History of the Baptist. . .
The Greatest Man Ever Born was a Baptist!
First in a series on Baptist History
By Bro.Lamb
Baptist History begins in 30 a.d. with a fellow named John the Baptist. He bursts on the scene in Matthew 3 as the first fiery preacher to follow 400 years of silence between the Old and New Testaments. He is called “The Baptist” by the Divine Author of the Scriptures; the Holy Spirit of God (Matthew 3:1).
He was sent from God (John 1:6), with a message of repentance (Matthew 3:2), and a mission of baptizing with water (John 1:33). This first Baptist had the great privilege of baptizing the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:13-17). He also baptized those who would later be called by Christ (the 12 Apostles) to be the charter members of the first church organized by Jesus.
Jesus praised John more than any other man in the Bible. Jesus called the first Baptist a great man (Matthew 11:11). John is second only to Jesus in Old Testament prophecy. The angel Gabriel said the first Baptist would be great in the sight of the Lord (Luke 1:15).
John the Baptist’s greatest achievement, however, was introducing the Lord Jesus to the world, and introducing the world to the Lord Jesus: “Behold the Lamb of God which taketh away the sin of the world” (John 1:29).
Did Jesus Start A Church?
Second in a Series on Baptist History
Several questions are generated by the question: “Did Jesus start a church?” If He did, When? Where? With Whom? What Kind?
In Matthew 16:18 Jesus made a statement that will answer our initial question. Jesus said: “And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” Jesus definitely said He would build His church. He didn’t give it a name because it would be the only church in existence at the time He started it. “My church” would suffice to identify His church.
According to I Corinthians 12:28 the Bible tells us that the first members of the church that Jesus built were the apostles. Luke 6:12-16 gives us the details of Him setting up the first church. After praying all night, Jesus called his disciples unto him and selected twelve from the larger group. He named these 12 apostles. Each of these twelve was baptized by John the Baptist. (this was a requirement for a replacement for Judas Iscariot in Acts 1:21-22) It was these 12 that would be with Jesus for approximately 3 ½ years of His earthly ministry.
Those 12 constituted the first baptized church in history. It was with the “twelve” that Jesus instituted the Lord’s Supper (Matt.26:20); it was to them that Jesus gave the commission to “make disciples; baptize; teach…” (Matt.28:18-20). It was to that first baptized church that Jesus promised the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:1-8) It was to that first baptized church that the Lord added 3000 souls on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:41-47). That first church continued in Jerusalem for approximately 7 years, then persecution came and scattered them abroad (Acts 8:1-4) . A church was soon started in Antioch, which would officially send out the first missionaries (Acts 13:1-4). And the rest, as they say, is history!
The Early Churches Established and Increased
Third in a Series on Baptist History
And so were the churches established in the faith,
and increased in number daily Acts 16:5
Under the strange but wonderful impulse and leadership of John the Baptist, the eloquent man from the wilderness, and under the loving touch and miracle-working power of the Christ Himself, and the marvelous preaching of the 12 Apostles and their immediate successors, the Christian religion spread mightily during the first 500-year period. However, it left a terribly bloody trail behind it. Judaism and Paganism bitterly contested every forward movement. John the Baptist was the first of the great leaders to give up his life. His head was taken off. Soon after him went the Savior Himself, the founder of this Christian religion. He died on the Cross, the cruel death of the Cross.
Following their Savior in rapid succession fell many other martyred heroes: Stephen was stoned, Matthew was slain in Ethiopia, Mark was dragged through the streets until dead, Luke was hanged, Peter and Simeon were crucified, Andrew tied to a cross, James beheaded, Philip crucified and stoned, Bartholomew flayed alive, Thomas pierced with lances, James, the less, thrown from the temple and beaten to death, Jude shot to death with arrows, Matthias stoned to death and Paul beheaded.
More than one hundred years had gone by before all this had happened. This hard persecution by Judaism and Paganism continued for two more centuries. And yet mightily spread the Christian religion. It went into all the Roman Empire, Europe, Asia, Africa, England, Wales, and about everywhere else, where there was civilization. The churches greatly multiplied and the disciples increased continuously. (The above was taken from the book THE TRAIL OF BLOOD by J.M.Carroll) This book is available on our “Book Worm” shelf.
The Trail of Terror Against The Lord's Churches
Fourth in a Series on Baptist History
“…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
Matthew 16:18c
The “gates of hell” referred to by Jesus identifies the Satanic Kingdom that has set itself against all that is Godly. The devil launched an all-out attack in his attempt to destroy the kinds of churches that Jesus began. However, the Lord promises perpetuity to His churches. That means He promised that His kind of assemblies would occupy every period of history since He started the first one. This lesson will detail the outline of Satan’s strategy of terrorism used in his attempt to prevail against the Lord’s churches.
I. THE DEVIL TRIED TO SLAUGHTER THE BAPTISTS 30-300 A.D.
This period of time was detailed in lesson three of this series. There were ten major persecutions against the churches by the Roman government.
Yet the churches continued to multiply! Persecution didn’t work. Our great God has dealt with this tactic before! “…the more they afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew.”…the people multiplied and waxed very mighty.” (Exodus 1:12a, 1:20b)
II. THE DEVIL TRIED TO JOIN THE BAPTISTS 300-500 A.D.
Satan must have reasoned; “If you can’t lick ‘em, join ‘em.” During this period of history the Church of Rome came into existence through the efforts of Emperor Constantine in A.D. 313. This emperor began to unite the Christian religion with the Roman government which controlled the whole known world. Thus, the beginning of the Catholic (Universal) church movement. Infant baptism became the law of the land in A.D. 416.
