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Hello, Pastor Matthew Secchi here from Verity Baptist Church, Philippines. And I wanted to make a quick video just to discuss to you, uh, the situation of the Baptists in the Philippines. And I have, um, a poll that was done by the Philippine Statistics Authority in front of me in 2020. At the time, the population in this country was 108,667,043 people. It has since, uh, become much higher since then, but the statistics of religions here in the Philippines, the Roman Catholic religion had 78.8% of the population. Islam had 6.4%. Iglesia Ni Cristo had 2.6%. The Philippine Independent Church had 1.4%. The Seventh-day Adventist had 0.8%. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had 0.8%. The Bible Baptist Church had 0.5%. Then you have the United Church of Christ in the Philippines at 0.4%. Jehovah's Witness, 0.4%. Church of Christ, 0.4%. And then 8.2% of other religious affiliations. And then there's a few people that were not reporting the results. And so, based on those statistics, you have 0.5% are Bible Baptists, and then there's other religious affiliations, and there's other types of Baptists here as well. Now, I will say right up front, I think that these statistics are actually off a little bit. Um, me personally, I definitely feel like I run into Baptists more than I run into Seventh-day Adventists or the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which are both at 0.8%. Um, most Baptists here in the Philippines are Bible Baptists. But of course, um, you know, the Philippines is a big country. So maybe other parts of the country, there are less or fewer Baptists than I run into here. But when it comes to Baptists, I want you to realize that there is not a lack of Baptist churches here in the Philippines. Um, there's not as many Baptist churches as there are in the United States or some other countries, but there are certainly a decent amount of Baptists. And in fact, when you look at independent fundamental Baptist churches, the two countries they send the most missionaries to are Mexico and the Philippines. Mexico makes sense because it's nearby. It's the predominant Spanish speaking country where you're going to, uh, send missionaries. And you know, the Philippines makes sense because it's very receptive and because they're extremely good at English. And so there's a lot of people that want to go to the foreign field and they go to the Philippines. Unfortunately though, even though there are a sizable amount of Baptists, I can't say that there's a sizable amount of good Baptist churches. And so in the United States, I believe that if you live in an area, you can find an okay or decent church, you know, 99% of the time that you can be a part of. And I'm not saying it's perfect. I'm not saying it's the greatest church in the world, but I'm saying they're clear on salvation. They have some sort of soul winning plan. You can learn and grow at that church. It's a solid church that you can raise a family and be a part of and be a blessing to. But here in the Philippines, I don't think that is necessarily the case, uh, depending on where you are located. We have people that travel a couple hours to come to our church because they say there's no church that is clear on the gospel where they live. Now, what takes place here in the Philippines is that if you leave the Catholic church, whether it's going to a non-denom church or Pentecostal or some other church, you feel like you've arrived at the truth because you realize this big church, the Catholic church was wrong. And even to a higher level, when people become a Baptist or a Bible Baptist, they feel like they're really at the truth because they know that the Baptists are correct. Unfortunately, many of these Bible Baptist churches are still wrong and there's many people that can be dedicated to these churches for decades and still not be saved. And we've run into that with people at our church. In fact, most of the people at our church, I baptized myself and most of them were Bible Baptist members before they came to our church, but they were not sure if they were saved or not. Now you say, what are the issues with Bible Baptists? Well, it's not technically a denomination like the Southern Baptists, but it's kind of the title that people take up and there's a lot of different churches that are started. There is no structure that forces you to believe certain things, depending on what Bible college you might go to or what seminary you might go to. It's going to tell you what you believe, but you kind of have the open ability to preach and believe different things. So some of the Bible Baptists believe different things, but the majority of them believe you must repent of your sins to be saved. The majority of them lean very heavily toward Calvinism and a lack of free will and salvation being a predestined thing. The vast majority of them will say that if you're really saved, they'll say it's by faith alone, but if you're really saved, you're going to have the works. And of course, there's a spectrum when people say something like this. You know, there's at one end of the spectrum. If you're not reading the Bible every day, you're not saved. If you still listen to rock music, you're not saved. And that's an extreme version. Then there could be people that say, well, you know, I'm not sure if they're saved or not because they're living a sinful life. They're still a drunk and there's certainly a spectrum there. And there can be people that are confused. But I would say almost all of the churches will say that. And if that's what you say, then you're not super clear on salvation. It's like, I want to believe that you're right. I want to believe that you're saved. But then you're saying, well, if you're not living the life, then you're not really saved. And it certainly leaves the salvation in a gray area situation. Now, I'm not going to sit here and say that we are the only church in the Philippines that's doing a great work for God. I certainly believe that there are people that are saved in all these denominations. And one thing that happens in the Bible Baptist churches is they will often send people out to start missions or new churches. And they're really big into that. They want to get Bible Baptist churches all throughout the Philippines and different countries in Asia. And what will sometimes take place is people are sent out and they're called pastors, even though they're not ordained independently. And sometimes they will not be married. Sometimes they will not have any kids. That's very commonly the case. And so they'll be called pastors, even though they're not a pastor biblically, because they don't meet the standard of being married and having children and being ordained independently of the sending church. But sometimes what takes place is people are sent out and they actually do have the right doctrine and they're correct on stuff, even though they're sending churches not. And it leads to a very gray area, kind of confusing situation where it's like they're not independent and they're sending church might not be saved themselves. But, you know, praise God, they're preaching the truth that they're clear on salvation. There are churches here in the Philippines that I would say are just right on board like we are. We just recently did a joint missions trip with Faith and Verity Baptist Church, which is located in the Cebu area. And I would say that when you look at areas like that, I personally don't feel a need to ever start a church in that area because I think there's a fantastic church in that area and they believe the same doctrines. They preach hard, zealous for soul winning. So I feel like they got to cover. And if we can support or help them in any way, then praise God. But I don't feel the need to start a church in that area. Unfortunately, there's a lot of parts here in the Philippines where there are Baptist churches, there are Baptist churches that do soul winning. But unfortunately, I can't really look at that church and say that I support that church or I think it's a great church, which is why we are really striving to get churches and new ministry started in the surrounding areas, because I don't think that people should have to travel a couple hours to come to a good church. I mean, I'm very thankful that we have people that love God so much that they're willing to travel a couple hours to come to a great church. But, you know, God willing, they will have a great church in their area. And of course, if you live a few hours from a godly church, you know, it's just going to be a lot harder to get involved in everything. It's a lot easier to miss services. There can be things that come up. You know, it's going to with the time of the travel here and the traffic, you're probably not going to be able to come to the midweek service. I mean, there's a lot of obstacles such as that is really important to have a church in your area. So for those that are watching this video outside the Philippines, you might say, well, aren't there a lot of Baptist in the Philippines? There's a lot of missionaries sent there. There are certainly a lot of Baptist in the Philippines. There's certainly Baptist churches, but the problem is there are not a lot of good Baptist churches anyways. Thank you and God bless.