BAPTIST HISTORY, HERITAGE and DISTINCTIVES – Baptists Are Ancient People
Thomas E Kresal to Baptist Church History December 13, 2018 ·
BAPTIST HISTORY, HERITAGE and DISTINCTIVES – Baptists Are Ancient People
Until 1899 every Baptist historian in the world acknowledged the Baptist as ancient people tracing their principles back to the time of Christ and His disciples.
One would think that pedobaptist (infant baptism) historians from Roman Catholic, Congregational, Methodist, or Presbyterian backgrounds would try to discredit the ancient nature of the Baptists. Surprisingly, the best of the pedobaptist Protestant historians freely admitted that Baptists were ancient and could be found dissenting very early from the Catholic Church:
“The Mennonites (Anabaptists) consider themselves as descendants of the Waldenses,..The Mennonites are not entirely in error when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrussians and other ancient sects…Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all countries of Europe, who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine which the Waldensians, Wycliffites, and the Hussites had maintained.” History of the Mennonites or Anabaptists, vol. 2, p. 128 by John Lawrence Mosheim, Reformed German historian, 1871
“I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as 100 AD, although without doubt there were Baptist churches then, as all Christians were then Baptists.” Methodist Historian John Clark Ridpath, W.A. Jarrell, Baptist Church Perpetuity or History, 1894, p. 59
“There shall be no faythe more certayne and true then the Anabaptises, seeying there be none nowe, or have bene before time fore ye space of these thousand and two hundred years, who have bene more cruelly punished, or that have more stoutely, stedfastly, cheerfully take there punishment, yea or have offered them selves of theire owne accords to deathe, were it never so terrible or grevouse. Yea in Saint Augustyn his time, as he hymselffe saith, there was a certain monstrous desire of deathe in them.” A Most Excellent Treatise of the Begynnyng of Heresyes (Antwerp: Aeg Diest. 1565, reprint, Yorkshire, England: The Scholar Press ltd., 1970) p. 44 by Stanislaus Hosius, Roman Catholic Theologian, Byshop of Worms in Prussia and President of the Council of Trent.
After 1899, those who held to the belief that Baptists were ancient were labeled as “Landmarkersm,” or “Trail of Blood adherents,” or “Baptist Briders.” This is strange, seeing the long line of classic Baptist historians could not possibly be labeled in this manner.
Short list of Baptist historians that believed Baptists to be ancient:
John Spittlehosue (1652), Theilman J. Van Braught (1660), Henry D’Anvers (1670), Thomas Crosbt (1740), Isaac Backus (1770), David Benedict (1813), Joseph Ivimey (1830), G.H. Orchard (1830), J.M. Cramp (1868), Charles H. Spurgeon (1868), William Cathcart (1887), Thomas Armitage (1888), J.M. Carroll (1901) and John Taylor Christian (1926).
“All who know much of the Baptist denomination must have regretted that so few are acquainted with its early history …It remains a matter of great surprise that our own congregations should be, for the most part, uninstructed in the past doings of our body.” C.H. Spurgeon “The Sword & the Trowel” August, 1868
Prepared by Thomas E. Kresal: Excerpts from: “Sacred Betrayal” by James R. Beller (Prairie Fire Press, St. Louis, Missouri, 205 p. 1-3)
Quick Overview: Sacred Betrayal (The Coming Destruction of the Baptist People): A Briefing for Parents and Leaders
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