Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – The Age Old Struggle for Liberty of Conscience
Thomas E Kresal toBaptist Church HistoryAdmin · January 4, 2019
Baptist History, Heritage & Distinctives – The Age Old Struggle for Liberty of Conscience
In AD 313 the Roman Catholic institution had its early foundation laid by the Roman emperor Constatine. Augustine of Hippo would then lay the heretical doctrinal foundation for this corrupt institution. The theology of Augustine became the framework for all of Catholic belief. This is often called dominion theology as it propagated the idea that the Roman Catholic institution is the kingdom of God on earth and must therefore march forward and gain new ground. Augustine laid out this idea in his book, City of God. Every sort of coercion, up to and including burning people alive and cutting their guts out, was practiced and justified within this corrupt system. Hence, on the heels of the creation of this murderous institution flung wide open the door to the Dark Ages.
For the next eleven hundred years the Lord’s churches were massacred. From the dungeons of Rome, to the valleys of the Piedmont, to the burning stakes of England and beyond, the Christian groups that were slanderously called Ana-Baptists because of their demand for scriptural salvation and baptism were stoned, burned, disemboweled, decapitated, and literally mutilated and cut into bits by the millions!
When the great Protestant Reformation began, it did not take long for the Baptists to realize that there was largely no place of acceptance among the leading reformers for them. Oliver Cromwell, although a political leader, became one of the only men of renown during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries who was openly accepting of the Baptists. Sadly this love affair dissolved quickly after Cromwell rose higher and became Lord Protector.
As Baptist began to migrate to America they were shocked and disappointed to see that things would be no different here. The state-sponsored churches were quickly set up in America and state-church colonial charters and laws written, signed and then ratified. The Baptists were disenfranchised and the quest for liberty carried on right up to the bitter end of the eighteenth century.
Thomas E. Kresal from: American Foundations Laid By The Baptist by Ted Alexander, pg. 37-38
From Tom: I highly recommend this book to any serious Baptist student of history. This is a very concise book regarding the tremendous influence Baptist polity and practice had in the colonial era of America.
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