Journal: Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal
Volume: DBSJ 18:1 (NA 2013)
Article: Book Reviews
Author: Anonymous

DBSJ 18 (2013) p. 89

Book Reviews

Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Church Order, by Kevin Bauder. Schaumburg, IL: Regular Baptist Books, 2012. 263 pp. $19.99 (paperback). $24.99 (hardcover).

Finally, a relevant, articulate, and readable treatment of Baptist principles and polity by one who understands and embraces Baptist belief! Author Kevin Bauder has taught Baptist polity for a number of years at Central Baptist Theological Seminary (Plymouth, MN) where he currently serves as Research Professor of Systematic Theology. This book is preceded by several others wherein he treats his specialties—evangelicalism and fundamentalism. His purpose in writing this work is twofold: to logically explain and practically apply Baptist distinctives. Hence the two divisions: The Baptist Distinctives and New Testament Order.

Since Bauder’s plan is to consider the Baptist distinctives integratively and scripturally, he explains that their uniqueness lies not in individuality (other groups have held to certain of these distinctives) but in their combined witness, that is, “no other group holds the whole bundle” (12). And their genius lies in the fact that they are scripturally derived. But that does not mean that all Baptists have come to the same scriptural agreement. Therefore, Bauder provides an explanation of his own hermeneutical principles for interpreting relevant texts. These principles, he writes, appear to be the assumptions “implicit in mainstream Baptist thought” (13). They are three in number: (1) didactic passages should interpret historical ones; (2) clear passages should interpret obscure ones; and (3) deliberate or explicit passages should interpret incidental ones. These all fit under the rubric of Scripture interpreting Scripture. Bauder’s faithful adherence to this hermeneutical approach is the mainstay that provides both coherence and defense of Baptist doctrines.

Bauder begins his discussion of Baptist distinctives in order of priority with what has been the most important one for most Baptists—authority. He goes to great lengths to insist that it is not enough to merely accept biblical authority; to be a consistent Baptist, one must explicitly affirm the absolute authority of the New Testament in matters of faith and order. “Baptists insist that only the New Testament may be used to establish the doctrine and structure of the church” (24). Practically, Bauder is right, but historically Baptists did not always make such a fine distinction, at least in their earliest confessions. For example, the First London Confession (1644) states that the “Rule of...Knowledge, Faith and Obedience, concerning the worship and service of God, and all other Christian duties, is not man’s inventions...but only the word of

DBSJ 18 (2013) p. 90