We have many kinds of churches calling themselves Missionary Baptist Churches that are not true Missionary Baptist Churches. They perhaps do not know it. The object of this article is to explain the difference. The careless and unstable person, without conviction of truth, and not informed in what the Bible teaches, will lightly pass over this. He may even ridicule it. But we are going to give the Word of God that you will be judged by at the judgment. 1. I will give you what is NOT a true missionary Baptist Church. Any church that shifts the Commission of Matt. 28:19,20, to some super-organization as a Convention, and which through boards and officials does mission work, having transferred the commission given it, and has delegated it to others, it is a convention church, and not a Missionary Baptist church. They let the Boards of the convention do their missionary work. They may furnish some of the grease for the convention machinery, but they are not carrying out the commission God gave to the church. They belong to the convention that was "Created for the purpose of eliciting, combining and directing the energies of the Baptist Denomination of Christians." So you see, these convention churches are not directing their God-given mission, but letting the convention do it, and are convention Baptist churches, and have no right to call themselves Missionary Baptist churches. 2. There are some churches that call themselves Missionary Baptist Churches, that are Association Baptist Churches, and are not Missionary Baptist Churches. They have, through messengers, given their mission work over to an association of messengers, who elect a central treasurer to receive money and pay the missionaries the messengers endorse and send out. These churches have shifted their God-given work to an association of messengers. They no longer are entitled to be called Missionary Baptist Churches for they have forsaken their mission and turned it over to a super-organization of men, called an "Association."
1. I believe in one Lord, God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, one in essence, nature, and being, but three personalities. Who is the maker of Heaven and earth and all things therein, just, holy, merciful, and omnipotent. John 10:30; Gen. 1:1; John 14:19,23. 2. I believe Jesus Christ, the Son of God, was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary, a perfect man, who died in our stead, making a perfect sacrifice for sin. Matt. 1:18-21; John 3:16; 2 Cor. 5:21; 1 Pet. 1:19; Ro. 5:6. 3. I Believe that He rose from the dead in His human body; ascended to the right hand of the Father, where He as High Priest reigns, and makes atonement for all those who accept His sacrifice made for them. Luke 24:6,51; Acts 1:11; Heb. 6:20; Rom. 5:11. 4. I believe He will come again personally and visibly, "and every eye shall see him," and He will reign on the earth a thousand years with his saints, execute justice and judgment. Acts 1:11; Matt. 24:27,30; Rev. 1:7; Rev. 20:1-4. 5. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the third person in the Trinity, equal with the Father and Son in power, grace and glory; who spake through the Prophets and Apostles, giving us the Bible, the infallible Word of God; reproves the world of sin, convicts, and regenerates the soul, seals, sanctifies, and keeps. Rom. 8:26,27; John 3:6-8; 16:7-13; 1 Pet. 1:21; 2 Tim. 3:16,17; Eph. 4:30. 6. I believe a church of Christ is a body of baptized believers who have received their baptism through a succession of churches established by Jesus Christ out of those who were baptized by John the Baptist, who had received it from God; and these churches who acknowledge Jesus Christ as head and founder, shall stand forever. Luke 7:29,30; Matt. 3:1-8, 13-17; 16:18; Mark 3:13, Luke 6:12, Dan. 2:44; Matt. 26:19,20; Eph. 3:21. 7. I believe that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are ordinances of the churches of Christ, and are to be kept sacred by them, and they are the only divine institutions on earth that have these ordinances and can administer them. Matt. 28:19,20; 1 Cor. 11:2; 12:13; Eph. 4:5; 1 Cor. 11:23-26. 8. I believe that man was created in the image of God, and he was good; but that through disobedience, when tempted of the devil, he fell into a state of sin, from which he can be redeemed only by the Blood of Christ. Gen. 1:26,27,31; 2:17; 3:6,7; 6:5; Acts 4:12; Heb. 9:14; 1 John 1:7. 9. I believe that all who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior are saved by Grace alone, and are kept by His power, and will after death dwell with Christ forever, while those who reject Him will be turned into eternal torment. John 5:24; Eph. 2:8-10; John 10:28; Rom. 8:38,39; Matt 25:45; Rev. 20. 10. I believe it is the mission of the churches of Christ to give the gospel to the world, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, to baptize those who believe, and to organize them into gospel churches, which become, at their organization, executive bodies in the Kingdom of Jesus Christ on the earth. Matt. 28:19,20; Acts 13:1-4; Matt. 16:18,19; 18:15-18. All of this I believe is true, and that the churches holding to them, constitute Christ's Kingdom, His Bride, who awaits the coming of her Lord, the Bridegroom, when she will rejoice as in the beginning (Matt. 9:15; John 3:29) for at His coming the marriage will take place. (Rev. 19:7-9).