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BAPTIST HISTORY

From material by Terry Hamilton 3

Lesson 1: EARLY DAYS 30-90 A.D. (Pages 1-5) Exodus 13:3 And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage; for by strength of hand the LORD brought you out from this place: there shall no leavened bread be eaten. Exodus 32:13 Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, thy servants, to whom thou swarest by thine own self, and saidst unto them, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of will I give unto your seed, and they shall inherit it for ever. Psalm 77:11 I will remember the works of the LORD: surely I will remember thy wonders of old. On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center was destroyed by hijacked jets crashing through the twin towers. Five years later, one of the great rallying cries was “We remember.” It echoes the famous one, “Remember the Alamo.” It behooves us to remember where our distinctives as Baptists come from because some of them are part of our United States Constitution Bill of Rights! When we revere our history, we will hold high its original standards of Scripture and doctrines it teaches! We won’t allow ourselves to be carried to and fro with every word of doctrine. God’s word has reminders—to remember! Remember the deliverance of His chosen people (Exodus 13:3). God’s people need to remember how God, in His strength, brought us out of our bondage to sin. He wants all of us who love Him to love history—His story of how He has delivered His people before and will deliver us as well. Moses pleaded with God to remember His servants Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Exodus 32:13). God’s people need to remember the great heroes of faith, to remind us that God has always used repentant sinners to accomplish His works of grace. The heroes did not stop when the Old Testament and New Testament were finished. He wants us to remember heroes of faith throughout the church age. NOTE: There is a great display of many of these heroes in the halls of Canton Baptist Temple, Canton, Ohio, called the Christian Hall of Fame. This display was laid on the heart of Dr. Harold Henniger while he was recovering from heart surgery. He was reading Hebrews 11, the Heroes of Faith chapter and began to think how great it would be to create a hall of Christian heroes, like the new Football Hall of Fame there had done with great football players. With the help of the great artist and preacher, Dr. Peter Ruckman, many portraits were placed through the halls of early Christians, and as years passed, many others were added. David told us to remember the works of the Lord (Psalm 77:11). God has not died, gone to sleep, or become inactive or impotent since the New Testament was finished. We are to always remember His work—He is ever working today in the church! Stephen’s sermon was all about things his listeners needed to remember (Acts 7). When he was brought before the Sanhedrin council to defend against the charges filed against him, he did not treat the history of the children of Israel as dull, boring, unimportant, or irrelevant. He went back 2,000 years to recall God’s appearance to Abraham (Acts 7:2) and reviewed highlights of the next 2,000 years—pointing out, by the way, how they continually failed to live the way God intended, right up to the day they rejected His Son. Do you know your Bible well enough to share that? Can you recall and rejoice in what God has done for you? Baptist history goes further back than the church of Rome. Before the end of the 19th century, virtually a ll Baptist historians believed those of the early church were Baptists. I remember how the late Dr. Al Lacy pointed this out, perhaps a little with tongue in cheek and humor maybe, by reminding us the forerunner of Jesus was John the BAPTIST, and because Jesus was baptized by him, that made Jesus a Baptist. Some non-Baptists historians, of course, disagreed (a pride issue, maybe). But other non-Baptist historians, reluctantly, maybe, including John Clark Ridpath, had to admit that “there was a Baptist-type church as far back as 100 A.D. There were Baptist churches then, ad all Christians were then Baptists.” The well-known evangelist Charles Haddon Spurgeon said, “We believe that Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the Reformation; we were reformers before Luther or Calvin were born; we never came from the church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. NOTE: When did the church begin? This side note here bears insertion because there are differing answers to the question. The majority of those I have listened to or read are convinced it began on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). Others may believe it began just a few days later when the number of believers increased and officers and deacons and the resolution of issues began. The word appears for the first time here in Acts 2:47, so it had to begin soon after the day of Pentecost. By this time there were at least 3,000 members! Days later it had grown to at least 8,000! See Acts 4:4. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 4 However, it bears worth considering that the church began when Jesus called His twelve disciples and gave them authority to preach and do miracles. Just before He went to heaven, He breathed on them and said, “Receive ye the Holy Ghost.” That was when the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit began. But when Peter made his dynamic answer to Jesus’ question, “Whom do ye say that I am,” Jesus said, “On this rock I will build my church.” Jesus may have already been building His church with these 12 men. In this experience, He pointed out what that church’s foundation would be. We know the Roman Catholics teach that Jesus was saying He would build His church on Peter and Peter was the first pope. You can not find that supported in any Scripture or anything Jesus said. There is a play on Greek words here. Peter was just a little stone (his name means little stone). Jesus was going to build His church on the truth of Peter’s confession of faith. Given what we know about Peter’s life from then on, I would not want to know MY church was built on someone who denied Christ and cursed and swore (not to mention, Peter was married, and no pope was ever married—the Catholic church taught against it. Baptist distinctives are New Testament doctrines. This is vital! The Baptist distinctives are Bible doctrines found in the New Testament. Why doesn’t every Christian believe them, then? NOTE: Here again, let me digress. It is unfortunate to study Baptist history and learn of the divisions which have come in it through the years. Not every Baptist group uses the King James Bible—that departure began some time ago. Not every Baptist group is independent—meaning those not independent report to some higher group of people who decide which material they should teach and which ministries and missionaries they support. As we get into these distinctives, however, keep in mind they go back to the older, original Baptists. I personally believe those who have digressed from some or all of these distinctives should erase the name Baptist from their church sign, business name, and material, but that isn’t likely to happen. They like the name as an attraction to some who may not know better, perhaps. Biblical authority is the rejection of other forms of authority, be they other churches or books outside of the Bible. It rejects the Catholic church’s authority and the ex cathedra statements of a pope. It does not believe the 95 theses Luther nailed to a church door or John Calvin’s theology (known as the TULIP principles). They totally reject the Book of Mormon, Doctrines and Covenants, and Pearl of Great Price of the Mormons, along with the teachings of cults like Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example. Biblical authority will be covered more in lesson 7. Freedom of conscience is not the freedom to act like one wishes, but to be allowed to adamantly believe and teach what the Bible teaches. Persecution arose from other groups for this reason. Early Christians were persecuted (Acts 4, 5, 8, with Saul of Tarsus being chief among them). The Roman Empire persecuted them. Hundreds of years, known as the Dark Ages, were a period the Baptist Church and people nearly disappeared. Even off-shoots of the Roman Catholic Church (called Protestants) persecuted true Baptist Christians. We still see this today with various forms of Christians, for example, the Islams. We will deal more with freedom of conscience in lesson 8. Separation of church and state—here is a term we have seen really tossed around and misunderstood. The radicals would prefer it to be separation of church from state. The church, to them, has no authority to tell them what kind of morals to promote, what behaviors they can not tolerate in a staff member’s life, and so forth. It is erroneously said by many that the idea was not part of or intended to be any part of the first amendment; it was only part of another writing by Thomas Jefferson. But the early church meant by this that the Roman emperor should not merge the two. They rejected the authority of the pope and the authority of the Holy Roman Empire because it was mandating how they were to operate and what they could teach. They did not believe in various European states aligned with the Lutherans or Presbyterians. They did not believe in the Pilgrims and Puritans starting a Puritan church state which would persecute and banish Baptist believers for their faith. They did not believe in Islamic governments declaring conversion to Christianity was a crime. We’ll get into more in lesson 9. The New Testament local church—local, visible, and autonomous—was the way the first church was organized. Paul’s letters were to churches like this and the kind he began and some he also pastored in. It was not some church followed by watching a televangelist or listening to a radio pastor. Its headquarters was not in Rome under a pope. It is not some universal, invisible church (all believers of all ages, living or dead). Ecumenicalism was rejected. They would not link or support other groups teaching or operating differently enough to affect foundational doctrines or Biblical practices not clearly supported by Scripture. Of course, there was some disagreement because that was part of what being independent was all about. Lesson 10 will cover this more. Regenerate believer’s baptism by immersion was a very divisive yet important distinctive. They realized that infant baptism was taught or that a person became a Christian or got saved by being baptized. They rejected sprinkling or pouring as the mode of baptism. We’ll discuss this in lesson 11. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 5 Perpetuity of New Testament church means the true, independent Baptist church will always be found somewhere, even if hidden underground, like it was during the Dark Ages. Peter was not its first pope. The church did not go out of existence everywhere any time. It was not resurrected by the Reformation. See lesson 12 for more on this distinctive. The premillennial return of Christ and literal interpretation of prophecy was distinctive in the true church. They rejected the Augustinian theology that the reign of Christ taught in Revelation is a figurative picture of the Roman Catholic Church. They did not believe the church was responsible to bring in the millennial kingdom. Lesson 13 will cover this. All through the church age since the group we read about in Acts 2, there have always been those believers who held to these beliefs and practices. They were called many names through history. THAT is important as we will see in coming lessons. There were, as noted, some variations in beliefs then and there are today. We may not endorse every one of them, but we can identify with those Baptists wo have continued to hold these beliefs and practices. As Jude exhorted us, we must “earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints.” That faith has not been delivered twice, differently, or in any form of compromise or outright heresy. This information should help us with our personal walk with Jesus, family life, and church life. Doctrine IS important (1 Timothy 4:13). Study is more important than memorizing or reading, but we should do all three in earnest (Titus 1:9). We should believe it is important and be able to explain it to some level to anyone who asks the reason for the hope within us (1 Peter 3:15) and not tossed to and fro with everything that comes out claiming to be Christian—or even Baptist! (Ephesians 4:14-15). Our goals should be to spread the gospel and advance religious and civil liberties in America and the world (2 Corinthians 4:3). Now Baptists are not the only ones who will be in heaven, and sadly heaven may be populated with fewer Baptists than many think—because so many rely on having this name attached as if it is their automatic entry of their name in the Lamb’s Book of Life. One thing I think we might learn from Acts 19:2 is that it is not about who baptized us as it is why we were baptized. As a saying goes, if you were baptized before you repented and received Jesus as your personal Saviour, you went under the water a dry sinner and came out a wet sinner. Baptismal regeneration is an off-shoot from Roman Catholic doctrine. True Baptists will not recognize anyone as being saved just because they can prove they got baptized. And a person who got baptized before salvation needs to be baptized BIBLICALLY after he really gets saved. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 6 Lesson 2: EARLY CHURCH 90-476 A.D. (Pages 6-13) Text: Mat 28:19, 20 Introduction: It took persecution to move the early church and its members out of Jerusalem and Antioch. The key person in this persecution was Saul of Tarsus. He first shows up as holding the clothes of those who stoned Stephen and consenting to his death (Acts 7:58-8:1). He really made havoc for a while, but God dramatically got his attention and he made an abrupt about-face when Jesus answered his question, “Lord what will You have me do?” (Acts 9:1-6). It is worthy to note that the office of an apostle could not be bequeathed or transferred to another. Anyone claiming to be an apostle today needs to see that and change his title to maybe disciple, pastor, minister, for example. Every apostle except John were martyred in some cruel way. John, the beloved one, has been reported by some to have survived a cup of poison and a pot of boiling oil before he was exiled to the isle of Patmos. We’re going to use this lesson to share how heretics were used by the devil in an attempt to usurp the distinctives of the Baptist church. Many of these names will be less familiar, perhaps. I. The next generation A. Clement of Rome B. Polycarp of Smyrna C. Papias of Hierapolis II. Contending for the faith during Roman persecution A. About the Deity of Christ B. Biblical authority C. Freedom of conscience D. Separation of church and state E. New Testament church F. Believer’s baptism III. Spreading the gospel during Roman persecution A. Briton B. Montanists and Tertullian C. Novatianists IV. Conversion of Constantine and Roman Empire and its consequences A. Marriage of church and state B. Christianity became paganized V. Contending for the faith during rise of state church A. Separation of church and state B. Augustine C. Donalists VI. Spreading the gospel to Ireland Conclusion: As you review this part of history, ask yourself, are you including any pagan beliefs and practices in your life? Is your church doing this? Which ones, if any, do you need to repent of? Do not become guilty of being part of the time when you no longer endure sound doctrine and heap to yourself teachers instead of preachers (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). Be a part of giving to missionaries through what’s often called “Faith Promise.” BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 7 Lesson 2: EARLY CHURCH 90-476 A.D. (Pages 6-13) Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. It took persecution to move the early church and its members out of Jerusalem and Antioch. Jesus had told them to take it first to Jerusalem; they had done well. But He also said Judea, Samaria, and the uttermost part of the earth. God used a key person to get the gospel to the other areas through this persecution—it was Saul of Tarsus. He first shows up as holding the clothes of those who stoned Stephen and consenting to his death (Acts 7:58-8:1). He really made havoc for a while, but God dramatically got his attention and he made an abrupt about-face when Jesus answered his question, “Lord what will You have me do?” (Acts 9:1-6). It is worthy to note that the office of an apostle could not be bequeathed or transferred to another. Anyone claiming to be an apostle today needs to see that and change his title to maybe disciple, pastor, minister, for example. Every apostle except John were martyred in some cruel way. John, the beloved one, has been reported by some to have survived a cup of poison and a pot of boiling oil before he was exiled to the isle of Patmos. We’re going to use this lesson to share how heretics were used by the devil in an attempt to usurp the distinctives of the Baptist church. Many of these names will be less familiar, perhaps. Baptists believe there will always be a next generation—a remnant, like with Israel—of believers until the end of the church age. By the end of the apostolic era, they had spread the gospel as far east as Arabia, as far south as Ethiopia, as far west as Rome and perhaps Spain, and as far north as modern-day Bosnia and Serbia. The next generation saw the necessary end of apostolic ministry and authority. The Baptist historian Thomas Armitage wrote in his book, A Heritage of Baptists about the cessation of this office. It has been widely accepted that one mandate to be classified as a true apostle was he had to see Jesus personally. Paul was one of the last—if not THE last—to be given this privilege (1 Corinthians 15:8). They were specially chosen witnesses of Christ’s life and work when He was on earth. In 2 Timothy 2:3, Paul admonished