Why Study Baptist History (Part 5) To be Inspired by the Bravery of our Progenitors

Dan Nelson June 18, 2020

Why Study Baptist History (Part 5) To be Inspired by the Bravery of our Progenitors
Baptists have had many examples of courage and bravery in defense of what we believe. There were Anabaptists martyred in the Reformation time. The English Baptists were imprisoned and forbidden to meet at times. Even in America Pastors have been jailed and individuals were beaten for the cause of Christ.
People immediately say at the mention of Baptists being persecuted, that earnest Christian evangelical groups have been persecuted in the same way. Look at the Reformation though and see who led in burnings at the stake, being drowned and jailed: It was the Baptists. Baptists were oppressed and martyred by Catholics and Protestants. You don’t see a group of people that have been persecuted throughout history like the Baptists. The reason being they refused to be a part of both groups: Catholicism with their mixing of paganism with Christianity, teaching salvation by works, the corruption of the papacy and state-church, killing people in the name of the Lord and church as well as keeping people away from eternal life.
Protestantism stilled retained infant baptism, hid behind the state church using governmental leaders to persecute the Baptists, retaining a Catholic system of church government, and not practicing the New Testament idea of the local church as the only church.
One may say we agree with so much more of what the Protestants believe. But if you study history you will find most Protestants in the Reformation did not believe that Baptists had a right to exist and persecuted them accordingly for it.
Being a Baptist throughout history cost people a lot more in history than it does today with our running from our identity in more moderate circles.
-Why was Felix Manz drowned in the Limmat River in Zurich, after being threatened not to preach or baptize believers? Because he was a Baptist.
Why George Blaurock chased out of and banished from three cities. Beaten in prison in Zurich, taking to the city limits and chased our of Bern, finally after trying to pastor in a church in Austria where the former pastor had been martyred; he was burning at the stake: Because he was Baptist.
-Why was Balthasar Hubmaier, imprisoned, racked, and chase out of one town to be captured by another government and burned at the stake? Because he was a Baptist.
-Why Thomas Helwys jailed after starting a Baptist church in England and writing against the King for the suppression of religious liberty where he died? Because He was a Baptist.
-Why did Baptist leaders in England like Kiffin, Grantham, Knollys, and other leaders spend time in prison and at times had their services disrupted and forbidden? Because they were Baptists.
Why did people like John Bunyan spend over a decade in an out of prison because of the three acts the King passed through Parliament to not only silence them but also totally abolish them? Because they were Baptists.
Why was Obadiah Holmes imprisoned then beaten on the Boston Common in 1651 after he was imprisoned with John Clarke and John Crandall had been imprisoned and fined for having an illegal religious service in the home of an infirmed older Baptist Pastor? Because he was Baptist.
Why did Thomas Gould and his congregation meet secretly on Noodles Island and in secret places only to be caught and imprisoned temporarily because they refused to have their babies sprinkled in Boston and started a Baptist congregation? Because he was a Baptist.
Why were William Screven and his congregation driven out of Kittery, Maine when they started a Baptist church and refused to have their babies sprinkled; being threatened with hanging if they came back: leading them to start the First Baptist Church in the South in Charleston South Carolina: Because they were Baptists.
-Why was John Weatherford and 44 other Baptist Preached jailed in Virginia through the 1760s and ’70s with him preaching from jail to his congregation and people who were saved listening to his prison sermon? Because they were Baptists.
Why did John Leland lobby James Madison to put the religious liberty clause in the Constitution’s: Bill of Rights after the congregation and others had their services disrupted constantly in Virginia and their lives threatened? Because they were Baptist.
These examples have not even scratched the service. There are many others whose history has not recorded but the Lord knows them because of their faithfulness to the end.
Compare all these examples to the Baptist church today who says we are dropping the name in our church because it’s a turn-off, people will not come if they see Baptists and what is associated with the name. It’s not important what we call our church as long as we are Christians and believe the Bible? Isn’t our allegiance to Christ and the Bible?
All these individuals were persecuted, and many were killed because of what they believed in the Bible. Why can’t we educate people about what Baptist have believed through history as a necessity know it costs something to believe the Bible and has a New Testament church?
No, these comments seem to infer let’s not get to carried away with this history stuff. It has no relevance. It is like keeping Pre-Schoolers in the Pre-School as they get older because we have to meet them where they are when it is our job to help them mature and grow. Teaching Baptist History from a biblical context is getting people off the milk of God’s Word and getting into the Meat of it.
Do me a favor if you are ashamed of the name Baptists. Apologize to these people who have been persecuted, imprisoned, and killed for their faith as Baptists and tell them you were too ashamed to let people know you were one when they were willing to die for being one. History is replete with Baptist people who have suffered and died for their faith. Don’t be ashamed of it. Study it and teach it.