ARTICLES ON BAPTIST HISTORY AND HERITAGE
THE WAR OVER FIRST PRINCIPLES
Dolton W. Robertson II The Book and
Their Blood
Pastor, Liberty Baptist Church - Callahan, FL
Desperately needed among independent Baptists is a contemplative journey to
some high places and hard times in their own history. Walking with men from
centuries past helps the modern saint to fortify himself against the
relentless assault of materialism and acquaint himself with timeless Baptist
principles now dilapidated from neglect. The contemporary, market-driven,
Christian culture is flooding our churches with a torrent of “feel-good”
pabulum, leaving the majority of Christianity to drown in its own irrelevance
and misinformation. This trend of doctrinal and methodological declension is
most difficult to accept when found in Baptist churches. It is downright
nauseating when discovered in independent Baptist churches. Our heritage
should produce better things.
We need to know who we are and who we are is defined by what we believe and
do. Faith and action make up our character as Baptist people. Sadly, today’s
generation of independent Baptists is more familiar with Billy Sunday, D. L.
Moody and R. A. Torrey than they are the likes of John Clarke, Obadiah Holmes,
Samuel Harris, John Gano and Shubal Stearns. These amazing champions of
freedom sacrificed their own sweat and blood for our liberty and we don’t
even know them. Every Baptist should travel back into their rich past and walk
with these giants for awhile.
Volumes could be written on the history and principles of the Baptist people.
In this article, I only wish to point your minds and hearts to two salient
factors that identify the integrity and soul of the old Baptists: their book
and their blood. The historic Baptist people had a profound faith in the Word
of God and their faith led them into the hottest imaginable fires of
persecution. They believed the Book and they bled for those beliefs.
THEIR BOOK
Baptist people have always been people of the Book. The sine qua non of our
faith is strict adherence to biblical authority in all matters of faith and
practice. If the Bible teaches it, we embrace it. If it isn’t in the Bible
we feel no obligation to believe it and are dogmatically reluctant to include
it in our ecclesiastical practices (Acts 17:11; 2 Tim. 3:14 – 4:4; 1 Co.
15:3). We do not baptize infants, sprinkle converts, pray to saints, Mary or
utilize the Rosary; nor do we recognize any sacramental ordinance, sacerdotal
or prelatical system because these things are nowhere to be found in the Word
of God.
We emphasize more than the “cardinal doctrines”. We are committed to much
more than “the fundamentals”. Though we interpret Scripture literally as
the historic fundamentalist position would require, and though we take a
militant position on these matters, we are much more than fundamentalists. We
are in line with those ancient souls, much derided for “having their Bibles
on their laps”. As Jeremiah Jeter said, “The oracles of God are the only
test of truth.”
This matter of biblical authority has produced some traceable marks through
the ages. First, an amazing simplicity is always found among them. While
simplicity is said to be “the badge of antiquity”, complicated theological
systems are never superimposed over clear Scripture. Denominational and
partisan notions are not allowed to hinder free thought and a clear conscience
(Ro. 3:4; Col. 2:8; Gal. 2:1 – 6). Second, a miraculous unity prevails.
Through the ages people from different and totally disconnected parts of the
world have maintained a common belief due to their careful and simple
adherence to the clear teachings of Scripture. J. M. Carroll said, “One of
the outstanding miracles in the whole world’s history – according to my
way of thinking – is the nearness with which God’s people have thought and
believed together on the main and vital points of Christianity.” Similarly,
Jeter said, “Wherever there is an open Bible and religious tolerance, there
Baptist principles to a greater or less extent, prevail.” They are “traced
by their vital principles and practices” . Finally, Baptist principles,
those distinctive beliefs that set them apart, serve to protect the
fundamental doctrines. Again, I quote Jeter who said concerning Baptist
principles, “The peculiar principles of Baptists, while they do not
constitute the main doctrines of Christianity, deeply affect the purity,
progress and triumph of the kingdom of Christ.” Those fundamental, central
truths of the Christian faith are guarded well when kept within the confines
of the disciplinary administration of Baptist beliefs.
THEIR BLOOD
No other mark distinguishes the Baptists more than their historic record of
persecution. Like a dark river of bloody sorrow, their story has flowed
throughout the twists and turns of church history, often invisible but never
dissolved. Their songs have been hymns of suffering and their legacy one of
unimaginable tribulation. It has been said that it would be easier to number
the sands along the seashore than to count the Baptist martyrs. This would be
the reason for the title of J. M. Carroll’s famous lectures, The Trail of
Blood.
While preachers, professors and theologians everywhere are fawning over the
Reformers like Ulrich Zwingli (Zurich, circa 1525) for example, they ignore a
host of stellar individuals who followed the logic of truth further than their
Protestant contemporaries and were consequently persecuted by Protestants as
well as the Papists. Few are aware of the severity of Luther, Calvin, Zwingli
and others like them and those who are excuse such atrocities as their being
“men of their times”. According to Armitage, Zwingli literally organized a
Protestant Inquisition, leaving dead Baptists in its wake. Bible preachers
like Balthasar Hubmeir, Felix Mantz, George Blaurock, Conrad Grebel and Ludwig
Hetzer were burned, beheaded and drowned for no other reason but refusing the
sacrilege of infant baptism and baptizing their own converts by immersion.
The Baptists can be traced rather easily. Look for their adherence to the Book
and the principles and practices that such an adherence would produce, and
look for the blood of persecution in their tracks. Though they have always
been oppressed, they have never joined with government for the sake of
coercion. Though they have had differences even among themselves, their
differences have always been over interpretation of Scripture, never
extra-biblical impositions from princes and prelates. Let us learn of these
principles and the grand souls that extolled them.
Liberty Baptist Church, Callahan, FL
Feb. 2006