THIS IS THE PAPERBACK EDITION OF OUR DELUXE 1689 CONFESSION OF FAITH

BOOK INCLUDES:

Historical Introduction by Jim Renihan

Original Letter to the Reader

The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689

Original Appendix on Baptism

The Baptist Catechism with Scripture Proofs

In an age where we are tempted to either be angry, weak, or arrogant; Convictional, Confessional, Cheerful Baptists argues about the importance of holding to Baptist Confessions and distinctives strongly and with a cheerful disposition. In this book, author Nate Akin, a passionate Baptist, delves into Baptist beliefs and how we can hold them well through the lenses of 1 Corinthians 16:13-14. Rooted in his own personal upbringing as a Baptist and theological studies, Akin articulates the importance of holding to Baptist doctrine through the categories of confession, conviction, courage, compassion, and cheerfulness.

The book begins detailing the author's own journey to embrace these Baptist convictions while also sharing his concern that many who hold strongly to convictions often do so, it seems, without humility or joy. Akin shares in the preface:

The first occasion for much of this book was a sermon at the annual Pillar Network Unite Conference. I called the sermon, Convictional, Confessional, Courageous, Compassionate, Cheerful, and Corinthians Baptists. That sermon was borne out of a burden not only to hold strongly to what we believe but to do so in a distinctly Christian way. I want us Baptists to really be Baptists! I want us to have strong convictions but to hold to them joyfully and not like jerks. And yet, when I say us, I know I'm really preaching to myself. I recognize my own temptations and faults. I know the secrets of my heart and how I often want to respond to others with whom I disagree.

In Part 1, What We Hold Dear and Why, the focus is on being convictional and confessional from 1 Corinthians 16:13a. Chapters 2 and 3 examine Baptist Confessions and how they have been understood and used throughout Baptist history. However, the book emphasizes that it is not enough to be confessional; one must also be convictional about the doctrines lined out in the confessions. So, the author turns his attention to the sort of doctrines that have distinguished Baptists throughout their history. In chapters 4-9, the doctrines of regenerate church membership, believer's baptism by immersion, locally autonomous elder-led congregationalism, and liberty of conscience are explored. In each chapter, the author highlights key texts, theologians, excerpts from confessions, and practical implications of each Baptist distinctive for identity and mission. Akin concludes this section by highlighting that Baptists seek to be doctrinally aligned for an evangelistic purpose.

Part 2 is entitled How Can We Hold These Convictions Well. In this part, Akin emphasizes the need for courage and compassion in the present hour. In seeking to make the point about being confessional, convictional, courageous and cheerful, Akin considers two case studies pertaining to current pressing issues. Akin takes a look at Christian Nationalism and complementarianism and how the confessions help us in navigating these hot topics.

The book concludes by considering how the gospel can make us convictional and cheerful because we are reminded that we are forgiven.

It began with just wanting to tell the truth. But truth-telling has a way of snowballing.

When Christa Brown first spoke out about the sexual abuse she endured in her Texas childhood church, she never imagined it would expose the ethical chasm at the core of the Southern Baptist Convention: male religious leaders so focused on institutional protection that they sacrifice the safety of children.

A book about speaking out and speaking up, Baptistland weaves together Christa's revealing story of hope amid Southern patriarchy and religious fundamentalism. You'll meet the young Christa who endures family dysfunction, the trauma of bodily desecration, and the death blows of a gaslighting church and faith community. Then you'll meet the Christa who finds her voice and rises above the limited expectations of her given culture, taking tiny step after tiny step toward a life filled with goodness.

Ultimately, Christa Brown transforms into a vivid tree of life, rooted in love, individuality, and beauty. But it was unrelenting honesty, to herself and others, that guided her to an ordinary paradise. Baptistland speaks to the power of truth-telling -- for ourselves, our relationships, and our institutions.

Baptistland is a story of abuse, brokenness, and betrayal, but more than any of these things, it is the story of resilience. -Kristin Kobes Du Mez, author of Jesus and John Wayne

In his Baptist History in England and America, David Beale illuminates numerous topics, including Baptist origins, their search for the ancient manner of immersion, and even the way they acquired the name Baptist. His book annotates key beliefs and practices in Baptist confessions of faith. Multiple chapters describe persecutions Baptists suffered, and contributions they made toward religious freedom and liberty of conscience. Striking a balance between brief and exhaustive, the author aims to inspire and to encourage, as well as to inform, in a precise and accurate manner. He provides in-depth coverage of numerous topics never mentioned in average surveys. Beale refutes the oft-repeated charge that key Baptist leaders were once Seekers, Levellers, Ranters, and Fifth Monarchists. The book is unique in the extent of its usage of local church records and numerous manuscripts in libraries at home and abroad. David Beale taught Baptist History (college and seminary) twice a year for thirty years at Bob Jones University and Seminary. Currently residing in Simpsonville, SC, he is active in his local church and dedicates his time to writing, speaking in churches, and conducting academic modules and seminars.

