The Birmingham age-herald., 1920-03-08
THE PEOPLE CALLED
 BAPTISTS," DIR. DILLARD

Before a large congregation yester- day morning, pr. James E. Dillard. pastor of the southside Baptist Church. preached an interesting and instructive sermon on the Baptist belief. pr. Dil- lard said in part;
 Ire followers of Jesus were called Christians first at Antioch. They did rot choose the name themselves. The people called Baptists did not choose their name. Icy were in existence long before the name was given them. They have gone by many names. They were called Ana Baptists,' because they insisted that believers who had not been scripturally baptized should be. People said they were re bap- tizers They have been greatly mis- understood in the past and many even today misunderstood them. Not for the purpose of controversy. but in order to make clear our position, l want to correct a few wrong impressions about the Baptists.
 "Baptists do not believe in re-bap- tizing people. They believe that the Scriptures teach that a certain thing constitutes baptism. namely, the im- mersion of a believer in water, and that anything else is not baptism at all but rather a substitute for it. We find no example of any other mode of baptism in the New Testament, and we deny that anyone has the right to change the mode or the subject.
 "Baptists do not teach that people who are unbaptized are therefore lost. We teach that we are saved by grace through faith, and that baptism is a symbol and its observance is an act of obedience to the teachings of Christ. The symbol has no value apart from the thing symbolzed.
 "Baptists are not close communion ists.' We claim that the New Testa- ment discloses both a plan of salvation and a church order. We are Tn har- mony with most evangelical denomina- tions in saying that baptism and church membership should precede communion. Many other denominations accept some thing else as baptism. We do not. Hence, if we are narrow or close, it is in regard to baptism and not in regard to the communion. We do not consider ourselves policemen to keep people from the communion. If they think they are baptized. we have no quarrel with them. but in our judgment they are in error.
 "Baptists are not opposed to church union or the union of the denomina- tions. But we are opposed to it upon any other ground than the New Testa- ment. We recognize two cardinal prin- ciples and upon these we are willing and ready to unite with anybody, namely, the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the liberty of the individual soul, By this I mean the acceptance of and obedience to the teachings and exam pie of Jesus Christ as given in the New Testament. and the greatest possible liberty to the individual person or church consistent with the lordship of Christ. We are not willing to surren- der any command or teachings of Je- sus and we are not willing to be bound by any teaching of power apart from Him. We were not responsible for the divisions existing among the churches, but sincerely hope that the time may come when all may return to the plain teachings of the Master.
 ''We do not claim to have monopoly of the truth, but we do claim to have an earnest desire to know the truth and willingness to follow 1t when ever and wherever it is found.