And so the couple or the family decides they're going to go to church. They're going to find a church to go to. They're in the South here. They want to go to church. They really don't have a church background. They don't have anybody to invite them. They don't have anybody here. So how do they find a church? There's different ways to find a church, right? I guess you'd ask somebody. You know, they're asked. Or perhaps you could just take your car and drive around the neighborhood and find a neighborhood church. Some people do that. Although, a lot of folks don't go to neighborhood churches anymore. They go to churches that are this distance. Or probably, really, the only way you could do it anymore is to do what? Yellow Pages. You can Google Yellow Pages. However, the Yellow Pages, does not give you much information about a church. It'll give you a name, a location, and so forth. And the Yellow Pages actually just tells you whether it's open or closed. Big deal. I did look at the Yellow Pages, George, to find out how many churches in the Chattanooga area, not including North Georgia, not including very far north of, I don't think, I don't think the list goes further than up in Saudi Naisi, maybe not that far. How many churches? How many churches? Oh, by the way, you know how many denominations are in the area? 17 different denominations. 17 denominations. Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Church of Christ, Church of God, Assembly of God, Nazarene, Lutheran, Episcopal, Catholic, Christian, Unitarian, Wesleyan, AME, you know what AME is? African Methodist Episcopal. I'm not sure what their doctrines are. In addition to that, there is the Seventh-day Adventist churches, there are readings, LDS, which is Latter-day Saints, Jehovah's Witnesses, and even Jewish synagogues. So there's 17 major denominations. On top of that, there is a long list of churches that do not bear a denominational tag at all. I counted at least 50, at least 50, and I'm sure there's more than that, things such as Calvary Chapel. Actually, Calvary Chapel is up here at Lakeside. There's the Venue Church, there's Redemption Church, Venue Church, Rock Bridge Church. Actually, they are somewhat of a denomination because they have churches in other locations other than here in Chattanooga. But then there's the Journey Church, and I'll just read a few of them. The Metropolitan Tabernacle, that's on Highway 153. Grace Works, River of Life Church, Grace Bridge Church, C4 Church, where the C4 Church is? Right up here. And the four is there's a church, community, Christian, something, there's four C's that they use, that's the reason they have it. They're really a church of God. They used to have a church of God. There's a Rise Church, that's just rising, that will open, One that I was just curious about is called the untethered church. Untethered church. The church that is loose, I guess. Actually, their doctrinal statement is not bad. Their vision is not bad. It's quite interesting for their vision of wanting to reach out. The untethered idea is to be is to be broke away from denominational traditions and so forth and just reach out to community, which I like that. So how do you know? Oh, how many churches do you think? Do I count yet? 60? Oh, there's 60 in Hickson. In the Chattanooga area, actually the metropolitan Chattanooga area includes several, six counties. So we're not doing that, just Chattanooga area. So how do you know which one to go to? You check the website, about the only thing you can do now to get an idea of what they stand for, what they believe and so forth. But a lot of these websites are pretty sharp. Or they're slick. Stephen better get our slick, too. Anyway, of the 750, how many think you're baddest? Third is right. 250. Now, when I say Baptist, what kind of Baptist am I talking about? There's a number, right? Let me ask you. By the way, I'm just on statistics, so it's just kind of interesting sometimes. There's 430,000 population in the Chattanooga area, which means there's one church for every 570 people. And if everybody's a church. Everybody doesn't go to church. Where are my figures? BARDA estimates 59% of the people go to church. How often they go to church, I don't know. But anyway, let me ask you this question. Is it wrong not to use a denominational or doctrinal tag? Is it wrong? It's not wrong, but it's aggravating. It is not wrong. There's nothing in the Bible that says you have to use badness or Methodist or whatever. It does confuse people because you don't know what they believe and stand for unless you either ask or go to their website. Now, let's talk about badness to stages. I made this statement on one of your outlines, the one, the numerator. Badness, we do not have badness doctrines. What do I mean by that? We have Bible doctrines. The Bible doctrines that we hold to make us unique, which makes us distinctive. So our beliefs are based on God's word, Bible. I use the He wrote a booklet called Trail of Blood. Ever seen the Trail of Blood or anything