Loyal Christians in the true churches refused to fall for this false tactic and were constantly attacked by the new Catholic (Universal) church.
III. THE DEVIL TRIED TO EXTERMINATE THE BAPTISTS 426 -1400 A.D
The most bloody time in all of church history set in when Rome began its attack on those churches which would not unite with the Roman church by refusing her baptism. This period of church history is known as the “Dark Ages.” During this time fifty million true Christians were martyred for their faith.
IV. THE DEVIL TRIED TO COPY THE BAPTISTS 1500-1700 A.D.
(to be continued in the next article)
The Trail of Terror Against The Lord's Churches
Fifth in a Series on Baptist History
“…and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”
Matthew 16:18c
This lesson will continue to detail the outline of Satan’s strategy of terrorism used in his attempt to prevail against the Lord’s churches. We have seen Satan’s strategies used during the first 1400 years of church history. His attempts to destroy the true churches through slaughter, unionizing, extermination, all failed to wipe out the churches. Often driven “underground” through severe persecution, the churches surfaced in various places and under a variety of names: Novatians, Donatists, Paulicians, Paterines, Waldenses, Ana-Baptists, and finally Baptists. Baptists have suffered at the hands of wicked rulers, Roman religion, and, as we shall see in this article, by the Protestants. This persecution was brought upon them primarily for their rejection of infant baptism and insistence on “re-baptizing” those who were baptized in the Catholic church and her daughters.
Satan’s next tactic of terror can be seen in the period of time known as the “Protestant Reformation” (1400-1600 A.D.) During this time the DEVIL TRIED TO COPY THE BAPTISTS.
These three centuries are among the most eventful in all the world’s history, and especially in church history. There was almost a continual revolution inside the Catholic church as people learned more about that church’s departure from the New Testament teachings and its many strange and cruel laws. It was in the early 1500’s that Martin Luther, himself a Catholic, began to publicly protest against his church. In 1530 he began an entirely new “Christian” organization, which is now known as the Lutheran Church. Ten years later another “protesting reformer”, John Calvin, began what is now known as the Presbyterian Church. These two men held on to many of the Catholic teachings and brought them into their new “churches.” Shortly thereafter the Episcopalian and Congregationalist churches came into existence, with the same false doctrines.
This strategy of “counterfeiting” true Christianity was very cleverly used by the Devil. Multitudes of people were deceived into thinking these new religions were wonderful. However, these clever counterfeits continued the persecution of the Baptists. It was during this period that along one single European highway, thirty miles in distance, stakes were set up every few feet along the highway, the tops of the stakes were sharpened, and on the top of each stake was placed a gory head of a martyred Ana-Baptist. Human imagination can hardly picture a scene so awful! And yet a thing perpetrated, by people claiming to be “Christians.”
Baptist is our Middle Name
Sixth in a Series on Baptist History
“In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judea,”
Matthew 3:1
During every period of the “Dark Ages” (approx.500 A.D.-1600 A.D.) there were in existence many Christians and many separate and independent Churches, some of them dating back to the times of the Apostles, which were never in any way connected with the Catholic Church. They always wholly rejected and repudiated the Catholics and their doctrines. These Christians were the perpetual objects of bitter and relentless persecution. History shows that during the period of the “Dark Ages”, about twelve centuries, beginning with A.D.426, there were about fifty millions of these Christians who died martyr deaths. Thousands of others, both preceding and succeeding the “Dark Ages,” died under the same hand of persecution.
These Christian groups were called by many different names, some named after a heroic leader, some after their location, some after other causes. But all of them had one common denominator which characterized them: that designation being “Ana-Baptist.” That name, or brand, came from the fact that they “re-baptized” anyone who came from religious organizations which held to infant baptism or baptismal regeneration (must be baptized in order to be saved). Very early in the sixteenth century the “Ana” was beginning to be left off and they were referred to simply as “Baptists.”
The name “Baptist” identifies a church with a specific body of beliefs. Those beliefs, referred to in Jude 3, are called “…the faith once delivered to the saints.” “The faith” speaks of basic Bible doctrines which were set in place by the Lord and His Apostles in that first church in Jerusalem (Matthew 28:18-20; Acts 1:1-2; Acts 2:42 (the apostles’ doctrine). That body of faith (the Truth), was deposited in the churches of the Lord Jesus Christ (I Timothy 3:15). It was for that reason the “gates of hell” (Matthew 16:18) sought, and still seeks, to prevail against the kind of church that Jesus started.
If the name “Baptist” was good enough for that first “Baptist” preacher to be called “the Baptist” by the Holy Spirit, it ought to be good enough for us today. Many churches today are dropping the name “Baptist” in order to separate from the Biblical distinctions which have identified us with a particular body of faith. By doing so, they must compromise their doctrine to accommodate the very people whose forefathers have persecuted the true churches down through history! This is “trampling under foot” the blood of the millions who gave their lives for the truth!
We wear the name “Baptist” proudly in honor of our Lord and those millions of martyrs who refused to compromise, especially on the doctrine of baptism.
Baptist is our middle name!