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Our Baptist Heritage |
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Sometimes it is wise on our pilgrim journey
TOO often as we recount the coming of the Pilgrims to American shores - for the purpose of escaping religious tyranny - we overlook the important part played by humble, persecuted Baptists in bringing about religious liberty in the United States. In 1663, more than 100 years before all citizens were granted religious liberty in the Bill of Rights, Roger Williams and John Clarke led a colony of Baptists in writing their own Rhode Island constitution declaring the first real religious liberty anywhere in the world in that day. One of the first laws of Rhode Island stated, “Every man who submits peaceably to civil government in this colony, shall worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience, unmolested.” Modern historians acknowledge the influence of the Rhode Island Charter and of Baptist Roger Williams, a man of brilliant mind and excellent education, upon the Federal constitution amendment which has to do with “man’s inalienable rights.” But the records show that Williams and many others with him underwent severe persecution for their convictions based upon Baptist principles concerning purity of Faith, the Authority of the Scriptures, Separation of church and state and absolute religious liberty for all. STRANGE as it may seem, Williams suffered persecution at the hands of the very people who had come to the New World to gain religious freedom. They had carried with them across the ocean the same principle they had tried to escape - that the established church in any area governs all residents. They had fled the power of the state church of England only to invest in themselves similar governing power. In one section of the new country the Puritan Congregational Church had control; in another the Anglican, or Episcopal Church. Other smaller areas were portioned off to the Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and the Dutch Reformed Church. Baptists, who had always believed the New Testament teaches that each individual church is self-governing and independent, found it difficult to worship in peace in this new land of freedom. They and the Quakers and all others who could not conscientiously conform to the laws of the established churches were called “dissenters,” and strict penalties were inflicted on those who did not conform. The greatest offences of which the Baptists in the colonies were found guilty were (1) refusing to baptize their own infants in compliance with the ruling churches, (2) insisting on worshiping in their own churches in their own way, including the baptising of believers only, and (3) maintaining that civil and church governments should be kept separate. Penalties for these offences give us the familiar stories of merciless whippings, confinement in stocks, “witch” hunts, the dragging of victims through the public square, banishment, and other such wicked punishment inflicted in puritan days upon nonconformists. We read of one man being stripped to the waist and whipped until the blood ran down his body and overflowed his shoes. His crime? He visited a sick fellow-Baptist in the governing church territory. When the first president of Harvard College accepted Baptist doctrines, he was forced by the authorities to resign his position because he would not keep silent about his beliefs. In the midst of a severe winter his family was put out of the house he had built as the president’s home. Roger Williams himself was banished from the colonies because of his Baptist beliefs and preaching. Banishment in those days meant living at the mercy of the Indians. By the time of the signing of the declaration of Independence, Baptists were finding more liberty in worship, especially in the Philadelphia area. Because they were men of strong principles, many of them were able to make valuable contributions to the life of young America and in the years of her growth, which followed. BUT struggle and persecution were not new to Baptists. Down through the years Baptist heritage has come to us through blood, sweat and tears in historical crises. As far back as the close of the New Testament period there were already those who departed from the teachings of Scripture. Many then, and since, looked to the interpretation of the early church fathers as equally authoritative as the Scriptures themselves. Other churches, however, held to only the teaching of the Scriptures, especially that Baptism by immersion is the teaching of Scripture in spite of the fact that some church fathers were advocating sprinkling or pouring. This was a crisis that eventuated in a firm stand for the authority of the Scriptures. Emperor Constantine in A.D. 313 declared himself head of the church, as well as head of the state, and endeavoured to bring the two under one government. This was the beginning of what eventually became the Catholic hierarchy. Again there were those churches that rebelled on the basis of the New Testament emphasis that each church is autonomous and responsible to no earthly ruler but to God alone. The middle ages picture a tightly developed hierarchical system in which every individual is held in the clutches of the Roman Church from the cradle to the grave. Corruptness of the priesthood, and an empty, external form of godliness led to the individual revolt of many who craved personal spiritual satisfaction, communion with God, and peace of soul. But we can be thankful for the faithful churches who amid this religious decadence were teaching the priesthood of all believers and offering to sincere but blinded souls the direct and sweet fellowship of the Lord Jesus Christ, who Himself is our High Priest. MANY of these churches were known by various names through the years. Usually they were names given to a group of churches from their location or after a prominent leader among them, such as the Petrobusians, Albigensians, Waldensians. Usually the names were intended as scoffing and derision, as was also the names Christian for believers at Antioch. Many of these groups differed in some points of doctrine from present day Baptist, but like Baptists throughout the years since, they endeavoured to stand firm on New Testament principles. Because they insisted on the rebaptism (by immersion) of adult believers who had previously received infant baptism, the various groups as a whole were called Anabaptists (rebaptisers), also in derision. Later the prefix was dropped, and they became known simply as Baptists. Persecution had come from pagans and non-Christian Jews before the formation of the Catholic hierarchy. But with the growth of church authority, Christians who did not conform to hierarchical pronouncements incurred even greater persecution, and in the very name of Christianity! Horrible atrocities were perpetrated upon those the church called heretics. During the ten to twelve centuries known as the Dark Ages, it is estimated that as many as fifty (50) million Anabaptists met bloody martyrdom for their faith and principles! It is well known that groups of Anabaptists assisted in bringing about the Reformation that was ignited by Martin Luther. But later, because of their baptistic differences, hordes of Anabaptists continued to suffer dire persecution even at the hands of many Reformers who considered them contemptible radicals. But throughout the years Anabaptists had a missionary evangelism that defied resistance. They had a compelling urgency to carry out the Great Commission that could not be stopped by decree, priest or pope. YES, the picture is clear and bright. Baptist have had a glorious past - but a costly one. What of their future? Our Baptist heritage should bring us to our knees in self-examination in the light of the Scriptures. Are we willing to suffer scoffing, ridicule and personal loss - or even martyrdom, if need be - for our stand for the Lord Jesus Christ and for the precious truths of our faith? Are we willing - in the face of compromise, modernism and unbelief so strong in the churches of today - to pay whatever price is demanded of us and walk on the path our martyred forebears trod? These are matters for Baptists and others of like faith, to think about and weigh before God in these crucial days. These are days of decision. If you say “Amen” to this information on our Baptist Heritage, then we would love to hear from you. Please Contact Us With Your Comments.
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Bible Baptist Church Malta |
