Various Baptists

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The Original Baptists, Missionary Baptists, or Ana-baptists

Montanists, Novationists, Donatists, Paulicians, Albigenses, Waldenses, Anabaptists, Baptisma, Petrobrusians, Paterines, Studist, Antiochian, or Baptists! They have been known by so many names over these past 1900 some odd years. The best way to trace their history is by their names. These names were all given to them by their greatest persecutors and not usually by themselves. The name Baptist though, has been the one defining term for these two millennium. The greatest distinction is these Baptists defining themselves simply as "a baptized band of born again believers in Christ Jesus". To find the background of these folks the best reference book would be the "Trail of Blood" by J.M. Carroll.

The main distinction of the Original Baptist would be that all alien immersions (baptisms performed by other than Baptist Ministers), open communion (allowing other than born again, baptized, church members to partake of the Lord's Supper), & pulpit affiliation (a preacher other than a called Baptist Minister to fill the pulpit) are rejected. That may seem harsh but a reality that by our definition there is only one type of  “ekklesia” (church congregation). This is not to say that others in other denominations are not or cannot be saved. That would be preposterous. But that the New Testament Church is to be exactly what was laid out for us by the Savior and His Apostles with no place for man's traditions that are contrary to the Holy Scriptures.

Much to my dismay though, there are some Landmarkers in the Deep Southern U.S. who have embraced the Hyper-Calvinistic (Sovereign Grace) doctrine of total predestination over the past 150 years. This is not an original doctrine of the Baptist people as shown by the Confession of Faith in 20 Articles by John Smyth and many earlier documents but more a protestant doctrine.

The Missionary / Original Baptists brethren "may or may not" be members of an association like the Southern Baptist Conference. The Southern Baptist Conference is a very organized cooperative through association in Mission Boards, Sunday School programs, Bible colleges, & Seminaries. The Southern Baptist Convention however should not be constrewed as a governing body because it isn't. Each individual church is an indepentent body and they understand that it is impossible to be a Baptist congregation without being independent body of believers.

Independent Fundamentalist Baptists

Although this group has exactly the same roots as the Original Baptists, this is an entirely new branch of Baptists who's movement origins can be traced to the New England area of the U.S from the 1930's. They can be categorized into two groups. The first group being those who left the Southern Baptist convention which we will call the "Separated" brethren and the "Hyper-literalists".

• The Separated brethren are simply those who protested some of what they considered liberalistic views of the Southern Baptist Convention and removed themselves from it. Association is still practiced through Fellowships that are usually conveined monthly but all Missionary support is handled through each individual congregation and not a missions board. The one other reason for separation from the SBC was the Millennial doctrines that were in debate by the entire Baptist faith in the 1960's & 1970's and their belief that corruption & liberalism had entered the Southern Baptist Conference.
  • Note: One of the biggest mistakes made by the brethren is to call an independent brother or church another denomination. Such a statement is usually made in ignorance. How could these brethren be denied thier identity simply because they don't pay into the coopertive program but support the missions directly?
• The Hyper-literalists practice a somewhat different organization within the congregation where the Pastor is the final authority in the church but for the most part the doctrines being the same.

The American Baptists

These brethren also share the same origins as the Original Baptists and at one time the majority of their churches were also part of the SBC until the middle of the 19th century. A vast majority of this group are defined as "Soveriegn Grace Baptists" which hold tenatiously to the Calvinist doctrine that God will only save you if He chooses to save you. In other words that you were predestined to be saved. Again this was not the doctrine of the original Baptists and from this we see the reason there was a split.

The Free Will Baptists

These are brethren who hold to the Armenian doctrines of "Total Depravity of Man" as their foundation and embrace loss of salvation as a possibility. The section of Baptists sprang up on two areas at about the same time. The southern group, or the Palmer movement, traces its start to the year 1727 in North Carolina. The northern group, or Randall movement, had its start with a congregation organized by Benjamin Randall June 30, 1780, in New Durham, New Hampshire.

The Hardshell or Primitive Baptists

There is very little difference in these Baptists and the Originals except that they practice foot washing as an ordinance. Their roots can be traced to before the 16th century. In most cases they embrace Calvinism which is more a protestant doctrine than Baptist.

