The Baptist HistoryWe believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men. —Charles H. Spurgeon Christian history, in the First Century, was strictly and properly Baptist history, although the word “Baptist,” as a distinctive appellation was not then known. How could it be? How was it possible to call any Christians Baptist Christians, when all were Baptists?” —William Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, p. 286. |
Missions and Creeds Baptist Confessions, Covenants, Catechisms What is an Historic Baptist? Reformation & Controversy in the SBC Essential Baptist Doctrine Baptist History Out of Focus Calvinism and Evangelical Arminianism How does Calvinism affect Evangelism? Will Calvinism Kill Evangelism? Conserving Power of the Doctrines of Grace A Primer on Baptist History Baptists and the Ordinances ¿Qué es una Iglesia Reformada Bautista? The Doctrines of Grace Daily Devotions from Baptists of the past Baptist Timeline What is Catechism? Baptists & the Sufficiency of Scripture Southern Baptists at the Crossroads Baptists and “Reforming A Local Church” Southern Baptists & The Doctrine of Election The Doctrines of Grace Doctrines of Grace & Passion for Men’s Souls A Collection of Historic Baptist Documents An Encouragement to Use Catechisms Baptists, The Bible and Confessions Why Creeds and Confessions? Are Creeds Appropriate for Baptists? |
| The First Known Baptist Congregations
The first known Baptist Congregation was formed by a number of these fleeing separatists in Amsterdam, Holland in 1608. It was largely made up of British persons led by John Smyth who along with Thomas Helwys, sought to set up the group according to New Testament patterns. As they saw it, it was important to ‘reconstitute’ and not just ‘reform’ the Church. There was emphasis placed on personal conversion and on baptism, which was to be given to individuals who had personally professed faith in Jesus Christ, that is, to believers only and on mutual covenanting between and among believers. Though taking some years to crystallize, the reconstituting efforts of Smyth, Helwys and others gave distinctive shape not only to the group’s belief and practice, but the various others which emerged from it. Some affiliated groups started when members of the Amsterdam group went back to Britain and took the name ‘Baptist’ to identify themselves. This had to do with the distinctive approach to the meaning and mode of baptism. With the continuing religious and civil disturbances, and with the new awareness in Europe of North America, many persons, including those influenced by Baptists and related beliefs, practices and groups, crossed the Atlantic to build a ‘New World’. They sought not only to establish dwellings, but their faith as well. In time the entire continent, but particularly the Eastern section, was affected, Baptist Churches, being among the many institutions, which sprang up in the seventeenth century. All these shaped not only the new American Environment, but eventually impacted beyond it as well. —William Cathcart, Baptist Historian/Author The American Baptists deny that they owe their origin to Roger Williams. The English Baptists will not grant that John Smyth or Thomas Helwysse was their founder. The Welsh Baptists strenuously contend that they received their creed in the first century, from those who obtained it, direct, from the apostles themselves. The Dutch Baptists trace their spiritual pedigree up to the same source. German Baptists maintained that they were older than the reformation, older than the corrupt hierarchy which it sought to reform. The Waldensian Baptists boasted an ancestry far older than Waldo, older than the most ancient of their predecessors in the Vales of Piedmont. All these maintain that it ultimately reappears, and reveals their source in Christ and His apostles.” —(pp. 34-35 – The Testimony of the Baptists, by Curtis A. Pugh quoting William Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, pp. 620-621.) ~~~~~
St. Patrick (A Baptist?) John Foxe The Journal of Negro History 7, No.1 N. H. Pius, D.D. Walter H. Brooks D.D. Rev. J.A. Whitted, D.D. E. K. Love, D.D. James M. Simms Joanna P. Moore H. C. Vedder William C. Hawkins and Willard A. Ramsey Chris Traffensted S. H. Ford Joseph Ivimey Thomas Armitage, D.D. John T. Christian, A.M. D.D. LL.D Did They Dip? Gene Brooks L. P. Brockett, M.D. J. R. Graves Christian Baptism Old Landmarkism The Dispensational Expositions of the Parables and Prophecies of Christ A Landmark Our Fathers Set The Relation of Baptism to Salvation Robert Boyt C. Howell John Q. Adams Phillip Schaff J. H. Shakespeare J. M. Cramp Joseph Banvard Elder J.H. Grime John Henry John Spittlehouse & John More The History of Baptists in Slovakia David Benedict
THE EARLY ENGLISH BAPTISTS From the Baptist Reporter 1851 1858 From the Baptist Almanac 1852
THE ANABAPTISTS Daniel Kauffman Dr. Francis Nigel Lee Elizabeth Scott William R. Estep Stanley A. Nelson Ronald J. Gordon Beginnings of the Anabaptist-Mennonite
CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN (ANA-BAPTISTS) Church of the Brethren History
BRETHREN REVIVAL FELLOWSHIP Brethren Revival Fellowship (BRF) is a concern movement within the Church of the Brethren, seeking to call the Church to a firm stand for the authority of the Scriptures, and to an emphasis upon the teachings of the New Testament as historically understood by the Brethren. The Brethren Card
THE DONATISTS Click here for a brief explanation of the Donatists David Benedict, D.D.
THE WALDENSES J. A. Wylie “Wylie’s ‘The History of Protestantism’ is the best history extant. I welcome its republishing. Read it. Study it. Circulate it. And by so doing you will help to dispel the dark cloud of priestly superstition, popish idolatry and papal tyranny encircling our land.” Thomas Williamson John L. Waller The Nobla Lecon, (Noble Lesson)
SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS Andrew N. Dugger A Thumbnail Sketch of Seventh Day Baptists
PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS J.V. Kirkland & C.B. Hassell Elder Michael N. Ivey
MENNONITES Mennonite Confession of Faith, 1963: a CMEO Source Document
LANDMARK BAPTISTS J. R. Graves J.M. Carroll Classic Landmarkist view of Baptist History This little book is sent forth for the purpose of making known the little-known history of those FAITHFUL WITNESSES of the Lord Jesus, who, as members of the CHURCH JESUS BUILT, “Overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto death,” Rev. 12:11. (Historical events are entirely the work of the author and are not to be intended by The Reformed Reader as a definitive source for historical fact) Curtis A. Pugh, Pastor, Southern Lakes Baptist Church
WINEBRENNERIANS The popular designation of a Baptist denomination officially called “The Church of God.” The founder, the Rev. John Winebrenner, was a minister of the German Reformed Church, more. John Winebrenner, V.D.M. Harrisburg, PA S.G. Yahn, D.D.
RECENT HISTORICAL REVIEWS Baptist History Out Of Focus (Founders Online) A Critique of the English Separatist Descent Theory in Baptist Historiography Biblioteca de la Historia Cristiana (Spanish) Early Church Fathers Collection (FREEWARE!) The ‘Early Church Fathers Series in WinHelp Format’ is a 37-volume electronic collection of writings from the first 800 years of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Series I, and Nicene and Post-Nicene Series II. These writings include apologetics, biblical commentary (mainly by St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom, the Golden Mouthed), sermons, treatises, letters, liturgies, poems and hymns, dialogues, ascetic writings, Church canons and history
HISTORY OF THE PAPACY History of the Papacy |
______________________________________________