his spiritual son to commit what Paul meticulously taught him to faithful men who could and would teach others. Here, by the way, is where the perpetuity of the local church idea comes from. Let’s look at key players in the effort. Clement of Rome was acquainted with the apostle Paul, Peter, and John and wrote a letter to the church at Corinth to warn about the heathen practice of prostitution and the Temple of Aphrodite. Polycarp of Smyrna was an advocate of the autonomy of the local church, and was burned at the stake during the Roman persecution. Papias of Hierapolis, a pupil of John the apostle, was an ardent premillennialist. Contending for the faith during Roman persecution became more necessary with the passing of time. Paul warned it would happen (Acts 20:29). One of the earliest attacks was any teaching about the Deity of Christ. These men are known as Gnostics. Marcion, an early leader in this movement, was a dualist, believing there were two gods—the God of wrath and vengeance (Old Testament), and a god of love and mercy revealed through Jesus (New Testament). See what John 8:58 and 10:30 say about this. These were the statements of Jesus Himself! Marcion thought Jesus could have nothing in common with the evil, material world so His body was spiritual and not real. John spoke against this in 1 John 4:1-3. Arius denied the Deity of Jesus Christ, and instead taught He was finite and created. We see this perpetrated in the Mormons and Jehovah’s Witnesses even today. Biblical authority has always been a key weapon Satan uses men in promoting. It did not take him any longer in this time than it did in the Garden of Eden, relatively speaking, before three forms of the New Testament existed. There was the original one in Greek, the Syrian Peshito, the most popular translation in Antioch of Syria and other eastern churches; and the old Latin Itala Biblia circulated in France and central Europe. Marcion was an early corrupter of the New Testament. G. A. Riplinger in New Age Bible Versions noted the words of Irenaeus an early church leader he said about it: “[He] and his followers have betaken themselves to mutilating the Scriptures, not acknowledging some books at all, and curtailing the gospel according to Luke and the epistles of Paul they assert that these alone are authentic, and which they shortened.” The most famous corruption of Scriptures is what we know came from Alexandria, under the influence of Clement. He sought to merger the philosophies of two men we’ve heard of a lot: Plato and Philo. One of Clement’s students is BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 8 well known—Origin. He began correcting the Bible, adding and subtracting at will. THIS is the origin of what we well know as the Alexandrian manuscript. Origen denied the account of Adam and Eve, the inspiration of Revelation, the existence of hell, substituting the place of purgatory. Pardon my pun here: The teaching of Origen is the origin of what many cults and religions teach yet today! The line of schooling continued with Pamphilus. He took over Clement’s school when Origen died. When Pamphilus died, his books and writings passed on to Eusebius, historian and bishop of Caesarea. When the converted Roman emperor Constantine died, he sought for copies of the Bible to be made and was supplied with those of Eusebius, then they were given to Jerome, the author of the Roman Catholic Latin Vulgate! You have most likely heard of several of these names of people and their renditions of corrupt copies of the Scripture! NOTE: I encourage you to refer to my series “Bible Authority,” which has outlines and comments on this important stand of the Baptists—especially when it comes to the King James Bible. Freedom of conscience in proper context is not the freedom to think how WE want to, but to tune our thoughts and conscience to how GOD wants our thoughts and conscience to operate. It is known also as soul liberty, but many turned it the wrong direction. Marcus Aurelius decreed that the property of Christians was to be given to the informers who turned them in to the Roman government. Thousands of Christians were martyred. Emperor Decius ordered widespread persecution of all who would not worship the emperor and Roman pantheon of gods. Emperor Diocletian devoted his army resources to hunting down and destroying all Christians, many being killed. The massive persecution led them to hide in the catacombs, but also accomplished God’s will of the spread of the gospel to the “uttermost parts of the earth”—the entire known Roman Empire at that time. It’s amazing how a fervent effort of Satan through evil men to squash and stop the spread of the gospel was used by God to do the opposite! See Acts 1:8 and 8:1. Separation of church and state does not mean the church has no authority or right to tell the state how it should govern its people, nor does it mean the state has the right to tell the church what it can teach. That would be nothing less than separation of church from the state! What the principle focuses on is standing against the marriage of church and state. The Roman Empire mandated practices of emperor worship and Roman gods. If Baptists did not stand against this, it would not take much to become part of Constantine’s apostasy, which we will deal with later. The New Testament church was supposed to always be a LOCAL body of baptized believers, not some conglomerate of many churches or ecumenicalism. Just as wicked men desired a unity of religion in the building of the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11), even today man desires centralization, not just in government, but in the church (religion in general). The Old Testament High Priest and Levites were thought to be the way God wanted things to be in the church. We mentioned Clement of Rome—he attempted in that letter to Corinth to place himself over that small church. And though Irenaeus was a firm proponent of the Trinity and Deity of Christ, he also advocated centralization of church authority. Cyprian of Carthage was apparently the father of the unbiblical doctrine of the universal (Catholic) church, and outside of there and that was no salvation. Believer’s baptism was contested also. NOTE: I am not sure this is authentic, but I was once told that when the group preparing the King James Bible came across the Greek word baptizo and realized it literally meant immersion in water, they feared the wrath of the king and church so much they transliterated the word instead. Well, thankfully, careful Scripture study of other verses leaves no doubt that TRUE believer’s baptism is the full body immersion in water. Only that way can it picture what it is to picture—identifying with the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ. The practice held on its own for two hundred years. But later the heresy of baptismal regeneration began to be taught. Its origin is likely rooted in the Catholic Church and later extracted to be taught by Alexander Campbell and today by the Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ groups. Justin Martyr wrote, “Baptism brings forgiveness and the pardon of sins; it transplants into a new existence, and without it there is no salvation.” Hermas said, “There is no other repentance than this, that we go down into the water and receive the forgiveness of past sins. A hundred years later Cyprian of Carthage began to advocate the baptism of infants. Now let us look at the spreading the gospel during Roman persecution. Despite all the best efforts of the Roman Empire to exterminate Christians and despite ongoing corruption of Scriptures and doctrine, true Christianity spread widely in the world. Historians, Baptist and otherwise, wrote of the spread of the gospel to the island of Britain. The works include The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook by James R. Beller, and History of Welsh Baptists by Jonathan Davis. He said, “Before Briton, as it was called, was conquered by the English in the fifth century she enjoyed a blessed revival and saw scores of her people saved and baptized by missionaries from Antioch and friends of Prudence and Claudia (2 Timothy 4:21).” BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 9 Montanists come from a pagan man named Montanus, converted in the mid second century. Doug Hammett provided extensive information about this early but minor Protestant reformation. This area had been distressed by a drift toward ritualism, the rise of the clergy class, a lack of spirituality, and a developing laxity in discipline and church membership standards. His beliefs and practices spread through Asia, Africa, and part of Europe, and included the distinctives of baptism by immersion, acceptance of the complete word of God, and premillennialism. If anyone came from a corrupted church, he required them to be re-baptized. One of his great converts was Tertullian from Carthage who became a great defender and contender of the faith, including the rejection of infant baptism. His influence and those of the Montanists were later seen in the Novatian movement and the Donatus movement and the Paulicians movement. Novatianists will be the next group we consider. The persecution of Christians under Decius led to the sad renunciation of the faith by numerous Christians. After this persecution, when the ones who had denied Christ sought to rejoin the church, a schism developed in the church at Rome. Cornelius (not the one of Acts 10) advocated restoration upon public confession of their sin. Novatian, eager to protect the purity of the church, was disgusted at easy readmission. When Cornelius was elected as bishop of the church at Rome, Novatian left and started another independent church in Rome. Its premises sound a little like the independent movement among Baptists today: Independence of churches and equality of all pastors in respect to authority. Purity of church membership and free from apostasy, impurity, and worldliness. Baptism of mature believers by immersion. Reprobation of apostates. NOTE: I am not sure what was meant by “baptism of mature believers”—it would tell me a believer could not be baptized immediately or soon after he received Christ and was saved. Independent Baptists today believe the sooner a new convert is baptized, the better, for if one struggles in the first step of obedience, he likely will struggle worse in the coming acts of obedience. Novatian was eventually excommunicated by the church at Rome and the associated churches were severely persecuted. Still, their influence spread toward France and Asia Minor, lasting until the sixth and seventh century. The conversion of Constantine and Roman Empire and its consequences is one of the most talked about eras of church history. Here was a man who faced a battle against Maxentius at the Milvian Bridge and supposedly saw a vision of a flaming cross in the sky with the superscription, “By this sign conquer.” He attributed his victory then to the Christian ‘god.” In a move to consolidate and expand his power by attaching the spiritual power of the growing Christian movement to his imperial power, he issued the Edict of Milan which granted freedom to Christians and adopting Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire. He is praised by many historians for “legalizing Christianity.” More than likely, it was a conversion of force rather than by will of a person. Baptists recognize his decisions led to the darkest days of church history. The marriage of church and state became a part of this movement. Constantine, accustomed to the official relationship between the Roman gods and government, merely changed the official religion of the state from paganism to Christianity. Doug Hammett notes the effects. Christianity became a political force. The arm of Christianity now held a sword; its priests were no longer preachers, but politicians. Catholic pastors were paid by the state. They were freed from paying taxes, were paid by tax money of others, and exempt from military duty. Churches were filled with unbelievers. Slaves were granted freedom if they were baptized. Civil observance of Sunday became a law. All his subjects were exhorted to receive the Christian faith. Writing about this, Charles H. Spurgeon said, “We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the state, to prostitute the purity of the bride of Christ to any alliance with government.” Christianity thus became paganized. When the church and state join like this, other compromises follow. “Unbelieving pagans, who came into the churches to comply with Constantine’s compulsion, brought their beliefs and practices with them. Compromising churches wishing to accommodate their new members Christianized the pagan practices. The pagan mother-child worship was changed to the mother-child worship of Mary-Jesus.” Do you see so much of the Catholic history here?!? Contending for the faith during rise of state church then became needed. False doctrine permeated the church. The Montanists, Novatianists, and Donatists opposed this marriage of church and state. The Donatist preacher Gaudentis said, “God approved prophets and fishermen, not princes and soldiers, to spread the faith.” J. M. Carroll, who wrote The Trail of Blood, noted, “Constantine, desiring to have all Christians join with him in his new idea of a state religion, and many conscientiously opposing this serious departure form New Testament teachings, he begins using the power of government to compel. Thus began the days and years and even centuries of hard and bitter persecution against ALL Christians loyal to the original Christ and apostles’ teaching.” BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 10 Now we will look at another famous person, Augustine. He became the Bishop of Hippo in North Africa and from that location from Rome became the greatest systematizer what came to become the Roman Catholic Church. His dogma held sway in his day and has continued to be influential in Roman Catholic and Reformed churches. Augustine taught that salvation was by grace alone, but the saved were predestined to salvation. Salvation was only found through church sacraments. The church at Rome was the universal, visible kingdom of God, ushering in the millennium. He advocated infant baptism and that heresy should be suppressed by the civil government, encouraging a magistrate to confiscate land and imprison and execute re-baptizers such as the Donatists. Donatists were another link in the New Testament line of faithful believers. They were also called Anabaptists and Puritans, arising in North Africa as a reaction to the increasing church hierarchy and state church. They objected when a former Christ-denier was named Bishop of Carthage. They refused to recognize the tainted bishop and established independent churches in North Africa. They opposed prevailing doctrinal and ecclesiastical impurity. The Council of Carthage declared that children should be baptized. Along with Augustine, the moderator of the Council of Mela, the declaration was made that those who denied infant baptism were accursed. We conclude this long time with the spreading the gospel to Ireland. By the fifth century, Baptist groups had spread far and wide. The Novatians had churches in Constantinople, in several cities in Asia Minor, and in Egypt. The Donatist churches had spread throughout North Africa. As persecutions arose, believers scattered again. Communities were in the Middle East and the alpine mountains and valleys of Europe. One of the most remarkable stories of the spread of the gospel in this time occurred in Ireland. Patrick was born in what is now known as Scotland, a son of a Christian Briton family. Remember, the gospel had been taken to Britain earlier; independent churches thrived for hundreds of years. Patrick was kidnapped by pirates and taken to Ireland and sold at a slave auction to an Irish chieftain. Like the prodigal son, Patrick herded his master’s swine and cattle in the country of Ireland. In the depths of life’s circumstances for several years, he repented and was born again. He escaped from his master, found a ship, and returned to his father. In that safe place, he trained to be a preacher and began to have dreams of returning to Ireland with the glorious gospel. His family was so overjoyed over his return, they discouraged him from ever reaching that goal. When he was 30, he had another dream, a call to return to Ireland. He enlisted 12 men and returned to the Emerald Isle as a missionary, preaching to the pagans, baptizing them by immersion, and starting local, independent churches. As you review this part of history, ask yourself, are you including any pagan beliefs and practices in your life? Is your church doing this? Which ones, if any, do you need to repent of? Do not become guilty of being part of the time when you no longer endure sound doctrine and heap to yourself teachers instead of preachers (2 Timothy 4:3, 4). Be a part of giving to missionaries through what’s often called “Faith Promise.” BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 11 Lesson 3: The Dark Ages 476-1500 A.D. (Pages 14-21) NOTE: There is no Scripture text here. Introduction: The Dark Ages are also known as the Middle Ages. It was a period of cultural and religious darkness. We might liken it to the silent years between Malachi’s death and Jesus’ birth. I. Characteristics A. Cultural darkness B. Religious darkness II. The early Dark Ages A. Major historical developments B. Contending for the faith C. Spreading the gospel III. Later Dark Ages A. Historical developments B. Spreading the gospel Conclusion: Has your life had a period of “Dark Ages”? What is the right way to contend for the faith? Is our influence and spread of the gospel greater than that of the cults? BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 12 Lesson 3: The Dark Ages 476-1500 A.D. (Pages 14-21) The Dark Ages are also known as the Middle Ages. It was a period of cultural and religious darkness. We might liken it to the silent years between Malachi’s death and Jesus’ birth. There was cultural darkness—the term was originally used by the scholar Petratch. The Greek and Roman era was a time of flowering civilization, but after