Who I am and what I am looking for...

[Annie]

Annie, I don't believe your post was anyway pointed towards my last post, being as the only thing I brought up was salvation. But I want you to be assured when I made that post the only thing in my mind was salvation.

To be honest I believe you will find many that holds those beliefs you stated in many different Baptist Churches.

You are correct.

[Guest]

Is it not possible to learn about Baptists without comparing them to other denominations/religions?
I want to know what Baptists believe. How they live a close relationship with Jesus and what kind of things they do that make them the true Church.

You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists" we are Independent Baptists (see Jerry's post).
You're under a misconception, see the red highlighted above.
We don't believe we are the "true church," as you've implied. We believe we have God's truth between the covers of the King James Bible. That is what we base all our doctrines and practice of faith from.

Quid pro quo, what do those believe who mask their church affiliation believe? Edited March 10, 2012 by 1Tim115

[Annie]

You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists."
You're under a misconception, see the red highlighted above.
We don't believe we are the "true church," as you've implied. We believe we have God's truth between the covers of the King James Bible. That is what we base all our doctrines and practice of faith from.

Quid pro quo, what do those believe who mask their church affiliation believe?

Speak for yourself, brother. ;)

[Guest]

Speak for yourself, brother.

I think I fixed your objection, err maybe. I left half the comment. Oh, that's right I forgot about you and the KJBs, however, I think I speak for the majority there too.

[Annie]

I think I fixed your objection, err maybe. I left half the comment. Oh, that's right I forgot about you and the KJBs, however, I think I speak for the majority there too.

I'm not sure what you mean by "leaving half the comment"...can you explain? Perhaps you speak for a majority here on this board (a certain stripe of IB), but you certainly don't speak for a majority of independent Baptists, let alone Baptists in general. (Please understand that I'm not trying to start a debate; I'm just interested in answering dskysmine's questions as accurately as possible.) Edited March 10, 2012 by Annie

[JerryNumbers]

You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists" we are Independent Baptists (see Jerry's post).
You're under a misconception, see the red highlighted above.
We don't believe we are the "true church," as you've implied. We believe we have God's truth between the covers of the King James Bible. That is what we base all our doctrines and practice of faith from.

Quid pro quo, what do those believe who mask their church affiliation believe?

Your right, we are not the church!

[swathdiver]

Hello everyone,
I am actually not a IFB, I am a Christian from another Denomination but I came here to learn some more about Baptists because my girlfriend is a Baptist.
I hope that you can help me learn some more about Baptists. I will not try to evangelize or proselyte anyone. THank you for the opportunity.
One in Christ,
D

Welcome to the forum!

Would you please share your salvation testimony with us? How was your girlfriend wonderfully saved as well?

[Pastor Matt]

Welcome to OB. I see you already got enough to chew on. :)

[OLD fashioned preacher]

Howdy,
I don't really care what group (denomination, etc) you are with (at least not as a primary concern); I want to hear why you think you'll go to Heaven (if you believe you will) and what hope your girlfriend (which I hope is not a vague reference to a sexual relationship outside of marriage) has after this life -- for this is PRIMARY!!!

Surely, these can be told to us without feeling that it will be counterproductive to learning what certain or several Baptists believe.

[dskysmine]

During the weekend I could not come so I guess this got a little too crowded.
Everybody is welcome of course...

Howdy,
I don't really care what group (denomination, etc) you are with (at least not as a primary concern); I want to hear why you think you'll go to Heaven (if you believe you will) and what hope your girlfriend (which I hope is not a vague reference to a sexual relationship outside of marriage) has after this life -- for this is PRIMARY!!!

Surely, these can be told to us without feeling that it will be counterproductive to learning what certain or several Baptists believe.

I hope I will go to Heaven because Jesus opened the doors to allow me to go in, I do not "know" if I will go to Heaven or not.
My girlfriend is a Baptist and although I don't understand all the details she has asserted that Jesus is Lord and Saviour about her life, and that she is certain of His Salvation.

Welcome to OB. I see you already got enough to chew on.

Thank you for the welcome.

Welcome to the forum!

Would you please share your salvation testimony with us? How was your girlfriend wonderfully saved as well?

