Baptist History

A strong link between religion and national identity has been particularly
important in the study of Eastern and Southeastern Europe during the 20th century.
The study of religion and its changes came into the focus of anthropological
and sociological research especially after the communist period. One of the most
important aspects of change was “religious revival” which also included conversion
to new forms of religiosity such as the Evangelical communities, the
Nazarenes, Baptists, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventists, and
Pentecostals. The majority of Serbs living in Romania belong to the Serbian
Orthodox Church, but during the last decades a number of Evangelicals appeared
among the Serbian minority. This paper is based on the results of qualitative
ethnographic fieldwork conducted in 2010 among the Serbian Evangelical communities
in Romania. The research focuses on the influence of conversion from
Christian Orthodoxy to Evangelicalism among Serbs, focusing on the Evangelical
response to religion and nationalism discourses, changes in collective and personal
identity of newly converted believers, and perception of converted co-ethnics
by the non-Evangelical community. In addressing these issues, this article explores
the role of religious traditions which do not overlap with any particular national/ethnic
group, the relationship between religion and nationalism, and the
presence of supra-national narrative emphasized in Evangelical communities

In rightly framing Thomas Jefferson as the champion of Baptists, scholars have tended to frame Baptists as Jeffersonians due to their mutual defense of the First Amendment. However, this telling of Baptist and American history is incomplete, as it neglects the overwhelming historical evidence that America’s Baptist leadership, though aligning with Jefferson on the issue of religious liberty, were in fact predominantly and distinctly Federalist. By presenting a more complex picture of Baptist politics, this article will therefore offer a corrective to the traditional narrative of Baptists in early America.

[From the back cover:] "As [Edmund S.] Morgan re-creates the evolution of [Roger] Williams's thoughts on the nature of the church and the state, he captures the institutions that informed Williams's worldview, from the Protestant Church in England to the Massachusetts government in the seventeenth century."

This paper offers a biographical work of Henry P. Silbor (1938-2010), a fine portrait of a Filipino Southern Baptist pastor. Silbor was one of the driving forces towards the "Filipinization" of the Southern Baptist denomination-both convention and seminary level-in the Philippines during the late twentieth century. Moreover, the paper explores the historical narratives of two Baptist groups that arrived in the Philippines, the American Baptist in 1900, and the Southern Baptist in 1948, which are significant in the study. This exploration sets the backdrop for Silbor's ministry. Towards Filipinization, Silbor advocated for Filipino leadership in the Luzon Convention of Southern Baptist Churches (LCSBC). Unfortunately, the missionaries turned over the leadership of convention, later including the seminaries, to the Filipinos then departed the Philippines. This transfer of leadership was not the ideal Filipinization for Silbor; preferably, he thought of working alongside the missionaries and not being left behind. To this challenge, Silbor called for serious pastoral equipping, church discipleship, sending missionaries, and theological training even during his last years.

Who were the Waldenses? It has been claimed that the Waldenses were independent and therefore varied in their beliefs similar to that of current day Independent Baptists. However to make claims concerning Waldenses as a group (hence “Waldenses were...” or “Waldenses did...”) there must be some method by which we can analyze them as a movement.

I am an Independent Baptist living in Italy. I had often read that the Waldenses were Baptists, but after doing some deep looking I found some disturbing things. This is my research where I compare original documents and the way they were later quoted. I hope that this may be a help to some of brethren.

Prin intermediul acestei articol abordăm un subiect interesant, acela al interacțiunii dintre baptiști și comunism în România secolului XX. Avem în vedere modul în care baptiști își definesc identitatea, dar și modul în care aceasta a fost percepută de către comunism ca sistem ideologic, dar și de către reprezentanții comunismului românesc.
Pentru tratarea acestui subiect prezentăm în partea de început informații despre originea baptiștilor având în vedere două aspecte: rădăcini și crezuri. Se regăsesc și aspecte care privesc modul în care baptiștii își definesc identitatea precum și de valorile pe care le promovează. Interacțiunea baptiștilor cu comunismul în România dorim îl tratăm prin prisma valorilor baptiste și valorilor comuniste, evidențiind faptul că aveau valori divergente, dar și valori comune cu un mod diferit de transpunere a acestora în viața comunității. Am considerat  relevant și prezentarea modului în care erau percepuți baptiștii de către comunism din punct de vedere ideologic, cât și practic, referindu-ne în acest ultim caz la modul în care era înțeles baptismul ca doctrină religioasă, precum și credincioșii baptiști de către cei care transpuneau în practică ideologia comunistă.

