Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives B.H. Carroll – Distinctive Baptist Principles PART NINETEEN of NINETEEN

Thomas E Kresal Admin · July 11, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives B.H. Carroll – Distinctive Baptist Principles PART NINETEEN of NINETEEN

God’s order in the gospel of His Son #2One successful demonstration that all these great things can be done by a simple and harmless agency of voluntary co-operation of individuals refutes forever, the idea of the church as an organized denomination or general body. There is no necessity for it. There is tyranny in it. There is the subversion of Christ’s church in it. There is hierarchy in it.My heart exults! My soul leaps for joy that this Convention has furnished proof beyond all successful contradiction that there is no necessity for a hierarchy in order to promote harmony, secure unity of faith and discipline, and to obtain co-operation broad enough and strong enough to do anything God’s people ought to do.That demonstration lifts itself up like a granite mountain. Transient clouds of angry criticism hang around its outskirts and splinter their petty lightnings on its adamantine sides.Foul aspersion and misrepresentation may spatter their mud and slime around its base. In the caves of its foothills a few skulking wolves of prejudice may make their dens and render night hideous by their howling’s. But the mountain itself stands immovable and serene. No mists gather about its summit, far above the range and rage of storms. By night the stars silver its crest and by day its halo of sunlight, is like the smile of God. This is God’s order in the gospel of his Son, and the order is itself a distinctive Baptist principle.Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from: BAPTISTS And Their Doctrines Sermons on Distinctive Baptist Principles BY B. H. CARROLL, D.D. PRESIDENT, SOUTHWESTERN BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, 1913 pg. 17