First Baptist Church

“ Congregationalists have uniformly, until here and there an exception has arisen of late years, required baptism and church-membership as the prerequisite of a seat at the table of the Lord. It is a part of the false ‘liberality’ which now prevails in certain quarters, to welcome everybody ‘who thinks he loves Christ’ to commune in His body and blood. Such a course is the first step in breaking down that distinction between the church and the world, which our Saviour emphasized ”

“ The reader who has followed me through this brief and imperfect sketch of the history of the Seventh-day Baptist Denomination, cannot fail to perceive that our churches have gradually and healthfully increased in numbers, notwithstanding the continual opposition which is manifested to the cause we advocate, and the continual discouragements that we have to encounter both in society and business. It is now about one hundred and seventy years since the first Seventh-day Baptist church was organized in America ”

“ In justice to yourself and the truth, I must say that the extent and power of this glorious revival was greatly promoted by your lectures. Many converts date their first impressions from hearing you. The work has prevailed principally in the Baptist, Methodist, and Christian societies, while there have been but few conversions among the Presbyterians, who stood aloof from you when here.’
“On the 18th of October he returned to Low Hampton, and presided at a Conference of Second Advent believers, which assembled in the Baptist church there, from the 2d to the 5th of November, 1841. ”

“ J. A., pastor of the First Colored Baptist Church in North Birmingham, is a rising young man in the Mount Pilgrim Association. His church, though a new enterprise, is a success, and all plans for gospel aggression find in him a ready and substantial friend. His brethren love him because he is peaceable and benevolent in his dealings with them. ”

“ The plan adopted was to meet alternately in each church a week at a time, and hold united services. Elder Knapp’s sermons were searching and powerful, striking terror to the hearts of the ungodly, and convincing the backslider of his sinfulness and bringing him back to the realization of his duty to God and the Church. The meetings were largely attended, and a profound impression was made on the minds of the unconverted. As a result of these services 103 persons were added to the Church by baptism and by letter.
Church Debt Paid. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The Christian Advocate, of New York, the leading journal of American Methodists, said: “The regular Baptist churches in the [p. 127] United States may be considered today as particularly a unit on three points—the non-use of infant baptism, the immersion of believers only upon a profession of faith, and the administration of the holy communion to such only as have been immersed by ministers holding these views. In our opinion the Baptist Church owes its amazing prosperity largely to its adherence to these views. ”

“ But oh the pity! that money given by godly men to provide preachers of the gospel should be devoted to undermining the Christian cause!
What is the effect of this method of interpretation upon the churches of our denomination? It is to cut the tap-root of their strength, and to imperil their very existence. Baptist churches are founded upon Scripture. Their doctrine of regenerate church-membership, and of church ordinances as belonging only to believers, presupposes an authoritative rule of faith and practice in the New Testament. ”

“ In 1847 the erection of the present edifice was commenced, and in 1850 a separate church was organized.
1848 was distinguished by the out-pouring of the Spirit’s power. The gracious work commenced in March in the Sunday School under the superintendence of Deacon G. A. Garrison. Eight young persons presented themselves for baptism and were joyfully received by the Church. The good work proceeded as the following report will show. When the Western Association was organized in 1848, this Church reported an increase for year: By baptism 33, by letter 16, restored 3. Total increase 52. ”

“ In this country there is a large religious community known as the Baptist Church. This group includes many fine people. Many of them are honest, intelligent, cultured, refined, and good citizens. They have taken their denominational title from their emphasis upon immersion as being the only scriptural baptism, in contrast to those who accept something else. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Whereas, in the providence of God, the time has come when it seems fitting more fully to manifest the essential oneness in the Lord Jesus Christ, as their God and Saviour, of the churches of the Baptist order and faith throughout the world, and to promote the spirit of fellowship, service and co-operation among them, while recognizing the independence of each particular church and not assuming the functions of any existing organization, it is agreed to form a Baptist alliance, extending over every part of the world. ”

“ All evangelical churches profess to take the Holy Scriptures as their only and sufficient guide in matters of religious faith and practice. Baptists, especially, claim to have no authoritative creed except the New Testament. It is common, however, for the churches to have formulated statements of what are understood to be the leading Christian doctrines, printed and circulated among their members. These are not uniform among the churches, but are in substantial agreement as to the doctrines taught. Indeed, each church is at liberty to prepare its own confession, or have none at all ”

