Travels in Baptist History “First” Baptist Church Providence Rhode Island The cost of compromise part one. by Jim Curran

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 10/25/21  · Travels in Baptist History “First” Baptist Church Providence Rhode Island

The cost of compromise part one When we study Baptist history it is important to realize that we can and indeed must learn from not only the good but also the bad. The bad occurrences in our history serve to warn us of possible pitfalls that we can fall into. Satan is a great recycler and reuses much of the same tactics and weapons over and over again. He also introduces compromise gradually until the point that all Biblical truth is overrun by error. Back in October of 2009 we had a meeting about thirty minutes from Providence, Rhode Island and I was determined to visit this site. I was well aware of the liberalism that had overrun the church but wanted to visit for the historical value. I also saw its claims as the “First Baptist Church in America” dubious in light of Newport actually being formed correctly the same year and likely meeting earlier than that. I took the tour and also picked up a book- “First” I found this book to be rather revealing about this church being wrongly held up as almost a mother church for American Baptists when few can actually trace to it. Today this church is completely liberal and has a woman pastor (This happened after we visited) but how it got there is a gradual process that we can take as a very cautionary tale. As Baptists all that we believe is to come solely from Biblical authority. What happens when we loose this authority? History can tell us much. Unlike the Protestants, Catholics and others we believe that the Bible is the sole rule for faith and practice, not holding to a dual authority such as tradition, reason, or extra-scriptural revelation. Today the primary way is to reject the Biblical stances that Baptists have made along with the Baptist name- completely ignoring the history of what has happened when that has been done. The “purpose driven church and life” and other ideas are elevated above the Scripture and the church becomes ecumenical and non- denominational in outlook. Along the way the Scripture is changed to a modern version that compromised the truth. Many times this is an incremental process and the end result becomes less than Baptist. In the last century churches compromised on the Bible in a different way with equally devastating results. Before this as well other compromises were made- in New England in the 1800’s many Baptist Churches made little compromises in adopting some Protestant ideas or practices. As we headed into the twentieth century many of those compromises set the stage for huge compromise in the guise of theological modernism. This was especially rampant in the Northern Baptist Convention and New England. Strangely these churches still hung onto Baptist and emphasized the sovereignty of the local church and individual soul liberty all the while chunking out Biblical authority out the window upon which the Baptist Distinctives were based. Providence was at the forefront of much of these devastating changes. In many ways what is happening today with churches mirror what happened back then. Over the next parts of this series we will look at the compromises that were made as a cautionary tale. The Scripture and history are full of them and we miss them to our own peril.I Cor 10:6 ¶ Now these things were our examples, to the intent we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.