Baptists

“ The Missionary Baptists are by far the most enterprising in all that pertains to the spread of Christianity. They are the most numerous, most wealthy, best educated, and most liberal. In translating the Bible into all languages, in carrying it into all lands, and in sending the gospel to all nations, they have made some amends for that unrelenting bitterness which they have shown toward our brethren from the first day till now. We shall glance at what has hitherto been their order by making certain extracts from the Central Baptist, published in the year 1870. ”

“ The Baptist house was crowded every Sunday, while ours was thin and discouraging. We had a good old gentleman for a minister, but he was over seventy, and a married man besides, which kept the women from taking much interest in him; while his old-fashioned notions didn’t suit the young men of the congregation. The Baptists, on the other hand, had a young unmarried preacher, with a voice that you could hear a quarter of a mile off, and a way of giving it to the Jews, and the Mormons, and other safe and distant sinners that filled his hearers with enthusiasm and offended nobody. ”

“ They treated me very kind; they were under the white Bishop, and I under the coloured. But the same faith, same doctrine, same Baptism, same spirit. Glory to God. Among the coloured people, the Baptists had the ascendancy. There was a large hall prepared for me, and we had a large congregation of different denominations. I spoke from these words and this Gospel of the kingdom [48] shall be preached unto all the world as for a witness, and then shall the end come. God owned the word, sinners screamed; some fell to the floor, others wept, while Christians rejoiced. ”

“ And the Baptists, whose constant readiness at fraternization in everything else is emphasized by their conscientious refraining from the sacramental sign of communion, are not less earnest in their desire for the unification of Christendom by the general acceptance of that tenet concerning baptism, the widespread rejection of which debars them, reluctant, from unrestricted fellowship with the general company of faithful men. ”

“ The narrow way to heaven is wide enough for believers of every name and denomination. But for the sake of peace and charity, let me entreat Baptists to exercise moderation in their judgment of others. In the last place, I wish to urge on all Christians the immense importance of giving to each part of Christianity its proper proportion and value, but nothing more. Let us beware of wresting things from their right places, and putting that which is second first, and that which is first second. Let us give all due honour to baptism and the Lord’s Supper, as sacraments ordained by Christ Himself. ”

“ Foremost in the pioneer work of the church are easily to be recognized the Methodists and the Baptists, one the most solidly organized of the Protestant sects, the other the most uncompact and individualist ”

“ Their divinity of the Church, with its visible head upon earth, the Pope, of purgatory, mass, worship of the Virgin and the saints, indulgences, confessional,—are these not wood, hay, and stubble? And coming to the Reformed Churches, which of them believes in baptismal regeneration, accepts Baptism to be a christening? Which believes in the real presence of Christ's body and blood in the Sacrament? Not one. Then, again, the Baptists insist, contrary to God's Word, that immersion is the only mode of baptism; he that has not been completely put under water has not been baptized. ”

“ Their object in forming themselves into a separate body was (1) for the maintenance of a strictly Calvinistic doctrine; (2) for the exercise of a vigorous and exclusive discipline; (3) for the practice of a literal scriptural ritual, especially in the matter of Baptism. In Church polity they follow the Independents. The Baptists hold that immersion is essential to the validity of the ordinance. Their leading idea is that the Church must consist of true Christians, and not merely of professing ones. ”

“ The Baptists in America, and in the East and West Indies, are chiefly Calvinists. But from nearly the first rise of this denomination in America, there have been some who have opposed a number of the principal articles in the Calvinistic creed. This party have increased, and are denominated Free Will Baptists. See Free Willers.
The Baptists in Scotland, having imbibed a considerable part of the principles of Glass and Sandeman, have no connexion with the others. ”

“ Is their faith according to the teachings of the New Testament?” Many things which are old are not true. Creeds and sects may boast a venerable antiquity, while the Word of God utterly condemns them. Any organization that cannot reasonably claim Christ for its founder has small right to the name of a Christian church, no matter how old it may be.
Baptists claim to be built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief Corner-Stone. ”

“ Were our General Baptist friends in England to send out a missionary or two into this district, they would confer, under God, a lasting benefit on this people. I wish very much the General Baptists at home would take the matter into deep and serious consideration. It presents a fine field, for labour. But, in addition to these, there are, perhaps, from fifteen to twenty churches of our own denomination. ”

“ The Baptists generally disclaim being "close communionists," but "close baptists." That is, they insist that no person is eligible to partake of the Lord's Supper until after baptism by immersion; and that by a regularly ordained Baptist minister, upon the authority of a Baptist church, expressed by a vote of its members. I do not know that I ever saw the ordinance celebrated in a Baptist church, that some explanation along this line was not made, by way of apology. ”

“ Our church believes that a person must first be baptized."
"You mean," said Dorothy, "that your church and the Baptists believe alike on the communion question?"
"Not exactly. We both believe that baptism must come before the communion, but we differ as to what constitutes baptism."
"Does the Bible teach that a person must be baptized before he can commune?"
"The Bible teaches that all who believed were immediately baptized. That always seemed to be the first thing they did." ”

“ Such statements have never been regarded as complete, infallible statements of faith, nor as official creeds carrying mandatory authority. Thus this generation of Southern Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us.
Baptists emphasize the soul's competency before God, freedom in religion, and the priesthood of the believer. ”

