Baptist History & Beliefs Exam 1

Anabaptists

a subgroup of the Sectarians who practiced believer baptism by pouring; they were mercilessly persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants.

Sectarians (or "radical reformers")

-any "Christian group that did not identify with either of the other two groups that had separated.; generally, they were for the separation of the government from religion

-goal: (if anything...) a church separated from the state; ideal: 1st Century NT

-problem with the Reformers: they separated by necessity and by conviction

Reformers

-the territorial churches of Europe who broke away from the established churches beginning in 1517 under the leadership of Martin Luther, Huldrych Zwingli, John Calvin, and others

-goal: a State dominated Church; ideal: 4th Century Constantine

Martin Luther

Leader of the German Reformation

Huldrych Zwingli

-a leader of the Swiss & Reformed Reformations; persecuted

Sectarians

John Calvin

a leader of the Swiss & Reformed Reformations

Felix Manz

-a leader of the Swiss Anabaptists; a martyr in Zurich by

drowning

-he had wanted to be baptized in water and then was martyred by drowning

George Blaurock

-a leader of the Swiss Anabaptists; a martyr who was tortured and burned in Austria

Conrad Grebel

-a leader of the Swiss Anabaptists

-died of the plague after a brief preaching ministry

Michael Sattler

-a leader of the Swiss Anabaptists; a martyr who was tortured and burned in Germany. He wrote the Schleitheim Confession.

Balthazar Hubmaier

-A leader of the Anabaptists. He was highly educated and wrote much. He was executed in Austria.

-"truth is immortal" was the way he ended his books

-wrote "On the Christian Baptism of Believers"

Menno Simons

-a later leader of the Anabaptists. He was a former Catholic

priest. He provided many years of solid leadership for the

Anabaptist movement.

-not great theologian but did provide essential leadership after the Munster rebellion

-made nonresistance and non participation in the military one of the key Anabaptist distinctive

Characteristics of the Sectarian Confession

-believer baptism (done by pouring)

-church discipline practiced by the local church (not by the state)

-a Memorial View of the Lord's Supper

-Holy Living for Church Members

-Qualifications of Pastors

-Non-Resistance

-the prohibition of making oaths

Differences Between Anabaptists and Baptists

-Pacifism vs. Members of the army (under Oliver Cromwell)

-Could not be a civil servant vs. participated in government

-pouring vs. immersion

-believed in the sinlessness of infants vs. believed in inherited sin

-tended toward Arminianism vs. modified Calvinism

-forbade oath-taking vs. allowed oath-taking

-some (Dutch) temporarily embraced the "heavenly-flesh" Christology of Menno Simons vs. always rejected the "heavenly-flesh" Christology of Menno Simons

-some revolted in Munster in 1534-35 vs. avoided revolt against government

Puritans

Many and varied. They wanted to purify and reform the church of England to make it less Catholic and more Protestant. Embraced Reformed theology and often Presbyterianism.

Separatists

protestants who separated from the Church of England in the 17th and 18th centuries; opposed state interference in religious matters and founded their own churches, educational institutions and communities

Robert Browne

-he was an odious man who taught his people the biblical principles of the separation of church and state, but he later recanted those views.

-educated at Cambridge; started a church in Norfolk

-his main principles: the church is a covenanted community of believers; voluntary church membership; civil government separate; a local church is a gathered assembly

-considered a "horrible person" because he left his congregation because they were hard to deal with, he recanted his separatist views and was given a comfortable life in Petersburg, he was a "wife-beater," and didn't pay his taxes

John Smyth

-An English separatist who later embraced believer baptism (by pouring). He died trying to join the Mennonites.

-was a controversial man and because he didn't get along with many, his church left the Ancient Church in England

-his principles: no liturgy of any kind and only original Greek and Hebrew; no infant baptism; saw a need for succession of baptism from early church

-considered a "Mennonite wannabe"

John Robinson

-a pilgrim church founder

-his church left about 1608 to fellowship with the Ancient Church in Holland, then moved to Lindon

Francis Johnson

-teacher at Cambridge who was against the Church of England hierarchy

-eventually imprisoned but was an anti-separatist

-becomes a chaplain to puritans

-set out to destroy English Separatist literature but he saves one, and after reading it, he becomes convinced of the Separatist view and then becomes a Separatist pastor

John Greenwood & Henry Barrowe

-both were expelled from the Church of England

-came together to write a defense of separatist position while in prison

-principles: local church membership composed of only regenerated persons; there is a "false and anti-christian" ministry imposed on congregations; the book of common prayer and its false worship should be forsaken; local churches have the autonomy to elect their own leaders