This is a peer-reviewed journal article published in 2009. The paper examines various Southern Baptist writings on the doctrine of the Lord's Supper to determine if restricting communion from non-baptized believers is a necessary component of Baptist ecclesiology.

В пятом выпуске Альманаха по истории русского баптизма помещены материалы, опубликованные в изданиях начала два- дцатого века, в 1910-х — 1912-х годах (журналы «Баптист», «Гость» и др.), которые повествуют о зарождении и развитии баптистского движения в Южной России, о том, как подтвержда- лась истинность этого вероучения в ходе исторических измене- ний в религиозной жизни страны. Каждый очерк содержит под- линные свидетельства того, какие страдания, гонения и пресле- дования понесли верующие в ходе распространения новых взгля- дов на учение Христа.

Often included in assessments of this confession is the social, political and ecclesiastical context. However, frequently overlooked or undervalued is the experiential context. They believed a saving and experiential knowledge of God was shared corporately, and it fuelled their doctrine of the church.

An examination of how Spurgeon used and highlighted the benefits of lament psalms in congregational worship in the book, Finding Lost Words: The Church’s Right to Lament. Edited by G. G. Harper and K. Barker. Australian College of Theology Monograph Series. Eugene: Wipf & Stock, 2017. The full book can be purchased here:
http://wipfandstock.com/finding-lost-words.html

This essay argues that Bunyan, especially through the narratives of his encounters in Restoration courts and imprisonment within a church-state system, provided a concrete, tangible model for political resistance that inspired American dissenters in their struggle for religious freedom, liberty of conscience and the abolishment of church-state systems.

Understanding a theological college and its affiliated denomination at depth involves multifaceted inquiry.  Nonetheless one of the more pivotal factors is historically that of the ministry and influence of the college principal.  In the case of the Queensland Baptist College of Ministries (QBCM, presently Malyon College), with its affiliated Queensland Baptist denomination, this role was fulfilled in 1983-2001 by Rev Dr Stan W Nickerson.  Through interacting with extant literature touching on aspects of Nickerson’s tenure, conjoined with Field Research interviews featuring relevant QBCM faculty and graduates, a more comprehensive portrait of Nickerson’s influence as Principal begins to emerge. 

It is an analysis centred on (1) the development of QBCM’s overall educational standards and credibility under Nickerson’s tenure, (2) Nickerson’s interaction with theological developments at QBCM and throughout the Queensland Baptist movement, as well as (3) consideration of any criticisms of Nickerson or QBCM during Nickerson’s Principalship.  Finally, (4) we will explore what characterized the ensuing generation of QBCM graduates during Nickerson’s era as QBCM Principal, homing in on personal and ministry practices which may be attributed to him, as well as exploring his wider influence on the Queensland denomination.  We discover in Nickerson a leader who helped steer the College educationally, wisely hiring and enabling faculty, consolidating accreditation standards and encouraging practical ministry developments.  The theological climate at QBCM remained conservative under Nickerson, yet with a more ‘open evangelical,’ educationally progressive accent.  Though not in the classical mould of the strong, decisive leader, ultimately Nickerson’s track-record and tenacity offset this from being a hindrance.  The stability and growth of QBCM under Nickerson was a boon to the denomination, with many graduating ministers viewing the OT through a new lens as a result of Nickerson’s gift for teaching and preaching.

In Baptist histories, English preacher Matthew Caffyn (1628-1714), thanks to his unorthodox Christology, is regularly identified as a theological deviant, and one working under the influence of ‘eighteenth-century rationalism’ or other external forces. By reconsidering the progress of unorthodox Christology among the early Baptists and other Reformers, I argue that Caffyn’s Christology represents not a sudden aberration, but an unsurprising expression of the elemental Baptist instinct. This instinct includes a commitment to being scriptural, to primitivism, and to theological tolerance within the community. In this light, I argue that Caffyn’s place in the Baptist tradition must be revisited in future histories.