the fall of the Roman empire, it was culturally stagnant. The 1,000 year reign of the Roman Catholic Church was a period of religious darkness—full of priest-ridden, superstitious, dark times, as described by Edward Gibbon in The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. The early Dark Ages experienced major historical developments. Without a doubt, the collapse of the Roman Empire was the chief factor of the beginning of the Dark Ages. Before the Goths, Huns, and Vandals overthrew it, Rome was destroyed by its own materialism and immorality. Its political will and armies were decaying, so Rome was no match for these barbarians. The only surviving part was the Eastern Empire, headquartered in Constantinople. The dominance of the Roman Catholic Church was the result of the political, economic, and cultural systems collapse. It managed to survive and assume an even greater political power. Politicians controlled the church in order to maintain political control. Literacy and education had little place in the church hierarchy that maintained power through ignorance and superstition of the laity. The paganization of the church, with the prevalence of man’s traditions over God’s word, led to religious practices and persecution of believers who refused to participate in this long slide to heresy. The rise of Islam was seen in this period. The religious vacuum of the Dark Ages offered a perfect time for it. It was founded by a man named Mohammed, who was greatly influenced early in life by Jews and Christians, whom he referred to as People of the Book. He incorporated much of the Bible into his teachings, but dethroned Jesus as God, instead elevating his tribal moon god Al-ilah (shortened later to Allah) to the stature of Almighty God. Islam was propagated by the sword, conquering most of the Middle East, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain. In one of the most decisive battles of world history, Charles Martel, a Frankish general and political leader, defeated the Islamic Moors in the Battle of Tours. It halted the spread of Islam in Europe. In our day, instead of conquering by the sword, Islam conquers by immigration. Contending for the faith was once again the issue for the true church. By the time of Pope Leo I and Gregory I, the Roman Catholic Church had consolidated religious and political power, establishing a wide variety of heresies and practices, based on political considerations and pagan practices and traditions. Infant baptism became official doctrine. Mary (mother of Jesus) was evaluated as the mother of God and additional heresies about her. We know today they include her immaculate conception, perpetual virginity, ascension to heaven, and co-mediator and co-redeemer in heaven. Purgatory was introduced as a place God sentences dead believers to until their sins are paid for. Thus began the practice of prayers for the dead and indulgences. Bible reading by the individual was prohibited. Only priests and the Pope were supposed to interpret Scripture and issue edicts from them. Confession began to be practiced—individuals would confess their sins to a priest and be told to do various deeds as penance for them. And the teaching of transubstantiation came about—the belief that the bread and juice of the Lord’s supper becomes the literal body and blood of Jesus (through some supposed magical incantation). Spreading the gospel was still active, though maybe less noticeable. Montanists, Novatianists, Donatists were brutally and increasingly persecuted by the increasing political power of the Roman Catholic Church. The gospel still continued to be spread in Europe and the Middle East! Ireland—Scotland—England: The Irish churches sent the missionary Columba to Scotland, where he started a Bible school. Another missionary, Columbanus, left Ireland and preached in France, Switzerland, and even Italy for many years. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 13 Europe: The Catholic Church suppressed not just the education of the Bible, but groups who taught and preached it. But it was still preached by other groups like the Vaudois, Cathari, and Paterines, all who held Baptist beliefs and practices! Paulicians were another group slandered by the Roman Catholic persecutors. A manuscript entitled The Key of Truth was discovered in Armenia and provided unusual insight about this group. Several key people and events are connected with this group. Legend has it that the apostle Thomas planted churches in Armenia in mountainous areas of what is now Turkey, parts of Iran, and parts of Russia. The faith of this group stems from the first church in Antioch. Their name was derived from the frequent citation of Paul’s writings. The group practiced New Testament Christianity on the outer fringes of the Roman Empire, not incurring its wrath until the later seventh century, when a man named Constantine sheltered a Christian deacon who was fleeing Muslim persecution. Constantine was given a copy of the New Testament which resulted in his conversion and ultimately great revival. Constantine was stoned to death by command of Empress Theodora, who later instigated persecution of 100,000 Armenian Paulicians. In the face of this persecution, one leader established the free city-state of Teprice, where they resisted Catholic armies until it was overthrown by Saracen armies. The city had been known as “a shelter to every creed of belief or unbelief, to freedom of conscience before it appeared anywhere else.” (J. W. Griffith, A Manual of Church History) The discovery of The Key of Truth unveiled the Baptist beliefs and practices of this group which suffered persecution from the Roman Catholic Church because it believed and followed the New Testament. They believed in the Old and New Testaments, practiced public Bible reading, and believed every person should have access to God’s word. They rejected infant baptism and baptism of unbelievers, hierarchies, ceremonialism, and image worship. They sent missionaries to Eastern Europe and also fled to them. It is thought that the Bogomils were a part of this group. They continued to spread to Western Europe, called by various names. They could have been forerunners of the Albigenses. They may have influenced more people in more nations than modern Baptists do today. Now we come to the later Dark Ages and highlights from history then. The political influence of the pope was evident when four different men ruled as popes at the same time, under a different political leader. It happened in the eleventh century and again in the late 1300’s and early 1400’s. The Crusades were instigated by popes and monks as an attempt to liberate the Holy Land from the Muslims. Men were motivated by promises of special indulgences and even salvation to march toward Jerusalem during the periods of the Crusades. They were unsuccessful to liberate the Holy Land from the Islamic rule. But, they helped relieve the crushing boredom of life in the Dark Ages. They enlarged the vision of European survivors, paving the way to the Renaissance and Reformation. The Crusades, though, violated the wishes of Jesus (John 18:36). The Inquisitions began in the latter part of the Dark Ages, developed by the Roman Catholic Church for investigating, apprehending, and condemning heretics. If the heretics refused to recant, they would be tortured and executed. Despite the many efforts of the Roman Catholic Church to blot out all light during the Dark Ages. Baptist groups were quite robust throughout Europe and the Middle East. The Paterines were descendants of the Novatianists, numerous in Milan and Turin in northern Italy. Just like Psalm 112:4 and Hebrews 11:38 say, light arose in darkness even when they wandered in deserts, mountains, and caves. They continued their separation from Catholic heresies of infant baptism and marriage of church and state. The Petrobrussians were named after Peter Du Bruys, a student at the university of Paris and a converted priest who joined the Albigenses, preaching the gospel in southern France. His followers spread to the Netherlands and declared to be heretics because they preached the authority of Scripture, rejected traditions and infant baptism, taught the church was a spiritual body of regenerated believers, rejected using images of crucifixes and prayers and alms for the dead. The Albigenses, named after the town of Albi in southern France were descendants of the Paulicians. They spread from Armenia to Eastern Europe and westward. They also accepted Scripture over traditions, the BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 14 centralization concept of the Roman Catholic church, and infant baptism. Perhaps no other group was more persecuted. “The Catholics at first attempted to convert the Albigenses through ecclesiastical coercion. This failed largely because the simple Albigensians knew the word of God. Lateran II and the Council of Tours condemned them as heretics. Pope Innocent III initiated at least four crusades against them. He offered heaven to all who engaged in a holy war against them.” (Pastor Hammett, The History of Baptists). The Crusades in southern France were more successful than the Crusades against the Moslems. But, just as believers have done since Acts 8:1, these scattered to Italy and Germany, contributing to the Anabaptist movement. The Waldenses were known as “people of the valley” (the Vaudois). They lived for centuries in relative safety in the Pyrenees of France and in the Alps and valleys of northern Italy and Switzerland. They sent out missionaries to Europe. Peter Waldo was a wealthy Catholic merchant in Lyon, France. After his conversion, he realized the Catholic traditions differed greatly from Jesus’ teachings and those of the apostles. He joined this group and formed a group of traveling preachers called “the poor men of Lyon.” The revival under Peter Waldo brought the wrath of the Roman Catholic Church down on them as well. The Waldenses held to accepting the Bible as the only authority for the Christian life. They rejected the claim of the Roman Catholic Church being the only true church. They rejected infant baptism. They believed in salvation by grace alone, rejecting any works’ ideas of Roman Catholics. They rejected purgatory and prayers for the dead, the veneration of Mary and the saints, indulgences, prayers to saints, and use of images. As with other groups, they were forbidden to preach without a license, excommunicated, and persecuted— thus again being scattered. The Lollards trace back to Walter Lollard. The Waldenses ended up in Bohemia. Walter Lollard became a pastor there and preached widely in Europe. Revival came to the Waldenses and Albigenses. But, his career was cut short when he was captured and burned at the stake. This group also preached salvation by grace, rejected infant baptism and other traditions of the Roman Catholic Church. One great story about the persecutors involves a monk named Eachard. He persecuted believers in France until he finally understood their position. He became one persecuted himself and burned at the stake. The Lollards also fled to other parts of Europe and to England, where they found great success and influenced and eventually led by John Wycliffe. This man, so well-known, was the “Morningstar of the Reformation.” He also held to the sole authority of Scriptures, denounced the infallibility of the pope, promoted independent churches, separation of church and state, justification by faith, and renounced infant baptism. He was prohibited from preaching by the Bishop of London, so he confined himself to translating the Bible from Latin to English. He strongly believed the authority of Scriptures to mean all people should have a Bible in their language for themselves. NOTE: We see his influence even today in the work of the Wycliffe Bible Translators. Now, let us see applications in this story. Has your life had a period of “Dark Ages”? What is the right way to contend for the faith? Is our influence and spread of the gospel greater than that of the cults? BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 15 Lesson 4: Protestant Reformation (Pages 22-28) Text: Rom 1:17 Introduction: The Bible truth that “the just shall live by faith” sparked the life of Martin Luther and loosened the death grip of the Roman Catholic Church on Western Civilization. The Reformers did not go far enough in separating from the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and continued persecuting Baptists, they were still used by God to prepare the way for Bible-believing Baptists. I. Breaking up the darkness A. Religious influences B. Cultural influences II. Reformation begins in Germany III. Reformation in Switzerland IV. Reformation in England V. Baptist leaders A. In Germany B. In Switzerland C. In Holland D. In England VI. Darkness returns, light retreats VII. Are Baptists Protestants? Conclusion: What has led you to making a salvation decision? Are you grateful for the written and printed word? How much courage do you have to stand for Scripture and witness to others? Do you know why Baptists are not and were not Protestants? Do you have a vision for missions? BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 16 Lesson 4: Protestant Reformation (Pages 22-28) Romans 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith. The Bible truth that “the just shall live by faith” sparked the life of Martin Luther and loosened the death grip of the Roman Catholic Church on Western Civilization. The Reformers did not go far enough in separating from the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church and continued persecuting Baptists, they were still used by God to prepare the way for Bible-believing Baptists. The Roman Catholic Church’s death grip on Western Civilization during the Dark Ages gave way as several influences converged around 1500. The disgrace of three or four simultaneous popes supported the rival political factions in both Italy and France resulted in a loss of confidence in the papacy at the same time that selling ecclesiastical offices and purchasing spiritual benefits revolted the consciences of the multitudes. Despite the fanatical persecutions of dissenters by the Roman Catholic Church, the dissenters’ godly living and evangelical zeal continued to touch millions of lives. It kindled a desire to read the word of God. Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe many persons who adhered tenaciously to the doctrine of the Dutch Baptists. Despite their best efforts, the Roman Catholic Church could not hold back the flood of influences which shattered its dominance in the Western world and which led to a revival of learning and culture. The Crusades opened up the Western world to the culture of Eastern Europe and Arabic world. The Black Plague killed much of the population of Europe, causing many survivors to look elsewhere than medieval medicine and religion for answers to life’s problems. The Portuguese began a series of voyages from Europe, ultimately leading to the voyages of Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the New World. The Old World has never recovered its glory since. The capital of the Eastern Roman Empire fell to Islamic invaders, leading to the flight of scholars and manuscripts. The printing press was invented. The first book it printed was the Bible! This event doomed the policy of the Roman Catholic Church to keep the Bible away from the people. It not only opened up the classical works of Aristotle and Plato to much of the world, but also the writings of John Wycliffe and others. The hammer breaking up the Dark Ages started its work in Germany. The Reformation began in Germany. Martin Luther studied to be a lawyer, but then entered a monastery. As a lecturer at the University of Wittenburg, he was plagues with doubts about his eternal destiny. His pilgrimage to Rome resulted in his revulsion at the corruption of papal clergy. He was further revolted by the hawking of indulgences. His spiritual eyes were opened when they were drawn to reading Romans 1:17, “the just shall live by faith. Luther posted his 95 theses on the door of the church at Wittenburg. Most were aimed at the indulgences. Luther was now a protester, seeking to reform the Roman Catholic Church. He was given sixty days to recant, but instead said, “Unless I am convinced by Scripture, here I stand. I can do naught else. So help me, God!” His followers grew in number and political power until the pope declared war and began a crusade against Germany. The ten-year crusade ended in the Peace of Augsberg and the Lutherans won legal recognition of their religion. For a while, there was a mutual admiration society between Luther and the Baptists in Germany, but it became apparent that Baptists would not join him on several doctrinal aspects because Lutheran churches retained many Roman Catholic practices. Now the persecution of Baptists by the Lutherans had begun. The Reformation in Switzerland was led by two major leaders. Again, their approach was to reform the Catholic Church. Ulrich Zwingli was a priest in Zurich. He was acquainted with Baptist believers but disagreed with them about infant baptism and marriage of church and state and became an intense persecutor of them. John Calvin studied for the priesthood and law in France and was converted to Reformation beliefs. He was forced to leave France because of his beliefs and fled to Switzerland where he wrote Institutes of the Christian Religion. He pastored and ruled the city of Geneva for thirteen years. He was less Romish and ceremonial than BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 17 Lutherans, but his systematic theology still included Catholic doctrines of infant baptism and marriage of church and state. NOTE: The theology of Calvin about soteriology (doctrine of salvation) has become well-known as the TULIP theory. The Reformation in England came in a most political way. King Henry VIII was a good Catholic and opposed the Reformation. He was married at the age of 12 to Catherine of Spain but became infatuated with Anne Boleyn. He sought to divorce Catherine and marry Anne, and the pope’s refusal to allow it enraged the king to the point of kicking Rome out of