like that? I have a copy and I can't find it. It used to be red, red cover. He believed, and I adhere to the same belief, that God has always had a group of people, churches, down through the generation of time that have stayed true to God's word. Now, even in the dark ages, when believers were being, were being persecuted and were told to recant. There were those who would not, would not recant on their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. So it's always that. Now, were they always called Baptists? No, no. They were called Baptists in about, I think about the 16th, and I don't have time to look at the history. The Anabaptists came in and so forth, and they were re-baptizers and so forth. But anyway, so it hadn't always been badness, but the basic Bible doctors have continued. God would not allow that line to discontinue, right? And so what Mr. Carroll, Dr. Carroll did, he came up with some marks. He called them marks of New Testament Christianity. We would like to believe that our beliefs today as badness can be traced back all the way to the New Testament church. Not the John the Baptist. No, no, no, no, no. Right. Some people believe that. Yeah, you're right. Some people say, who started the Baptist Church? John the Baptist. It was John the Baptizer. He wasn't called John the Baptist. He was called John the Baptizer because he went around baptizing. But his baptism was not believer's baptism. His baptism was according to the law. Repentance. Repentance and the law. So that's a different baptism. Don't get mixed up. So look at these marks. I think we go back. I think Baptists can trace theirs back. That doesn't mean we're better or whatever, but just information. Let me go through this real quick, just real quick, then we're gonna get these eight distinctive ones. You answer the question. Mark 7 New Testament Church, its head and founder? All right, Christ, got it. I'm not gonna go slow, so write fast. It's only rule of faith and practice? Say it out loud. Bible. Bible. It's name? Say it, say it out loud. Practice? Church. Oh, church. Church. The Greek word for church is ekklesia. There used to be an ekklesia, Baptist church, Yeah. Is that what it is? Oh, I didn't know that. The guy who started Ecclesiam was a missionary. I think he was a missionary in Japan. He came back and started Ecclesiam back in the church. Yeah, that's where Brother McCord is. What is he called? Savannah Bay? Yeah. I don't remember. Too long ago. It's Palatine. It's how it's governed, congregational. What does that mean? Does the pastor of the deacons control? Not at all, not at all. It's members, people saved or born again by grace. It's ordinances? Believers' baptism and the Lord's supper. Dan at the Indian Baptist Road Baptist Church asked one of the members or people, what do you guys believe? So we believe in baptism and the Lord's supper. Kind of a limited doctrinal statement there, but that's what they believe in. We in the Baptist do that as well. And we'll talk about it later. It's officers. pastors, deacons, and deaconesses. No, not really. There is a New Testament word, deaconess, but that's typically the wife of the deacon. Its mission? Salvation of all souls, believers' baptism, and edifying of the saints. You with me, Jim? It's going faster than I can drive. I know, I am going faster on purpose. Not to mess you up, but it's financial plan? Tithes and offerings. Tithes, tithes, not ties, tithes and offerings. It's weapons of warfare? Spiritual, thank you. It's independence. Separation. Separation of church and state. Any questions you have on that? Now, we use the, or I'm using tonight this acrostic, This is not an acrostic that I came up with. This was an acrostic that came up years ago by a preacher who used it as a teaching tool. This is just a teaching tool. Does the acrostic Baptist identify all of our Baptist beliefs? The answer is no. But this is the basic, unique Bible beliefs of the Baptist church that makes us makes the Baptist Church unique. So this is not all of it. It's merely a teaching tool. Got that? So what's the B? Bible. Authority. God's Word is the authority. What I do look for when I'm looking at a church in their doctrinal statement, I'm looking for two things. I'm looking where they hold the Bible as the authority of their church. I also check what they say about salvation. Do they believe in salvation by grace alone, through faith alone? Do they add something to that? Do they add works to that? Do they add going to church to that? Do they go to a reformed theology? For me, if I was looking, that's one of the things I would look for. The A stands for? Autonomy. Autonomy. Autonomy means what? A church takes care of itself. Self-governing. It's called the indigenous principle. I want missionaries that believe in the indigenous principle. Self-governing, self-supporting, self-replicating. Okay? And we really don't want to support missionaries that do not have that concept of the church. We're not a denomination, so every church is unique. We