Free Church Model

-Church and State: separation of the two

-Church Membership: is a voluntary association

-Nature of Baptism: believer's baptism is a voluntary act

-Sacramental Theology: Sacaramentarianism

-Governance: autonomous congregations

-Priesthood: no special priesthood; all believers are priests

-Dissenters: expelled from membership but not persecuted

Sacramentarianism

salvation comes by a believing response to the preached word; the Believer is active

State Church Model

-Church and State: union of the two

-Church Membership: citizenship with the state is membership in the church

-Nature of Baptism: infant baptism is the means of membership

-Sacramental Theology: Sacramentalism

-Governance: national church with a hierarchical structure

-Priesthood: a priestly class- does not rule out the priesthood of every believer but does have a special priesthood

-Dissenters: persecuted

Sacramentalism

salvation is from God; God is active; He's doing something to or for the person

Thomas Helwys

-an English Separatist who embraced believer baptism in Holland. Returned to London to start the first Baptist Church in the England. He was extremely separatistic.

-wrote a confession of faith in the midst of controversy with John Smyth

-against connection with Anabaptists

-beliefs: no eternal security, no church succession, Lord's supper is spiritual communion with Christ, can participate in government, Christians can take oaths, end times: all will be judged

-Baptistic beliefs: church composed of baptized believers, autonomy, believer's baptism, two officers, officers chosen by congregation, Bible is sole authority

-he attacked puritans for not separating, Brownists for not practicing believer's baptism, and attacked other separatists for different topics

1638, John Spilsbury

When was the first Particular Baptist Church started? By whom?

1640

When was immersion first prescribed in a doctrinal confession?

Second London Confession

Which (Particular) Baptist confession became highly influential even to the present day in America?

General Baptists

-Structure: developed centralized denominational structure

-Church Theology: more oriented toward the universal church

-Officers: peastors, deacons, and "messenger"

-Associations: quick to embrace the concept

-Worship: no singing

Particular Baptists

-Structure: guarded the autonomy of their local church

-Church Theology: more oriented toward the local church

-Officers: pastors and deacons

-Associations: slow to organize

-Worship: embraced it

Roger Williams

-He was an educated English Separatist who escaped to the New World (dissenter escaped getting arrested)

-he taught Plymouth Colony Church but didn't get along well there.

-He helped form the first Baptist Church in the colonies. He became a seeker (not belonging to any denomination) and sought to evangelize the native Americans.

-he paid for the land from the Native Americans and secured a legal charter

-He wrote against religious persecution and for religious liberty

-contributions: pioneer missionary work, insistence that the Native Americans were the rightful owners of the land, proclaimed separation of church and state

John Clark

-He is credited with starting the second Baptist Church in the New World (Newport, RI). He provided steady and solid leadership to Baptists for many years. Wrote a book describing persecution.

-he wrote "Ill Newes from New England, 1652" (Oliver Cromwell was ruling and many Puritans were impacted by his writing)

Jews and some Catholics immigrated there because there was less persecution (Williams made a policy of religious liberty)

What was historically significant about the Rhode Island colony?

While he continued to Baptistic principles for the last 40 years of his life, he never identified with any denomination, so he probably can't be considered a Baptist

What "unique view" does your instructor have concerning Roger Williams and why does he believe it?

The Religious Act of Toleration (18th Century)

Created great freedom but saw Baptist decline--only provided toleration (not allowed to have a church, only a chapel; not allowed to attend major universities)

Doctrinal laxity

-was neglected and fell prey to the contemporary attack on christianity (ex. Unitarianism)

-Baptists already had a propensity towards Arminianism but that started seeping in and had attacks on Christ's deity

Dan Taylor

-he helped lead a revival of the English Baptist Churches and formed a fellowship of churches that remained conservative a long time.

-he had been converted under Wesleyan influence

-his solution to doctrinal laxity was the Articles of Religion

John Gill

-a prominent Baptist pastor who emphasized election and predestination. He refused to offer the Gospel to the unsaved.

-extreme/ hyper Calvinism

-the logical outworking of his system was "all moral lapses were excused because everything is foreordained by God"

Andrew Fuller

-he modified the harsh Calvinism of Gill and was instrumental in founding and supporting the famous Baptist Missionary Society. He was strong on Evangelism.

-had a modified Calvinism- made room for the gospel to be preached out of a passionate appeal (compassion)

William Carey

-a self-educated pastor who volunteered and then went to India as the first Baptist Missionary. Father of the Movement.

-"winning the heathen" out of compassion

-goes to India to preach but nobody gets saved for years; earns his living on a plantation

-excelled in languages and set the precedent of learning foreign languages

-principle: should he have gone to India considering his wife's position and not being equipped (she went crazy)

Isaac Backus

-a former congregationalist, he became a Baptist pastor. He advocated for the separation of church and state by encouraging people not to pay the church taxes. He wrote several significant books against persecution & for the freedom of conscience.