England to marry Anne. The pope excommunicated the king, so the king had Parliament pass the Act of Supremacy and created the Church of England, proclaiming him as Protector and Supreme head of the church and clergy of England. The Church of England was a Roman Catholic Church without Rome. The rest of the century saw the pendulum swing back and forth between Protestantism and Romanism. The reign of Queen Elizabeth and the defeat of the Spanish Armada finally established England in the Protestant tradition. Both Protestants and Catholics took delight in persecuting Baptists. Baptist leaders spread out during this period. The Reformation was competing with Roman Catholic edge on how many Baptists could be killed. With the power of government support, Catholics had persecuted Protestants, Protestants persecuted Catholics, and Baptists were obnoxious to dominant Protestant sects. But the invention of the printing press, added to the zeal of the Reformers to spread the Scripture to the people, each resulted in the spread of the Baptists eventually to the shores of America. In Germany the Baptists flourished, much to the dismay of Luther and his movements and German government. In Augsburg, two leaders, Hans Koch and Leonard Meyster were martyred for holding their Baptist views. Still, a Baptist church was started and had over a thousand members in two years. Pastored by Hans Denck, it became a center for training and church planting. He started another church in Strasbourg and Hand Leupold became pastor in Augsburg. He was arrested and tried and beheaded. Five other leaders were killed and every known member was branded with a hot iron and others were ordered out of town. Baptist meetings died out. In Rottenberg, the pastor and 70 members were beheaded. In Salzburg, 18 members were burned at the stake. Another great Baptist preacher in Germany was Pilgram Marpeck, who lost his position as a mining engineer because he refused to expose the Anabaptists in the mines. He preached for nearly thirty years and wrote a widely distributed defense of Bible doctrine of separation of church and state. In Switzerland the Baptists included Felix Manz, Conrad Grebel, George Blaurock, and other Anabaptists, holding regular Bible studies in Zurich. Zwingli and the city council ordered them to conform to infant baptism and cease holding group meetings. The group refused and were sentenced to life imprisonment. A law was passed to provide using capital punishment for anyone baptizing by immersion. Manz escaped but was recaptured and when he refused to recant, he was drowned. IMAGINE! ABUSING the ordinance of baptism like that! Balthazar Hubmaier was another reformer who convinced from a study of Scriptures of the doctrine of baptism. He wrote The Christian Baptism of Believers but was subjected to extreme torture to recant this belief. He was released from prison and repudiated his jail house recant and fed to Moravia and led an Anabaptist revival. Over 12,000 were converted and baptized in three years! He also was arrested and deported to Austria and tried for heresy. He was strangled, his body burned, and his ashes were thrown into the Danube River. Three days later his wife was led to and drowned in the same river. But the Swiss Anabaptist movement continued to thrive and many traveled through Europe. The impact was so large and long lasting that eventually the country became a haven for religious and civil liberty. In Holland Baptists were martyred by decree of the government, stating they should be burned at the stake. One early martyr was Sicke Freerks. At his trial, the criminal issues of salvation and baptism were discussed and publicized, causing a young priest named Menno Simmons to study them from the Bible. He was convinced, converted, and baptized. He pastored two churches in Holland before a price was put on his head by Roman Catholic authorities. He traveled through Holland and Germany, starting churches and writing much. He found refuge from the Lord of Fresenburg, a powerful Dutch noble. Thousands of Anabaptists then moved there, BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 18 seeking religious liberty. He held one doctrinal distinctive not held by most preachers: pacifism. Such was his popularity that many Baptists followed him and that teaching, resulting in the branch called Mennonites. This group drifted, though, into works salvation and now the ties between them and Baptists is merely historical. Jacob Ammann, one of the famous Mennonite preachers, broke from this group and established a splinter group grounded in strict separation from the world system and the group became known as the Amish—second cousins to Baptists. In England during the Reformation era was an inhospitable place. King Henry VIII issued a decree that all who believed in believer’s baptism had twelve days to leave the country. English kings issued acts of pardon which forgave all but most violent criminals. Jails were emptied of thieves and robbers. But murderers and Baptists remained in jail. Joan Boucher, an Anabaptist, was burned at the stake for smuggling Baptist books into the Royal Court. Queen Mary, an arch Catholic, burned many Baptist preachers at the stake, gaining her the infamous nickname “Bloody Mary.” She was succeeded by Queen Elizabeth who reestablished the Protestant nature of the Church of England. The religious toleration was followed by intense persecution of independent churches, including Baptist ones, resulting in the flight of many independents to forests and mountains, and some to Holland. Darkness returns, light retreats as global exploration, the printing press, the Protestant Reformation, and other factors obliterated the Dark Ages and enlightened the world with the gospel. England especially was the centerpiece of thriving Christianity. The King James Bible was first published in 1611 and heralded centuries of revival in Europe and the New World. John Bunyan wrote Pilgrim’s Progress. It is still the most widely read novel in history. He wrote it in prison in Bedford, England, where he was sentenced for refusing to accept a license from the government for preaching the gospel. The Great Awakening began in England under John Wesley and the Methodists, igniting the Baptist church movement like never before. Missionary activity began there under the influence of William Carey. The most famous preacher in the world of that time and still is the most widely published sermonizer in history was Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Remember, we quoted his insistence that the Baptist movement and Baptists are unique in history and not part of Protestant movements. Sadly, hardly a century after Spurgeon died, England and Europe lies in spiritual ruin and darkness. Fewer than 5% of Europeans attend church of ANY kind or name regularly. The fastest growing religion is now Islam. What caused this retreat? Philosophically, the theory of evolution, written by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species, undermined the faith of many church people, who should have heeded Paul’s warning to Timothy (1 Timothy 6:20). Religiously, higher criticism of the Bible and the corruption of the Bible was spearheaded by Wescott and Hort. Here again, Revelation 2:19 warned of men who would do such things to our preserved word of God. Economically, the Industrial Revolution began, followed by the Information Age. We see this in John’s message to the Laodicean church (Revelation 3:17). Europe entered a new Dark Ages period. Are Baptists Protestants? Most hospitals and even branches of the military ask only if one is Jewish, Catholic, or Protestant. Let’s close this study with more from the quote of Spurgeon. “We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man.” What has led you to making a salvation decision? Are you grateful for the written and printed word? How much courage do you have to stand for Scripture and witness to others? Do you know why Baptists are not and were not Protestants? Do you have a vision for missions? Can you say as Paul did in 2 Timothy 1:12, “I know whom I have believed”? Can you imagine the courage of so many men we mentioned to take the stand they did for their convictions? BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 19 Lesson 5: BAPTIST INFLUENCES IN COLONIAL AMERICA (Pages 29-39) Introduction: Finally, we reach America, where the Baptists began to flourish as never before in history. The success of the Baptists in America is largely attributable to religious and civil liberty which prevails in our country. It has been exported in the rest of the world. I. Colonial America and the Rhode Island Experiment A. Pilgrims and Puritans B. Roger Williams C. John Clarke II. Baptist churches in America in 1700 A. Massachusetts B. Pennsylvania and New Jersey C. Maine and South Carolina III. The Great Awakening A. Jonathan Edwards B. George Whitefield C. New Lights or Separatists IV. Separate Baptist revival in the South A. A Yankee sees the light B. A team begins in Virginia C. Sandy Creek, North Carolina V. Path to independence A. Virginia B. Isaac Backus VI. Struggle for independence A. John Allen B. Rhode Island, first colony to declare independence C. Baptist preacher and patriot in South Carolina D. John Hart E. Baptist chaplains VII. Struggle for Bill of Rights Conclusion: As you learn the struggle in America at its infancy, consider how the importance of family, faith, and spreading the gospel was in this new nation. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 20 Lesson 5: BAPTIST INFLUENCES IN COLONIAL AMERICA (Pages 29-39) Finally, we reach America, where the Baptists began to flourish as never before in history. The success of the Baptists in America is largely attributable to religious and civil liberty which prevails in our country. It has been exported in the rest of the world. England did not establish its first permanent settlement in the New World at Jamestown, Virginia, until 115 years after Columbus discovered America. It was founded for political and economic reasons; however, it faded into history and another colony was established far to the north in New England for religious purposes. The Pilgrims and Baptists had a close relationship in England and Holland. They had an independent, separatist spirit, but the Pilgrims, with their Protestant origins, retained those doctrines of infant baptism and marriage of church and state. God’s hand of protection rested on the Pilgrims when they arrived at Plymouth, and all subsequent generations of America owe a great deal to their pioneer and religious spirit. After they proved that the English could settle in New England, the Massachusetts Bay Colony was established in Boston by a group of Puritans, who were likewise upset with the Church of England but did not have the separatist tendencies of the Pilgrims. Their governor, John Winthrop, preached the famous sermon, “A City upon a Hill.” The Puritan idea of a city upon a hill did not encompass religious diversity. The Puritans had fled to America for religious liberty for themselves and not for others. The intolerance of Puritans toward Baptists has been noted years later in Supreme Court decisions. NOTE: McCreary County vs. ACLU, 2005; Van Orden vs. Perry (2005). Roger Williams was the first Baptist leader in America and developed an independent spirit early in life. He had a background in law and religion. He became a stenographer and office manager for Sir Edward Coke, a famous lawyer in England. After graduating from Cambridge, he became chaplain to a rich family in Essex, where he developed a dissenting opinion toward the Church of England. Determined to seek liberty of conscience, he left opportunities for advancement in England and sailed with his family to the New World and Boston. The only church allowed in Boston was the Puritan Congregational Church. Everyone had to belong and support it with tithes. Roger Williams preached against these practices, teaching that the state had no control over a man’s conscience. Williams was exiled and his family and followers vanished into the wilderness of Massachusetts. He has been described as the “Apostle of Religious Freedom” in a secular school textbook, A History of Our Country. Williams purchased land from local Indians and founded the City of Providence. The people of the city approved the first public document in history which established both government by consent of the governed and liberty of conscience—The Providence Compact. Up to this point, Williams was not a Baptist, though he was likely familiar with Baptists in England. In Providence he became influenced by other Baptists and after he was baptized, the First Baptist Church of Providence was started. Only months later, he voluntarily surrendered his membership but remained friendly to them and their beliefs and ideas of baptism. The Bloody Tenet of Persecution was published by Williams in London and was his foremost statement and defense of liberty of conscience up to that point. His beliefs impacted John Locke, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other generations of Baptist preachers in the battle for religious freedom. Again, this era of history had its effect on Supreme Court cases. NOTE: Engel vs. Vitale, 1962; Abington School District vs. Schempp, 1963; Lee vs. Weisman, 1992. Dr. John Clarke was a medical doctor who studied languages and religion in England before migrating to Boston, which was in the throes of religious persecution. Anabaptism was declared a crime and it was illegal to believe or preach “Ye must be born again.” When a preacher named John Wheelwright was disenfranchised, disarmed, and banished and when 76 others were disarmed by the Boston Court, Dr. Clarke assumed leadership of them and convinced them to move before blood was shed. From New Hampshire, he and his followers traveled to Providence where Roger Williams convinced him to settle in Aquetneck Islands. The town of Portsmouth was started. The next year, when several believers migrated to the south end of the island, Dr. Clarke went with them and helped them found the town of Newport and Newport Baptist Church. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 21 Roger Williams tells of a revival conducted by Clarke and other men in the Massachusetts town of Sekonk. Obadiah Holmes, a former separatist Congregational pastor was baptized and became a member of this church. When Clarke returned to minister to William Witter in Lynch, Obadiah went with him and John Crandall. The worst fears of persecution were realized when the three missionaries were arrested for conducting an unauthorized church meeting and practicing anabaptism. Clarke and Crandall were released. Holmes remained in prison longer, released after receiving 30 lashes—the same sentence given to adulterers and rapists. As he was released, he said, “You’ve struck me with roses.” After that happened, Clarke wrote a tract exposing religious persecution in New England. The title was Ill Newes

[sic]

from New England, or, A Narrative of New-England Persecution Wherein Is Declared that While old England is becoming new, New-England is becoming old. He convinced the king and other leaders of the need for religious liberty in New England, saying, “It is not Biblical, not Christlike, unnatural, and unspiritual to coerce conscience.” Both Williams and Clarke traveled to England to obtain a charter for Rhode Island to establish religious liberty for the first time in history in an entire colony. Dr. Clarke’s labors took twelve years, but he obtained the charter from King Charles II. A sentence from that charter is inscribed on the West Façade of the Capitol building in Providence! Rhode Island was the first, but not the last colony where Baptist churches in America were started. Not surprisingly, Baptists struggled to gain a beachhead in the home of the Puritans. The First Baptist Church of Swansea was the first one in Massachusetts Bay Colony, started by John Myles when he and his congregation came there from Wales. This Welsh Baptist church was first of several missionary-minded ones later planted in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, and Virginia. Thomas Gould established the first Baptist church in Boston in spite of constant persecution until the Boston Court granted them permission to meet. William Penn, the founder of the colony of Pennsylvania and leading Quaker in America was the son of a Baptist father. His colony became fertile ground for Baptist churches. Thomas Dungan, an Irish preacher, fled the persecution of Baptists by Charles II and migrated to Rhode Island, then to Cold Spring, Pennsylvania, starting the first Baptist church in that colony. Elias Keach, young son of English Baptist preacher Benjamin Keach, started a Baptist church in Pennepek. From there he started others in New Jersey and Pennsylvania. The first Baptist association of churches began when five churches in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware created the Philadelphia Association. The northernmost colony paved the way for the first church in southern colonies. William Screvan, a member of the Boston Baptist church, fed up with persecution by Puritans, led a group 60 miles north to Kittery, Maine, to start the first Baptist church in that state. When persecution came in Maine, he and 28 members took a boat to Charleston, South Carolina, and started the first Baptist church there. Praise the Lord for these early pioneers who paved the way for future expansion! It was rough going, for there were less than 20 Baptist churches in all America, only one of which was in a southern colony. But just 200 years later, the largest non-Catholic group of Christians in America was the Baptists! God’s next step in this growth did not involve Baptists at all, though! The 34 Baptist churches in the colonies had little or nothing to do with the start of the Great Awakening. But the event lit the fuse for the explosive growth of Baptist churches thereafter. Jonathan Edwards, Congregational pastor in Massachusetts, was an unusual combination of theologian and revivalist. Grieved over the dullness of religion, he sought a revival based on two influences—a revival of the Puritans’ strict Calvinistic teaching on the grace and sovereignty of God and the necessity and power of immediate, personal, religious experience. His famous sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God, was used to begin a revival first in his church, then spreading across Massachusetts to Connecticut and New England. George Whitefield, a contemporary and friend of the Wesley brothers in England, traveled up and down the country of England and colonies of America, preaching Holy-Spirit-filled messages of “Ye must be born again” to large crowds never seen before anywhere else. Many Puritan pastors objected to his emotional messages, and many Baptists opposed his Calvinistic emphasis on grace and the sovereignty of God. Pastors and Christians favoring the revivalistic style of Whitefield and results of the Great Awakening, and were passionate in their love for the Lord and His Word were called New Sides or New Lights. New Lights separated from their Old Light churches, resulting in new churches in communities in America. They became known as BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 22 Separatists. John T. Christian notes they “were taught to throw aside tradition and take the word of God only as their guide in all matters of religious faith and practice.” Numerous Separatists searched the Scriptures and became Baptists. Numerous congregations became Baptist in their entirety. When the Great Awakening began, the number of Baptist churches in Massachusetts increased from 9 to 37. The Calvinistic preachers spread the seed; the Baptists reaped the harvest. Shubal Stearns, born in Boston, was saved during a Whitefield revival and became a New Light preacher. He was impressed with the truth of believer’s baptism, eventually being baptized as a believer and ordained to the Separatist Baptist ministry. Several years later he felt called of God to leave the northern colonies and preach in the southern colonies which knew little other than the rituals of the Church of England. Stearns, his family, and followers traveled to Opeckon Creek, Virginia and joined a small Baptist church. His brother-in-law, Daniel Marshall, sharing Stearns’ zeal to preach the gospel, joined him. Stearns was a spellbinding preacher; Marshall was a hard-working man who brought to life the dreams and goals of Stearns. A year later, Stearns received a letter from friends in North Carolina, asking him to come to a community where there was no Baptist preacher within 100 miles. Stearns, Marshall, and their families and other followers later traveled through the Shenandoah Valley and across the Blue Ridge Mountains into North Carolina, building a Separatist Baptist church, pioneer cabins, all preparing for his dream to send preachers and start churches all over the South. He preached loudly and emotionally, hard against sin and that theme “Ye must be born again.” The congregation grew to over 600 members. The Sandy Creek church sent out 125 preachers and started 42 churches, stretching to Georgia, to the Atlantic Ocean, the Chesapeake Bay, and the Potomac River in a period of only 17 years! Baptists played a crucial role in leading the colonies on the path to independence, in the struggle for it, and the passage of the Bill of Rights. Colonial Virginia was greatly troubled by the growing number of Separatist Baptists who resisted efforts of the government to enforce Anglican religion upon the citizens. Baptists were fined for not attending this state church. When they refused to pay tithes to the state church, their land and goods were confiscated. Baptist preachers were ordered to obtain a license from the state church and when they refused, the were arrested and put in prisons. Rewards were offered to those who would turn in a Baptist lawbreaker. Infants were taken by force from Baptist parents and baptized. James Ireland, a convert from the Church of England to Baptist theology, and a follower of Shubal Stearns, was baptized and commissioned to the Baptist ministry by Samuel Harris, a fiery evangelist who had started churches in Virginia. When threatened with fines and jail by an Anglican priest if he preached in Culpeper, he did his duty to God and was arrested and put in jail. He stood at the window of that jail and preached to the city residents! Patrick Henry, a Presbyterian lawyer convinced of the principles of liberty, defended Baptist preachers imprisoned in Chesterfield and Fredericksburg. His argument in the Fredericksburg case was, “If I have rightly understood, the king’s attorney of this colony has framed an indictment or a crime of great magnitude as disturbers of the peace. Did I hear it distinctly, or was it a mistake of my own? Did I hear an expression as if a crime, that these men are charged with? WHAT?!? ‘For preaching the gospel of the Son of God.’” NOTE: We know Patrick Henry most for his famous remark, “Give me liberty or give me death.” Isaac Backus pastored the Middleborough First Baptist Church in Massachusetts for 50 years in which he helped marshall in the Revolution, the Republic, and religious liberty in America. “He is ranked with Roger Williams, John Leland, Thomas Jefferson, and James Madison as a preeminent figure in establishing the freedom of conscience in America. In William G. McLaughlin’s words, he ‘was the most forceful and effective writer America produced on behalf of the pietistic or evangelical theory of separation of church and state.’”—Ellis Sandoz, in his book, Political Sermons of the American Founding Era, 1730-1805. His contribution to religious liberty has been noted in Supreme Court decisions. Backus declared, “Every person has an inalienable right to act in all religious affairs according to the full persuasion of his own mind, where others are not injured thereby.” NOTE: City of Boerne vs. Flores. 1997. The rallying cry “Taxation without Representation” was first voiced in America by Baptist preachers who objected to colonial governments which forced them to pay tithes to the Church of England. Baptists were among the earliest and most vociferous supporters of the Continental Congress and call for independence from English tyranny. John Allen expressed their views to the members of the General Court of Massachusetts in his declamation, The American Alarm, or the Bostonian Plea, for the religious rights and liberties of the people, saying, “You tell your [colonial] governor that the Parliament of England have no right to tax the Americans because they are not the BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 23 representatives of America; and how will you dare to tax the Baptists for a religion they deny? Are you gentlemen their representatives before God to answer for their souls and consciences any more than the representatives of England are the representatives of America? If it be just in the General Court to take away my sacred and spiritual rights and liberties of conscience and pay my property with it, then it is surely right and just in the British Parliament to take away by power and force my civil rights and property without my consent; this reasoning, I think, is plain.” NOTE: Larson vs. Valente, 1982. Two months before the Declaration of Independence, Rhode Island officially withdrew from England, repudiating any allegiance to King George III. The large number of Baptists led the way in demanding freedom. Richard Furman, a young pastor of a Baptist church in South Carolina and a well-known opponent of English tyranny and the Church of England, was chased out of Charleston by the English. Lord Cornwallis, general of the British army, declared that “he feared the prayers of that godly youth Furman more than the armies of Sumter and Marion.” John Hart as a Baptist farmer, businessman, politician, and patriot who was 60 years old when he became one of the New Jersey signers of the Declaration of Independence even though the British army was lurking in the area. As soon as he signed it, he was forced to flee with his wife, leaving extensive property holdings behind which were wasted by pursuing British troops. Numerous Baptist preachers served as chaplains in the Continental Army, the most famous one was John Gano of the Philadelphia Association of Baptist Churches. He convinced George Washington of the truth of baptism and may have baptized him at Valley Forge! We conclude this study now with the struggle for the Bill of Rights. The miraculous victory of the Continental Army over the British forces was followed by a period in which the new nation struggled through the period of the Articles of Confederation, a doomed venture which failed partly because of patriotic fear of a centralized government. When the Constitutional Convention was called, God blessed the endeavors with the most remarkable constitution ever devised by man, a document which structurally undermined future tyranny by having a system of checks and balances through three separate branches—executive, legislative, and judicial. PERSONAL NOTE: In the last generation or so, it has been very obvious to many about how certain powerful, rich, and selfish people have been using their money, minds, and methods to unravel this work of genius! The battle raged over the proposed Constitution, however. It had a significant problem of not containing a Bill of Rights. The Library of Congress published Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, a series in which authors noted, “Many Americans were disappointed that the Constitution did not contain a bill of rights that would explicitly enumerate the rights of American citizen and enable courts and public opinion to protect those rights from an oppressive government.” Justice O’Connor noted, “Baptist and other Protestant dissenters feared for their religious liberty under the Federal Government and called for an amendment guaranteeing religious freedom.” NOTE: City of Boerne vs. Flores, 1997. Virginia was one of the states which opposed the ratification of the Constitution. “The Virginia Ratifying Convention and James Madison’s constituents, among whom were large numbers of Baptists, who wanted freedom of religion secured, expected him to push for a bill of rights.” (Library of Congress article cited.) The leading Baptist in Virginia, John Leland, secured a promise from Madison that if Leland would support his bid for office, he would support a Bill of Rights as amendments to the Constitution. It became the words of the its first amendment! As you learn the struggle in America at its infancy, consider how the importance of family, faith, and spreading the gospel was in this new nation. Wives willingly followed the decisions of their husbands in those days (see Ephesians 5:22). They set their affections on things above, not on things of earth (Colossians 3:2). They felt the urge to spread the gospel to even the native Indians (Mark 16:15). They paid a great price for the freedoms we take too much for granted now. Are we willing to stand for liberty like they did? To refuse any form of bribery or persuasions of the government? The freedom of religion is the foundation and root of all others in the Bill of Rights. If it is severed, all others will die! BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 24 Lesson 6: THE CURRENT ERA (Pages 40-46) Introduction: Isaac Backus was right. We covered him in the last lesson. He and other leaders agreed with their clerical adversaries that religion was necessary for social prosperity and happiness, but they believed the best way for the state to assure the health of religion was to leave it alone and let it take its own course, which, the Baptists were convinced, would result in vital, evangelical religion covering the land. I. Baptist expansion A. The traveling church B. The second Great Awakening C. John Peck D. Isaac McCoy E. Adoniram Judson II. Baptist divisions A. Anti-mission movement B. Campbellism C. Slavery III. Enemies of the faith A. Rise of cults B. Darwinism and the attack on the Bible C. German rationalism and English revisionism IV. Rise of fundamentalism A. Leaving the American Baptist Convention B. Leaving the Southern Baptist Convention V. Battle for our Baptist heritage and distinctives Conclusion—Personal comments: The division among Baptists is a sad commentary on the last hundred years or so. The desire for notoriety and monetary gain led some to question the King James Bible. In just over 100 years, there have been more versions of our beloved Bible than in 400 years since it first was published. At one time, the largest churches in America were Baptists. Because so many saw the need for holy standards of living and separation from the world, they have been labeled legalists. Ecumenicalism’s tentacles reached into the Baptist movement through the great meetings under Billy Graham. The charismatic movement also has successfully infiltrated the movement with its allures of sensationalism and “word of faith.” Another sad change has been in the area of music. And there are diversities of teachings about many other non-essential issues and subjects. I thank God for keeping the direction of my life from the day I was born, allowing me to meet many independent, fundamental, solid King James Bible only preachers, evangelists, and missionaries. I settled my salvation doubts while a student at Tennessee Temple and was baptized by Dr. Lee Roberson. I do not believe those men in the Baptist movement who do not stay with the King James Bible only, have different views about prophecy, or other subjects the Bible calls “doubtful disputations” will go to hell if they are wrong, nor will I if I am wrong about them. But sadly, the splitting of so many hairs among us has, I believe, many unsaved people out there wondering if we know what we believe or not, and thus are unwilling to come to salvation. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 25 Lesson 6: THE CURRENT ERA (Pages 40-46) Isaac Backus was right. We covered him in the last lesson. He and other leaders agreed with their clerical adversaries that religion was necessary for social prosperity and happiness, but they believed the best way for the state to assure the health of religion was to leave it alone and let it take its own course, which, the Baptists were convinced, would result in vital, evangelical religion covering the land. The freedom of religion found in our Constitution resulted in two great awakenings and the expansion of Bible believing, gospel preaching churches, not just Baptist ones, but Congregational, Presbyterian, and Methodist churches. Vital, evangelical Baptist preachers covered the land, leaping over the Appalachians, spreading across the plains, scaling the Rockies, and reaching all the way to the West Coast. During the American Revolution, Pastor Lewis Craig of Virginia, seeking to escape the persecution of Baptists and horrors of war, led his entire congregation 600 miles to the newly settled wilderness of Kentucky. Craig and his helpers started a number of churches in Kentucky, helping to settle the wilderness and establish Baptist churches as a dominant church of that territory. God sent another revival starting in the Kentucky wilderness among Methodist, Presbyterian, and Baptist churches and spreading to the Atlantic coast. Baptists formed the American Baptist Home Missionary Society for the purpose of starting churches on the frontier. John Peck, a former Congregational preacher, became a Baptist and was appointed a missionary and started over 30 churches in 14 years. Isaac McCoy, a young Baptist preacher in Indiana, conducted meetings in Indiana and Illinois. During military service in the War of 1812, he became aware of the desperate situation of American Indians being forced out of their lands and succumbing to alcoholism. Realizing they needed churches and schools, he spent the rest of his life advocating on behalf of the American Indians, building churches, starting schools, and raising support for his simple idea that the Indians should have their own land, not susceptible to land grabs by white settlers. Adoniram Judson, still the most famous American missionary in history, was a Congregational missionary commissioned to India where William Carey, a famous Baptist missionary, was laboring. As he anticipated meeting Carey, he studied infant baptism so he might defend the practice to Carey. His study, however, led him to the doctrine of believer’s baptism. When he got to India, he was baptized in Carey’s church. His new stand against infant baptism cost him all of his missionary support as well as an opportunity to serve in India. He and his wife went to Burma and began their ministry, while their friend Luther Rice, likewise a Baptist by now, returned to America to raise support for his friends in Burma. His efforts led to the formation of the General Missionary Convention of Baptists, formed to aid Baptist missionaries worldwide. The first president was Richard Furman, a preacher from South Carolina. Judson’s work began slowly in Burma, and he endured persecution. His faithful endeavors of preaching, Bible translation, and starting a seminary led to the salvation of many Burmese people. Missionaries were sent throughout Southeast Asia. Although there were several associations of Baptist churches in America, their relations were harmonious and their spirit of liberty and pioneering new works pervaded in most evangelistic churches. But divisions erupted and Baptists splintered into other movements. The success of Carey, Judson, and Rice led to a backlash against missions by some Particular Baptists who opposed efforts to reach lost sinners. They became Primitive Baptists who opposed soulwinning. This movement has not thrived over the years. The growing Baptist movement in Kentucky was infiltrated by a Scottish Baptist preacher, Alexander Campbell, who began teaching that believer’s baptism was necessary for salvation. The heresy led to the founding of two major groups—Disciples of Christ and Church of Christ. The most divisive issue facing Baptists was slavery. A large number of freemen and slaves belonged to Baptist churches, attracted to the emphasis on soul liberty. John Leland, an advocate of freedom of religion in BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 26 