I just wanted to make a quick missionary moment on the religion of the Bible Baptists.
The purpose of this video is not meant to be a critique of their religion, but to give
an informative and non-biased perspective of who they are and what they teach.
One difference I do want to make between the normal videos I do on different religions
is the fact that since we are both Baptists, I do want to make a list of a comparison between
what we believe and they believe on different doctrines without trying to tear down what
they believe or critique it, but just to be informative.
Number one, before we get to the Bible Baptists, let's just talk about the history of the Baptists
in the Philippines.
When this country was underneath the control of the Spaniards, Protestant missionaries
were not allowed in this country.
Now I do not believe that Baptists are Protestants because I do not believe that we came out
of the Catholic Church.
That being said, the world would look at Baptists as being Protestants, so the country was completely
closed off from Baptist missionaries coming here.
When this country was taken over by the United States in 1898, that is when Protestant missionaries
were allowed to come here and it also opened the door not only to the Methodists and other
denominations but also to the Baptists as well.
Iloilo was the first area here in the Philippines where the Baptists kind of had a foothold
and even today more than 100 years later, I would say that Iloilo is perhaps the biggest
area here in the Philippines with a lot of Baptists in it.
Things started to spread in the Philippines.
There was an increase in Baptists, but during World War II that changed quite a bit.
The Japanese severely persecuted the Filipinos and a lot of Baptist churches and ministries
had to get shut down.
America was not able to send financial support to the missionaries here in the Philippines,
so it really kind of closed things off for quite a while, but then in 1948, independent
Baptist churches sent missionaries through the World Baptist Fellowship here to the Philippines
and really kind of spurred on an increase of Baptists at that point.
So point number one, that is the history of the Baptists in the Philippines before you
get to the Bible Baptist.
Number two, let us talk about the Bible Baptists.
Right around this time period, around 1950, two years after independent Baptists were
sending missionaries, that is when the Bible Baptists came here to the Philippines.
At the time, they were underneath the BBFI, the organization where they were sending missionaries,
which is the Baptist Bible Fellowship International.
The early Bible Baptist churches were called Baptist Bible as opposed to Bible Baptists,
but it is the same thing.
Now what you would call these churches are Bible Baptists, although the organization
is BBFI, Baptist Bible Fellowship International.
Some of the basic beliefs of the BBFI, if you were to go to their website today, they
would say that repentance and faith are solemn obligations and inseparable graces, so they
mix together repentance and faith, and then they teach the perseverance of the saints,
which are two things that we have a different slant on.
Of course, that is simply a website that doesn't necessarily speak to the official
beliefs of any specific church, but just kind of the general beliefs of the BBFI.
In the world today, as of 2020, based on a census poll here in the Philippines, the biggest
religion was the Catholic Church at 78.8%, second biggest is Islam at 6.4%, third is
INC at 2.6%, fourth is Aglay Payan at 1.4% or the Philippine Independent Church, fifth
are the Seventh Day Adventists at 0.8%, and then you have the Bible Baptists at 0.5%.
So basically, one out of 200 people here in the Philippines is Bible Baptist.
I would suggest that it's probably higher where I live, I would say, but it's not a
huge percentage, but there are certainly Bible Baptists here in the Philippines.
So number three, let me just give you kind of a comparison between the typical beliefs
of a Bible Baptist church and our beliefs.
Now, when it comes to the Bible Baptist churches, if you were to listen to a video that they
talk about their religion and the Bible Baptist churches that are here, they will state that
they are independent Baptist churches, and I don't disagree with that statement because
they are not like the Southern Baptists where they have a head person at the head of the
Southern Baptists and required set beliefs.
That being said, the Bible Baptists are very closely connected together, so it doesn't
always feel like a completely independent church.
With that being said, people would make the same accusations about our church and say
that we're closely connected to other churches, therefore you're not independent.
When you are getting missionary support from an organization, though, there are basically
general sorts of beliefs that you would probably be expected to have.
Some beliefs that are similar between us and the typical Bible Baptist church is having
a semblance of King James only.