take care of ourselves. We make decisions for ourselves. We don't have a high priest out there somewhere or some kind of a person out there that's going to tell us what we're going to do. Okay? Now, do we need help and suggestions from time to time? We may. And so forth, but, you know, I'm talking to the church. P is priesthood of the believer. Priesthood of the believer. We all are priests in the sense that we all can go into God's, Is this important to discuss at all? Why do we need to know this? We need to know what we believe and why we believe it. Because people out there are going to challenge you and your beliefs. Why do you do that? Why do you go to Baptist? Well, I don't know, I just go to Baptist Church. You got to know, I go there because of a doctor position. I'll be with someone on Sunday. Do people always Pick a church based on doctrinal beliefs. I think you're right, I think the devil's hardly ever, unless you just happen to be all bad. And we'll talk about that, there's other reasons. All right, the T. What is the T? Two ordinances. Two ordinances. I tell you, George is sharp, isn't he? Boy, am I ever. Sharp is a rusty name. We have two ordinances. Ordinances are not what? They're not a sacrament. They have nothing to do with our salvation. We believe when a person is saved, they need to be baptized. I haven't talked to Rebecca about being baptized, but I shall. I'm waiting for it. Oh, you're waiting for it. Very good. Does baptism convince us for all of our sins? Say that again. Does baptism cleanse us from all of our sins? There's an old movie called Word for Art Thou? Brother, Word for Art Thou? Which is a twist on one of Shakespeare's plays. Did you know that? Yeah, it is. But the guy goes down to get baptized and he comes out and says, my sins are washed away. Well, not Dr. Pratt. Baptism is to reveal to others that you've been saved and baptized. It's a recognition. It's a picture of what Christ did in his death, burial, and resurrection. Does it have anything to do with salvation? No, it's a testimony to others. Is it important? It's a willingness to identify with the Lord and with a local church. I do have a question. I already told you. Oh, by the way, baptism is, Baptist baptism is by immersion. It goes all the way under, and you hold it for five, count to five. No big deal. Sorry, Rebecca. It's supposed to be an honoring test to move on. It is? And I've always thought it would be nice to go to the mall, the big mall, and have a back-to-luncheon. They won't let you do that. For everybody to see, this is my testimony that I have been saved. They won't let you do that. Well, I know, but that's what I mean, it's an outward testimony. But I know it's a church ordinance, so. Is it church ordinances? Is it something we believe people ought to do? It'd be bad not to be saved, but to baptize because you're saved. I thought it ought to be a public, a public baptism. It'd be good if we could go to the lake if we wanted to. Jim? What are the two ordinances? Baptism and the Lord's Supper. The Lord's Supper is something we set it right. We set it right, what, the Lord's death. The Lord's death by taking of the the grape juice that represents the blood of Christ that was shed, and the bread, we need to do that again soon anyway, and the body of Christ that was broken. Symbolic, symbolic. Do this until the Lord returns. Do this remembers me until the Lord returns. I is individual soul liberty. Is there anyone in the church that's better than somebody else? There isn't. We're all the same. We're equal to God. We all have equal access to the Lord. The spirit of God speaks to all of us. The spirit of God can speak to you as much as you can speak to me or anybody else. You understand? Individual, soul, liberty. And we can choose what we, we don't always choose right, but we can choose to do what we want to do and so forth. It's, we're not forced. Are we forced in, you guys, to do certain things? Church is different than a business. We ask people to volunteer. We can't, and if they don't do a good job, it's hard to fire them. We're thankful for people who are willing to serve the Lord, but we're all equal in the Lord's sight, and that's a good thing. Praise God for it. The word S is? Separation. Salvation. Separation, or salvation. Saved and baptized church members. The church is made up of saved individuals. Those born again, and for local church, we believe baptism is an important part of being, well, they ask a church member to be, they need to be baptized. What if someone, let's say a, a, who am I going to talk about, which is domination? Methodists. You buy Methodists? You buy them from background? Let's say Methodists, I do not believe they typically, they'll immerse you if you want them to, but I think typically it's usually a little sprinkling on the head. I do that when I get framed up, don't you? But let's say they get saved. They were in a church, they had been sprinkled, they got saved, they come to the famous church, I want to be part of the