Amidst Us Our Belovèd Stands will help all pastors and theologians, whether Baptist or not, to consider our own understanding of the sacraments afresh in light of the past. --Themelios

Baptists are sacramental

When it comes to baptism and the Lord's Supper, many Baptists reject the language of sacrament. As a people of the book, the logic goes, Baptists must not let tradition supersede the Bible. So Baptists tend to view baptism and Communion as ordinances and symbols, not sacraments.

But the history of Baptists and sacramentalism is complicated. In Amidst Us Our Beloved Stands, Michael A. G. Haykin argues that many Baptists, such as Charles Spurgeon and other Particular Baptists, stood closer to Reformed sacramental thought than most Baptists today. More than mere memorials, baptism and Communion have spiritual implications that were celebrated by Baptists of the past in sermons and hymnody. Haykin calls for a renewal of sacramental life in churches today--Baptists can and should be sacramental.

Orthodox Radicals complicates of our understanding of Baptist identity, setting the early English Baptists in the cultural, political, and theological context of the wider puritan milieu out of which they arose. The book also speaks to broader themes, including early modern debates on religious toleration, the mechanisms by which early modern actors established and defended their tenuous religious identities, and the perennial problem of anachronism in historical writing. Bingham also challenges the often too-hasty manner in which scholars have drawn lines of theological demarcation between early modern religious bodies, and reconsiders one of this period's most dynamic and influential religious minorities from a fresh and perhaps controversial perspective.

By combining a provocative reinterpretation of Baptist identity with close readings of key theological and political texts, Orthodox Radicals offers the most original and stimulating analysis of mid-seventeenth-century Baptists in decades.

Embracing in one common trajectory the major Baptist confessions of faith, the major Baptist theologians, and the principal Baptist theological movements and controversies, this book spans four centuries of Baptist doctrinal history. Acknowledging first the pre-1609 roots (patristic, medieval, Reformational) of Baptist theology, it examines the Arminian versus Calvinist issues that the General and the Particular Baptists first expressed. These issues dominated English and American Baptist theology during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries from Helwys and Smyth and from Bunyan and Kiffin to Gill, Fuller, Backus, and Boyce and were quickened by the awakenings and the missionary movement. Concurrently, the Baptist defended distinctives vis-à-vis the pedobaptist world and the unfolding of a strong Baptist confessional tradition. Then during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the liberal versus evangelical issues became dominant with Hovey, Strong, Rauschenbusch, and Henry in the North and Mullins, Conner, Hobbs, and Criswell in the South even as a distinctive Baptist Landmarkism developed, the discipline of biblical theology was practiced and a structured ecumenism was pursued. Missiology both impacted Baptist theology and took it to all the continents, where it became increasingly indigenous. Conscious that Baptists belong to the free churches and to the believers' churches, a new generation of Baptist theologians at the advent of the twenty-first century was somewhat more Calvinist than Arminian and decidedly more evangelical than liberal.

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, founded in 1951 on the campus of Wake Forest College, has had seven presidents throughout its history. One Southeastern Professor has known them all. This book is the story of that one Professor and his public and private interactions with all seven presidents. This story could only be told by Dr. George Braswell.

Raised in Emporia, Virginia, George Braswell has traveled the world, served as a pastor, demonstrated serious scholarship, been recognized as an expert in world religions, served as the first Southern Baptist Missionary to Iran, authored numerous books, and emphasized the Great Commission at home and abroad as a professor at Southeastern for more than 30 years.

Imagine being transported in time and space, sitting at the feet of Lottie Moon, hearing stories from Southern Baptists' most renowned missionary. If any writer can deliver on the premise, it is Rosalie Hall Hunt, and she does so brilliantly in Lottie Moon and the Silent Bell.

Hunt is today's definitive voice on historic women on mission, and in these pages she draws on a lifetime's immersion in the study of Lottie Moon's life and work. For years, Hunt has portrayed the famous missionary in a dramatic monologue she performs in churches. She also taps the serendipitous perspective of having known someone who heard Aunt Lottie's stories firsthand. And, if that's not enough, it also happens that Hunt grew up in Lottie's beloved China as a child of missionaries and lived in a house where Lottie once lived.

What is it about Lottie that so captures the imagination? Is it the image of her, small in stature yet stalwart, facing down the challenge of sharing Jesus in a faraway land? Is it because she was especially loved by the people of her adopted China? Is it the allure of leaving behind home and family to answer God's call to be a missionary in a foreign place? For the rapt trio of young sisters gathered in Aunt Lottie's sitting room, perhaps it's the twinkle in her eye as she offers a plate of warm tea cakes. Won't you join them?

BAUTISMO Y MEMBRESÍA EN LA IGLEISA

Como creyente, debo bautizarme?

Por qué debería hacerme miembro de una iglesia?