“ The Independent, one of the most widely circulated, and perhaps the most influential Pedobaptist paper in the country, in an editorial, says: “Leading writers of all denominations declare that converts must be baptized before they can be invited to the communion table. This is the position generally taken. But Baptists regarding sprinkling as a nullity—no baptism at all—look upon Presbyterians, Methodists, and [p. 125] others, as unbaptized persons.” ”

“ Baptists hold to a unity of the ordinance, as well as to a oneness of the faith; insisting that as there is but one Lord, and one faith, so there is but one baptism. And the dipping in water of a professed disciple of Christ is that one baptism. Neither sprinkling a person with water, nor pouring water upon him can by any possibility be Christian baptism. That this position is the true one, we appeal to the New Testament, and the best extant historical and philological authorities to establish. ”

“ A clergyman has no right to complain that his parishioners become Baptists, if he never instructs them about infant baptism. I begin by laying it down as a point almost undisputed, that all grown-up converts at missionary stations among the heathen ought to be baptized. As soon as they embrace the Gospel and make a credible profession of repentance and faith in Christ, they ought at once to receive baptism. ”

“ This practice was useful since many denominations tended to transfer the clergy between different parishes frequently.↑ Baptists are a division of Christians who believe in baptizing professing believers as opposed to baptizing infants into the faith before they are capable of professing their belief. ”

“ The General or Arminian Baptists admit “much latitude in their system of religious doctrine, which consists in such general principles, that their communion is accessible to Christians of almost all denominations, and accordingly they tolerate in fact, and receive among them persons of every sect, who profess themselves Christians, and receive the Holy Scriptures as the source of truth, and the rule of faith.” [67] They agree with the Particular Baptists in this, that they admit to baptism adults only, and administer that sacrament either by dipping or total immersion ”

“ Persons who are opposed to the baptism of infants. In this country, this sect arrogate to themselves the title of Baptists par excellence, as though no other body of Christians baptized: just as the Socinians extenuate their heresy by calling themselves Unitarians: thereby insinuating that those who hold the mystery of the Holy Trinity do not believe in one God. (See Anabaptists, Baptism.) ”

“ Don’t cheerful agnostics, who know they’re going to die dead, worry much less than good Baptists, who worry lest their sons and cousins and sweethearts fail to get into the Baptist heaven—or what is even worse, who wonder if they may not have guessed wrong—if God may not be a Catholic, maybe, or a Mormon or a Seventh-day Adventist instead of a Baptist, and then they’ll go to hell themselves! ”

“ It is the erroneous view that baptism is the act of the administrator which causes the anxiety of High Church Baptists to deduce their Baptist lineage from regularly baptized ministers all the way back to John the Baptist, and which induces many modern endeavors of pedobaptists to prove that the earliest Baptists of England and the Continent did not immerse. ”

“ Nobody wants to go where he is not wanted. But tell me, do you think I have taken the necessary steps before communion? I have accepted Christ as my Savior, I have been immersed and am a member of a church that believes in immersion as the only baptism and that does not believe in infant baptism. These are the same doctrines as those held by the Baptists. ”

“ The baptist controversy which began about 1788 was originated by the great activity of a few baptists in the neighbourhood, who distributed large numbers of tracts among members of the congregation. This compelled the minister to act on the defensive. ”

“ Thus the English and most foreign Baptists consider a personal profession of faith, and an immersion in water, as essential to baptism. The profession of faith is generally made before the congregation, at a church-meeting. On these occasions some have a creed, to which they expect the candidate to assent, and to give a circumstantial account of his conversion; but others require only a profession of his faith as a Christian. ”

“ Baptists, a denomination of Christians, sometimes called Anabaptists to distinguish them from Pædobaptists, who, however they may and do differ on other matters, insist that the rite of initiation is duly administered only by immersion, and to those who are of age to make an intelligent profession of faith; they are a numerous body, particularly in America, and more so in England than in Scotland, and have included in their membership a number of eminent men. ”

“ If their premises are right, their conclusion is surely just as it should be.” And he commends the firmness of Baptists in not inviting to the communion those whom they regard as unbaptized. He says: “They do not feel willing to countenance such laxity in Christian discipline. Let us honor them for their steadfastness in maintaining what they believe to be a Bible precept, rather than criticize and censure because they differ with us concerning the intent and mode of Christian baptism, and believe it to be an irrepealable condition of coming to the Lord’s Table.” What Christians Believe. ”

“ They all practice a restriction since they restrict the privilege to a particular class: namely, baptized believers, walking in orderly church fellowship. But Baptists and Pedobaptists differ [p. 112] as to what constitutes baptism, the one rejecting, and the other accepting the validity of sprinkling. Thus Baptists’ custom is more “close,” and Pedobaptists’ is more “open,” by the difference between their views of baptism ”

“ But the Baptists, we gladly admit, are more nearly right than some ultra devout persons who think there should be no ecclesiastical organization whatever. One's blind spot must be of unusual size to miss all the various organizational, disciplinary, judicial, and administrative prescriptions of the Bible. ”

“ The twelve or thirteen sects of Baptists are in some cases widely different in the matter of faith, although the main body of regular Baptists are Calvinistic, and the church is organized like the Calvinistic Congregational Church. Each congregation governs itself, and the one point which all have in common is that they renounce infant baptism ”