Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives Ben M. Bogard – Held to Perpetuity of Baptistic Churches – THREE of FIVE

Thomas E Kresal January 23, 2020

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives – Ben M. Bogard – Held to Perpetuity of Baptistic Churches – Part THREE of FIVE

In 1899, he [Bogard] became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Searcy, AR (should be Garrett Memorial). It was while there that he began to emerge as a dynamic young leader of preachers and became a spokesman for the Landmark Movement, which was starting to withdraw, both pastors and churches, from the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Landmark Movement strongly stressed the local New Testament Baptist church, held to the perpetuity of Baptist (or baptistic) churches and teachings, beginning with Jesus Christ, the Founder of the church. Landmarkers believe that there have always been true New Testament churches and the real succession from Christ and the Apostles is not through the Catholic Church or the Reformation churches, but through “Anabaptist” congregations scattered abroad in Europe and Asia throughout the 20 centuries of the Christian era. . . .

By 1905, especially in Arkansas and Texas, the “Missionary Baptists,” as they often chose to be called, began to form what became the American Baptist Association, apart from the SBC.

Thomas E. Kresal from: From Robert Ashcraft, Contending for the Faith, An Updated History of the Baptists, 2006, pp. 688-690.