This research titled “Emergence and Development of Baptist Work in South Sudan from 2001 to 2018” aimed at tracing the work of Baptist in South Sudan from inception to 2018. The scarcity or unavailability of records on the work of Baptist motivated the researcher to embark on this research. The purpose of the research is to document all or most facts or findings on the spread of Baptist work in South Sudan, its impact on the society, challenges confronting or hindering the spread and viable solutions to move forward. The researcher employed a historical method of research. Christianity came to Sudan as early as the 1st century. The influence of Islam force Christianity to extinction until the 19th century when the European missionaries came to Africa again and start evangelising the Gospel. While Baptist as a denomination started in 1609 AD by the formation of First Baptist Church in Amsterdam, Holland and in South Sudan it began in 2001 with the planting of Elegu Baptist Church (now Faith Baptist Church) in Nimule with the founding leaders attributed to David Kaya and Edward Dima and others who also brought Baptist to other parts of the country such as Ding Gatluak, Elijah Riak, John Manychol,  and Matthew Dhol to Greater Upper Nile and Ellie Sworo to Juba, the capital city, and Northern Bahr El  Ghazal states.  first convention of Baptist in South Sudan was formed in 2007 in Rumbek called “Baptist Church of Sudan” with Elijah Riak elected as the President and in November 2011 at First Baptist Church, Kajokeji, at the convention business meeting, the name was changed to “Baptist Convention of South Sudan” with Edward Dima chosen as the President. Baptists since inception in South Sudan have thrived with the support of various partners who have worked in hand with the Baptist Convention leaders and her work has impacted many lives spiritually, socially, economically and educationally. However, much need to be done for the Baptist Convention of South Sudan to move forward and become functional as an organisation and among the needs to move forward include: - putting a structure in place, focused leadership, headquarters and infrastructures, cooperative programme, theological institutions need to be set up for training of quality leaders, and also Baptists around the world need to partner with South Sudan to build the Baptist convention.

"An historical examination into the theological motives behind the Baptist insistence on total immersion will demonstrate that symbolism was the primary stimulus for its resurgence.  More than a study of the Greek New Testament or ancient church writings, the dominant theological stress was the believer’s death, burial, and resurrection in Christ.  The first section of this paper will provide a brief history of total immersion throughout church history, including its emergence in the Baptist denomination.  The second section will describe the common mode of baptism in seventeenth century England.  The final section will detail the importance of symbolism among early Baptists and demonstrate that the original immersionist churches also accepted other modes of baptism.  Though not initially required for church membership, seventeenth century Baptists reinstituted total immersion in baptism primarily to emphasize the symbolism of death, burial, and resurrection" (taken from the introduction).

Glen Stassen in his book, A Thicker Jesus, identifies a number of people as ‘Incarnational Disciples’. These are people who have proven faithful in times of trial. This faithfulness can be attributed at least in part to their holding a set of convictions regarding Jesus Christ, the concern of God for the world, and the necessity of resisting dominant ideologies which work against justice. In this article I argue that the late Athol Gill should be included in any such list of disciples. Gill was an Australian Baptist minister, New Testament scholar, community builder, and peace and justice activist. Central to his thinking and acting were the centrality of Jesus Christ as the model for discipleship, the importance of community, and the holistic nature of mission. In pursuing these concerns often in the face of institutional and social conservatism I show that Gill exhibited the qualities which Stassen attributes to those who should be recognised as notable examples of the Christian faith.

A dated (2003) unpublished paper from seminary that presents a reading of the Particular Baptist 1644 and '1689' London Confessions of Faith. Close attention is paid to the relationships between these Baptist Confessions of Faith and the Westminster Confession and the Savoy Declaration, situating the production of these confessions in the development of Particular Baptist thought during the Parliamentary, Commonwealth and Restoration period of English history, with some reference to (local) associational confessions from the English Midlands, West Country and Wales.

