Landmarkism?

There is a small, but troublesome, view amongst certain Baptist congregations called landmarkism, or Landmark Baptists. A lot of you probably never heard of it, or if you have then maybe you were unsure of how to respond to their arguments. One of the key methods of argumentation employed by landmarkists is that of Rome: to supply you with a plethora of church history that, often times, is misrepresenting an individual or relies on mere anachronistic interpretation.

The purpose of this blog is not to tear down my brothers and sisters in Christ, simply because they are in error. However, it cannot be denied that they are in error and it is my hope that this blog will serve as a good collection point for all the information out there regarding this false teaching.

So, with that in mind, here is a very simple definition of Landmark Baptist belief as found on gotquestions.org:

Landmark theology, or heritage theology, is the belief among some independent Baptist churches that only local, independent Baptist congregations can truly be called “churches” in the New Testament sense. They believe that all other groups, and even most other Baptists, are not true churches because they deviate from the essentials of landmarkism.

Those essentials are 1) church succession—a landmark Baptist church traces its “lineage” back to the time of the New Testament, usually to John the Baptist; 2) a visible church—the only church is a local (Baptist) body of believers; there is no such thing as a universal Body of Christ; 3) opposition to “pedobaptism” (sprinkling of infants) and “alien immersion” (any baptism not performed under the auspices of a landmark Baptist church)—all such baptisms are null and void.

Those are some of the key errors I plan to focus attention on. It is also my hope that this can be done with gentleness and reverence, without needing to resort to verbally hostile arguing. God bless.