First principle: "Every Baptist a missionary"
This quote from Johann Gerhard Oncken is like music to my ears. I love the fact that this is one of the ideas that the Baptist denomination was founded on. In that time and even still today, I feel like Baptists were one of the most mission oriented denominations around, but I had no idea that missions was one of the foundations ono which it was built. It's very important for us to keep this principle because clearly peoples souls are on the line. We have a hope in Jesus that plenty of other people do not have, it's encouraging to know that we are some of the leaders in giving the great commission movement.
Second principle: The importance of reading scripture for yourself
It is crazy to me that Baptists actually broke off from the rest of the church because they understood the responsibility and importance of reading scripture for yourself. Not that the church was lying to them, maybe in some cases they were, but people needed to figure the word out for themselves to grow deeper with God. Not just relying on the preacher or bishop to explain the text to you, but getting in there and figuring it out and letting the Holy Spirit guide you. It is still important for the church to do this today because we need to have personal walks with Christ, not just one big walk with Christ as the church, although we should be able to come together and talk about the word. God gives different people different convictions, we are all different and won't agree on every single detail, which is why the Spirit needs to influence us, not only the church.
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