Virginia, was a strong opponent of slavery. However, may Baptist preachers and missionaries from the South owned slaves. The General Missionary Conference of the Baptist Denomination passed a resolution that it would no longer accept a slave holder to be a missionary. The civil war among Baptists erupted. The Southern Baptist Convention was founded, forever splintering Baptist unity. BUT there were greater enemies waiting in the wings outside! The rise of cults began with the heresy of baptismal regeneration, but two major cults also lured Baptists away. The Jehovah’s Witnesses cult was founded by Charles Russell and later led by Joseph Rutherford. The Mormons were started by Joseph Smith with his bizarre account of secret golden plates given to him by the angel Moroni. Both of these groups teach some of the most outlandish things, one would wonder how they could attract so many. We know it’s because too many believers do not study nor avoid such influences (see Romans 16:17 and 2 Timothy 2:15). They are among those described in 2 Timothy 3:1-7. The next enemy came in the person of Charles Darwin and his theory of evolution in his book The Origin of Species. Its fantastic popularity became ammunition for enemies of the Bible, undermining the faith of many Christians. Even Baptists became enamored with the Gap theory and Day Age theory as a way to “prove” evolution took place within the Biblical framework (as most suggest happened between Genesis 1:1 and 1:2). NOTE: Even C. I. Scofield, whose teachings about dispensations and covenants many rely upon as being taught through the Bible, suggested a gap of time when perhaps Lucifer ruled the world and no conflict therefore between this science and the Bible existed. The Bible came under attack in Germany as scholars began to tear apart the Bible text and cast doubt on its authenticity and authorship. From another direction two British scholars, Wescott and Hort revised the Textus Receptus from which the King James Version was translated and produced a more modern text (commonly called the critical text, ironically), following the flawed scholarship of Origen, Eusebius, and Pamphilus and corrupted manuscripts Sinaiticus and Vaticanus. This Revised Standard Version of the Bible varied greatly from the King James Version and became the first such work to gain great acceptance and distribution. Baptists were the largest non-Catholic denomination in America, but were reeling from internal divisions and shocks of the cults, evolution, rationalism, and revisionism. And so, as we’ll note in our conclusion of this lesson, that has only continued to grow worse. By this time, most of the major denominations were also losing the battle for the Bible in their seminaries, replaced by liberalism and modernism, distrusting God’s word, and the supernatural, focusing on a social gospel. Reaction in major denominations was perhaps inevitable. Conferences and publications focused on the fundamentals of the faith, giving rise to the term “fundamentalism.” “It is a sad fact of history that Fundamentalism ever had to become a major movement. Fundamentalism is simply stating and defending what is surely believed.”—James R. Beller, in The Collegiate Baptist History Workbook. NOTE: When Jude first began to write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, he told us he “gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation,” but instead saw it “needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith once delivered unto the saints.” Note his emphatic statement, “once delivered”! It has not been delivered multiple times, multiple ways! Jude was a half-brother of Jesus. He knew the faith he was urging us to contend for. Now Baptists struggled to rid their schools and churches of liberalism and modernism. When the efforts failed, new organizations were started. William B. Riley, was pastor of First Baptist Church in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the church grew to the largest in the Northern Baptist Convention. Riley preached long and hard, helping to found the World Christian Fundamentalist Association, the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship, and the Baptist Bible Union. His efforts failed, he retired and resigned from the Northern Baptist Convention. Churches left the Northern Baptist Convention because of its drift into liberalism. Fifty churches started the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches and it grew steadily. Other Northern Baptist Convention churches joined the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship. After more years of battle, fundamentalists led by Myron Cedarholm formed Conservative Baptist Association. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 27 The next well-known group is the Southern Baptist Convention. It also drifted toward liberalism and preachers separated to start more new groups. The Southern Baptist Convention witnessed a strong resurgence of fundamentalism and internal battles which continue to rage even today. J. Frank Norris was a fundamental preacher in Texas, a graduate of Baylor University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He was pastor of First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, building the largest church in America at the time. It was the beginning of the independent Baptist church movement. When Baylor University began teaching evolution, Norris attacked those policies. He les initiatives against the liquor industry and horse racing. He accepted the call to pastor Temple Baptist Church in Detroit, Michigan, accomplishing the most dramatic and seemingly impossible feat of pastoring TWO large churches so far apart! He started the World Baptist Fellowship and Bible Baptist Seminary. Many of the leaders of World Baptist Fellowship, however, broke away and formed the Baptist Bible Fellowship. NOTE: I believe I heard he once participated in a debate with a well-known preacher or leader of the Church of Christ on the issue of baptismal regeneration and won the debate dramatically. John R. Rice also graduated from Baylor University and did graduate work at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He pastored a couple of Southern Baptist churches, then left for the same reasons Norris did. He began the publication of The Sword of the Lord newspaper, emphasizing soulwinning, revival, building churches, opposing liberalism, modernism, and formalism. The newspaper became a successful biweekly paper full of sermons and important news articles—something geared for all ages. Dr. Curtis Hutson was its next editor in chief and today it is Dr. Shelton Smith. Some minor digressions of Dr. Rice’s views have been evident, but they have never been over fundamental, non-debatable topics. Dr. Rice also compiled his Bible study notes in the Rice Reference Bible (King James Version). The Southwide Baptist Fellowship and Tennessee Temple University were started by Dr. Lee Roberson. He also left the Southern Baptist Convention. NOTE: At one time, Temple was known by its key phrase, “distinctively Christian.” There were high standards of dress and church involvement. As a student there, I was privileged to hear some of the greatest fundamental preachers and evangelists in my life. Highland Park Baptist Church and its adjacent property was the site of many dormitories for students and buildings for the operation of the school. The sad drift of the church and school came soon after Dr. Roberson retired. Eventually, the school was merged to a less conservative one. One of its professors, well-known for his knowledge of Greek became a part of the group which put out the New King James Bible. I knew this man well. He taught the Sunday School class I attended there at the church. I am saddened to know about his role in that era of his life. Jack Hyles was another product of Texas, graduating from East Texas Baptist College and attending Southwestern Theological Seminary. He pastored several Southern Baptist churches until he was kicked out for being too conservative. He pastored Miller Road Baptist Church as an Independent Baptist, then moved to Hammond, Indiana, to pastor First Baptist Church, which then quickly became an Independent Baptist church, eventually the largest one in America at one time. He began Hyles Anderson College with the generous help of Russell Anderson and annually hosted a Pastors School—several days of preaching and teaching sessions. Dr. Hyles spoke often in conferences and revivals, often with Dr. Curtis Hutson. The annual Sword of the Lord conferences were part of these men’s outreaches to help preachers and missionaries all over the world. For years this conference has been held in Walkerton, North Carolina, in July. Fundamentalism became a large Independent Baptist movement. “In 1969, the nine churches in the United States with the largest weekly attendance were Baptist churches. In 1979, 13 of the largest churches were Baptist”—Phil Stringer, Faithful Baptist Witness. As I will note in my closing personal comments here, their dominance slipped with the rise of charismatic churches and seeker-sensitive people. One other trend might explain the loss of influence with churches dropping the word Baptist from their names. WHAT could possibly lead them to such a decision?!? Their fundamentalist reaction had an unexpected consequence—the fundamentals of the faith, shared by Protestant denominations, but undermining Baptist heritage and distinctives. James Beller in The Coming Destruction of the Baptist People identified two other factors in the loss of our heritage and distinctives: Severing or ancient roots by succumbing to the position that Baptists are just another Reformation church and almost exclusive BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 28 reliance in homes, church schools, and Bible colleges on history books written by Reformation-minded authors who despise Baptist distinctives and disdain historical influences. Personal comments: The division among Baptists is a sad commentary on the last hundred years or so. The desire for notoriety and monetary gain led some to question the King James Bible. In just over 100 years, there have been more versions of our beloved Bible than in 400 years since it first was published. At one time, the largest churches in America were Baptists. Because so many saw the need for holy standards of living and separation from the world, they have been labeled legalists. Ecumenicalism’s tentacles reached into the Baptist movement through the great meetings under Billy Graham. The charismatic movement also has successfully infiltrated the movement with its allures of sensationalism and “word of faith.” Another sad change has been in the area of music. And there are diversities of teachings about many other non-essential issues and subjects. I thank God for keeping the direction of my life from the day I was born, allowing me to meet many independent, fundamental, solid King James Bible only preachers, evangelists, and missionaries. I settled my salvation doubts while a student at Tennessee Temple and was baptized by Dr. Lee Roberson. I do not believe those men in the Baptist movement who do not stay with the King James Bible only, have different views about prophecy, or other subjects the Bible calls “doubtful disputations” will go to hell if they are wrong, nor will I if I am wrong about them. But sadly, the splitting of so many hairs among us has, I believe, many unsaved people out there wondering if we know what we believe or not, and thus are unwilling to come to salvation. There are, however, distinctives we must stand for as Baptists. We now move on to them in our next series of lessons. As we conclude our first part on Baptist history and move to Baptist distinctives, our desire as fundamental Baptists should always be to be willing to deny ourselves, take up His cross, and follow Jesus (Matthew 16:24). We should endeavor to study and defend our faith, always able to give an answer for the reason of hope in us. See 1 Peter 3:15, 2 Timothy 2:15, Jude 3-4. If our church is to be the fundamental one God is pleased with, there should be a missionary emphasis and ministries (Matthew 28:19, 20). BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 29 Lesson 7: BIBLICAL AUTHORITY (Pages 47-51) Introduction: Baptist history can’t be separated from Baptist distinctives. Baptist distinctives would be incomplete without focusing on how each one played a critical role in Baptist history of contending for the faith, spreading the gospel, and advancing religious and civil liberty. The Bible doctrines of Baptists are very similar to some of other groups, like Protestants and Catholics. However, the do hold significant doctrinal differences with those of Protestants and Catholics. I. Baptist distinctives introduction II. Biblical authority is the foundational Baptist distinctive. III. What Bible-believing Baptists believe A. Scripture inspiration B. The Bible is totally true. C. The Bible is God’s complete revelation. D. The Bible is God’s final authority. IV. Comparing other views A. Roman Catholic B. Protestant C. Pentecostal or Charismatic V. Historical overview Conclusion: If we believe these truths, it should follow that we spend time daily in God’s word. Our families should be built on them. Our Sunday School lessons and sermons by our pastor need our focus and attention. We need to apply what we hear to our lives. And again, earnestly contend for that faith and be ready always to answer anyone who questions us about it. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 30 Lesson 7: BIBLICAL AUTHORITY (Pages 47-51) Now that we have spent six lessons on Baptist history from the time of Christ until the present, you have seen Baptist distinctives in every era. Baptist history can’t be separated from Baptist distinctives. Baptist distinctives would be incomplete without focusing on how each one played a critical role in Baptist history of contending for the faith, spreading the gospel, and advancing religious and civil liberty. The Bible doctrines of Baptists are very similar to some of other groups, like Protestants and Catholics. However, the do hold significant doctrinal differences with those of Protestants and Catholics. The similar beliefs of Baptists, Protestants, and Catholics are these: 1. The Bible is the word of God (the Baptists do not accept the Apocrypha as part of it, though). 2. The deity of Jesus Christ (but Catholics dilute it with the elevation of Mary to Co-Redemtrix). 3. The virgin birth of Jesus Christ (but Catholics have added other false doctrines about Mary). 4. The substitutionary atonement of Jesus Christ (there’s a variety of belief about the nature or extent of it among other groups). Now as to our significant doctrinal differences, Baptists hold significant ones on Biblical authority, freedom of conscience, separation of church and state, the New Testament church, believer’s baptism, the perpetuity of the church, and the premillennial return of Christ. Baptists also do not agree with teachings of Jehovah’s Witnesses, Mormons, charismatics, and other Christian groups. Biblical authority is the foundational Baptist distinctive. Other so-called Christian churches and groups will say they believe the Bible, but not the Bible alone, for some add traditions of men. Others also revere other books as being the word of God (e.g., Book of Mormon and the Koran). Pentecostals look to new experiences or revelations they claim are from God. Some even say the Old Testament supports infant baptism and marriage of church and state. NOTE: I have become very adamant about the King James Bible being the only final authority in its preservation and perfection in our English language, and have read solidly-written books in that defense. A study of how we got this Bible is intriguing in itself. I do not even like calling it “King James Version” for that to me demeans it to be no better than any of the other over 100 versions that have made their way to the presses and people over the last 100 years or so. The translation team who did the most damage, in my opinion, was not the ones who gave us the New International Version, but those who gave us one they dared to call the New King James Version. They stole the name of the one so revered and marketed it the most deceptively. The King James Bible is the only one without a copyright. All others, in order to obtain a copyright, were mandated to have a certain percentage of differences to avoid being prosecuted for plagiarism or copyright infringement! None of them were put together under anything near using the methods the scholars of the King James Bible used. It has also become increasingly important to note the misuse of terminology and precise defining which often happens in Articles of Faith of many churches today when it comes to the phrase originals. We do not have one single original of any part of our Bible! For to adamantly say we believe in the inspiration and authority of the “original” can be misunderstood easily to mean only the first time the words were written on any form of parchment and gives rise to assuming that any copy we have found since was not inspired. God not only inspired the men to write His words the very first time, He inspired men in the way they meticulously copied and preserved them and ultimately translating them into what we now have in our King James Bible. What does the Bible say about itself? If what it says about itself in 2 Timothy 3:16 and 2 Peter 1:21 is not true, either these men who wrote these statements were insane or they were making God’s word an ego issue. If what Jesus said about it in John 17:17 and other times He referred to the word of God and even quoted it from the copy He had was not true, then He really was not the Word made flesh as John says, He was a deluded egotist as well. The Bible is supernaturally inspired. The Bible is totally true. If anyone finds anything— anything—untrue or contradictory, the entire Bible becomes a target for truth. No one can be sure of anything it says about anything. The Bible is God’s complete revelation. Revelation 22:18, 19 are not just warnings BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 31 about adding or taking away from the prophecy of that book. There are other passages clearly warning us about adding or taking away from the word of God, and changing it comes under the same offense. No other person was inspired to write another book after John finished the book of Revelation. Any person who says he has a new revelation, prophecy, or word from the Lord is a liar. The Bible is God’s final authority as stated in Psalm 119:89 and God magnifies His word above His name (Psalm 138:2). Biblical authority is the Baptist distinctive to hold the most tightly! “The Catholic view is to make the edicts of councils, statements of popes, and traditions of the Church equal with the authority of the Bible. Their church produced the Bible so it has the authority to add or take from it.”