Can a Baptist be Reformed?

Sovereign Grace Family Church

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Hello, welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

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This is a daily conversation about scripture, culture and media from a Reformed perspective.

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Get your Bible and coffee ready and prepare to engage today's topic.

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Here's your host, Pastor Keith Foskey.

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Welcome back to Coffee with a Calvinist.

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My name is Keith Foskey and I am a Calvinist.

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It's Reformation week at Coffee with a Calvinist and we are looking forward to Saturday, October 31st where we will be celebrating the Reformation with our Reformation celebration at Sovereign Grace Family Church.

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On Saturday of this week at noon we're going to have our German feast because of the Reformation having begun with the work of Martin Luther in Germany and we're going to also have a retelling of the life of Luther and an outdoor sermon.

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If you are in the Jacksonville area and you would like to participate with us this coming Saturday, please send me a message and I will be happy to save you a seat and make sure that we have a place for you.

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We would love to have you come and celebrate the Reformation with us.

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But as I said, this week, being Reformation week, I have spent each day looking at a particular aspect, person from Reformation history and we have already looked at John Wycliffe on Monday, we looked at Jan Hus on Tuesday, we looked at yesterday, Ulrich Zwingli, the Swiss Reformer and today we're actually going to look not just at one single person, but we're going to look at a movement within the Reformation and we're going to ask a question.

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Are Baptists really Reformed? And the reason why I ask that question is because that particular question is often one which inspires a lot of controversy.

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Are Baptists really part of the Reformation? And this leads to an important side note in Reformation history.

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Yesterday, we talked about the Swiss Reformer, Ulrich Zwingli.

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Well, in Switzerland, another movement began, which many people are familiar with, at least by the name, but few people really know a lot about and that is what is known as the Anabaptist movement.

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Now very quickly, I want to make a distinction right off the bat.

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Baptists of today have differing views on how they recognize their link with the Anabaptist movement that began in the 1500s.

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And some see the Anabaptists as the ancestors of the modern Baptists.

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Some see the Anabaptists as a different line off of the Reformation as the modern Baptists.

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And I want to just talk about how the Anabaptists began.

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I want to talk about one particular person, Michael Sattler, who was an important figure in the Anabaptist movement.

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And I want to talk about how the early Baptists in England saw themselves as distinct from the Anabaptists.

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So let's begin by quickly talking about what is an Anabaptist.

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The word Anabaptist simply means to a re-baptizer.

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At this point in history, in the Western world, you were baptized as a Christian as a child, as a newborn.

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Christians were baptized as babies.

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Infant baptism, sometimes called paedo-baptism, was practiced and the Anabaptist movement was began by a group who believed that re-baptizing was necessary because the first baptism was not done by a profession of faith, but rather having been born into a Christian community.

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And the Anabaptists actually didn't like that title.

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That title Anabaptist was applied to them by those who were opposed to them.

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The Anabaptists did not see themselves as re-baptizing, but rather they saw what they were doing was genuine baptism.

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It was baptism upon profession of faith.

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It was credo-baptism, not a re-baptism, but a first true and genuine baptism.

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And so this became very important and a huge distinction between the Reformers and the Anabaptists.

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As we said yesterday, Zwingli was radical, but the Anabaptists, many of which had been influenced by Zwingli and his radical teachings, this was considered an even more radical departure from the traditional teachings of the Roman Catholic Church.

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And to go away from baptism, infant baptism, was for many a bridge too far.

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It was going beyond what any of the Reformers had considered to be a righteous direction.

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And many of the Reformers thought that the Anabaptists had absolutely gone too far.

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In fact, persecution for the Anabaptists came not only from the Roman Catholics, but also from some in the Reformation.

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Some of the Reformers had persecuted the Anabaptists, and the Anabaptists were treated poorly from all sides.

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And the Anabaptists, some of them even gave their lives for their faith, and that's where we're going to get to Michael Sattler in a minute and talk about him, but particularly some of them were drowned.

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And the phrase that was used was, against the waters of baptism you have sinned, so with the waters of baptism are you to be destroyed, or to be killed.

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And so they would tie stones around their neck, and they would toss them into water, and they would drown for their quote-unquote sin against baptism.

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And so the early Anabaptists were sort of hated by all sides.

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And as I said before, one of their leaders was a former monk by the name of Michael Sattler, and he and a former nun married, and the two of them began to lead within the Anabaptist community.

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And their life was one of, it was a lot of hiding.

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They were, as I said, they were not accepted by Catholic, they were not accepted really by Protestants, they were considered radicals.

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And ultimately, Michael Sattler was eventually captured, and he was put on trial, and he was executed for what was considered to be his crimes against the Church.

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He was a martyr, if you will, among the Anabaptists.

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He was interesting because his death was torturous and was awful.

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Not only did they remove his tongue because of what they considered to be his teaching of blasphemies, but they also burned him, and then his wife, Margarita, was drowned not too long after he was burned.

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And the thing is, though, this particular teaching would later, the idea that baptism was to be upon profession of faith, not simply something that we are born and receive, but rather we receive by profession of faith, this would later become the hallmark of Baptist theology.

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And yet the Baptists did not see themselves as Anabaptists because they did not agree with all of the radical teachings of the Anabaptists.

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The Anabaptists were separatists, and they were pacifistic, and a lot of what they taught is not seen today in modern Baptist churches.

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What we see today as the Anabaptist movement would be seen more in line with the Mennonites and with the Amish and with other groups like that that sort of sit on the outside of society and separate and keep to themselves, and that was very common with the Anabaptists then, and it continues to be common with the Anabaptists of today.