There are definitely Bible Baptist churches that are not King James only, but generally
Bible Baptist churches stick to the King James and have at least some semblance of being
King James only.
Most Bible Baptist churches do have a soul winning program, and so evangelism is a very
big thing here in the Philippines, even if it is not a Baptist church.
It's pretty common with most churches, and Bible Baptist churches do have some soul winning,
but here are some of the differences between the things that we believe and the typical
Bible Baptist church.
As I stated, this does not mean that every Bible Baptist church believes this, but the
typical one.
When it comes to repentance of sins, we believe and teach that is work salvation.
Most Bible Baptist churches teach repentance of sins is required for salvation.
When it comes to eternal security, we believe in the preservation of the saints that we
are preserved.
They normally believe in the perseverance of the saints that we persevere on at the
end.
When it comes to do works follow faith, we do not believe that they automatically follow
just because you believe, but most Bible Baptist churches teach that if you are really saved,
then there will be a change in your lifestyle.
When it comes to the doctrine of Tulip, we completely reject it.
We completely reject all five points of Calvinism.
With most Bible Baptist churches, they seem to reject being a Calvinist, but they usually
do adhere to the doctrines of Tulip.
I don't believe they want to follow a man, but they do generally believe those beliefs
of Tulip.
When it comes to ordination, we could send somebody to start a church and not ordain
anybody but have someone leading the church.
When I lay hands on someone to ordain them as an evangelist, but not yet a pastor, that
means the church does not have complete authority, but it is given the authority of that person
to do baptisms.
Eventually, I would ordain them as a pastor, and that means that church is completely independent,
not underneath us at all.
With Bible Baptist churches, they will often send somebody on a mission and they will be
declared a pastor, but the church is not yet independent.
What we would call that is being an evangelist.
What they would say is call that a pastor.
When it comes to requirements for ordination, for being an evangelist, that can vary depending
on the person.
They are not yet biblically qualified to be on their own, or we have not chosen to put
them on their own.
But to be a pastor, we believe you need to be married with multiple kids.
When it comes to the Bible Baptist churches, a lot of their pastors are not married or
they do not have multiple kids, so there is a difference there.
When it comes to being worthy to be ordained to be a pastor, we believe that comes from
serving in the local church.
We do not follow or believe in Bible college or seminary or Christian institute or something
such as that, but generally they would look for you to graduate from their Bible program.
Now, I am not against a church having a Bible institute or having programs or teaching lessons
or whatever, but we do believe the training comes from the local church.
When it comes to the rapture, we believe in a post-tribulational rapture slash a pre-wrath.
So before the wrath of God, but after the tribulation, most Bible Baptist churches believe
in a pre-tribulational rapture.
With Zionism, we believe that Israel was replaced.
Most Bible Baptists are pro-Zionist.
With money and tithes, we believe that the tithe is 10%.
That is all that God requires.
A lot of the Bible Baptist churches teach the first fruits offering where you should
give your first month's salary to church in addition to 10%.
I don't want to say they all teach that because I don't think they all teach that.
That is certainly a very common teaching in the Bible Baptist.
As I said, there are a lot of Bible Baptist churches, so some of them believe different
things than others.
I have a few friends that are with the Bible Baptist that are running churches that are
not completely independent of their sending church at this time, but when they do get
ordained they would be an independent fundamental Baptist as opposed to being a Bible Baptist.
So the question is, do we fellowship with Bible Baptists?
As I said, Bible Baptists can be different.
I would say that not in general.
I do have a few friends, as I said, that are linked with the Bible Baptist now.
Generally, I would say other Baptist churches, there are some independent churches here in
different parts.
Generally, I find myself more aligned to what they believe than I would with a typical Bible
Baptist church.
The Bible Baptist churches are usually very connected, so although they are independent,
they are very closely connected.
In general, we just have different beliefs, especially regarding salvation, which is a
big belief, a very important belief, so generally we're just not associated with the average
Bible Baptist church.
Those are the Bible Baptists.
They've been here since around 1950, so at this point over 70 years.
At this point in the Philippines, they're around 0.5% of the entire population.
Anyways, thank you and God bless.
God bless.