—Mike Randall, Our Baptist Distinctives. Many Protestant denominations have forsaken this position and have elevated reason, modern science, and philosophy to their sources of authority. Also liberalism has become more of an influence even among many Baptist groups. Although Reformers have used the cry, “Sola scriptura,” they too have added doctrines from the Catholic Church. The Pentecostal or Charismatics have been deceived about speaking in tongues, interpreting of tongues, the gift of knowledge, and the gift of prophecy. God created man with the need for a final authority. When God completed His revelation, the devil knew he had to produce counterfeits. The fact that mainstream Baptists held to only the Bible being the final authority has cost many persecution or death. When Constantine declared his entire Roman army Christians, Baptists proclaimed the Bible doctrine of freedom of conscience. When the early church was surrounded by the hierarchy of the Roman Catholic Church being the only church, the universal one, mainstream Baptists held to the doctrine of the local church. When infant baptism was introduced, or when the worship of Mary was promoted, or when the idea of purgatory was suggested, mainstream Baptists asked, “Where is that found in the Bible?” That should always be the question of any true Baptist believer! If we believe these truths, it should follow that we spend time daily in God’s word. Our families should be built on them. Our Sunday School lessons and sermons by our pastor need our focus and attention. We need to apply what we hear to our lives. And again, earnestly contend for that faith and be ready always to answer anyone who questions us about it. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 32 Lesson 8: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE (Pages 52-58) Introduction: We will understand the importance of this distinctive by approaching it with many hypothetical questions—some of the answers are seen in many places today and show us how terribly this freedom is denied to many. We do not force anyone to believe our Baptist distinctives or doctrines. We do not persecute others who do not believe as we do—even about fundamentals that are heaven vs. hell ones. In America, we have been spoiled for over 240 years through the Bill of Rights guaranteeing us this right and that the government cannot make a law that inhibits our freedom of religion nor does it establish a religious set of beliefs we must adhere to. Sadly, that is slowly being taken away from us in subtly-worded laws and regulations, licenses; even Internal Revenue Regulations we have considered favoring us are gradually being revised against us. I. The hypothetical examples II. What Bible-believing Baptists believe A. Judgment is individual. B. Salvation is individual. C. Discipleship is individual. D. Worship is individual. III. Comparing other views A. Infant baptism B. Priesthood C. Religious toleration IV. Historical examples A. Donatists B. English Baptists C. Early Americans D. Continuing battles Conclusion: What really does freedom of conscience mean? Sometimes drawing a line is easier than others. Authorities can be very creative and subtle in their infringement of this right. Even if we are abhorred by the false teaching of many today, we do not have the right to threaten them with something if they do not change their minds. That is where the other religions and many forms of government become guilty of such actions in many ways. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 33 Lesson 8: FREEDOM OF CONSCIENCE (Pages 52-58) We will understand the importance of this distinctive by approaching it with many hypothetical questions— some of the examples are seen in many places today and they show us how terribly this freedom is denied to many. First there are clarifications we will make about freedom of conscience to show how our stand differs with others. We do not force anyone to believe our Baptist distinctives or doctrines. We do not persecute others who do not believe as we do—even about fundamentals that are heaven vs. hell ones. In America, we have been spoiled for over 240 years through the Bill of Rights guaranteeing us this right and that the government cannot make a law that inhibits our freedom of religion nor does it establish a religious set of beliefs we must adhere to. Sadly, that is slowly being taken away from us in subtly-worded laws and regulations, licenses; even Internal Revenue Regulations we have considered favoring us are gradually being revised against us. It is being given a new meaning: we have the freedom to preach what we want as long as it does not offend someone else. To preach against abortion or homosexuality is a hate crime—we hate people when we preach against what they do. “Hate sin but love the sinner” seems more of a challenge to practice today than ever before. Consider some legislative examples. Imagine a country where it is a capital crime to convert someone to Christianity (to go soul winning). In some countries it is part of the law. Imagine a country where it is illegal to own a Bible or start a church. In many Islamic countries, that is in its laws. Some suppression of freedom of conscience existed in early America in its earlier years, as we noted in our study of Baptist history. So now let’s consider some religious examples of limiting freedom of conscience. Imagine a place where you’d be free to believe what you want to believe as long as you gave preeminence to the religious leader (or emperor). Imagine a world where this religious emperor declared Christianity to be the official state religion and everyone was ordered baptized whether they believed in Jesus or not. Imagine a world where the dominant institution was a centralized hierarchy in a church which suppressed the Bible and martyred believers who did not believe their heresies. Imagine a world where great religious leaders protested against the dominant, heretical church, breaking its chains of bondage, and then doing likewise to Baptists who did not believe like they did. Imagine a country supposedly founded on religious freedom for everyone else but Baptists. Finally, imagine a place that mandated every citizen to pay tithes to the established church and did not allow the gospel to be preached by Baptists. Baptists have encountered these and other barriers to freedom of conscience, as we have seen in the study of Baptist history, and yet the stand they have taken has never changed or compromised. What does the Bible have to say about it now? For if this distinctive can not be firmly supported by the Word of God, we have it all wrong; we need to repent of this idea. First, it means judgment is individual. We will not stand before God and give an account of anyone else’s life but our own (Romans 14:12; Hebrews 9:27). Second, salvation is individual. There is no such thing as corporate salvation. No one is saved because his parents or siblings are saved. It is a personal relationship. God is not a grandfather. We are commanded to go into all the world and preach the gospel (Mark 16:15) for that reason. Third, discipleship is individual. Here sometimes is where a boundary gets blurred; people tend to judge others for how good or mature of a follower of Jesus they are, what beliefs they might have that differ but are not essential, what standards they live up to that may be considered worldly or inferior. Just as salvation is individual, so is discipleship. But that does not excuse a mature Christian from exhorting others to be a better disciple. That is one of the jobs of preachers if they are fulfilling their role as the Bible says they should. The other two are reproving and rebuking—in a true spirit of Godly love. Fourth, worship is individual. Here again we can easily enter a realm of judgmentalism when it comes to some practices of worship. In John 4:24 Jesus said we need to worship and in truth. It is up to us to be willing to allow the Holy Spirit, not our flesh or feelings to determine what that mode of worship is, and keep in mind of some cultural differences that do exist. What are some issues, then, that we cannot accept when it comes to freedom of conscience? They are those the Bible does not teach or teaches against. We reject infant baptism because it is not supported with any Biblical BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 34 authority or freedom of conscience (an infant has no ability to use his conscience about this one way or another!) We reject the establishment of the priesthood by the Catholic Church. Perhaps they evolved this from the priesthood of the Old Testament, but none of them dress like one of those days did! They mixed in their own traditions and teachings and claimed they are Biblical. In 1 Timothy 2:5 we learn there is one God and one mediator—not two (such as Mary has been elevated to be). Jesus is our Great High Priest! We are kings and priests by being a joint heir with Christ! See Hebrews 4:16; Romans 8:17. The rejection of religious toleration here means the refusal of anyone else being allowed to believe and practice what he believes. Baptists do not refuse to allow even those in cults to believe or practice what they do as long as that practice does not allow Baptists to do likewise. Here are some questions on that to consider. Is God tolerant of other religions when we read, “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” in Exodus 20:3. Was He tolerant of other religions in the Promised Land? When we read the actions that His people were to take when they met anyone who worshipped another god or practiced the common activities other nations did, we could easily believe He was not one bit in favor of their being left alive. But that was ONLY because God did not want His people lowering themselves and corrupting themselves with those ways. He knew complete obliteration, not mercy or trying to get them to change their minds, was not the answer. And as we study the Bible, and the disobedience they responded to God with about these commands, we see that was what happened to them. Now today we are not under that dispensation of the law. But in the same way, we must guard ourselves from believing the idea we will bring the world up to our level the more we get into the world and make alliances with them religiously speaking. There were times, yes, when Catholic governments and Protestant governments were tolerant with Baptists more than others. But beware—if a government can grant official freedom or recognition to Baptists, governments can take it away, and in the most recent years in our country we are seeing less and less subtle ways they are doing that very thing. They figure if and when we get comfortable and accepting of those measures, then other stiffer ones will be easier to enforce. Religious toleration is “the allowance of that which is not wholly approved. As applied to religion, the term is objectionable; because it presupposes the existence of some human authority, which has power to grant to, or withhold from man the exercise of freedom in matters of religion and this is Popery. Our Creator has nowhere delegated such authority to king, priest, or human organization whatever. It is each individual soul’s inalienable right to exercise his judgment without restraint in religious matters, and give expression, freely and fully without human distinction or interference.”—Mike Randall, quoting Baptist preacher John Q. Adams. So why is toleration so trendy? There is the dominant rise of humanism, a belief there are no absolutes, but only relativism. But that belief is intolerant of any group that preaches absolutes. Let’s look at some historical examples now. When Christianity was proclaimed the official religion of an empire, a group of believers called Donatists separated from the official church over several issues. “Christ persecutes no one; He was for inviting, not forcing men to the faith. Why not permit every man to follow his own free will?” a Donatist pastor said. Donatists and their successors were persecuted, imprisoned, and martyred for holding this position. The English Baptist Thomas Helwys wrote a book in which he demanded full religious liberty, challenging the authority of the church. He dedicated the book to King James, the head of the government and church, saying. “The king is a mortal man, not God, and therefore has no power over the immortal souls of his subjects, to make laws or ordinances for them and to set spiritual lords over them.” King James had him arrested and placed in prison where he was kept until he died. John Bunyan was jailed for preaching without a permit from the state church. During his twelve years there he wrote the most widely read book in history, other than the Bible, Pilgrim’s Progress. Early American battles for freedom of conscience included the ones between Pilgrims and Puritans vs. Baptists. Both Pilgrims and Puritans were Congregationalists who opposed the tyranny of the Church of England. They fled to have liberty to practice their religion in America but did the same thing in their colony that England had done by opposing the disagreeing Baptists. One such famous man was Roger Williams who came to believe baptism only by believers and by immersion, regenerated church membership, separation of BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 35 church and state, and religious liberty for all.—A. A. Davis, The Baptist Story. Williams fled to Rhode Island where he and John Clarke started the first Baptist church in America and the first state devoted to religious liberty for all. His heroic acts of faith and conviction have found their way into Supreme Court decisions— Justice Clark, Abington School District vs. Schempp, 1963. Virginia was another battleground for liberty in early America. Patrick Henry (“give me liberty or give me death”), Thomas Jefferson (the Declaration of Independence), and James Madison (first amendment of Bill of Rights) were from there. Patrick Henry defended Baptist preachers charged with the crime of preaching without a license. He was so full of the spirit of liberty he volunteered to work on behalf of Baptists to make the Baptist church one of Virginia’s established churches—along with churches by other names. Thomas Jefferson was not a Christian, but still opposed an established church. “Thomas Jefferson attended the monthly business meetings of a small Baptist church near his home. When asked his opinion of their deliberations, ‘Jefferson replied that it struck him with great force and interested him much, that he considered it the only form of true democracy existing in the world and concluded it would be the best plan of government for the American colonies’”—Mike Randall. His later coining the famous, misunderstood, and controversial phrase “wall of separation between church and state” has been used both ways ever since. We may ask and have been asked, “Should Baptists stay out of politics?” Such a question not only applies to running for some public office, but even speaking out in favor or against governmental or political issues. The firm answer we say is NO, our influence guided the founding fathers of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights in the first place. For them to extract and exclude them now will only breed a desire for revolution and resistance and ultimately anarchy (Judges 21:25). “John Leland had come to Virginia from Massachusetts to preach the gospel and work hard for religious liberty. He was a neighbor of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson. He not only expressed Baptist views of liberty of conscience, but rallied the Baptists in support of James Madison as a delegate to the Virginia Constitutional Convention and later in his election to the House of Representatives. Madison promised the Baptists if he was elected, he would introduce a Bill of Rights in the first session of Congress.”—E. Wayne Thompson and David L. Cummins, This Day in Baptist History. This is another point made in our study of Baptist history. All these battles for freedom of conscience are still alive today! The hardest aspect of freedom of conscience rests on realizing that if a person is wrong with many of his beliefs, he may be on his way to hell. We should not wish for anyone to end up there just because they are intolerant of what we believe or attempt to stifle or stop us. What really does freedom of conscience then mean? Sometimes drawing a line is easier than others. Authorities can be very creative and subtle in their infringement of this right. Even if we are abhorred by the false teaching of many today, we do not have the right to threaten them with something if they do not change their minds. That is where the other religions and many forms of government become guilty of such actions in many ways. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 36 Lesson 9: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE (Pages 59-64) Introduction: From early years of Christianity, the marriage of church and state has been found to be irresistible by numerous Christian groups. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants have fallen into this temptation. It becomes the biggest problem when groups of other liberties besides the right to believe what one chooses. Freedom of religion is NOT the same as freedom from religion, nor is separation of church and state meant to mean separation of church from state. The balance on the latter is that the government should not be permitted to establish a religion NOR to prohibit ANY exercise of it. The wording of this amendment was meant to be very clear, but it has taken court cases in its favor to sustain it.