church. I want to be part of the Baptist church. What would we do? What would I do? Baptize them. Okay? Baptize them. It's not something we... It's not a force. We wouldn't force them, but they wouldn't be a part of it. They would need to be baptized. Saved and baptized church members. We believe in salvation by grace through faith. It's not a gift. It's a gift of God. None of it works. Baptism doesn't save. None of these things save us. It's all by grace. Do all churches believe that today? They may say they believe, but there's certain requirements. Some churches have requirements. Oh, I meant to bring you, did I bring the list? I don't think so. I'll leave that later. Never mind, forget that. Just because a person lives a moral life, according to some religious dogma, are they saved? Not at all, not at all. The T stands for You're right. How did that change? Two offices, or two officers. Sorry, I changed that one. We do not have a hierarchy in the church. We have the word pastor, we have the word? Bishop. Bishop. Elder. And the word elder. Okay? Don't call me elder. Bishop. Bishop. I might take that though. I like the word pastor. We wear a special hat. Yeah, you're right. I need a hat. I like the word shepherd. I think the word shepherd describes a pastor. A pastor is not just a preacher. It's sometimes easy to preach. If you didn't... Preaching is easy. Is it easy? I wouldn't say easy, but it's okay. Pastoring is not always easy, understand? So we have two orders. And the other office, of course, is a deacon. How does a man become a pastor? I'm going to be a pastor. No. First of all, by the way, we believe the two offices are to be filled by men. Yes, absolutely. I was pretty clear about that. You can read 1 Timothy chapter 3 and other places that talk about that, that it's our belief. I know there's a lot of churches, even some Baptist churches, that are ordaining women to the ministry and so forth. We just do not hold to that here. Other Baptist churches do. A deacon is a... That's right. Thank you, brother. The word is diakonos. In the Greek it means servant. The deacons originally were selected for by the by the people in Antioch in order to serve the widows and serve others, allowed the apostles and the other preachers and so forth to maintain their prayer time and study time to minister to people spiritually. Okay? Can you have more than one pastor? Sure. Sure. Stephen is an ordained preacher of the gospel, so he's an assistant pastor. Some churches have multiple, depending on the size of the church. You need different pastors and so forth. associates and assistants and administrators and so forth, we're not at that point to do that at this point. That's okay. Some churches have elders. Some churches in other denominations have elders who are, they're similar to pastors. They have a teaching elder, they have a main pastor, a main elder and so forth like that. So that happens in some. You can ask me a question, I'll be finished in just a second. The last S is, And again, this is a teaching tool to help people get some basic ideas of what Baptists believe. These are Bible principles that we hold to. They're our distinctives and they make us unique from other churches. those churches that do not have the name Baptist on their title or their name, and yet they hold to these particular doctrinal positions, we would say they are Baptistic. There's a number of Bible churches. You remember Bible churches? Some Bible churches, and they're pretty much Baptistic. Brother churches, we had some in North Carolina, and they were pretty much Baptistic, they believed in multiple elders and so forth, but some good, safe people in that area. Similarly, church of state, the church doesn't run the government, the government doesn't run the state, church, okay? Now, that's been carried to an extreme by politicians. This is what we believe, the church, is not dictated by the government. That's not true. That separation is not true in some countries, right? Where the state wants to control the church and they have a state church or a country church or so forth, a group and so forth that would do that. China is one of those, some other areas. But we do not believe in that. The government does not dictate what we say, what we believe, what we teach, and so forth. The government's trying to do it. They can even speak. The government's trying to limit churches of what they say because we're not inclusive. I'm so tired of the word inclusive. You know, we're inclusive and exclusive. Anybody wants to get saved? Get me saved. You want to serve God? Exclusive. Am I going to heaven? That's exclusive. You've got to be saved. So that word is being thrown around by people all over the place. So separation of church and state. Let's see if there's anything else. Yeah, we don't, one doesn't control the other. It's okay. That may not be included right in that thing, but there is an ecclesiastical separation. What is it? Ecclesiastical, that's a great big old name. Ecclesiastical is, comes from