A Historical Glance at Colonial Baptists

"Persecution from the establishment - which ran from fines in New England and physical assault in the South, especially Virginia - was a steady fact of Baptist life into the 1770s. But for the opening geography of the colonies as well as for a society with opening ideology, the self-starting, lay-oriented, Bible-centered and thoroughly active work of the evangelical Baptists made them the mainland's most dynamic religious movement between the revivals of the 1740s and the Revolution of the 1770s. They were the primary beneficiaries of the Great Awakening. In the colonies of North America there were less than one hundred Baptist churches in 1740, but almost five hundred by the outbreak of the war with Britain in 1776."

--Mark Noll, The Rise of Evangelicalism

It's Funny Because It's True

This humorous description of the growth of Baptists is sad but true:

Our numbers can be at least partially explained. Like cats, we multiply by fighting. One Baptist, a believer; two Baptists, a church; three Baptists, a church split.

--Ralph Wood, "My Water, His Wine" in July/August 2011 issue of Touchstone

Timothy George on Baptists and the Lord's Supper

In the previous post, I included an excerpt and a link to Timothy George's recent article in Christian History ("What Baptists Can Learn from Calvin"). Michael Spencer has asked Dr. George to comment on the following question (somewhat related to that article): “How can Baptists respond to Catholic and Orthodox Christians who challenge our view of the Lord’s Supper as having no deeper historical/Biblical roots than Zwingli?”

Read Dr. George's answer here.

What Baptists Can Learn from Calvin

Timothy George, the dean of the seminary from where I graduated (Beeson Divinity School), has written an excellent article for Christian History on "What Baptists Can Learn from Calvin." Here is an excerpt:

The year 2009 marks two important anniversaries in the history of the Christian church: the birth of John Calvin at Noyon in France in 1509, and the birth of the modern Baptist movement at Amsterdam in 1609. Both events are being celebrated with numerous symposia, publications, and conferences, but few people are asking what these two events, separated by the century of the Reformation, have in common. Baptists are fiercely independent and refuse to recognize any human figure as a standard of faith. Today's Baptists would agree with what the nonconformist Samuel Hieron said in the 17th century:

We do not hang on Calvin's sleeve
Nor yet on Zwingli's we believe:
And Puritans we do defy,
If right the name you do apply.

Are Baptists Calvinists? If a Calvinist is a person who follows strictly the teachings of John Calvin, then in three important respects Baptists are not, and have never been, Calvinists. Calvin was a pedobaptist (practicing infant baptism); Baptists are credobaptists (believers' baptism only). Calvin believed in a presbyterian form of church government; Baptists are congregationalists. Calvin believed that the civil magistrate should enforce both tables of the law (moral responsibilities towards God and towards one's neighbor), suppressing heresy and blasphemy by force if necessary. Baptists believe in religious liberty for all persons.

For all that, Calvin remains the most formative theological influence in the development of the Baptist tradition. Unfortunately, many Baptists today know only the ungenerous stereotype of Calvin that depicts him as "the dictator of Geneva wielding the whip of logic and driving a chariot named the sovereignty of God harnessed to mean-spirited steeds called predestination and total depravity" (Charles Partee, The Theology of John Calvin, 14). It is said that on occasion so-called liberal Christians stand before the famous statue of Calvin in Geneva and hurl eggs at the dour likeness looking down at them!

2009 is a good time to look again at Calvin's theology and its relationship to the Baptist movement. Here are five theological principles Baptists can learn from Calvin.

Read the whole thing here.

Significant Baptist Figures

If you are interested in learning about some of the significant voices in Baptist history, I would highly recommend the book that Timothy George and David Dockery edited, Theologians of the Baptist Tradition.

Mark Noll said of this work, "Baptists should read this book to gain a better sense of who they are, others to discover an underappreciated contribution to Christianity's theological heritage."

The History of Baptists

Since the annual Southern Baptist Convention (of which I am a part) is meeting this week in Louisville and since Baptists will celebrate our 400th anniversary next month, I thought I would give some attention over the next few days to Baptist history, distinctives, figures, etc.

Today, we begin with an article from a 1985 issue of Christian History by Roger Hayden on the history of Baptists. It is a great sketch of the first century of Baptist life (which occurred primarily in England). You can read it here.