Why did I choose a Baptist Church?

Question:

Why did you choose to join a Baptist church and not another denomination? For example, why did you not choose to join a Methodist church or an Adventist church, or maybe even a Pentecostal church? I think that you chose the Baptist because of doctrinal beliefs. Some people claim “God revealed such and such to me through this specific church and that is why I attend” even though they do not have Biblical evidence for their claims. I just want to know your opinion. Thanks for your help.

First of all, God brought me to the Lord Jesus Christ and through this encounter I entered into the New Covenant. When this all happened to me, I did not know anything about denominations. The day after I repented, my friend and I went to the Orthodox Church to ask the priest questions about the Bible, things that we did not understand and were bothering us as we read through It. When we got there, we were very disappointed because all the things that was explained to us  were what  dealt with tradition on how to act in the church service, how to stand, how to hold your hands, etc. and nothing about the spiritual aspects of life. Please do not think that I am using this to criticize the Orthodox Church. Never! This same thing could have happened at any church in any other denomination as well. I want the readers of this post to understand the importance of how you treat new people to the church. We all need to be ready to answer their questions about spiritual things using the Bible.

The thing that upset us the most about our visit to the Orthodox Church was the fact that we saw another form of “Christianity” and “worship” that is not found in the New Testament.

God directed us to a special person, a genuine Christian, who was able to answer all of our spiritual questions about the Bible while using the Bible. He demonstrated much patience and wisdom while dealing with us. I later learned that he was a Baptist pastor who knew the Scriptures very well and lived by them. We were in Moscow at the time and I asked the man where we could find a church in Chisinau where there were priests like he was and where there were other people who had a passion and desire to study the Bible. He gave an address of a Baptist church to us. When I entered the church in Chisinau, I was so pleased by the sound doctrine that I heard and the great teaching that I received from the Word of God. It was obvious that the Word of God was the focus of worship for the Christians who came to worship in that church.

In the beginning, I did not know about the doctrinal differences between the Baptist denomination and other denominations. In fact, I did not learn about these doctrinal differences in the Baptist church. I learned about the doctrinal differences when I met and spoke with members of some of the other denominations. At the Baptist church we were taught the Holy Scriptures. Some of the denominational differences are not of great importance while others deal with salvation and authentic Christian living. While studying the two, I chose to stand firm on the solid foundation of the Holy Scriptures.

Translation by: Erik Brewer