Both me and my girlfriend were born and raised in different denominations, from her side I can say that she discovered her personal relationship with Jesus around 20 years old, when she got baptized after a struggle discovering what God meant to her and how she wanted to make Him the Lord about her life. (might be paraphrasing a little)
In my case it was a little bit different as I don't have such a clear cut defining moment and have always believed in Jesus as a close Saviour that always protected me growing up.

Your right, we are not the church!

Maybe you'd care to elaborate on that?

You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists" we are Independent Baptists (see Jerry's post).
You're under a misconception, see the red highlighted above.
We don't believe we are the "true church," as you've implied. We believe we have God's truth between the covers of the King James Bible. That is what we base all our doctrines and practice of faith from.

Quid pro quo, what do those believe who mask their church affiliation believe?

Maybe then I can learn about "Independent Baptists"...?
If you don't believe you are "the true church" why don't you move to it?
Do you mean that you believe that the King James Bible is the only translation that we should use to read the Gospel?
Why does my undisclosure of my "church affiliation" hurt you?
Is everybody who comes to this Forum expected to debate ad infinitum every single difference between belief instead of learning?
Is that how you'd teach an atheist?

Welcome, D! Glad to have you with us.

Thank you for the warm welcome!

All I mean is that since "independent Baptist" is not a denomination, there's not one specific "creed" that all independent Baptists follow. And, although each local church is autonomous, they tend to fall into certain groups, many times depending on which universities their pastors attended.

One "stripe" of independent Baptists could be described this way (and before a raging debate begins, I should say that no, I don't have any particular person/people on this board in mind as I write this description...it's more of a stereotype of the "Hyles" mentality). There is a "stripe" of independent Baptist which believe the following things:
--that the only "inspired Word of God" is the King James Version of the Bible
--that women should not wear pants
--that no Christian should ever attend a movie theater
--that a black person should not marry a white person

My particular stripe of IB doesn't believe any of those things. And there are many variations in between the extreme ends of the IB spectrum.

I don't understand why there is a spectrum to start of. I though that Independent Baptists had the Truth and not a spectrum of truths. What does this mean? That there is no Truth?

Hi, dsky. Welcome aboard. Glad to have you with us. If you have questions about what Baptists believe, we will be more than glad to answer them. "Reveal" your denomination at your leisure. It might be a good idea to begin a new topic with your questions. Titling a thread with the topic will draw attention to it.

I think I already asked this more than once because I don't see a place where to put questions. I'd imagine there'd be a part of the Forum dedicated to questions... do you know where?

Many denominations may seem similar to us Baptist, but if you really get down to it, & study the Bible, & see what many of them teach about salvation, you will see a major difference between them & us. About 80% of the denominations in this world teaches works base salvation, most of us Baptist teach that one is save only by grace though faith in Jesus, not of works, not of self, it is a gift from God.

Does this mean that you believe in predestination? That those that God chooses are the ones that will be saved and those who do not receive the gift were forever doomed?

Sorry for such a long post... You guys are really active.
One in Christ,
D

[John81]

The Lounge is a good forum to ask questions in.

The reason not all Independent Fundamentalist Baptists are in full agreement on all things is because each IFB church is independent. IFB is not a denomination.

IFB churches have typically held to the same "fundamentals", but today even in this area there are differences since some IFB churches have added more to what they consider "fundamentals" beyond what has traditionally been known as the fundamentals.

[Annie]

I don't understand why there is a spectrum to start of. I though that Independent Baptists had the Truth and not a spectrum of truths. What does this mean? That there is no Truth?

The spectrum of which I am speaking has to do with differences in application of the Truth, not disagreement about Truth itself. Truth comes from God--God IS Truth--and God has revealed Himself to men in his word, the Bible. All stripes of every kind of Baptist, both mainline and independent, believe this. The Bible transcends time and culture. It is full of general principles as well as specific commands; it doesn't "spell out" every single response to every single issue in every single culture. It is up to the reader to apply the principles from the Bible to his own particular situation in time and space and culture. For example, the Bible says that Christian women should dress "modestly." Different people in various times and cultures have applied that principle differently, while still obeying it. God has given us his Spirit to guide us into wisdom and discernment in these areas.

