This past week Time magazine had as its cover story an article on the life of Thomas Jefferson. Jefferson was our third president and was the key author of the Declaration of Independence. It is that documents creation and declaration that is the reason for our celebration of this holiday for our nation. In that document Jefferson outlined some very specific freedoms that the Continental Congress believed were basic for all people. The document reads, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness."

Joseph Ellis says that those words "are probably the most important words in American history-and possibly all modern history."(Time, July 5, 2004, p.48) It is those basic freedoms that have guided our nation for the last 228 years. It is those freedoms that over 1000 American men and women have died for in these recent days in the deserts and streets of Iraq. They are there hoping to bring to a people who have known horrible, sadistic oppression for decades the chance at last to determine for themselves what it means to be free!

Just as there are freedoms we believe and hold as a nation there are as well freedoms we believe and hold as a Baptist church. I realize that a message such as this does not immediately identify with an immediate need in your life. You face struggles of all kinds and desire a word from this place about your very real needs. You may see my emphasis as an unnecessary issue, for you are unconcerned about labels and names and care only to be Christian. Others may imagine that bringing this up only creates opportunity for division. I share with you that regardless of your need, perspective or persuasion that there are freedoms that we as Baptists believe that distinguishes us from other faith groups. It is these freedoms that we must remember or we will cease to be a distinctive people of faith called Baptist. For to be Baptist is to be free. Forgetting what it means to be Baptist is forgetting what it means to be free.

The concern and issue of freedom has always been at the heart of who we are as Baptists. That passion for freedom finds its soul in the words of Paul writing to the Galatians. He wrote: "So Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that you stay free, and don't get tied up again in slavery to the law."(Galatians 5:1) The Galatian Christians were non-Jews who were being influenced by Jewish Christians. These Jewish Christians felt that a non-Jew could not fully be Christian unless they adhered to the more narrow laws, regulations and rituals that the Jews followed. In other words, it would be the same as someone telling you that you are not fully Christian if you don’t eat only organic food from a health food store, pierce your ear and get a tattoo. You get the idea.

Paul vehemently admonishes them that Jesus’ death on the cross was to secure their spiritual freedom. That sacrifice was so great that it is necessary that they guard and protect that freedom continually. Failure to do so only creates further restrictions on their spiritual freedom. Galatians 5:1 in the Message Bible says, "Christ has set us free to live a free life. So take your stand! Never again let anyone put a harness of slavery on you." Freedom will erode when it is not defended, preserved and protected. That’s why Paul was so concerned for these Christians and said, "I fear for you. I am afraid that all my hard work for you was worth nothing." (Galatians 4:11)

It was that principle of spiritual freedom that became the soul of those we call Baptist. While early Baptist beginnings are unclear, we do know by 1594 that a group of English Christians left England for Holland seeking to find a place in which they could worship freely and baptize by immersion those who trusted Christ as their Savior. Led by men like John Smyth this group would adopt practices that you and I take for granted—baptism and individually confessing Christ as Savior—which then placed them in direct conflict with their government and the church. In 1612 a man named Thomas Helwys would return to England and write a small booklet that contained the sentence, "Christ only is the king and lawgiver of the church and conscience." It would be for this principle that he would be imprisoned and would cost him his life in 1616.

It is this conviction that no human authority, human coercion, human domination or human government stands between a person and God that is the heart of who we are as Baptists. We believe that all people are free to express their relationship to God in their own way. It doesn’t mean that all people go to heaven or that their religious expression is right. It means you have the freedom to choose Christ or reject Him without the influence or control of any human involvement. That heart beat of freedom finds its expression in four freedoms we believe describe what it means to be Baptist:

In Gal. 4:17, Paul expresses his concern that the Galatians are allowing themselves to be controlled by false teachers. Their desire is less than honest. He said, "Those false teachers who are so anxious to win your favor are not doing it for your good. They are trying to shut you off from me so that you will pay more attention to them." The issue was control. If they could gain control then they could influence the rules they sought to use to restrict the spiritual freedom of these Christians. The control issue violated for Paul a basic spiritual freedom: freedom of the soul from any human authority.