what? Comes from the word ecclesia. There are times, we're, We're an autonomous church, so we do our thing under the Lord's leadership. He's the head. I'm not the head, he's the head. He directs us and so forth, and we follow his leadership. There are times that it's okay, sometimes good to fellowship or ministry, or gather for some kind of a joint ministry with other churches. You understand? But I'm not sure if this would be considered a bad, it's distinctive, at least from my viewpoint, We can cooperate in that sense if we do so with churches of the same faith and doctrinal statement, the same doctrinal belief, understand? No? If there's a church out here who says, well, you need to be baptized to be saved, well, we could not fellowship, we could not function together and do some kind of a joint activity or ministry together. That's ecclesiastical separation. And what else do you think, personal separation? Personal separation is being separated from sin. And that may not be in that list per se, but we would believe that. That's a Bible teaching as well. Any comments here? Did I confuse you? This last one was separation of what? Separation of church and state. Church doesn't control the state. Yeah. And the state doesn't control the church. But that line is being blurred somewhat. Not all that? Clearly understand it? No questions? All blanks filled? I'll give you my list in just a moment. Yes, sir? There's no mention in the Bible of using the word elder. Like you said, they had deacons, deaconess in the Bible. But the elder, I think it's a newer term. I believe the word elder is used in the Bible. Yeah, it is. Yeah. I'm pretty sure it is. Yeah, I'm sure it is. Now sometimes I say this, sometimes the word elder is referring to men of mature age. whatever you said there, right? So much looking already. Read it. The elders which are among you, I ignore, who am also an elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ, and also a taker of the glory that shall be revealed. But that's Peter talking. I think that's referring to other elders, the leadership in the church. First Timothy 5.17, it also says something to that effect. Let the elders that rule well become worthy of double honor, especially they who labor in the word of God. That's referring to who were overseer has the same connotation. Acts 14.23 says they ordained elders in every church. What's ordination? I was ordained. Unless you were ordained. that. There are some churches who believe when you ordain a deacon, there are deacons for life. But we don't believe that either. Ordination is a man being examined by other preachers and so forth to see if they really are qualified to take the Word of God and preach it and share it And so there's a question and answer situation that goes on. It can be very in-depth, it can be very, depends on who's asking the questions. Some men like to ask hard questions and so forth, and kind of confuse the, usually a young man who's been called to preach. Man says, I've been called to preach. Okay, you need to study now. Let's see what you believe so that we can not approve, what's the word? Recommend? I don't know, there's another word I'm looking for here. Recognize his gifts, his abilities, so they can kind of stand behind him. Yes, we believe this man is ready and qualified to go into misery. Does he know everything? No, he doesn't know everything. I didn't know everything. I still don't know everything. We were ordaining a man here, David Tilley, bless his heart, I believe it was him, and... Rowan, Rowan, Rowan, Rowan. Who's the guy from Tennessee Temple, Dr. Affman? You might remember Dr. Affman. Dr. Affman was an old, tall, thuddy boy, and he was a Bible scholar. Man, he was asking some questions. And there were several of his preachers there, He asked a question of David, and David gave his answer. And then Dr. Affman elaborated. We're going, wow. And so us preachers who were there, we got our notepads out, we're taking notes of what he was saying. This is good stuff. But that's what the ordination is all about. Any other questions or comments? So you know what you believe? You know why you believe it? You a Baptist? By doctrine, by choice. I wasn't born a Baptist, were you? We were born lost on the road to hell. But born again by the grace of God, and we choose to believe God's word. Our values and our principles and our doctrines line up with the badness. Oh, I'm a badness. I didn't realize I was a badness. That's in the sense of I agree with the badness doctrine. All right, Father, we thank you for the evening. Help us to, if we need to, Lord. Many do not need it, but solidify what we believe. Take the truth of your word, Lord. Understand truth of your doctrine, Lord. We're not trying to defend anything, Lord. We just, here's what we believe. Here's what we hope to. You're the principles that we live by. Help us to be consistent in doing it. Thank you for everyone that's gathered together. Give us a safe trip home and bless our van as it takes the kids home.