The Baptist Story by David Potter, Ph.D.

 

The Baptist Story.pdf

About the Author

Dr. David Potter, Missionary to Hungary, holds a B.A. and M.Div. from Maranatha Baptist

Bible College, and a Ph.D. in New Testament from Bob Jones University. He taught church history and Baptist history for twelve years at San Francisco Baptist Theological Seminary. He now serves as a missionary in Pécs, Hungary, with Baptist World Mission, training national Christians for the ministry and Christian leadership. Dr. John Mincy says that Dr. Potter is "a fine scholar with a warm heart."

Foreword

This essay suffers two related disadvantages. First, I must summarize many centuries of

history concerning wide geographical areas in only a few pages. Second, I do not have space to dwell on the lives of individuals. The ingredient that makes history exciting is the story of the individual. If you don't believe this, ask yourself why the historical sections of the Bible are such gripping examples of literary art. Surveys like this one tend to be dry. Please bear with me.

Introduction

Few groups of people have been so persecuted for their views as the Baptists. Baptists cannot trace their history to some dynamic founder during the Reformation like a Luther or a

Calvin or a Knox. Their only claim to validity is their dependence on Scripture alone for their

doctrine and practice. Their commitment to the Scriptures to dictate their practice, as well as their beliefs, distinguishes Baptists from the Protestants, who protested only what was unacceptable to them in the Roman Catholic Church, yet retained some unbiblical practices. While Protestants generally desired religious liberty for themselves, the Baptists sought freedom of worship for

everyone. We as Baptists can take great encouragement from the history of those who have passed the torch of truth down to us.

Origins

The origin of the Baptists is a controversial subject. Baptist historians have advanced three

major views of Baptist roots: the Successionist Theory, the Spiritual Kinship Theory, and the

English Separatist Theory. The Successionist Theory contends that an unbroken succession of

churches have taught and practiced Baptist principles from the time of the New Testament.

The Spiritual Kinship Theory contends that, although a visible succession is not provable, Baptist churches have always existed since the time of the apostles.

The English Separatist Theory states that modern Baptists began as an offshoot of the English Separatist movement. Any connection with earlier groups is historically unproven.

All three views contain elements of truth. While there is no historical proof of a direct succession of the English Separatist Baptists from earlier groups holding Baptist principles, the idea of someone going out freelance and starting a church purely on his own is contrary to the scriptural pattern. Churches starting churches and churches sending missionaries to start churches have always been the norm for Baptists. Men like Roger Williams and John Smyth (see below) started fresh because they did not know of any alternative. On the other hand, modern Baptists were not the first group to hold to the principles that we now call the Baptist Distinctives. Adherence to the Baptist Distinctives defines what a Baptist is, not the Baptist name. The early English Baptists were aware of the Anabaptists both in England and on the Continent. These Baptists knew that they held similar beliefs to the Anabaptists, but they also knew that they differed in several ways.

I will not be able to resolve the problem of Baptist origins in a short paper, but we can make

one confident assertion. Imagine that all traditional theological views were erased from the earth and only the Bible remained. Tomorrow "there would be Baptists."1 Doctrine and practice based squarely on the New Testament is true apostolic succession.

1. J. H. Shakespeare, Baptist and Congregational Pioneers, p. 4, cited by H. Leon

McBeth, The Baptist Heritage, p. 63.

The Anabaptists

The Anabaptist movement still suffers today from misrepresentation and misunderstanding.

Enemies of the Anabaptists in the sixteenth century applied that label indiscriminately to at least

five distinct kinds of religious groups, from social and political revolutionaries, to anti-trinitarians, and even to groups that did not believe in baptism at all.

The biblical Anabaptists, on the other hand, were true heroes, many of whom suffered martyrdom for their faith. The Anabaptists pled with both Catholics and Protestants to allow liberty of conscience. No one argued the case for religious liberty better than Balthasar Hübmaier (1480-1528). His pamphlet On Heretics and Those Who Burn Them concludes that "those who burn heretics are the greatest heretics of all." A few years after publication of his pamphlet, Hübmaier was burned at the stake in Vienna.

In many ways Anabaptists were similar to modern Baptists in that they held to an orthodox theology and that they viewed the local church as a community of believers that one enters by

requesting water baptism. They rejected the linking of church and state and insisted on soul liberty for all. On the other hand, they refused to take oaths or serve in public office. They were pacifists.

Some of them did not insist on baptism by immersion. Nevertheless, we should not be ashamed to own the biblical Anabaptists as forerunners of modern Baptists.2

2 The Amish, Mennonites, and Hutterites are modern descendants of the biblical

Anabaptists.