-converted during the Great Awakening; baptized by immersion

-influenced by John Locke and appealed to enlightenment ideals

-used both Conservatives' and Progressives' arguments to make an impact on his listeners

-separatist because he didn't like that Congregationalists didn't accept believer baptism

Regular Baptists

-more urban

-less revivalistic, less emotional

-more Calvinistic

-adopted confessions

-orderly worship by educated ministers

Separate Baptists

-more frontier and small-town churches

-more revivalistic; revival was the work of God

-less Calvinistic

-shied away from confessions; Bible only

-more spontaneous worship; came from the lower classes and worship and conversion were more noisy.

William Wilberforce

-main person who helped ban the slave trade in the British Empire in 1807.

William Knibb

Baptist Missionary from England who helped ban slavery in the British Empire, 1834, effective 1838.

-traveled across Greta Britain to tell and inform what slavery was like in Jamaica

-"equal justice"...there is no disgrace in the color of one's skin

Sam Sharp

Baptist deacon and slave who died while leading a slave revolt that resulted in the abolition of slavery in the British Empire.

Charles Spurgeon

Famed Baptist minister who opposed the union of the Particular & General Baptists.

Luther Rice

Fund-raiser for Baptist foreign missions

Adoniram Judson

Famed American missionary who converted to Baptist principles on his way to the mission field.

William Bullein Johnson

One of the founders & first president of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Landmarkism

-The view that there is no universal church. There is a continuous history of Baptists back to the NT.

-Baptist churches are the only true churches

-the true church is a local, visible institution

-the churches and the kingdom of God are coterminous

-there must be no "pulpit affiliation" with non-Baptists

-only a church can do churchly acts

-Baptist churches have always existed in every age by an unbroken historical succession

Johann Gerhard Ocken

German Baptist church planter & promoter throughout Europe.

Factors that made this the best century (19th Century) for Baptists in the UK

-Baptist Missionary Society

-Britain had much influence across the world throughout their colonies

Down-Grade Controversy

-culminated with a vote by the Baptists (when General and Particular Baptists merged)

-John Clifford and Charles Spurgeon led it

-Conservatives had been unhappy about the lack of firm doctrinal emphasis but then Spurgeon rose up and things started to change

-Through this merging, particulars thought that there would be more capacity to get things done and more in their realm, while generals thought that merging would help bring more stability and organization to them

Three problems seen by Spurgeon in the Down-Grade Controversy

1. Decline of Prayer meetings among Baptist Churches

2. Worldliness of ministers in attending the theater and sometimes having dramas performed in the church.

3. Doctrinal decay.

Society Method

-orientation: Northerners

-relation to churches: unconnected to churches

-contributions: churches and individuals contribute to each individual society as they see fit

-support base: each society develops its own constituency and support basis

-purpose: each designed for one purpose, to meet one need

-planning: individual society board planning

-area coverage: unlimited

-key phrase: individuals working together

-advantages: simpler, requires no denominational machinery, more local control, committed membership, protects the autonomy of local churches

-disadvantages: does not enlist the involvement of churches, Seldom builds denominational identity and loyalty, makes overall planning & coordination difficult

-economy (Dr. Rathbun's view): Based on a free market economy. You justify your existence in the minds of each and every member and church. If there is not enough vision for your venture, it dies.

Convention Method

-orientation: Southerners

-relation to churches: an association of churches who send messengers

-contributions: churches contribute to a centralized body that administrates over each separate board

-support base: all churches contribute in order to show loyalty and support to the organization as a whole.

-purpose: one central authority designed to meet all needs

-planning: centralized planning

-area coverage: a specified area; state or country

-key phrase: churches working together

-advantages: enlists the churches, builds denominational identity and loyalty, allows for correlation and balance between the various causes

-disadvantages: calls for a large degree of centralization (less autonomy), at times proves cumbersome with all the different kinds of work to deliberate and decide on, difficulties develop when some voting members have greater burdens for one area rather than another (their money all goes into the same big pot, and is disbursed according to the agreements of a few important leaders) which can lead to rivalry, more denominational machinery

-economy (Dr. Rathbun's view): Central planning. Like convincing the top dogs, and you'll get funding. The vision only needs to be justified to them and no one else.

-Triennial Convention

-The Baptist General Tract Society

-American Baptist Home Missionary Society

-Describe how Baptists in the US organized themselves before 1845—what were their main societies?

-disagreements of methods of organization

-problems in home mission work: fighting over territory

-issue of slavery

Why did the Southerners start their own organizational structure? (1845)

While the Southern Baptist Convention was larger, they had more issues with their doctrine, especially dealing with the issue of Landmarkism. Northerners worked on home missions but still appointed missionaries for overseas work (ex. Adoniram Judson)

In your understanding, who was stronger and more effective in the latter half of the 19th Century: Northern or

Southern Baptists?