“There’s a lot of times a kind of anti-historical posture, suspicion toward creeds and confessions in general, sometimes even kind of an anti-theological posture and individualism,” Ortlund said. He observed that other church traditions display these tendencies as well but explained that he believes the best response “when we see a weakness in our own tribe” is to try to strengthen that weakness.
The specific weakness Ortlund addressed in his video had to do with a lack of knowledge of church history, particularly Baptist history. “Mainly I want to speak to my fellow Baptists and sort of encourage and promote that we should affirm the Nicene Creed today without hesitation and with great enthusiasm,” he said, “because that’s part of our own heritage. That’s part of our own tradition.”
Ortlund, who recommended a variety of resources for further study, first explained that “Baptist,” a “denominational term,” should not be confused with the word “Anabaptist,” a “sociological term.” The Baptist tradition, which originated in the 17th century in Great Britain as a stream of Puritanism, has “always, from the beginning, been confessional.”
Ortlund said there are many Baptist confessions, but his favorite is the Orthodox Creed of 1679, which “enfolds” the Nicene Creed, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Athanasian Creed within itself. The confession names those three creeds specifically and says that they “ought thoroughly to be believed, and received.”
“That’s not eccentric,” said Ortlund. “That’s the historic Baptist posture. I know that…this is an adjustment for people today, but historically, the sort of Baptist ethos has been more like that.”
Another example Ortlund gave is from Hercules Collins, a 17th century Baptist pastor, who created the Orthodox Catechism, modeled after the Heidelberg Catechism. Collins, said Ortlund, “says all of these creeds, the same three I just mentioned…are thoroughly to be believed and embraced by all those that would be accounted Christians.”
Ortlund then specifically addressed Allen’s concern about the phrase, “one baptism for the remission of sins.”
“I think it’s unfortunate that there would even be worries or hesitations about this language, because it’s straight out of the Bible,” said Ortlund, who acknowledged that Allen knows it is. However, Ortlund believes that to have an issue with wording copied from Scripture is to have an issue with Scripture itself.
“Now, I think the concern that could come up is someone can say, ‘Yeah, but this can be misinterpreted.’ And to meet that concern, I would simply say, look, biblical language can always be misinterpreted. The solution to that is not to avoid biblical language. The solution to that is to oppose bad interpretations.”
Ortlund then addressed the idea that Baptists could be supporting baptismal regeneration, that is, the belief that baptism is necessary for salvation. He reiterated, “Historically, Baptists had no trouble affirming this language and just clarifying what we think it means.”