Who were the Anabaptists, and what did they believe?

https://www.gotquestions.org/Anabaptists.html

Who Are Anabaptists? Learn the Origins and History of Anabaptism

https://www.christianity.com/church/denominations/who-are-anabaptists-learn-the-origins-and-history-of-anabaptism.html

Baptists in England

Origins in the Seventeenth Century. The two groups of English Baptists, General Baptists

and Particular Baptists, arose from two separate origins. The names come from the views of each group regarding the atonement. The General Baptists held to a general atonement and the Particular Baptists held to the particular atonement of the elect. They also differed over some matters of church organization.

General Baptists. A group of Puritans called Separatists, because they believed in separation of church and state, met at Gainsborough, England, in the early 1600s. When the

congregation became too large to meet in one place, the group divided. A part of them began to meet at Scrooby Manor under the leadership of John Robinson (1575-1625), while the rest

remained in Gainsborough under the preaching of John Smyth (1570-1612). Both congregations

fled to Holland to escape persecution, Smyth's group settling in Amsterdam and Robinson's in Leiden. Part of Robinson's church went back to England and then on to America in 1620 on the Mayflower. We know them today as the Mayflower Pilgrims.

In 1612, through contact with Dutch Anabaptists, Smyth became convinced that baptism is for believers only. He persuaded his congregation of this view and "baptized" them by pouring. The group then split, part returning to England under the leadership of Thomas Helwys (died in Newgate Prison in 1616), and the rest remaining in Holland. After Smyth's death, his faction joined the Mennonites (the Dutch Anabaptists). Back in England, the small congregation of General Baptists faced terrible persecution. Some of them died in prison from the harsh conditions. These General Baptists eventually realized that scriptural baptism is by immersion.

Particular Baptists. The Particular Baptists emerged from a group of Independent Puritans

(Independents stressed the independence of the local church) in the 1630s under the leadership of John Spilsbury (died 1699?), William Kiffin (1616-1701), and Henry Jessey (1601-1663). Kiffin, a wealthy merchant, was a great asset to the early Baptists both because of his political connections

and his sound judgment.

Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), pastor of the Horsleydown Church in Southwark, London, was an innovator who introduced singing of hymns to church services (previously they had just sung Psalms) and encouraged the Christian education of children.

Early Baptist Writings

Baptists in seventeenth century England might not have suffered so much persecution if they had kept a lower profile. Instead, they published materials clarifying and defending their beliefs. John Murton (died 1626), a General Baptist, wrote Persecution for Religion Judg'd and Condemn'd from prison in 1615. The London Confession of 1644, a Particular Baptist statement of faith, is a forerunner of Baptist confessions still in use today, including the Philadelphia Confession and the New Hampshire Confession.

John Bunyan (1628-1688), a Baptist preacher who had little formal education and made his living by repairing pots and pans, was also one of the greatest literary geniuses in the history of the English language. He wrote his masterpiece, The Pilgrim's Progress, an allegory about the

Christian life, while in prison because he refused to stop preaching without the sanction of the state.

Struggle for Liberty

The political situation in England complicated the Baptists' struggle for liberty. At various

times, the English government tried to impose strict Anglicanism or Puritanism on everyone, depending on who happened to be in power. The Baptists generally supported Parliament in their conflict with King Charles I. Some radicals, including a few Baptists, resisted the restoration of Charles II after Oliver Cromwell's death. Most people considered these "Fifth Monarchy Men" to be dangerous revolutionaries. Even though the Baptists tried to distance themselves from the radicals, the government and the general public suspected the Baptists of complicity in this movement.

After years of refinement in the fires of persecution, Baptists finally gained religious

"toleration" in 1689 with the ascension of William and Mary to the English throne. As Baptists had their first taste of freedom to worship and to propagate their views, the stage was set for great

advance. Sadly, they missed their chance.

Eighteenth Century, Regress and Revival

The General Baptists and the Particular Baptists each faced problems that prevented them

from having the spiritual impact on England that they should have had. When doctrinal heresy

arose, the General Baptists sacrificed purity for the sake of unity. In the end, they had neither unity nor purity. The Particular Baptists refused to sacrifice doctrinal purity for unity.

In the end, they had both unity and purity, but they lacked soul-winning zeal, for they had embraced a deadening form of Calvinism.