En ocasiones, el bautismo y la membresía de una iglesia local son elementos descuidados dentro del discipulado cristiano. Este folleto presenta la enseñanza de las Escrituras, mostrando la importancia y el significado de obedecer al Señor en estos asuntos. El bautismo es una demostración de la obra de salvación del Señor en nosotros, este trae bendición al creyente, ánimo a la iglesia y un testimonio claro para el mundo.

La membresía de la iglesia es una muestra de nuestro compromiso con el cuerpo de Cristo, nuestra nueva familia, y trae la ayuda y el apoyo del pueblo de Dios mientras buscamos servir al Señor juntos.

Este libro es una edición revisada de un recurso ampliamente usado en iglesias para preparar candidatos para el bautismo y la membresía de la iglesia.

This book is the Spanish translation of the English original (this is also available, ISBN 9781912154937):

Baptism and Church Membership

Do I need to be baptised as a believer?

Why should I become a church member?

Baptism and church membership are sometimes neglected elements of Christian discipleship today. This book sets out the teaching of Scripture, showing the importance and significance of obeying the Lord in these matters. Baptism is a demonstration of the Lord's work of salvation in us; it brings blessing to the believer, encouragement to the church and provides a clear testimony to the world. Church membershipsignifies commitment to our new family the body of Christ, and brings the help and support of God's peopleas we seek to serve the Lord together.

This book is a revised edition of a resource used widely in churches to prepare candidates for baptism and church membership.

What people are saying about In His Image...

In the writing of In His Image, Pastor Polson not only does a wonderful job showing us what it means to be made in the image of God, but he also provides us with very practical steps that will help us in this transformation process. I think you will find this book to be a positive step in seeing God transform you into His image

-- Mark Kirk, Pastor of Calvary Knoxville (Knoxville, Tennessee)

In a culture awash with self-identity talk, Pastor Sam Polson directs us to the truest identity of all - our Creator and Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ Himself. By successfully combining insightful theology and pastoral warmth, In His Image will enrich the reader's walk with God. I can see this book being particularly helpful for any Sunday school class, small group meeting, or in-home Bible study.

-- Dr. Greg Baker, Pastor of Fellowship Bible Church (Liberty, Utah)

Beyond the profound and fascinating way in which Pastor Sam Polson takes us along the thread of the significance and practical implications of the theme of God's image in Scripture, In His Image is a book that springs as much from the study and living out of those truths, as from a rich experience of pastoral service. The book awakens us to a simple truth, old but always relevant, that the purpose and passion of God is seeing humans transformed in His image, an image fully revealed in Christ. This is the fundamental challenge of the Gospel, to which no one can remain neutral.

Pastor Sam endeared Romania (together with his wife Susan they have a son adopted from Suceava), has been involved for many years together with West Park Baptist Church in Christian mission in our country, and I am honored by his friendship and service together. I am grateful that In His Image is available in Romanian.

-- Pastor Eugen Groza, Bethany Baptist Church (Timișoara, Romania)

Each of us lives our daily lives based on how we answer two essential human questions, 'Who am I?' and 'Why am I here?' In His Image invites us to revisit and reframe our answers to these foundational questions. For readers who have ears to hear the Spirit speak through His Word, there is the promise of new life in the present and new hope for the future as we gain new perspectives on what it means to be fully human in Christ.

-- Rick Dunn, Pastor of Fellowship Church Knoxville (Knoxville, Tennessee

Coram Deo is a Latin phrase translated in the presence of God, and defines how my friend Sam Polson submits to Christ and His kingdom. In this book, Pastor Sam provides a fresh and stimulating insight into the beautiful, biblical doctrine of Imago Dei, the image of God, while giving the reader the tools needed to REAP the word. In His Image is a book I highly recommend to assist in family worship, private devotion, or personal study.

-- Dr. David Trempe, Pastor of Westminster Chapel (Knoxville, Tennessee)

This volume provides more than just the essential events and necessary names to convey the grand history. It also addresses questions that students of Baptist history frequently ask, includes prayers and hymns of those who experienced hope and heartbreak, and directs the reader's attention to the mission of the church as a whole. Written with an irenic tone and illustrated with photographs in every chapter, The Baptist Story is ideally suited for graduate and undergraduate courses, as well as group study in the local church.

This book is a history about how the small English-speaking Baptist Church in South Chicago encouraged Mexican immigrants who were arriving in the area to find work shared a building in which they could worship and serve God in a Spanish-speaking environment in a Baptist worship service that began in this building in the mid-20th century.

We learn about how this particular Spanish-speaking ministry was stablished and how it grew in its weekly morning, and evening worship and other services for over sixty-five years. We learn how particular congregants and their officials served here and in various Baptist associations and conventions to spread the Gospel.

The latter part of this books discusses a brief history about how the Spanish-speaking Baptist congregation was the impetus for the development of a new branch of Christians in the early 1960s.