Paul would later write to Timothy, "For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus" (I Tim. 2:5). This verse tells us that when it comes to the soul of a person that there is only one who has any authority over me spiritually and that is Jesus Christ. The word "authority" means "possessing the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior" (Webster’s). When the scripture says that there is only one, Jesus Christ, that unites a person to God it means that there is no human who has the right to influence, rule, or command my thoughts, opinions or behavior as I relate to God.

The implications of this principle are very important. It means that God saves me through my faith in the death of Christ to forgive my sins without any human agency. No priest or preacher, no church ordinance like baptism or the Lord’s Supper is required for my salvation. We hold and believe that as an individual you are competent to approach God by the leading of the Holy Spirit and the sacrifice of Jesus. We practice baptism by immersion as an evidence that the individual themselves come to trust Christ. For that reason we carry no one to baptism! An infant cannot trust Christ for themselves so we do not immerse or baptize infants. We don’t have priests or a priesthood for we believe no one needs to approach God for someone else when Jesus has already done that.

It is imperative that we remember that no human authority has the control or power over my soul to enable me to know God. When it comes down to the bottom line it is Jesus Christ and only Jesus Christ that is necessary to stand between God and myself. Any doctrine, instruction, creed or resolution to the contrary is for a Baptist a violation of this freedom. "Christ has really set us free. Now make sure that…" Your soul stays free from all human authority!

Throughout the book of Galatians Paul is troubled by their interest in what he called another or different "gospel". It was a different version of the essential message of salvation. He said, "I am shocked that you are turning away so soon from God, who in his love and mercy called you to share the eternal life he gives through Christ. You are already following a different way that pretends to be the Good News but is not the Good News at all. You are being fooled by those who twist and change the truth concerning Christ." (Galatians 1:6-7) These false teachers (Gal.4:17) were manipulating the truth that Paul had already taught them for their own use. They did not have the copies of scripture that you and I have but they did have the truth and that truth was in danger of being distorted and twisted for someone else’s purpose and intent.

Paul would say in II Timothy 3:16 that all Scripture, whether the Old Testament documents or those that now we call the New Testament, are the words of God. Therefore, because they are the words of God, breathed by Him, they are in and of themselves free from the restraint, enforcement or threat by any human. Paul said that the Scripture is useful for teaching, reproving, correcting and training. One translation says that the Scripture teaches us what is true and makes us realize what is wrong in our lives. "It straightens us out and teaches us to do what is right" (II Tim. 3:16 NLT). Friends, it straightens us out, we do not straighten it out!

That is why as Baptists we are a Bible people. That is why there are Bibles in your pew. That is why when we preach or teach we ask you to open your Bible. That is why we believe in studying the Bible in Sunday School and small groups. That is why our hymns, songs and choruses are to be based in Scripture. That is why as Baptists we must resist adamantly the continued encroachment of forced interpretation of Scripture. Our Baptist heritage, both in England and the early days of this nation, is filled with accounts of persecution because they interpreted the Bible to teach freedom from human coercion of interpretation. The freedom for you to allow Holy Spirit to teach you God’s word is a freedom we believe and a freedom that has been lost in our denomination particularly as it relates to the role of women in the church. Jesus Christ is Lord over the Scripture and our conscience! That the Bible is free from human coercion is a principle we as Baptists must remember.

In all the book of Galatians the person of Jesus Christ towers over all things. In Galatians 1:1 Paul asserts his freedom from any human domination. He writes, "This letter is from Paul, an apostle. I was not appointed by any group or by human authority. My call is from Jesus Christ himself and from God the Father, who raised Jesus from the dead." He does the same thing by saying in verse 1 of chapter 5, "So Christ has really set us free…" It was Christ and Christ alone over all other human authority!

