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WHAT MAKES Baptists different?

We share basic beliefs with the whole range of Christians, and, though we don’t emphasise the historic creeds such as the Apostles’, Nicene and Athanasian, we are share the ideas that they contain.

Our views are evangelical; but on the radical side of that spectrum. We have a lot in common with European Anabaptists (Mennonites, Amish). In our emphasis on personal faith and the Holy Spirit’s power for believers to minister as God has called them to, we were also forerunners of Pentecostal churches like today’s Hillsong church.

So what are our distinctive beliefs?

Three emphases have long been associated with Baptists.

(1) Free and equal access to God
Baptists do not believe that one Christian is more acceptable to God than another; nor do we believe that a priestly intermediary stands between any other believer and God.

(2) Free and equal access to God’s Word
In the same way as we do not accept that there is a superior class of Christian, we believe that all Christians have the right and responsibility both to read, understand and interpret the Bible, and to share their understanding and discoveries with each other.

(3) A free and equal society.
If all Christians are free and equal before God and in relation to each other, it makes sense that the society in which they live must also have a high level of freedom and equality. In particular, that means that the State must not control the Church, nor should the Church control the State. Furthermore, individuals must have a right to hold a belief or to hold no belief without fear of coercion or punishment.

These principles go back to the earliest days of Baptists.

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