One Calvinist preacher who was a successor of Keach at the historic Horsleydown Church3

boasted that he had preached for more than fifty years and never addressed the unconverted. John Gill (1696-1771) was a gifted Hebrew scholar and theologian. His Body of Divinity, first published

in 1769, is still in print today. Hyper-Calvinism like Gill's reduced evangelistic zeal among the Particular Baptists. God wanted to send revival to England in the eighteenth century, but the Baptists weren't listening.

3. Lifelong pastorates were common in that era. John Gill served as pastor at Horsleydown for 51 years. Gill's successor, John Rippon, a famous hymn compiler, served for 63 years

New Connection General Baptists

Revival did come to England, but it came through the preaching of John and Charles Wesley and George Whitefield.

Dan Taylor (1738-1816), a convert of the Wesleyan revival, came to Baptist views after answering the call of God to preach. When he tried to join the General Baptists, who shared his Arminian beliefs, he soon realized that he could not work with them because of their doctrinal errors.

He then started his own group: the New Connection General Baptists. The old General Baptists gradually faded into oblivion, while the New Connection enjoyed growth through evangelistic outreach.

Revival and Missions

Particular Baptists needed to modify their views in order to experience revival. The change
came about through the preaching and writing of men like Robert Hall (1764-1831) and Andrew Fuller (1754-1815).

Though still a Calvinist, Fuller realized that evangelism was the necessary means ordained by God to save men. The classic statement of Fuller's view is found in his book, The Gospel Worthy of All Acceptation, published in 1785.

Closely associated with Fuller was William Carey (1761-1834), a self-educated preacher who cobbled shoes in order to keep food on the table for his family. God gave Carey a vision for world missions. At an associational meeting in May of 1792, Carey preached a message from Isaiah 54:2 ("Expect Great Things from God, Attempt Great Things for God"). This "deathless sermon" was a turning point in history. The pastors at that meeting resolved to form a missionary society, and Carey became their first missionary. Carey's success in India gave added credibility to Fuller's modified Calvinism, spurring further missionary and evangelistic efforts. While Fuller labored tirelessly in England for the new mission society, Carey's work in India was almost legendary. Despite government opposition, physical hardship, and lack of finances, Carey supervised the translation of all or part of the Bible into thirty Indian languages and dialects.

Nineteenth Century

During the nineteenth century, God greatly used several Baptist preachers in various areas
of Great Britain. The powerful preaching of Christmas Evans (1766-1838) stoked revival fires in Wales. James (1768-1851) and Robert (1764-1842) Haldane, wealthy brothers, were known as the Wesley and Whitefield of Scotland. God blessed their preaching with many conversions and many new churches formed. One figure, however, towers above the rest in nineteenth century Great Britain.

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

          (1834-1892)

The old Horsleydown Church, now known as the New Park Street Chapel, had fallen on
hard times. The area in which it was located had become industrialized, and the people who lived in the area at that time were of a low social class. Only about a hundred people now attended the church. The discouraged little band called a self-educated nineteen-year-old named Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) as their pastor.

Large crowds soon gathered out of curiosity to hear the boy preacher, but they came back again and again because of the substance of the preaching. In 1861the church constructed a new auditorium seating 5,500 people. Admission was by ticket, which was free of charge, and members were instructed to come to only one of the two Sunday preaching services so as to leave more room for visitors.

Spurgeon's ministry included a pastor's college to give men the formal training for the ministry that he himself never received. The church also operated an orphanage and a publishing
house. Mrs. Spurgeon established a fund to buy books for young preachers who could not afford
them. Spurgeon published a monthly magazine called The Sword and the Trowel, which enjoyed a wide circulation.

Graduates of Spurgeon's college planted and pastored over 200 new Baptist churches in England.

The Down Grade

Toward the end of his life, Spurgeon complained of a drift that he perceived among the
Particular Baptists. He cited three problems:

(1) abandonment of prayer meetings and general lack

of spiritual vitality in church services,

(2) worldliness among pastors who spent more time going to

the theater than studying the Word, and

(3) tolerance of doctrinal error.

Spurgeon's church separated from the Particular Baptists in 1887. To his bitter disappointment, only a handful of churches withdrew with him. Most of the graduates of his pastor's school remained in the denomination. In the same year as Spurgeon's death, the Particular Baptists merged with the New Connection General Baptists to form the British Baptist Union. By this time the New Connection suffered from serious doctrinal defection. Later, with Spurgeon's son as pastor, his church returned to the Baptist Union (the church has since withdrawn again).

Every evil that Spurgeon foresaw came to pass. Toleration of error eventually put error in control. Today the British Baptist Union has virtually no positive spiritual impact.