The Amish

In 1536 the Catholic priest Menno Simons from Holland joined the Anabaptist movement and was soon one of the leaders, one of the most famous writers and philosophers. Under his leadership the "Mennonites" split from the rest of the Anabaptists and about 150 years later the Amish split from the Mennonites. This new denomination was founded by Jacob Amman, a Swiss farmer and a great fundamentalist - for example refusing even the use of buttons on clothes as they were a sign of technical progress to him. For now it may be interesting to know that Amish stress humility, family and community, and separation from the rest of the world. As most of the ancestors are from Germany and Switzerland the Amish normally all speak German, i.e. they are even trilingual: they communicate with the "English" in the English language, at worship services and special events they use High German and in everyday life they use the so called Pennsylvania Dutch, which is similar to the dialect spoken in Northern parts of Germany, the "Plattdeutsch". The first documented Amish colonists came to America on The Adventurer , which sailed from Rotterdam and arrived in Philadelphia on October 2, 1727, although it is believed that some Amish may have arrived sooner.

The Mennonites

A group of believers who joined the Anabaptist movement in the 16th century when they challenged the reforms of Martin Luther and others during the Protestant Reformation, saying they were not radical enough and calling for adult rather than infant baptism. In 1525, several members set themselves apart from the official church by publicly declaring their faith in Jesus Christ and re-baptising each other.

Church-state structures did not tolerate these Anabaptists or "Anabaptizers," meaning re-baptizers. Over the course of two generations, thousands were persecuted. Many met death as martyrs. In order to preserve the movement, the survivors went into hiding. From 1575 to 1850, membership grew primarily when adults passed their faith to their children.

Beginning in the mid-1800s, German-speaking Mennonite immigrants who would later form the General Conference Mennonite Church came to the United States and Canada from Prussia and Russia, though their origins were primarily in Switzerland, North Germany and the Netherlands. They formed communities and congregations throughout the United States and Canada.

In 1860, a small group of representatives from these congregations gathered in West Point, Iowa, and decided to cooperate as a new North American Mennonite conference, one that would include people of many Mennonite backgrounds. The goal of the new denomination was to strengthen Christian mission and evangelism, provide quality Christian education, and facilitate communication among members.

The Modern Baptists

This particular group are "not" actually Baptists but are a protestant group. Their roots can be found in the Presbyterian church in the 16th and 17th centuries. Their customs and ceremonies are taken directly from the reformation and there is little differentiation from them and the English isle protestants. Although they carry original Baptist doctrines to some degree, their pastors are robed and wear white colars and their ordinances are more attuned to Roman Catholic sacraments. Some of these groups are still in existence in England and in the New England area of the United States. Unfortunately, some of our Baptist churches today are beginning to act the same as these Modern Baptist and even deny the antiquity of the Baptist church.

The English Particular (Strict) Baptists

These brethren are also the result and I wouldn't be surprised the beginning of the seperation that took place here in America in the early 1800's.  (see The American Baptists) Their doctrine is also total predestination or 5 point Calvinism if you will. A website describing these brethren can be found at http://www.strictbaptisthistory.org.uk/ .

H I S T O R Y  -  N O T E S

Proverbs 23:10 Remove not the old landmark; and enter not into the fields of the fatherless:

William Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, p. 286

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.)

Christian history, in the First Century, was strictly and properly Baptist history, although the word "Baptist," as a distinctive name was not then known. How could it be? How was it possible to call any Christians Baptist Christians, when all were Baptists?"

Charles Haddon Spurgeon

• "We 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."

• "I am not ashamed of the denomination to which I belong, sprung as we are, direct from the loins of Christ, having never passed through the turbid stream of Romanism, and having an origin apart from all dissent or Protestantism, because we have existed before all other sects..."

• "We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther or 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 very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents."

