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Baptists Before Luther
“The modern Baptists formerly called Anabaptists are the only people that never symbolized with the Papacy.” -Isaac Newton
The name “Anabaptist” was a name given to Bible believers by their enemies. This is why early “Baptist” groups sometimes rejected the name. For example, Thieleman J. van Braght writes in 1659:
“The name ‘Anabaptist’ was really not accepted by them by choice or desire, but of necessity…” (“The Martyr’s Mirror”)
Henry C. Vedder writes:
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The Meaning Of The Word “Baptism”
The word “baptize” has been transferred into our English Bible from the Greek copies. Baptists have historically argued the fact that the word, in its primary meaning, means “to dip.” Many lexicons and English dictionaries make this fact clear. However, some dictionaries (even some of the better ones) have refused to enter into religious controversy. Therefore, instead of actually defining the word “baptize,” they simply state how the word has come to be used in the various branches of Christendom. It is good that these dictionaries reveal how many commonly use the word. Yet, they should do this only after strictly defining the word. If we allow theological, Bible words to be defined by the religious climate, it will not be long before “God” will be defined as “she”! (In fact, I recently read of some liberal, rebellious Baptists doing this very thing at a recent conference.)
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Baptists Don’t Believe in Miracles?
THE KINGDOM ALERT (WEEKLY UPDATE)
Philippians 4:4 Rejoice in the Lord alway: and again I say, Rejoice.
IS IT TRUE THAT BAPTISTS DO NOT BELIEVE IN MIRACLES, PRAYER AND DIVINE HEALING AS DESCRIBED IN JAMES 5:14-18? (By Joey Faust)
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The Obligation of Immersion
“It is well known that Baptists not only reject infant baptism as an unauthorized innovation, but also reject (though with far less concern) the modern substitution of sprinkling, for the entire immersion of the body, originally practiced in the administration of baptism; and except in the case of the sick, universally observed throughout Christendom for thirteen hundred years. Nor do they act without reason. Indeed they cannot do otherwise, with all the evidence before them. For the obligation of immersion, as identified with baptism itself, and essential to its specific spiritual purpose, they urge the admitted signification of the word ‘baptizo’; the necessity of adhering to the ordinary meaning of words in the interpretation of laws; the places where the rite was originally performed; the phraseology employed in describing the administration; the undeniable example of Christ himself; and the metaphorical allusions of the sacred writers when explaining the spiritual import of baptism; all which, they say, confirm the meaning to be immersion, and necessarily exclude every other. No valid objections have ever been brought forward against the combined force of this evidence…The Baptists (with the exception of the Mennonites…) regard it as one part of their mission to uphold, and as far as possible, to restore throughout Christendom, the original institution of Christ, in its entire form and spirit. While frequently misunderstood on this point by other Christians, they profess to be removed by their fundamental principles, farther than all others, from superstition and bigotry; inasmuch as they attach no saving efficacy to sacraments…” (“The Illinois Baptist,” 19th Century)
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What’s Wrong with Faith-Based Funding: A General Chronology of Baptist Persecution on American Soil
“The first Baptist church in Boston…erected a meeting house in 1677, which was closed by order of the General Court of Massachusetts; after some time they ventured to use it again, when the doors were nailed up and a paper posted on them which read: ‘All persons are to take notice, that by order of the court the doors of this house are shut up, and that they are prohibited from holding any meeting therein, or to open the doors thereof WITHOUT LICENSE from authority till the general court take further order, as they will answer the contrary at their peril.” (William Cathcart, “The Baptists and the American Revolution,” 1876)
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Baptists and the Open (Fast Closing) Door of Religious Liberty
[The following article is taken in part from a sermon I preached on July 4th, 2001. In light of recent controversies over faith-based legislation, etc. I thought this information may be useful and timely.]
Modern America, if not the whole world itself, owes a great debt to Baptists for many reasons. God used Baptists to open the door of religious liberty. Baptists have been the traditional defenders of religious liberty for at least three reasons:
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