The definition of "theocracy" has perplexed scholars for many centuries.  Some argue that theocracy exists only when religious leaders are also the actual, official political leaders and, as such, impose their particular theological views on the populace at large.  This essay argues that effective control of a polity by religious leaders and their theology is dispositive, regardless of the governmental organization that exists on paper.  For example, Roger Williams pointed out that in many theocracies (including that of seventeenth-century Massachusetts Bay) "the Magistrate is but the Ministers Cane through which the Clergy speaks . . . ."  "The Bloody Tenent Yet More Bloody" (London, 1652), 131.  The present essay was incorporated, with some additions and revisions, into Appendix B of Alan E. Johnson's book "The First American Founder: Roger Williams and Freedom of Conscience" (http://www.amazon.com/First-American-Founder-Williams-Conscience/dp/1511823712/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1436397728&sr=1-1).  For a summary of some of the points in this book, see the author's YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOlUZaehYk7WmwW8v9oBMzQ) about Roger Williams, including an interview (https://youtu.be/mGRl5lIbdYY) with the author about this book.

Note:  The sentence and citation on page 5, n.1, in this article referring to John M. Barry's book on Roger Williams should be qualified by Barry's remarks elsewhere in his book:  "Technically, the Bay was not a theocracy. Consistent with the admonition to render unto Caesar the things that were Caesar’s, and to God those which were God’s, the plantation prohibited a minister or church officer from simultaneously holding a government office. (For this reason some historians have argued that Puritan Massachusetts actually advanced the concept of separation of church and state.) But if not a theocracy, Massachusetts was theocentric."  Barry, Roger Williams, 169.  As discussed in this article, I disagree with the position that Massachusetts Bay was not a theocracy.

Regenerate church membership has long been a distinctive of Baptist ecclesiology. However, the precise meaning and implications of the Baptist view of church membership can be obscure to non-Baptists. This paper undertakes a brief historical survey of Baptist ecclesiology, revealing both a consistent commitment to regenerate membership and a lack of clarity with respect to its meaning. The author argues that the lack of clarity is due in part to the historical context in which Baptist churches emerged. These circumstances led Baptist thinkers to develop an ecclesiology characterized more by contrast with other traditions than by their own originally constructed view.

Consequently, Baptist theologians have not typically addressed local church membership as a doctrine distinct from soteriology and church ordinances. Moreover, heavy emphasis on the local church has left Baptist ecclesiology without a robust theology of the universal church and its relationship to the local assembly. This lacuna undermines Baptist attempts at constructing a coherent biblical theology of church membership.

This paper concludes that the most faithful Baptist definition of local church membership is committed voluntary association of a believer with a local congregation, and addresses Baptist objections to this view. It further urges Baptist theologians to develop an ecclesiology which acknowledges the primacy of the universal church and describes the relationship between the church universal and local. Implications for the Baptist doctrine of church membership, including the vital role of church discipline for maintaining regenerate membership, are discussed.

This is a rather long paper on the life and teaching of Elhanan Winchester—an evangelical, Baptist, revivalist, universalist preacher. It is a (very long) version of a lecture I gave at the Centre for Baptist History and Heritage at Regent Park College in Oxford in Oct 2011. A shorter version is published in "All Shall Be Well" (edited by Gregory MacDonald)

The oral history of the Mattaponi people and the documentary record of the Mattaponi Indian Reservation identify multiple historically significant heritage properties that reflect broad patterns of Native American history within the Commonwealth of Virginia. Surrounded by the Mattaponi River and King William County, the Mattaponi Indian Reservation is home to Algonquian descendants of Tidewater’s indigenous peoples and is one of only two extant Native settlements that have been continuously occupied since colonial times. The reservation’s hamlet, historically called Indian Town, is the location of the community’s Mattaponi Indian Baptist Church, their former Indian School, and the residences of the tribe’s chiefly lineages. Through the National Park Service’s Underrepresented Communities grant, and in collaboration with the state-recognized  Mattaponi Indian Tribe, the Virginia Department of Historic Resources [VDHR] seeks to identify, research, and nominate minority populations’ historically significant locales to the state and national registry of historic places. The VDHR project Continuity Within Change: Virginia Indians National Register Project moves that effort forward, through an archival, ethnographic, and oral history investigation of the Mattaponi people, with attention to the tribe’s historic church and school, and the pre-1950 residences of their tribal membership, including those of their chiefly lineages. This study, conducted by the Department of Anthropology’s American Indian Resource Center at the College of William & Mary, provides the supporting materials necessary for nominating historical Mattaponi heritage properties to the National Register of Historic Places.

