Baptist Leader Series: Obadiah Holmes 1606–1682 (Early Baptist Leader in R.I. Physically Persecuted for His Faith

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  ·04/06/23  · Baptist Leader Series: Obadiah Holmes 1606–1682 (Early Baptist Leader in R.I. Physically Persecuted for His FaithIt may shock you that Baptists were jailed and beaten and oppressed for their faith in the early days of the English Colonization of America. The Puritans were brutal in failing to allow anyone else to preach or worship, contrary to their beliefs in the Mass. Bay Colony. Obadiah Holmes was one of the first to suffer under their oppressive hand. It met much more to be a Baptist back then. They didn’t change their name because it might attract more people. Instead, they wore it proudly and suffered for it. Read the shocking small biography of Obadiah Holmes if you don’t believe me. It is an amazing story and helps us understand it could happen again if we support the cause of Religious Liberty in this country which Baptists have so nobly espoused.Little is known of Holmes’ early life except that he emigrated to America about 1639. From his diary, it is known that he became a Baptist in about 1650, probably under the influence of Dr. John Clarke. For the next three decades, Holmes was active in the affairs of the Newport Church and a pastoral figure amid controversy with Quakers, Six-Principal advocates, and Sabbatarians.Holmes is best remembered for the foray into Massachusetts that he and others made in 1651 to visit a friend and hold evangelistic services there, for which they were arrested. Unlike his two companions, who were released on payment of fines, Holmes was detained for several months and publicly whipped with thirty-nine lashes in Boston Common. He turned the spectacle into a testimony of his faith.Holmes would remain in jail from July to September of 1651. This was a time of separation from his wife Catherine (whom he was married to for over 50 years) and nine children: Joseph, John, Hope, Obadiah, Samuel, Martha, Mary, Jonathan, and Lydia.On September 5, 1651, Obadiah Holmes was brought before the old Statehouse to be whipped. Although he could have accepted deliverance, he denied it. Gaustad wrote, “As the strokes began to fall, Holmes prayed once more, and in truth, he later wrote, I never ‘had such a spiritual manifestation of God’s presence.’ And though the executioner spat upon his hands and laid the three-corded whip ‘with all his strength’ thirty times across the prisoner’s bareback, yet ‘in a manner felt it not.’ When the whipping was finished, and Holmes was untied from the post, he turned to the magistrates and said, ‘You have struck me as with roses.”Holmes certainly paid the price for his Baptist faith and desire for soul liberty. He was beaten in such an unmerciful manner that Governor Jenckes wrote, “Mr. Holmes was whipped with thirty stripes, and in such an unmerciful manner, that in many days, if not some weeks, he could take no rest but as he lay on his knees and elbows, not being able to suffer any part of his body to touch the bed whereon he lay.”Because of this account, John Clarke wrote an Ill Newes from New England book. In this publication, Clarke stated, “While old England is becoming new, New England is becoming old.” He further wrote,“This tragedy being thus acted in the face of the Country, must need to awaken and rouse up the minds, and spirits of many, cause sad thoughts to arise in their hearts, and to flow forth at their mouths as men offended…”The beating of Obadiah Holmes led to two major events. First, it prompted John Clarke to leave the colonies to sail to England. In doing so, he attained the Royal Charter of 1663. Second, the First Baptist Church of Boston was established because of the sermons of Henry Dunster (the first president of Harvard University). Dunster was motivated to oppose infant baptism publicly because of the beating of Holmes.DNAll references are found in my book: Baptist Biographies and Happenings in America which you may obtain by contacting me through Facebook Messenger or my profile page: Dan Nelson