That last sentence makes our point. Christ and Christ alone is over all, and all includes our church. That means that as a church we are free from the supremacy, preeminence or mastery of any human or any human organization save Jesus Christ alone. It means that as a Baptist church we cherish the right to be self-governing and self-determining about how we do what God wants us to do. It means we determine for ourselves what we believe the role of women is to be in our church. It means we choose the affiliations with other Baptist groups, like the Southern Baptist Convention, Co-operative Baptist Fellowship, the Arkansas Baptist State Convention and the Baptist World Alliance and others be they Baptist or otherwise, that reflect what we believe. It means that no one save God alone has the right to tell another Baptist church what to do. We may or may not like what another Baptist church does or does not do but that is their responsibility not yours and mine. Our Baptist forefathers suffered at length over this freedom and we are fools to allow it to be threatened by anyone. We are free as a church to obey God without any other human’s domination!

Paul said that his obligation toward others can be summed up in one statement, "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Galatians 5:14) Those words describe for us the heart of what we owe to the nation of which we are a part. We are indebted to our government to seek what is good for all. One of the things that is good for all is the freedom to worship God as I believe my conscience directs.

Whenever human government seeks to infringe upon that freedom then it is at that point that we must resist! In the book of Acts, Peter and the apostles are being persecuted for their following Jesus Christ. The Jewish religious authority is challenging them. Yet their response applies to civil authority equally, "We must obey God rather than men." That is our ultimate confession as Baptists. We are a people who believe our soul is free, our Bible is free, our church is free and that means we must have the freedom to express those principles as we feel God has called us.

It is this very freedom that we as Baptists in this country have given our blood. In the early days of this nation neither others nor Baptists were free to meet and worship as they chose. The records of Baptists are filled with accounts of beatings and imprisonment for worshipping in a way that the government said was illegal. It was for that reason that Baptists were so concerned that after the war of independence from Britain there would also be independence for religion. In the framing of the constitution we owe our freedom of religion clause not so much to Thomas Jefferson as we do to a Baptist pastor named John Leland and the Virginian, James Madison. Leland was running as a representative from Virginia to the Constitutional Convention in order to secure Baptist freedom from the control of government. James Madison was as well a candidate. They met several times in 1788 and Leland agreed to withdraw if Madison would secure the rights of Baptists. Madison agreed and in 1789 introduced the First Amendment to the constitution called the Bill of Rights. That amendment contains these words, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…"

Baptist historian, Leon McBeth, writes, "…Baptist commitment to religious liberty might be weakening. Baptists who bore the scars of religious persecution struggled to achieve religious liberty; it remains to be seen whether Baptists who live in comfort can preserve it." (The Baptist Heritage, p.283) Because it cost so much to be free how can we entertain the idea of any tie to our government other than that of prayer and participation that is offered to every other citizen? As our Baptist father Roger Williams said, there is a "wall of separation" between the church and the state. As Baptists we must watch to see that the wall of freedom and liberty is kept strong. Our faith as Baptists must remain free from every form of human government.

On November 19, 1863 President Abraham Lincoln gave what is known as the Gettysburg Address to commemorate the cemetery containing the Union dead after the battle of Gettysburg in Pennsylvania. While Lincoln was not the featured speaker for that dedication it is his words that are long remembered. That address closed with these immortal lines: "…that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that the nation shall, under God, have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth."

As Baptist Christians we have been given a heritage of freedom. That freedom has been purchased with the lives of men and women over hundreds of years. It is for us to determine whether or not these have died in vain. There are days when it seems that is the case. Yet if we are only one of a few who remember may it be that we remember that to be Baptist is to be free—a soul free from human authority, a Bible free from human coercion, a church free from human domination and a faith free from human government. Is it too late? No, it is never too late to be free.

"It was for freedom that Christ set us free; therefore keep standing firm and do not be subject again to a yoke of slavery" (Galatians 5:1).

Sunday, July 4, 2004

Dr. Bruce Tippit, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Jonesboro, Arkansas

[email protected]