Short History of the Baptist

BAPTI ST DENO M INATIO N M I L ES M A R K FI S HE R Som e tim e H o y t P rofe ssor of C hurc h H istory T he R ic hm nd T he l ic al Semin ar V ir i nia U ni n ni v er i o o og y , g o U s ty M inist er in the W hit e R o c k B ap tist C hu rc h D urham N r h C ar li a , o t o n SC H O O L P U B LI SHI N G w n end D . Secretar A . M T o s , , y nne ee Nashv ill e, T e ss FOREWO RD This history is written at the invitation of the Na n ’ tio al M inisters Institute . Since no authoritative histo ry of the Baptists has appeared which includes the religious development of its racial constituents other than as distinct and s eparate groups , and that not t e propor ionat ly treated , there is need of a story like this which essays to treat the story of the de o u o n mination as a nified whole . If, however, Negro B t ap ist s s eem to b e stres sed disproportionately, it must not be forgotten that they have more communicants by over a million than there are Baptists in the rest f h o t e world exclusive of the United States , that in America they are about twice as numerous as North ern Baptists and about equal in number to Southern Baptists , and that their history is available nowhere else . Some findings in my unpublished manuscript on e The His tory of Negro B aptists are incorporated her . So I am indebt ed to all those w ho helped me in that study, chief among whom are Dr. Carter G. Woodson, who encouraged me ; Dr. Benjamin Brawley of Howard es e University ; Dr. L . G . Jordan , Nas hvill e, Tenn s e ; and Dr. Norman Cox and Attorney James R . Cain of u Savannah, Georgia, who put valuable so rce material h r i at my disposal , and Professor W. W. Sweet , w o c it cally used my manuscript as a basi s for the first course on the Negro Church at that University of Chi vii Forew ord c o . I so t l ag am al indebted o many librarians , inc ud Dr ing . Frank G . Lewis of the American Baptist His torical o S ciety and Dr. Garnett Ryland of the Vir B ginia apti st Historical So ciety . In spite of the many omissions especially of out standing Baptists now living and of the probable in u acc racies , it is hoped that this history will not prove too inadequate generally for information and inspira tion , for it is believed that the final story of the Bap tists will be written along the line herein s uggested . The truth as revealed in the documents has not been set aside because Baptists are now prepared for a s M frank discuss ion of human problem . ay the spirit of the Galilean guide us into all truth . The Upper Room M . M . F . 1933 8 , February, CO NTENTS I INTRODUCTION II ENGLISH BAPTISTS III B EGINNINGS IN AM ERICA IV PROPAGATING THE FAITH THE SLAVERY CONTROVERSY NORTHERN BAPTISTS SOUTHERN B APTISTS NEGRO BAPTISTS THE FAM ILY CIRCLE SOCIAL PROGRE SS $ I EUROPEAN BAPTISTS $ I I BAPTISTS OF TODAY COLLATERAL READING CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION Founding of the Church Jesus of Nazareth institut ed a way of life compell ing enough for hundreds of modern denominations to see the t f in it initia ion o their s ects , but , as Peabody “ s ays , hardly any problem of exegesis is more dif ficult than to discover in the gospels an administra ” t e or o iv rganizing or eccl esiastical Christ . When the tw o disciples of John the B aptis t followed Jesus as the M ess h h ir iah , the c urc w as conceived , but it s birthday w as at Pentecost when three thousand new ’ believers were convicted by Peter s preaching that the c uc e u e r ified J s s w as alive, both Lord and Christ . Som Heilenistic Jews complained that their widows were e e e r n gl ct d, and so seven deacons were appointed t o e e li ve the apostl es of s erving tables . I t w as Paul w ho emancipated the gospel from legalism and ceremonial b e O s rvances , who proclaimed the reality of the union f e c o a b liever with Christ , symbolized by the ordinan es f ’ o baptism and the Lord s Supper , and w ho had only the boundaries of the Roman empire as limits of f his audience chamber . The characteris tics o the early churches were their independence , equality of e c u e e ministers , their deacons , reg nerate h rch m mb r ’ u ship, and ordinances of baptism and the Lord s S p per. 2 Short His tory of the B aptis t Denomination I nfluence of Environment The very genius of the early Chri stian movement was its s o e f r . pla ticity, with ut even a guid book o s O many year except the ld Testament , which w as grad uall y supplemented by the books of the New. Thus t free o live , Christianity adj usted itself to its environ ment and according to the Christian ideal reinter preted in nobler form and higher content the Hellen i i st c religions of redemption , the philosophic systems of speculation , and the wors hip of the defied em r r pe o s . As examples, witness the influence on Chris t n - ia ity of the dying rising s avior Gods of Hellenism , the Epicurean and Stoic philosophies and the cult of f the Caesars , esp ecially Augustus, offspring o a G od B ecaus e of environmental contacts Chris tianity at length began to deviate from the early teachings of the apostle s and emphasized pedo or infant baptism , sacramentalism , ritualism , cere “ ” n mo ialism, and other isms . Tried and purged by ur local and general persecutions, although able to s vive and increas e rapidly, Chri stianity in the fourth for century had become the religion of the state , mul te i e it o B s a d ts creed , coll cted s can n, and in the i hop of Rome had a claimant to s uccession from Peter. Baptis t Views Before the Reformation The Roman Catholic Church appropriated to itself the wonderful organization and efficient administra tion of the Empire and survived the downfall of that th o e or ss system . It 1s 1mpos sible to find in e m r le N vatians M evangelical groups TM ontanists , b , ani r Bo s chaeans , and Paulicians, Catha i , gomil , Albi I ntrod u ction 3 n g e ses , and others ) w ho remained apart from the u Catholic Church, s ccessors of the full primitive tradition in spite of the fact that all along some so called heretics here and there held to the teachings of the New Testament in a purer form than did the pre vailing Catholic Church . In the wake of the Crusades it is not impossible to see trained evangelical individuals arising w ho were protesting for thems elves and their nations against the ecclesiastical institution . In France there were Peter de Bruys and Henry of Lausanne ; in Germany r n infi B es w as Eve vi of Ste eld ; in Italy, Arnold of r P t r helcick es es so s cia ; in Bohemia, e e C y , b id precur r of the Reformation like Savonarola, Huss, and Wy clif, and a host of Waldensians and B ohemian Breth ren w ho were trying to restore the New Testament norm . Anabaptist Beginnings The Reformation came in the sixteenth century, when individuals began to place authority in the Scrip u t res rather than in the Catholic Church . The name - Anabaptists (t e baptizers ) or Baptists, as Charles V e called them in 1535 , w as applied to all r volters from the Catholic Church and the equally intolerant Prot e t n s a t groups . This popular epithet of opprobrium was more than words ; it became fatal legislation, be cause, as the Romanists charged , the Anabaptist heresy w as dangerous , being ancient, universal, and a blasphemous . Europe became red with blood that w s shed by many Anabaptis t martyrs , some of whom were chiliastic, socialistic, revolutionary, pious, mis His tory of the B aptis t Denomination anatical e e p opl , b ut all of whom attempted the customs and b eliefs of first century ’ 7 es ec a l e e e t - , p i l y b li v rs bap ism, a s elf g ov 1 e t f p, lib r y o consci ence, and the practical t' the New Testament . s Organized d e r a o more praying bands of brethr en , b s s e e apti t pref rr d to call thems elve s , had stence before they met in thehouse of B al ‘ im ier . a at Waldshut , Switzerland , in June scus t u f i s heir m tual problems .

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