Midnight Mutterings: The Living Page & Baptists

Uh oh. Is this an indicator of how my week will go? I certainly hope not! It is after midnight and I am awake with a nice headache. The same headache I went to bed with at 9:00 pm.

It's not been a totally negative experience, however. I have been reading over at the AO forum, and a bit here and there in my new book, The Living Page by Laurie Bestvater. *affliate link* I also got 'caught up' in Towards a Philosophy of Education, Volume 6 of Charlotte Mason's Homeschooling Series. It's been so long since I have read in it but I am going to the CM book study on Tuesday night in Akron, and I needed to have at least read the assigned portions. When I said I got 'caught up' it doesn't mean I can now say I have read all that way through the work. No, I just skipped ahead. I still have over 100 pages to read to really be 'caught up'. But as I was skimming through the pages to get to where we are now, I was tempted more than once to read from random points.

Oh and back to The Living Page. I am only on page 8 and I know I will love this book. I already wrote my name in the front. I often resell books I get so hesitate to write in any.

And since I am awake and I have determined, no matter how half-heartedly, to write more than just one post a week, I figured there's no time like the present. For the remainder of the post, I'll share what I 'learned' in church today. We made it to Sunday School and stayed on through the luncheon.

For Sunday School, Pastor talked about what makes a Baptist a Baptist. Apparently he started this series last week when we weren't there. It sounds like we would have enjoyed it. Anyhow, this week he covered the autonomy of Baptists. Our final authority, actually our only authority, is the Bible; God's Word. There was no single individual in the early church that people went to for the 'laws'. It is the same today with Baptists; they decide together and may even bring in a 'sister church' to help if needed. But the decisions are based on the Bible. Some verses Acts 6:1-4; 13:1-3; 15:5-28 (selected).

Another reason we don't have an individual in charge is because we are a priesthood of believers with Jesus as our High Priest. We have a direct line to God; we do not need to go through saints or a priest. Verses: 1 Peter 2:5; Hebrews 4:14-16.

We have only 2 ordinances that were modeled and commanded by Jesus and instituted in the early church: full immersion baptism and Lord's Supper. Verses: Matthew 3:13-17; 28:19, 20; Acts 2:41; 1 Corinthians 11:23-26.

And finally (for today's portion), we believe in free-will and choice. Or as Pastor put it "Individual Soul Liberty". It just means that no matter how much we want to, we cannot make someone do or decide something. We all are responsible for the choice that we make. We have the liberty to make the choice but we also have the rewards or consequences of the choice. Verses: Romans 14 (selected); 2 Corinthians 4:1, 2.

At the start of Sunday School he listed only some of the "Baptists" there are today- some include (he read them too fast for me to write them all down; going by memory- short list!):

Evangelical-Free Baptists

Seventh Day Baptists

Baptist Universalists

Independent Fundamental Baptists

Overall, it was very interesting. I'm looking forward to next week. 

I was going to share what was talked about at the luncheon but I think my headache is gone enough that I can sleep now. And my eyes are drooping *wink*