So, yes, there is Truth which has been revealed to us, and we agree about what that Truth is, but we might differ in our applications of that Truth in our own lives. For example, some ladies might think that wearing slacks/pants is immodest because too much of the female form is revealed; so, they would think of pants as "immodest" clothing. (This was certainly true of most women around the world before the 20th century.) Others disagree; they do not believe that, given our culture today, pants are immodest on women. So, they would wear pants. Women on both sides of the issue are taking the principle given by Truth (that women should be modest) and using their best judgment to decide how to apply it. Both sets of women are obeying Scripture the best they know how. Make sense? Edited March 12, 2012 by Annie

[John81]

The spectrum of which I am speaking has to do with differences in application of the Truth, not disagreement about Truth itself. Truth comes from God--God IS Truth--and God has revealed Himself to men in his word, the Bible. All stripes of every kind of Baptist, both mainline and independent, believe this. The Bible transcends time and culture. It is full of general principles as well as specific commands; it doesn't "spell out" every single response to every single issue in every single culture. It is up to the reader to apply the principles from the Bible to his own particular situation in time and space and culture. For example, the Bible says that Christian women should dress "modestly." Different people in various times and cultures have applied that principle differently, while still obeying it. God has given us his Spirit to guide us into wisdom and discernment in these areas.

So, yes, there is Truth which has been revealed to us, and we agree about what that Truth is, but we might differ in our applications of that Truth in our own lives. For example, some ladies might think that wearing slacks/pants is immodest because too much of the female form is revealed; so, they would think of pants as "immodest" clothing. (This was certainly true of most women around the world before the 20th century.) Others disagree; they do not believe that, given our culture today, pants are immodest on women. So, they would wear pants. Women on both sides of the issue are taking the principle given by Truth (that women should be modest) and using their best judgment to decide how to apply it. Both sets of women are obeying Scripture the best they know how. Make sense?

No.

[Guest]

I'm not sure what you mean by "leaving half the comment"...can you explain? Perhaps you speak for a majority here on this board (a certain stripe of IB), but you certainly don't speak for a majority of independent Baptists, let alone Baptists in general. (Please understand that I'm not trying to start a debate; I'm just interested in answering dskysmine's questions as accurately as possible.)

Prior to change...You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists."
After change...You are probably at the wrong site to learn about "Baptists" we are Independent Baptists (see Jerry's post).
We can take the minority vs. majority to a different thread some day then we can find some numbers. I was speaking only about Independent Baptists on this site.

[Guest]

During the weekend I could not come so I guess this got a little too crowded.

I hope I will go to Heaven because Jesus opened the doors to allow me to go in, I do not "know" if I will go to Heaven or not.
My girlfriend is a Baptist and although I don't understand all the details she has asserted that Jesus is Lord and Saviour about her life, and that she is certain of His Salvation.


1-Maybe then I can learn about "Independent Baptists"...?
2-If you don't believe you are "the true church" why don't you move to it?
3-Do you mean that you believe that the King James Bible is the only translation that we should use to read the Gospel?
4-Why does my undisclosure of my "church affiliation" hurt you?
5-Is everybody who comes to this Forum expected to debate ad infinitum every single difference between belief instead of learning?
6-Is that how you'd teach an atheist?

One in Christ,
D

1-Sure you're learning already (someone else mentioned we've had a couple of antagonists here recently and some of us are gun shy...me included however that's no excuse for not apologizing).

2-We don't believe we are the only ones going to heaven. Anyone who believes they are saved by grace through Jesus' shed blood on Calvary will be in heaven.

3-I could give you the long version on the KJB but for now...it is the preserved word of God for English speaking people for doctrines and practice of faith.

4-Disclosure doesn't hurt me or anyone, it doesn't hurt you either. When I speak with someone about faith I like to know some background. Is there anything besides some of my bad manners you would like to know about me?

5-No everyone doesn't have to debate, you can learn and when you see something that causes you to, ask why someone made a certain statement, ask about it.

6-No, I would not teach an atheist this way.

I'll apologize now and sincerely, I see you are offended. I hope you accept the apology.

I noticed you have some doubt about knowing if you are saved or not. I have a couple verses to share. Notice where the verse below says, "know that ye have eternal life."

1 John 5:13 These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God.

John 20:31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.