• "And now it seems to me, at this day, when any say to us, 'You, as a denomination, what great names can you mention? What fathers can you speak of?' We may reply, 'More than any other under heaven, for we are the old apostolic Church that have never bowed to the yoke of princes yet; we, known among men, in all ages, by various names, such as Donatists, Novatians, [sic] Paulicians, Petrobrussians, Cathari, Arnoldists, Hussites, Waldenses, Lollards, and Anabaptists, have always contended for the purity of the Church, and her distinctness and separation from human government. Our fathers were men inured to hardships, and unused to ease. They present to us, their children, an unbroken line which comes legitimately from the apostles, not through the filth of Rome, not by the manipulations of prelates, but by the Divine life, the Spirit's anointing, the fellowship of the Son in suffering and of the Father in truth."

• "History has hitherto been written by our enemies, who never would have kept a single fact about us upon the record if they could have helped it, and yet it leaks out every now and then that certain poor people called Anabaptists were brought up for condemnation. From the days of Henry II [A.D. 1154-1189] to those of Elizabeth [1558-1603] we hear of certain unhappy heretics who were hated of all men for the truth's sake which was in them. We read of poor men and women, with their garments cut short, turned out into the fields to perish in the cold, and anon of others who were burnt at Newington for the crime of Anabaptism. Long before your Protestants were known of, these horrible Anabaptists, as they were unjustly called, were protesting for the 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.'"

From the contributers to "Crossing the Centuries"

• J. Cardinal Gibbons, Primate of the Roman Catholic Church in America

• Patrick J. Healy, D.D., Catholic University of America

• Theodore Roosevelt, LL.D., Associate Editor, "The Outlook" and former President of the United States of America

• and 11 other eminent scholars who served as contributors to the book entitled "Crossing the Centuries".

This history book was edited by William C. King and copyrighted in 1912. Mr. King was interseted in bringing forward, among other things, "The Development of Literature, Religions, Philosophies..." and noted that he was "Assisted by the Editorial Counsel and Special Contributions of College Presidents, Leading Educators, Distinguished Divines, Eminent Authors, Literary Specialists, Historians, Archaeologists, Sociologists, Scientists, State and National Officials, State Librarians and Bibliographers."

This highly educated group of men and women gave the history of various religious denominations then known in North America. About the Baptists this book states:

"Of the Baptists it may be said that they are not reformers. These people, comprising bodies of Christian believers known under various names in different countries, are entirely distinct and independent of the Roman and Greek churches, have had an unbroken continuity of existence from Apostolic days down through the centuries. Throughout this long period they were bitterly persecuted for heresy, driven from country to country, disfranchised, deprived of their property, imprisoned, tortured and slain by the thousands, yet they swerved not from their New Testament Faith, Doctrine and Adherence.

Robert Barclay, The Society of Friends

Robert Barclay, a Scottish apologist for the Society of Friends (Quakers), 1648-1690. Barclay, along with eleven others, was granted a patent for the province of East New Jersey by the Duke of York. He was then appointed governor. Barclay's total works were published in 1692 under the title "Truth Triumphant Through the Spiritual Warfare". The preface to this book was written by William Penn, for whom Pennsylvania was named. Barclay says the following about the Baptists:

"We shall afterwards show that the rise of the Anabaptists took place prior to the reformation of the Church of England, and there are also reasons for believing that on the continent of Europe small hidden Christian societies, who have held many of the opinions of the Anabaptists, have existed from the times of the apostles. In the sense of the direct transmission of divine truth, and the true nature of spiritual religion, it seems probable that these churches have a lineage or succession more ancient than that of the Roman Church."

Heinrich Bullinger, (1504-1575), Protestant Swiss reformer

"Now, I think it not labour lost to speak somewhat of anabaptism. In the time that Decius and Gallus Caesar were Emperors, there arose a question in the parts of Africa of rebaptising heretics; and St. Cyprian, and the rest of the Bishops, being assembled together in the council of Carthage, liked well of anabaptism... Against the Donatists St. Augustine, with other learned men, disputed. There is also an Imperial Law made by Honorius and Theodosius, that holy Baptism should not be iterated [repeated]. Justinian Caesar hath published the same, in Cod. lib. I. Tit. 6, in these words. 'If any Minister of the Catholic Church be detected to have rebaptised any, let both him which committed the unappeasable offence, (if at least by age he be punishable) and he, also, that is won and persuaded thereunto, suffer punishment of death.'"

