How Studying Baptist Beliefs and History are Inseparable – By Dan Nelson, Baptist Historian, and Author

Here is an excellent article I read a few days ago! Roger Fulk Thanks Dan Nelson for your permission to publish this article You searched for Dan Nelson – Earnestly Contend For The Faith Jude 3 (awarningministry.com)
How Studying Baptist Beliefs and History are Inseparable – By Dan Nelson, Baptist Historian, and Author

Baptist beliefs and their history are intertwined. It is necessary to study both togain and appreciate Baptist beliefs and history. This study will help us understand the uniqueness of Baptists among many religious groups. The great stories of courage and sacrifice help us comprehend why we believe what we believe and how they have brought us to the present juncture of many religious groups crying for anonymity and no real distinctions that set them apart.
There are basic beliefs that may be shared by some other groups but are as fully prounced or defined as Baptists have illustrated them. It would have been easy for the Baptists to join in with others in the Reformation and just tolerate infant baptism for the truth of the justification of faith. Yet, they believed believer’s; baptism was important and many martyrs like Balthasar Hubmaier, Felix Manz, and Michael Sattler paid dearly for it because of the state enforcement of religion in Austria, Germany (the birthplace of the Reformation), and Switzerland. They were persecuted and killed by Catholics as well as Protestants.
Obadiah Holmes was whipped on the Boston Common in 1651 for being a Baptist and handing out literature endorsing believer's baptism. The state church arrangement led to his imprisonment and punishmen.
Thomas Gould’s refusal to have his child christened and their subsequent starting of the first Baptist church in Boston was in response to this understood practice of the Congregational church there and insistence if must be adhered to by all citizens. The church met in secret on Noodles Island outside Boston and for a while, Gould was imprisoned because he believed in individual conversion and not sponsorship salvation that infant baptism fostered’
In America, William Screven and his congregation were marched out of town inKittery, Maine, and threatened with hanging for teaching believer’s baptism. They were told not to come back or be hung. This led to the founding of the first Baptist church in the South in Charleston because the Baptists refused to live in a religious environment that taught error.
John Weatherford and over 50 other Baptist preachers just a few years before the Revolutionary War were jailed in Virginia for refusing to be licensed by the state church and continuing to baptize believers. He preached from jail and hiscongregation came to hear him with nine people converted and baptizedafter Patrick Henry came and plead his case before the militant governmental officials resulting in his release.
John Leland and other Baptist preachers were persecuted for being Baptists even after the American War of Independence. He talked with James Madison extensively about the first amendment rights of Baptists and all Christians not to be discriminated against by the government and the refusal to establish a state church. Baptists have always believed in complete freedom to practice their faith because of their persecution, and harassment in the old world as well as the new.
We could go on and on with stories such as Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice studying the Scriptures and understanding that believer’s baptism is the only New Testament baptism. They had been appointed by the Congregational church and were on their initial missionary journey overseas. They requested believer’s baptism when they arrived in India meeting the English Baptist missionary William Carey and being baptized in his church there. They became Baptists and continued to pursue their missionary call. Could their decision have something to do with them becoming one of the greatest missionarie; and missions’ promoters of all time?
The stand that Baptists took for distinct doctrines has led to the expansion of the Baptist work and brought us to the place we are today. These truths illustrated by these stories help immensely to see how we have a faith worth contending for and lost among the ash heap of generic Christianity.
Believing in these truths, it has been my privilege to contribute some to a lack of understanding about our Baptist forefathers and the truths they were willing to suffer for in two books I have authored.
Baptist Revival: Reaffirming Baptist Principles in Today’s Changing Church Scene is a reference tool for those new to your church or uninformed about prominent Baptist beliefs. I attempt to explain our beliefs with historical and biblical references hopefully in a language anyone can understand. The book has seven chapters dealing with the church, ordinances, the church’s role with government, church structure for decision-making and ministry, individual responsibility in salvation, what priesthood of believers means, and Biblical authority in our faith and practice. There are several appendices regarding Baptist Confessions and my sermon: Twelve Misassumptions about Baptists.
Baptist Biographies and Happenings in American History offers a concise and fact-filled chronological chain of biographies from the beginning of America to the present day. My book intends to help you understand continuous Baptist History through the events and individuals who have been influential in the movement through its expansion. The stories of these figures are inspirational as well as challenging. I have been researching Baptist History in America for the last several years, gathering information and piecing all these together in book form. There is information one can profit from in the discovery of these interesting insights. I have been an ordained Baptist Pastor for 49 years and have taught and written on Baptist History in Bible College, my teaching in the church, and preaching.
I wrote Baptist Biographies because most Baptist biography books had information about one or a few individuals. I wanted people to understand the history in a continuous, chronological manner through this book divided into two sections of establishment and expansion. The biographies are not exhaustive but give general information and hopefully inspiration studying these biographies of Baptists who have had an impact on our belief and practice.
Both books underscore the truth that our beliefs cannot be separated fromour history. Our beliefs have endured through the example of many courageous leaders in the Baptist Movement.(1) Dan Nelson | Facebook