I once met a woman who had been a member of a couple of Southern Baptist’s most well-known and influential churches. One of her pastors had served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and the other in multiple leadership roles on both the national and state level, including president of his state convention. My conversation with this woman proved to be most enlightening, not to mention a little frightening.
In spite of the fact that she and her family had been faithful members of these two large churches over the past several years—eleven years at one church and five years at the other—she informed me that she, along with her husband, disagreed with some of our Southern Baptist beliefs. When I asked her for an example, she told me that neither she nor her husband believed that “we have to be baptized to go to Heaven when we die.”
When I explained to her that the doctrine she had just taken exception to was known as baptismal regeneration, and that it was believed by Roman Catholics and others, but not by Southern Baptists, she argued with me. She insisted that I was wrong, arguing that our supposed belief in this false doctrine is why we are called “Baptist.” It took me a considerable amount of time, not to mention the parading of my Southern Baptist pedigree, to finally convince her otherwise.
As I walked away from our conversation that day, I couldn’t help but wonder about the doctrinal ignorance of the average Southern Baptist. I’m sure that it’s not just those in the pews of megachurches who are ignorant of our doctrine, but also those in the pews of Southern Baptist churches of all sizes. I even suspect that doctrinal ignorance is in no short supply in our pulpits. One thing for sure, it certainly doesn’t bode well for the future of our convention if my suspicions are true.
In the little epistle of Jude, the Bible charges us to “earnestly contend for the faith” (v. 3). How can we defend our faith if we can’t define it? If we don’t know what it is, how will we even know when it’s under attack? Obviously, our ignorance of our faith renders us incapable of defending it. If we are doctrinally clueless, our faith is defenseless and our world will end up faithless.
Unfortunately, when it comes to the doctrine of baptism, ignorance is not the only thing plaguing today’s Southern Baptists. Indifference is also rearing its ugly head. For instance, during the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican nominee, the late John McCain, claimed to be a member of North Phoenix Baptist Church, a surprising claim coming from a man who once condemned Christian fundamentalists as “agents of intolerance” and called for their ouster from the Republican Party.
To be honest, I was not all that surprised by a modern-day politician courting and claiming affiliation with those he once condemned; after all, modern-day politicians are creatures of political expediency. What did surprise me, however, was McCain’s “unbaptized” claim of church membership in a Southern Baptist church. According to Pastor Dan Yeary, who was at that time the pastor of North Phoenix, McCain, who was christened an Episcopalian, was not a member of North Phoenix Baptist Church. The reason McCain’s name never appeared on the church roll is because of his refusal to submit to believer’s baptism, a requirement for membership at North Phoenix.
When asked about his unwillingness to be baptized, McCain shrugged off the question by simply retorting, “I [don’t] find it necessary to do so for my spiritual needs." Is the importance of baptism open to private interpretation and to be determined on an individual basis by the varying felt-needs of each individual? I think not! Instead, I believe its importance is to be determined by what God says, not by how we feel?
In his Systematic Theology, first published in 1994, Wayne Grudem, Research Professor of Theology and Biblical Studies at Phoenix Seminary, urged Christians “to come to a common admission that baptism is not a major doctrine of the faith.” He then proceeded to call upon us to be “willing to live with each other's views on this matter” and to refuse to “allow differences over baptism to be a cause for division within the body of Christ." In other words, Professor Grudem wants to know what all of the hoopla is about, since in his eyes baptism is no big deal?
Is baptism a big deal or not? While it may not be as big a deal as some make it out to be, especially those who teach that it is a determining factor in our eternal destiny, it is nonetheless of no little spiritual significance. Contrary to the thinking of men like Wayne Grudem and John McCain, baptism is not open to private interpretation nor unworthy of our defense. It is something worth fighting for!