Note: Decius lived from about A.D. 201-251

The Testimony of Sir Isaac Newton

Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist, mathematician, philosopher, student of the Scriptures and of history said: "The modern Baptists formerly called Anabaptists are the only people that never symbolized with the Papacy."

Short Confession of Faith

A document drawn up by John Smyth in the New World.

Short Confession of Faith in 20 Articles by John Smyth (circa 1609)

WE BELIEVE WITH THE HEART AND WITH THE MOUTH CONFESS:

1. That there is one God, the best, the highest, and most glorious Creator and Preserver of all; who is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
2. That God has created and redeemed the human race to his own image, and has ordained all men (no one being reprobated) to life.
3. That God imposes no necessity of sinning on any one; but man freely, by Satanic instigation, departs from God.
4. That the law of life was originally placed by God in the keeping of the law; then, by reason of the weakness of the flesh, was, by the good pleasure of God, through the redemption of Christ, changed into justification of faith; on which account, no one ought justly blame God, but rather, with his inmost heart, to revere, adore, and praise his mercy, that God should have rendered that possible to man, by his grace, which before, since man had fallen, was impossible by nature.
5. That there is no original sin (lit;, no sin of origin or descent), but all sin is actual and voluntary, viz., a word, a deed, or a design against the law of God; and therefore, infants are without sin.
6. That Jesus Christ is true God and true man; viz., the Son of God taking to himself, in addition, the true and pure nature of a man, out of a true rational soul, and existing in a true human body.
7. That Jesus Christ, as pertaining to the flesh, was conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, afterwards was born, circumcised, baptized, tempted; also that he hungered, thirsted, ate, drank, increased both in stature and in knowledge; he was wearied, he slept, at last was crucified, dead buried, he rose again, ascended into heaven; and that to himself as only King, Priest, and Prophet of the church, all power both in Heaven and earth is given.
8. That the grace of God, through the finished redemption of Christ, was to be prepared and offered to all without distinction, and that not feignedly but in good faith, partly by things made, which declare the invisible things of God, and partly by the preaching of the Gospel.
9. That men, of the grace of God through the redemption of Christ, are able (the Holy Spirit, by grace, being before unto them grace prevement) to repent, to believe, to turn to God, and to attain to eternal life; so on the other hand, they are able themselves to resist the Holy Spirit, to depart from God, and to perish for ever.
10. That the justification of man before the Divine tribunal (which is both the throne of justice and of mercy), consists partly of the imputation of the righteousness of Christ apprehended by faith, and partly of inherent righteousness, in the holy themselves, by the operation of the Holy Spirit, which is called regeneration or sanctification. since any one is righteous, who doeth righteousness.
11. That faith, destitute of good works, is vain; but true and living faith is distinguished by good works.
12. That the church of Christ is a company of the faithful; baptised after confession of sin and of faith, endowed with the power of Christ.
13. That the church of Christ has power delegated to themselves of announcing the word, administering the sacraments, appointing ministers, disclaiming them, and also excommunicating; but the last appeal is to the brethren of body of the church.
14. That baptism is the external sign of the remission of sins, of dying and of being made alive, and therefore does not belong to infants.
15. That the Lord's Supper is the external sign of the communion of Christ, and of the faithful amongst themselves by faith and love.
16. That the ministers of the church are, not only bishops ("Episcopos"), to whom the power is given of dispensing both the word and the sacraments, but also deacons, men and widows, who attend to the affairs of the poor and sick brethren.
17. That brethren who persevere in sins known to themselves, after the third admonition, are to be excluded from the fellowship of the saints by excommunication.
18. That those who are excommunicated are not to be avoided in what pertains to worldly business (civile commercium).
19. That the dead (the living being instantly changed) will rise again with the same bodies; not the substance but the qualities being changed.
20. That after the resurrection, all will be borne to the tribunal of Christ, the Judge, to be judged according to their works; the pious, after sentence of absolution, will enjoy eternal life with Christ in heaven; the wicked, condemned, will be punished with eternal torments in hell with the devil and his angels.