{"id":2074,"date":"2020-01-02T20:36:03","date_gmt":"2020-01-03T01:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/?p=2074"},"modified":"2020-01-02T20:37:06","modified_gmt":"2020-01-03T01:37:06","slug":"james-robinson-graves-1820-1893-founder-of-the-landmark-movement","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/awarningministry.com\/index.php\/2020\/01\/02\/james-robinson-graves-1820-1893-founder-of-the-landmark-movement\/","title":{"rendered":"James Robinson Graves (1820-1893) – FOUNDER OF THE LANDMARK MOVEMENT"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Dan Nelson<\/a> January 2, 2020<\/h5>\n\n\n\n

James Robinson Graves (1820-1893)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FOUNDER OF THE LANDMARK MOVEMENT<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

(A synopsis from “Baptist Biographies and Happenings in American History.” Contact Dan if you want to get a copy) J. R. Graves was one of the most controversial and misunderstood theologians of the 19th Century. His writings and allies J.M. Pendleton and A.C. Dayton helped forge a movement that sought to emphasize the uniqueness of Baptist Churches. He believed that Baptist churches are successors of the New Testament church formed in the ministry of Christ and perpetuated through the centuries despite persecution, minority status and the unholy alliance of the church and state with civil governments protecting Catholicism and enforcing its teachings in horrible martyrdoms of influential leaders and groups. Graves’s main assumption that was visible to all who would inquire is that each Protestant group and even today with the rise of “non-denominational groups” have a least some vestige of Catholicism in them but Baptists do not.Graves was born Vermont, but his family moved to Kentucky and then to Ohio where he began his educational pursuits. He was a self-educated man and as a young man, he was a principal of two schools in Ashtabula Ohio, and Nicholasville, Kentucky. For those who may have thought Graves was not a scholar consider his goal of learning a new language each year for the four years, he taught at the school in Nicholasville.While at Nicholasville, was influenced greatly by the Mount Freedom Baptist Church. He united with the church after being saved and baptized. There he taught Sunday School, became a deacon was licensed and ordained by the church. He was influenced by <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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T.T. Dillard and the debates against Campebellism. He developed a deep love for the truth of Baptist Churches which would materialize in his writings and teachings.Graves moved Kentucky to Nashville, Tennesse and began to teach and preach becoming the pastor of Second Baptist Church of Nashville. There he also became editor of a denominational paper for Tennessee and Northern Alabama. From this platform, he began to write much of his beliefs concerning local church autonomy, Baptist church uniqueness, separation from inner-faith functions and chain-link ecclesiology. He opposed pulpit exchanges which were common in Nashville at the time. Graves began to organize churches that believed as he did and had been convinced of their truths. The Cotton Grove Resolutions were passed at an organizational meeting in Cotton Grove, Hardeman County, Tennessee, on June 24, 1851. Graves along with Pendelton and Dayton began to ask questions about the validity of groups in Protestantism which came out of Catholicism and had not begun with the church Jesus established in His ministry and empowered at Pentecost. They began to question baptism, church authority and point out their differences with Baptist Churches and other religious groups. The movement spread but also provoked controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention especially in 1859 during the annual meeting at the doorstep of the Civil war.Graves published many books and writings but the work that set forth the principles of the Landmark movement was “An Old Landmark Reset” by J.M. Pendleton. Graves reinforced his views of Baptist uniqueness and history through endorsing works like Orchards ” A Concise History of Baptist Churches.”Graves held many denominational offices and spoke at the conventions as well as many churches. Some have said he was one of the most persuasive preachers they ever heard and held hearers spellbound for more than an hour and even two at times. His influence was felt in the understanding of where Baptists have come from and their link to the early church. His writings and preaching helped Baptists see they have existed in some group before the Reformation and their baptism and administration of the ordinances were given to New Testament churches and not all Christians.Missionary Baptists groups have come out of Southern Baptists siding more with Grave’s views as well as many Independent Baptist Churches. But his beliefs have also have left a mark on many Baptist churches in the South who want to get it right about what a New Testament church really is and how we are to exercise that authority given to us from Christ in the Great Commission and our faithfulness to it. Baptists owe a great debt to Graves for these emphases today and hopefully will continue to help churches see how Baptists are unique from all other groups in this regard. For this emphasis, we can be very thankful. Graves’ emphasis is still proclaimed in most Baptist churches today. The local church, baptism for membership, independence of congregations and the belief of many that the Baptist Movement in doctrine if not other practices, pre-dates the Protestant Reformation are keynotes of many church beliefs. For these emphases, we can be grateful because they are New Testament truths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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