This is a compilation of the pictures of the past (and the two present) apex leaders of the Nigerian Baptist Convention - from S. G. Pinnock (the convener of the first annual gathering of NBC) and Mojola Agbebi (the first elected leader of NBC) to Olumide Kehinde (the current NBC Chairman) and Supo Ayokunle (the current NBC President) - and a brief description of each of them.
“This is a historical pictorial booklet of fine and insightful presentation, worthy of its place on the library. It is an enthralling and captivating compilation, which contributes significantly to our understanding of aspects of Nigerian Baptist history, through the lenses of its apex leadership, many of whom might be appropriately tagged among the heroes of the Baptist faith in the country.” - S. Ademola Ajayi, PhD Professor of History, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Building upon the work that Robert D. Linder and Richard V. Pierard started in Civil Religion and the Presidency, this book begins with examinations of how Lyndon Johnson, George H. W. Bush, and Bill Clinton employed civil religion during their presidencies. Convinced that the influence of civil religion expands beyond the White House, the contributing scholars of this volume also explore the broader effects of civil religion upon Christian denominations and American social development.                                                                                                               

This thought-provoking work analyzes the effects of American civil religion upon American politics and Christian denominations. Focusing upon particular presidencies and specific denominations, these essays examine how civil religion has helped to define religio-political discourse, revise the way certain Christians--most notably, Baptists, Mennonites, and Pentecostals--related to American life, and frame elements of debates about controversial issues such as gender, nationalism, and civic duty.

Marvin Jones (ed.), Investigating the Magisterial Reformation and Its Radical Contenders. Contemporary Evangelicals on Reformation Research: from Lutheranism and Zwinglianism to Anabaptism and Baptism [Celebrating 500 Years since the Reformation, 1517-2017: Tome quatrième] (Oradea, Warsaw, Berlin, and Enschede: Emanuel University Press, De Gruyter Open, and Refo500, 2017).

"The purpose of this article is to examine the extrabiblical evidence from the ancient church to answer which mode of baptism was most common and whether that mode was of any consequence to the early church....The initial section of this article will define four ecclesiological terms relating to baptism: partial immersion, affusion, aspersion, and submersion (total immersion). The second section will address the writings of the subapostolic era (AD 70-150), while the third segment will treat writings from the ante-Nicene period (AD 150-300). The final section will then present a practical application of the research for contemporary churches. In the end, the evidence demonstrates that the early church favored immersion practices prior to the fourth century. However, the investigation cannot definitively prove whether that mode of baptism was partial or total immersion. Ultimately, the early church considered the method of water baptism inconsequential and focused, instead, on the genuineness of the candidate’s faith in Christ" (from the introduction).

Historians have long debated John Gill’s theological identity. Some contend he was a hyper-Calvinist who denied the free offer of the Gospel and the duty of all people to receive it. Others seek to defend him from this charge. Defences of Gill have surprisingly failed to assess his convictions on these matters in the context of his overall soteriological project. Gill constructed a soteriology that minimised human responsibility in the reception of salvation, and this framework indeed led him to espouse a practical theology marked by the rejection of Gospel offers and duty faith, two tenets commonly associated with hyper-Calvinism. Reading Gill in light of his soteriology therefore helps to settle this important question of his theological identity.

The CORNILESCU versions were received in varied ways following their publication (1920-1926). This was the case for Romanians, in general, but also for Baptists, in particular. Regarding the Baptists, it is often assumed that they initially rejected the versions. Nevertheless, there is evidence that the CORNILESCU versions were promoted from the very beginning (1921) by the leadership of the Baptist Union, by the tutors and students at the Baptist Theological Seminary of Bucharest, and by the official periodical of the Baptist Union, Farul Mântuirei. Yet there is also evidence to the contrary. There were certain Baptists from Transylvania and Bessarabia who rejected CORNILESCU and continued to use the 1874 BIBLE of Iași. Neither side, however, is large enough to allow for generalization. The transition from the previous versions of the Bible to CORNILESCU was a process of some degree of complexity, as their adoption was neither uniform, nor concurrent. Individual Baptist communities decided for themselves, in accordance with the fundamental principle of the autonomy of the local church.