—Justice Souter, Agostini vs. Felton, 1997; McCreary County Kentucky vs. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, 2005. I. Baptist view and belief A. Separate spheres of operation B. No marriage of church and state in the church age C. Future theocracy II. Historical examples A. Early church, Constantine, the state church B. Dark ages C. Protestant Reformation D. Colonial America and the American Revolution III. Today’s battles Conclusion: Our personal relationship with Jesus would be a lot more challenged and different if we lived in countries where the Bible and churches is outlawed or severely controlled. In America we must remain diligent to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, spread the gospel, and warn of the dangers of some “Christian” movements. BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 37 Lesson 9: SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE (Pages 59-64) Introduction: From early years of Christianity, the marriage of church and state has been found to be irresistible by numerous Christian groups. Both Roman Catholics and Protestants have fallen into this temptation. It becomes the biggest problem when groups of other liberties besides the right to believe what one chooses. Freedom of religion is NOT the same as freedom from religion, nor is separation of church and state meant to mean separation of church from state. The balance on the latter is that the government should not be permitted to establish a religion NOR to prohibit ANY exercise of it. The wording of this amendment was meant to be very clear, but it has taken court cases in its favor to sustain it.—Justice Souter, Agostini vs. Felton, 1997; McCreary County Kentucky vs. American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky, 2005. Baptists are not anti-government. “We believe that civil government is of divine appointment, for the interests and good order of human society and that magistrates are to be prayed for, conscientiously honored, and obeyed, except only in things opposed to the will of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is the only Lord of the conscience, and the coming Prince of the kings of the earth (Exodus 18:21; 2 Samuel 23:3; Daniel 3:17, 18; Matthew 10:28; 22:21; 23:10; Acts 4:19, 20; 23:5; Romans 13:1-7; Philippians 2:10, 11; Titus 3:1; 1 Peter 2:13- 17; Revelation 219:16).”—Lighthouse Baptist Church Articles of Faith. Just as God ordained the family and local church, He also ordained government, each with its sphere of authority (Matthew 22:21). Some churches argue that marriage of church and state is found in the Bible. He established a theocracy in the Old Testament, but that was only for His chosen nation, Israel. Many thought Jesus was going to establish it when He made His triumphal entry (Mark 11:10). Jesus, however, rejected this idea of His earthly kingdom when He answered Pilate about it (John 18:36). Nothing in any epistle can be found to support the marriage of church and state. There will be a theocracy some day, however! When the church age and the following 7-year tribulation end, Jesus will return as King of kings and Lord of lords (Revelation 19:16). History shows examples of the attempts to marry church and state, as we saw in our sections on Baptist history. It was clearly seen in the Roman Empire and under the rule of Constantine. Roman soldiers were baptized and slaves were granted freedom if they were baptized. Unbelieving pagans brought their pagan beliefs into the church, and the compromising churches accepted them. Those who rejected were oppressed and persecuted and martyred. Groups such as the Donatists were opposed to this marriage of church and state. The Dark Ages were characterized by the marriage of church and state as the Roman Catholic Church continued its grip on society—a time of religious and cultural darkness. False doctrines were established such as infant baptism, exaltation of Mary, purgatory, prohibition of Bible reading, confession, transubstantiation— all enforced through the arm of the church. Again, Bible believers still contended for their faith. The Donatists, Paulicians, Petrobrussians, Henricians, Albigenses, and Lollards were among the groups of believers who refused to accept the trends and teachings of the state church. The Protestant Reformation, though, failed to oppose the marriage of church and state. Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin loosened the death grip of the Roman Catholic Church, but continued following unscriptural doctrines and practices, including marriage of church and state. Baptists in countries were persecuted once again for their refusal to agree with such teachings. John Smyth wrote, “The Magistrate is not by virtue of his office to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience, to force and compel men to this or that form of religion or doctrine, but to leave Christian religion free to every man’s conscience, and to handle only civil transgressions (Romans 13:3), injuries and wrong of man against man, in murder, adultery, theft, etc., for Christ only is the King and Lawgiver of the church and conscience (James 4:12).” From the beginning, there has been a continual struggle between advocates and opponents of the marriage of church and state. The Pilgrims and Puritans did not come for religious liberty, but to establish their own state BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 38 church. Baptists like Roger Williams and John Clarke stood up against them at a great price. “That it is a much on their hearts (if they may be permitted) to hold forth a lively experiment, that a most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained, and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernments.” Isaac Backus was another noted preacher against the marriage of church and state. In Religion and the Founding of the American Republic, their views are stated: “This opposition was grounded in the Baptists’ reading of the New Testament and also of the ecclesiastical history which demonstrated that state support of religion inevitably corrupted the churches…religion was necessary for social prosperity and happiness, but…the best way for the state to assure the health of religion was to leave it alone and let it take its own course, which…would result in vital, evangelical religion covering the land.” Separate Baptists also resisted the Church of England in Virginia and the Anglican religion. Baptists were fined for not attending the state church, ordered to pay tithes to the state church, and when they refused, their land and goods were confiscated. Baptist preachers were ordered to obtain a license to preach, and when they refused, they were arrested and put in prison. Rewards were offered to any citizen who turned in a Baptist or Quaker lawbreaker. Infants were taken by force from Baptist parents and baptized. Baptist leaders succeeded in defeating such attempts of government to enter into a close, financially intertwined relationship with churches. Eventually, the Bill of Rights was added to the Constitution, stating that Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of a religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. Such is nothing more or less than restating the Baptist distinctive of separation of church and state and freedom of conscience. Today’s battles over separation of church and state involve many conservative Christian organizations joining in support of the marriage of church and state as a way to get federal funding for school vouchers. Baptists have also opposed this merger of church and state. Our personal relationship with Jesus would be a lot more challenged and different if we lived in countries where the Bible and churches is outlawed or severely controlled. In America we must remain diligent to earnestly contend for the faith once delivered to the saints, spread the gospel, and warn of the dangers of some “Christian” movements. Let us never forget to be thankful to the Lord for these freedoms in America, lest through diligence and neglect we lose them (Psalm 103:2). We can decide in the right way to do as Daniel did when offered the king’s meat (Daniel 1:8). BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 39 Lesson 10: THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH (Pages 65-71) Introduction: The word church is used very commonly in our society to describe several different things. It could be a building, a place of worship, or a denomination. I. The church in modern usage II.. What the Baptists believe III. The local and visible church A. New Testament pattern B. Greek word for church C. Universal or invisible church IV. The local church is autonomous. A. Denominations are not found in the Bible. B. Advantages of denominations V. Relevance of local, visible, autonomous New Testament church A. Authority B. Motivaton C. Purity Conclusion: We need to thank God for our local church if it and its people function according to Biblical principles. It should be noted for being missionary-minded, earnestly contending for the faith, and supporting religious and civil liberty. Praise God for the Baptist doctrinal distinctive of the local, visible, autonomous New Testament church! BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 40 Lesson 10: THE NEW TESTAMENT CHURCH (Pages 65-71) The word church is used very commonly in our society to describe several different things. It could be a building, a place of worship, or a denomination. When people say, “Let’s go to church,” they don’t mean, “Let’s go to a building.” When people mention a particular church (Roman Catholic, Lutheran, Mormon), they usually mean a denomination. These usages of the word do not mean the same thing. The American Heritage College Dictionary defines it as follows: A building for public, especially Christian worship. The company of all Christians regarded as a mystic spiritual body. A specified Christian denomination. A congregation. Public divine worship in a church; a religious service. The clerical profession; clergy. Ecclesiastical power as designated from the secular. Yes, different people have different meanings. Baptists have a meaning distinctively different from the definition held by others. The Baptist definition of the church says it is found in the New Testament, not the Old Testament. It is local and visible. It is not a franchise of an hierarchical denomination. The articles of faith of the Lighthouse Baptist Church (and Lighthouse Legal Ministry) says, “We believe that a local church is a congregation of immersed believers, associated by covenant of faith and fellowship of the gospel, observing the ordinances of Christ, governed by His laws and exercising the gifts, rights, and privileges in it by His Word; that its offices are pastors (elders, bishops—Ephesians 4:10, 11; Acts 20:26-32; 1 Timothy 3:1-7; 1 Peter 5:1-4; Titus 1:5-9; Philippians 1:1) and deacons (Acts 6:1-7; 1 Timothy 3:813); that it has the absolute right of self-government directed by the Holy Spirit and is answerable only to Christ; that all matters of membership, polity, government, discipline, and benevolences, the will of the local church is final (Acts 2:41, 42; 1 Corinthians 11:2; Ephesians 1:22, 23; Colossians 1:18; Acts 20:17,18).” The first Baptist distinctive is Biblical authority. They do not turn to Catholic popes, fathers, or bishops. They don’t turn to the Book of Mormon. They don’t turn to writings of Luther or Calvin for final authority; they turn to the Bible. Do we find the local church in the New Testament? Absolutely! See Acts 13:1; 1 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 1:1; Galatians 1:1, 2; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:1; and Revelation 1:4 and chapters 2 and 3. The Greek word translated church is ecclesia—meaning “called out of.” It existed in Greek culture before the time of Christ. It is also translated assembly (Acts 19:41). It was used among the Greeks of a body of citizens gathered to discuss affairs of the state. The usage is found in Acts 19 in the story of how Paul’s preaching caused a riot at Ephesus among the defenders of the temple of the great goddess Diana (19:27-29). Their defenders gathered a couple of Paul’s friends and rushed into the theatre (19:29) for the assembly (ecclesia) was confused. It was a town meeting, not a church meeting, but the same Greek word was used. The normal use of the word was about an assembly of people. An assembly is not an assembly unless it is assembled (gathered together). It is local and visible. New Testament Christians saw no problem with using it to describe their assembly, then. Catholic and Protestant writers talk about the universal, invisible church. The Roman Catholics considers itself the universal church. The Apostles’ Creed contains the phrase “the holy catholic church,” but it does not refer to a specific church, but rather to the commonly held view of the universal church. It fits quite nicely in today’s emphasis on radio preachers and televangelists who want people from all over to support their ministries. The problem with this view is the only time there will be a universal church, it is described in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18 when the believers from all local churches will be caught up to meet the Lord in the air, and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Then it will be in heaven, but not visible on earth. Our emphasis on being autonomous means “not controlled by outside forces, independent.” This definition is dear to the hearts of Independent Baptists as explained in the statement of faith quoted above. Are denominations found in the Bible? Well, two groups claim they have taken their very name from it: “churches of Christ” in Romans 16 and “church of God” in the books of Corinthians. So they both rather BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 41 strongly argue they are the only true church (just like Catholics have said much longer). You won’t find any convention or denominational name in the Bible! Baptists look to the Bible for their faith and practice; all others look to logic, experience, and other man-made justifications and establish their hierarchies on such premises. But there are advantages of having a denomination—but they do not relate to its basic purpose of spreading the gospel. They may have huge buildings, but that was not what Jesus had in mind when He said, “I will build My church.” The church building will not get anyone free entrance to heaven just because they attend or belong to it. They usually have good benefit packages for their pastor(s). Independent Baptist churches should do all they can to take care of their pastor(s). But a pastor should never set his sights on taking over a church only because of the benefits it may offer. The local, visible, and autonomous church should have a form of authority that its members can look up to, trust, and respect, and to lead them (not drive them). If we teach our children what the New Testament says about the local church (1 Timothy 3:15), we are teaching them to respect something they can relate to. Without a local, visible church to belong to, who can a person talk with if he has a question about Bible teaching that he hears elsewhere? Who can he call to visit you or a family member in the hospital, conduct their funeral, marry their son or daughter, or provide counsel when needed? NOTE: We depend on the same doctor, specialist, mechanic service, etc. We normally do not pick one at random every time we need one. The same thing goes for finding a solid, Bible-preaching church and not be floating from one to another. God spent many places in the Bible listing genealogies—1 Chronicles is the prominent one. He did this to show us He is interested in the individual. And it is why His design for the church is for it to be a local, visible, autonomous place where individual attention is most possible. The church has specific responsibilities, the chief one being the spread of the gospel (Acts 1:8). The first church did that and saw many get saved (Acts 2:47). Eight thousand, at least, in just days! But God never intended them to stay where they were. He had to use persecution to get the gospel spread (Acts 8:1), and as we followed Baptist history, persecution of the true Biblical church has been normal. Sooner or later, it will be very prevalent in the United States as well. The church began sending out missionaries early in its existence (Acts 13:1-4). Every church doing what Christ commanded in the Great Commission will only be doing that when they have missionaries to support. God desires purity in His church, too. See Ephesians 5:25-27. Christ’s desire is to sanctify and cleanse it, to make it a glorious church without spot or wrinkle, to be holy and without blemish. When doctrine, practice, and yes even standards are compromised, the church has lost its purity Christ desires. When a popular radio or television preacher is wicked or immoral, people do not easily find out. But when a pastor of a local church is guilty of immorality, that congregation should not hesitate to deal with him. We need to thank God for our local church if it and its people function according to Biblical principles. It should be noted for being missionary-minded, earnestly contending for the faith, and supporting religious and civil liberty. Praise God for the Baptist doctrinal distinctive of the local, visible, autonomous New Testament church! BAPTIST HISTORY From material by Terry Hamilton 42 Lesson 11: BAPTISM (Pages 72-78) Introduction: In this lesson we come to the distinctive from which we derive our name—baptism. It was not an early distinctive. In the early church, believers were baptized by immersion like they are today. They did not need to be called Baptists in the early church. Only when false doctrines of infant baptism and baptismal regeneration crept in did it become necessary to take their specific stand on baptism. Christ