need that much water to sprinkle or pour. You can just get a little bucket or a little cup and pour it on someone's head. You don't need a full river in order to baptize somebody. So, again, the Bible clearly talks about baptism by immersion repeatedly and also just the word baptism itself just means immersion. That's just what the Greek word means. So any doctrine which teaches that you can just be sprinkled or poured on is false. That's just having water poured on your head. It doesn't mean anything. And then, of course, we should do it in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, as it says in Matthew 28 and 19. And then it should only be on believers, as it says in Acts 8.36 to 38. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water, and the eunuch said, See, here is water. What doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believeth with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still. And they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. So this eunuch is asking Philip, What's hindering me from being baptized? And his response was, Well, you need to believe first. If thou believeth, thou mayest. Which means if you don't believe, you can't get baptized, which means infants can't get baptized, because infants do not have a knowledge of Jesus Christ. I mean, there's no one-year-old out there who knows anything about the gospel. They don't believe. They don't have that cognitive capability yet. Now concerning the Lord's Supper, it says in 1 Corinthians 5, Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump as ye are unleavened, for even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us. Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. And it talks about the Lord's Supper in much detail in 1 Corinthians 11, verse 18 to 29. It says, For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you, and I partly believe it, for there must be also heresies among you, that they which are approved may be made manifest among you. When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord's Supper, for in eating everyone taketh before other in his own supper, and one is hungry and another is drunken. What, have ye not houses to eat and to drink in, or despise ye the church of God, and shame them that have not? What shall I say to you? Shall I praise you in this? I praise you not, for I have received of the Lord that which I also delivered unto you, that the Lord Jesus, the same night in which he was betrayed, took bread, and when ye had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat, this is my body, which is broken for you, this do in remembrance of me. After the same manner also he took the cup, when he had supped, saying, This cup is the New Testament in my blood. This do ye, as oft as ye drink it, in remembrance of me. For as often as ye eat this bread and drink this cup, ye do show the Lord's death till he come. Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread and drink this cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread and drink of that cup. For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily eateth and drinketh damnation himself, not discerning the Lord's body. So Paul is writing about the Lord's Supper, quoting from the time of the Last Supper in Matthew 26, and Mark 14, and Luke 22, I think. Yeah, Luke 22, and John 18, no, John 13. So all these scriptures which talk about Jesus at the Last Supper, and he takes the bread and the wine, and he says, eat this and drink this in remembrance of me, and we're doing that, of course, because of the fact that Jesus died on the cross, his body was broken for us, and that his blood was shed for us. So we have these two symbols of his body and blood, and we take this. We need to be worthy, meaning we need to actually be saved. We need to be somebody who's part of the church. We need to be somebody that isn't harboring sin in our life. Et cetera, in order to take the Lord's Supper. So the next doctrine is individual soul liberty. That's what the I stands for, and that is that every individual is responsible for his own actions. Now, that includes salvation and membership in a church. It's not hereditary. Nobody can be saved just because of how they're raised. You know, some people say, well, I was raised a Christian. Well, it doesn't matter. It doesn't matter how you're raised. It matters on whether or not you believe yourself. It doesn't matter what culture you grow up in or anything like that. It's our own choice of whether or not we follow God and accept Christ, and we cannot be forced to do so by any government or any church, because coercion does not result in belief. But rather, we are responsible for our own actions, and we are going to give an account on Judgment Day of everything that we've done. It says in 2 Corinthians 5, verse 10, For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that everyone may receive the things done in his body according to that he hath done, whether it be good or bad. Romans chapter 14, verse 5 to 12 says, One man esteemeth one day above another, another esteemeth every day alike. Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind. He that regardeth the day regardeth it unto the Lord, and he that regardeth not the day, to the Lord he doth not regard it. He that eateth, eateth to the Lord, for he giveth God thanks, and he that eateth not, to the Lord he eateth not, giveth God thanks. For one of us liveth in himself, and no man dieteth to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord, and whether we die, we die unto the Lord. Whether we live therefore or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died and rose and revived, that he might be Lord both of the dead and living. But why dost thou judge thy brother, or why dost thou set at naught thy brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ, for it is written, As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to God. So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God. So he's saying every one of us, meaning every individual, it's not going to be a collective punishment. Everybody themselves needs to stand before God and give an account of what they have done to God, which means everybody is responsible, everybody will receive according to their old works. Those are how rewards are given according to the Bible in Matthew 16, 27, et cetera. And the next doctrine, the first S, is salvation by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone. And that means that salvation, salvation by grace alone means that we have or we receive eternal life as a gift from God. It's not by any of our own merits, any of our own righteousness, or any of our own works. It's from the mercy of God, and we accept this gift that God has given to us by putting our trust in Christ to save us. And this also means that no matter what we do, it entirely depends on Christ. We cannot lose our salvation because God forgives us our sins and gives us eternal life. We are born again. It says in John 3.16, For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Jesus said in John 5.24, Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word and believeth on Him that sent me hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life. In John chapter 10, verse 28 to 29, it says, And I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father which gave them me is greater than all, and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand. In John chapter 11, verse 25 to 26, he says, I am the resurrection of life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live, and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. In Acts chapter 16, verse 30 to 31, someone asked Paul and Silas, Sirs, what must I do to be saved? And they answered and said unto him, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved. In Romans 3, 28, it says, Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith without the deeds of the law. In Romans chapter 4, verse 5 to 7, But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness, even as David also described the blessedness of the man unto whom God impudeth righteousness, without work, saying, Blessed are they whose iniquities are forgiven, and whose sins are covered. In Romans chapter 10, verse 9, it says, That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and believe in thine heart that God hath resteth in the dead, thou shalt be saved. In Ephesians chapter 2, verse 8 to 9, it says, For by grace are you saved, through faith and the not of yourselves, that is the gift of God, not of works lest any man should boast. In Titus chapter 3, verse 5, it says, Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but by his mercy he saved us, by the washing and regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. So, all of these verses make it very clear, all you need to do to be saved, to have eternal life, is believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and there's not any works you have to do, okay, it says, without the deeds of the law, it says, but to him that worketh not, it says, not of works lest any man should boast, it says, not by works of righteousness which we have done, over and over again, it says, not by works, not by works, not by works. It says, by faith, you're justified by faith, okay, we believe on Jesus Christ and we shall be saved, as it was promised in Acts 16, Romans 10, and Jesus said in John 3, 16, so over and over again, we are saved and we have eternal life, meaning, again, Jesus said, we shall never perish, in John 11, he said, you shall never die. It's pretty clear, so that's a very important doctrine, I think, of course, the most important doctrine of all of these, because somebody isn't a Christian at all if they don't believe this, they need to put their trust in Christ alone and understand and believe the gospel in order to be saved, so that's definitely the most important out of all of these. So the next one, the second T, is there are two offices in a church, and that would be the pastor and a deacon. Neither one has absolute authority over the church, and neither one is infallible, as some churches declare their head to be, such as the Roman Catholic Church, they claim that the pope is infallible, but that's not true. Now the former, the pastor, his job is to oversee the church and teach the believers with the Bible, while the deacon is an assistant. Ultimately, though, Christ rules over the whole church and has no earthly equivalent or representative. This is in 1 Timothy 3, this is talking about the offices of pastor and deacon and the requirements for it. This is a true saying, Not a novice, lest being lifted up with pride, he fall into the condemnation of the devil. Moreover, he must have a good report of them, which are without, lest he fall into reproach and the snare of the devil. Likewise must the deacons be grave, not double-tongued, not given much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved, then let them use the office of a deacon, being found blameless, even so must their wives be grave, not slanderers, sober, faithful in all things. Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, ruling their children in their own house as well. For they that have used the office of a deacon well purchase themselves a good degree and great boldness in the faith, which is in Christ Jesus. So this is all teaching that these are the things that you need to do in order to be a pastor and a deacon. And, I mean, that's it. There's nothing else in this chapter or anything else in 1 Timothy which talks about another office. There's no mention of an archbishop or a separate priest or anything else. There's just pastor and deacon. There's not 500 different offices you can be in, which some churches do have a lot, but these are the only ones that the Bible talks about. The bishop, which is interchangeable with the pastor, bishop just means overseer, while pastor means overseer of the flock. Again, the same thing. And then deacon just means assistant. So those are the only two offices that the Bible actually talks about. The last doctrine in the Baptist acronym is separation. And that means to be separate both from the world and that the church and the state should be separate. Now I'm going to talk about the world first. And the world refers to the sinful and wicked system and culture which we live in. And this means that we shouldn't live like those who are the enemies of God. We should follow the Bible and live according to its principles. And at the same time, we should not be unequally yoked with unbelievers and walk with and fellowship with the loss of this world. Now separation, again, can also refer to the fact that the government of any nation does not have a say in how churches are run. And we reject the idea of a state church or that there's a king or some kind of earthly ruler that has power over any local congregation. It says in 2 Corinthians 6, verse 14 to 17, Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers? For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel? And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? For ye are the temple of the living God, as God hath said, I will dwell in them and walk in them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Wherefore, come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing, and I will receive you. In 1 John, chapter 2, verse 15 to 17, it says, Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof, but he that doeth the will of God abideth forever. Now, both of these passages right here, 2 Corinthians 6 and 1 John 2, both give commandments to be separate from the world. It says, Be ye not unequally yoked. And then I didn't quote verse 18 here, but in verse 18, right after verse 17 that I did read, it says, Sayeth the Lord God Almighty. So this is God saying this himself, directly as a commandment, saying, you know, don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers. It says, Be ye separate, saith the Lord. So he is literally telling us, be separate. And then in 1 John 2, it says, Love not the world. Now that's just, you shouldn't love the world, or don't love the world, question mark, or whatever. It's a commandment. Love not the world, okay, because everything that is in the world, all that is in the world, according to verse 16, is not of the Father, but is of the world. Now concerning separation of church and state, it says in Acts chapter 5, verse 29, Then Peter and the other apostles answered and said, We ought to obey God rather than men. And that means that it doesn't matter what the state church says, it doesn't matter if they say, well, I have divine authority from God or whatever, and I can say how, what you're supposed to do in the church and what you're supposed to practice and everything like that, such as was in the Church of England before, you know, the Puritans and some Baptists and other separatists decided, you know, we've had enough of this. This is too, too much like Rome. So basically we need to obey God and what the Bible says rather than putting man at the same level or above that. Ephesians chapter 1, verse 22 says, And half put all things under his feet and gave him to be the head over all things to the church. So that's basically saying that Jesus Christ is the head of all things in the church. Okay, not, again, not a man, not a man at all. Okay, no earthly king, no earthly ruler has authority or power over any church. And then, of course, Jesus says, My kingdom is not of this world. So Jesus is our king. Jesus is our ruler. And yes, the king of, you know, the king Jesus, the king of kings, he has authority over every single church, but no earthly ruler, no earthly human at all has power over a church. The government is to be separate from the local congregations, and they have no say in what we can do and believe in things like that. So those are all of the Baptist distinctives in the acrostic Baptist, B-A-P-T-I-S-T-S. All right, those are all the doctrines. Again, biblical authority and foundation, autonomy of the local church, priesthood of all believers, two ordinances, individual soul liberties, salvation by grace alone through faith alone and Christ alone, two offices, and separation from the world and separation of church and state. So those are the things which I, as a Baptist, hold to and believe. And, of course, I would be contradicting the first one, biblical authority and foundation, if I didn't use the Bible for every single one. And, of course, I made a video a couple weeks ago about biblical foundation, how we should base what we believe on the Bible and not on our own opinions or what man says and things like that. So thank you everybody for watching and goodbye.