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But in London, when the first Baptist confession was produced, when the first Baptist confession was produced, it was stated clearly that they did not see themselves as Anabaptists.

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In fact, I want to read to you from the first London Baptist confession of faith in 1644.

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It says this, this is the opening paragraph, a confession of faith of seven congregation or churches of Christ in London, which are commonly but unjustly called Anabaptists, published for the vindication of the truth and information of the ignorant, likewise for the taking off those aspersions, which are frequently both in pulpit and print unjustly cast upon them, printed in London in the year of our Lord, 1646.

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So the London Baptist confession, the first London Baptist confession was written so as to say, yes, we are Baptists, but no, we are not Anabaptists.

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We hold to a similar doctrine of baptism, but we do not hold to the other more radical, more separatist doctrines that were held by the Anabaptists.

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So having said all that, when I asked the earlier question, is a Baptist really reformed? If you ask a person who considers themselves part of the reformed tradition, you may get several answers on that question, depending on who you ask.

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A lot of people talk about, and you've heard me talk about in the program if you've listened for a long time, big are reformed and little are reformed.

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The big are reformed would be those who consider themselves part of the reformed tradition that would come out of the teachings of Calvin particularly.

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So the big are reformed would hold to much of what Calvin taught in regard to the structure of the church and particularly the understanding of familial solidarity in regard to baptism, that we baptize our children because they are being born into the covenant community.

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This was what Calvin taught, and this was what the reformers, those in the reformed tradition have taught, and therefore some would say, if you do not baptize your infants, you are not truly reformed.

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And yet there are those who refer to themselves as reformed Baptists, and they call themselves reformed Baptists, typically because they would say we hold to the doctrines of the Reformation with the exception that we do not baptize infants, but we baptize upon a profession of faith.

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Now the point of today's program is not to debate whether or not we should baptize infants or baptize people upon profession of faith.

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I of course would hold to credo baptism, baptism upon profession of faith, but today my argument is not for that, because that would take a lot more time than I have in just this one program.

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But the point that I'm making today is, is it legitimate to call someone who believes in believer's baptism truly reformed? And some would say no, and others would say well they're reformed, but they're reformed Baptists.

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And here's the answer that I have come to, and I do think that this is something that needs to be considered from all sides.

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When the Reformation began, it was an attempt to go back to the Bible on the issues of the day, which were the selling of indulgences, and the misunderstanding of grace, and the misunderstanding of works and faith.

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And upon all of those things, whether you are Presbyterian, or whether you are Anglican, or whether you're Reformed Baptist, we would all hold to very similar teachings on those things of, particularly the five solas, we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone, according to scripture alone, for God's glory alone.

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Those are the foundational stones, those are the battle cries of the Reformation, those are the things that I think truly bring together the reformed.

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But on the issue of baptism, must someone be an infant baptizer to truly be reformed? My answer is no.

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I don't think someone must truly, now again, I make the distinction, big R reform versus little R reform, and I say if somebody wants to say I'm little R reformed, that's fine, because I understand what they're saying.

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They're saying that big R reform means you're holding to all the doctrines essentially that Calvin taught.

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But let me say this.

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Part of the Reformation was going back to the scripture, going back to what the word of God says.

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And I think that's what the Baptists have done in regard to baptism.

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In fact, that's what I think the Anabaptists were trying to do.

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I think they were trying to go back to what the scripture taught in regard to baptism.

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And it is my conviction that the scriptures do not teach infant baptism.

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Now, I know Calvin taught that, Calvin taught infant baptism, and I call myself a Calvinist, but this is one of the areas that I would say I would disagree with Calvin, even though I call myself a Calvinist.

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I would say that the scriptures do not teach infant baptism, but that the scriptures teach that we baptize upon a profession of faith.

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So if anything, I would say that the Anabaptists and then later the English Baptists, if anything, they're not less reformed than those who hold to infant baptism.

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I would say they're more reformed.

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I would say they kept reforming because they saw reformation needed not only in the understanding of justification, not only in the understanding of indulgences, not only in the understanding of the five solas, but they saw reform needed in the foundational aspect of the sacraments or the ordinances.

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That when it comes to baptism, we don't simply baptize someone because they're born into a Christian family, but we baptize someone because they have made a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ that they have stated on their own, without coercion, without any type of outside force or stimulus, but on their own, they have made a confession of the Lordship of Jesus Christ in their life that they believe on him for salvation.

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Someone might say, well, they might not truly believe, and that's true because we cannot know a person's heart, but we can receive a person's confession.

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And as a person who believes that the Baptist tradition is correct and is biblical, I would say that until a person makes a profession of faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, he or she is not an appropriate candidate for baptism.

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So can you be reformed and be a Baptist? I think so.

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In fact, I think the Baptists are even more reformed because they kept reforming.

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Thank you for listening again to Coffee with a Calvinist today.

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I appreciate you listening.

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We have a new program out every weekday morning at 630.

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My name is Keith Foskey, and I have been your Calvinist.

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May God bless you.

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Thank you for listening to today's episode of Coffee with a Calvinist.

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If you enjoyed the program, please take a moment to subscribe and provide us feedback.

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We love to receive your comments and questions and may even engage with them in a future episode.

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As you go about your day, remember this, Jesus Christ came to save sinners.

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All who come to him in repentance and faith will find him to be a perfect Savior.

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He is the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through him.

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May God be with you.