“ Baptists are a people who profess a living faith. This faith is rooted and grounded in Jesus Christ who is "the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Therefore, the sole authority for faith and practice among Baptists is Jesus Christ whose will is revealed in the Holy Scriptures.
A living faith must experience a growing understanding of truth and must be continually interpreted and related to the needs of each new generation. Throughout their history Baptist bodies, both large and small, have issued statements of faith which comprise a consensus of their beliefs. ”

“ It is not bigotry to adhere to one’s convictions, provided the spirit of Christian love prevails.”
The Episcopal Recorder said: “The close communion of the Baptist churches is but the necessary sequence of the fundamental idea out of which their existence has grown. No Christian Church would willingly receive to its communion even the humblest and truest believer in Christ who had not been baptized. With Baptists, immersion only is baptism, and they therefore of necessity exclude from the Lord’s Table all who have not been immersed. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the early days of this Church there were certain persons, belonging to the Baptist denomination, very moral and no doubt as good people as you could find anywhere, who came, saying they believed in the Book of Mormon, and that they had been baptized into the Baptist Church, and they wished to come into our Church. ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is indeed a matter of wonder that a Presbyterian minister, but a short time identified with the Baptists, should exert such an influence over them as to induce a great multitude of churches and church members to resolve that when he was driven out of the Baptist Church they also would share his fortune, and accept loss of reputation and exclusion from their former brotherhood for the sake of the principles they had learned from him. ”

“ I believed firmly, that if there was a Christian people upon the earth who had kept the primitive faith from the days of the apostles, and had never symbolized with the errors of the church of Rome in her idolatrous and adulterous course, that people was the Baptist denomination. ”

“ The authority of a Presbyterian church is limited to the bounds of its own denomination. It cannot ordain ministers for Baptist churches, any more than it can ordain them for Methodist churches or for Episcopal churches. When a Presbyterian minister becomes a Baptist, his motives for making the change and the conformity of his views to the New Testament standard need to be scrutinized by Baptists, before they can admit him to their Christian and church fellowship ”

“ The young in the Baptist Church, not having been baptized in infancy, are brought up to feel that they are out of the Church, and that they have to be converted, or "to get religion," before they join the Church, instead of being brought up to feel that, having been baptized, they belong to the Church and must believe its doctrines, and live the life which they teach. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They are commissioned to preach the Gospel to men, and to live the Gospel before men, that Christ may be honored and sinners saved. They should, therefore, be constantly striving to realize the grand purpose of their existence and fulfill the mission of their high calling. That church which does the most to honor Christ and save man will be the most honored by Him, and the most influential and prosperous in all that pertains to the true functions of a church. ”

“ To lie, or touch what was not his own, was beyond the pale of pardon, or mercy, and a solitary aberration was a stain for life.
The mothers, clad in homespun, were chaste in thought and action; unlettered and ignorant, but pure as ether. Their literature confined to the Bible, its maxims directed their conduct, and were the daily lesson of their children. The hard-shell Baptist was the dominant religion; with here and there a Presbyterian community, generally characterized by superior education and intelligence, with a preacher of so much learning as to be an oracle throughout the land. ”

“ 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. ”

“ As the clasp between the Old Testament and the New—the close of the one and the beginning of the other; as among the greatest of those born of women; as the porter who opened the door to the True Shepherd; as the fearless rebuker of royal and shameless sin—the Baptist must ever compel the homage and admiration of mankind.
In many respects, such a life cannot be repeated. But the spirit of humility and courage; of devotion to God, and uncompromising loyalty to truth, which was so conspicuous in him, may animate us. ”

“ Some Christian denominations include all their congregations in one comprehensive society, or ecclesiastical system, under some central authority, which legislates for and controls the whole. This comprehensive society they call the church. Thus we speak of the Roman Catholic Church, the [p. 11] Episcopal Church, the Presbyterian Church—where the word “church” stands for the aggregate of all their local societies. With Baptists it is different. They speak of Baptist churches, but not of the Baptist Church, when the entire denomination is meant. ”

“ But as Divinely appointed means of grace, their importance must not be undervalued. They cannot be neglected without suffering serious harm and incurring the gravest responsibility.
Note 8.—Baptism is not essential to salvation, for our churches utterly repudiate the dogma of “baptismal [p. 21] regeneration”; but it is essential to obedience, since Christ has commanded it. It is also essential to a public confession of Christ before the world, and to membership in the church which is His body. And no true lover of his Lord will refuse these acts of obedience and tokens of affection. ”