Baptist History in America, Mission Work and the Future of the Lord s Churches

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2 Baptist Training Course Baptist History in America, Mission Work and the Future of the Lord s Churches Quarterly Aim: To show that through many difficulties the New Testament church has a continuous history in America, has expanded its ministry throughout the world through missions and has a glorious future throughout eternity. Prepared by David Robinson Bill Johnson Editor in Chief Wayne Sewell Business Manager Lesson 1 December 3, 2000 Baptists and Expansion Lesson 2 December 10, 2000 Baptists and Slavery Lesson 3 December 17, 2000 Baptists and Mission Societies Lesson 4 December 24, 2000 The Social Gospel Affect upon Baptists Lesson 5 December 1, 2000 Arminian and Calvinist Influence upon Baptists Lesson 6 January 7, 2001 Baptist Confessions of Faith Lesson 7 January 14, 2001 Origin of Baptist Associations Lesson 8 January 21, 2001 Missionary Baptist Work in the Far West Lesson 9 January 28, 2001 Why We Are Called Landmark Baptists Lesson 10 February 4, 2001 Baptists Refute Heresies Lesson 11 February 11, 2001 Missionary Baptist Leaders in Missions Lesson 12 February 18, 2001 Great Men Among Us Lesson 13 February 25, 2001 Harvesttime in the Twenty-first Century ADULT QUARTERLY, Winter Quarter, Baptist Training Course, is published quarterly at 83 cents per quarter. Volume 87, No. 1. Issued December 1, 2000 Cover design by Jeff Allen. Copyright 2000, BAPTIST SUNDAY SCHOOL COMMITTEE of the American Baptist Association, 4605 N. State Line, Texarkana, TX

3 LESSON 1, December 3, 2000 Baptists and Expansion LESSON AIM By the end of this lesson the student will explain the movement of Baptists to the Midwest. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: Mark 16:15. Background Scripture: Matthew 5:16; Luke 10:1, 2; John 20:21. Devotional Reading: To All the World, Acts 1:8. Introduction Jesus gave His church a commission to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. Since that time New Testament churches have taken this work seriously. The method of mission work may differ from time to time, but the heart behind the work has been constant and consistent. In one way or another every one of God s churches is to be involved in the work of spreading the gospel. We have a message that never changes, but we must present it in a world that is always changing. This tells us that we must use the means at hand to spread the gospel. We must never compromise the truth in a misguided zeal for success. We use only those ways and means that are in accord with the teachings of God s Word, but we must use what we have available. For instance, today we have wonderful ways to communicate across great distances. We can sit down at a computer and literally reach people on the other side of the world in just minutes. Our fathers did not have this technology, but they were able to make great advances in spreading the gospel using the tools that God gave them. 1. Baptists Come to America The first Baptist church in America was started by Dr. John Clarke in Newport, Rhode Island, in To put this in per- 2

4 spective, this was one hundred thirty-eight years before the American Revolution. At this time Baptists and other groups were persecuted. The Congregational church or Church of England was the established church. This meant that the government only recognized the Church of England. Other church groups were in effect outlaws. Remember, this is one hundred forty years before the constitution and the Bill of Rights. America was a part of the British empire and was subject to the rule of the king of England. This was a harsh atmosphere for the truth; nevertheless, the truth prevailed. Our religious liberty was literally purchased with the blood of men who died refusing to submit to the tyranny of an established religion. In March of 1639, Ezekiel Holliman baptized Roger Williams and ten others, and the First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, was constituted. From this time on Baptists have had a witness, first in the colonies and subsequently in the United States of America. 2. How Baptists Came to New Areas One of the most interesting Baptist experiences in coming to America was that of the Welsh Tract Church. In 1701, a number of Baptists in Pembroke, Carmarthen, and Cardigan, Wales, desired to immigrate to Pennsylvania. The churches where they were members agreed to allow them to go. Since there were sixteen members and one ordained minister, it was decided that it would be best for these people to be organized into a church and authorized to receive other members when they got to the New World. When these sixteen arrived in the colonies, they were received by the Pennepack church in Philadelphia. The Pennepack church was the only Baptist church in that area. The Welsh brethren spent about a year and a half in that vicinity. They had regular meetings and operated as a church. By 1703, this new church had received twenty-two new members by letter and baptism and purchased a large tract of land, The Welsh Tract, and had built a church building. This experience set the tone for Baptist expansion in colonial times. Churches blossomed as individuals and groups moved into new territories. Churches brought their faith with them, 3

5 and through this means were able to organize churches throughout what was then frontier territory. 3. Baptist Contribution to Liberty We must remember that our world was quite different in the colonial period. The colonies were primarily British, and the churches were mostly those found in England; Anglican or Episcopalian, Presbyterian and Methodist. In much of the colonial period the Anglican church was regarded as the established church. The church was a branch of the government of the king and was treated as such. It was supported by tax dollars and was not responsible to its individual members. As you might suppose, Baptists opposed both of these ideas. True Baptists have always held to the twin tenets of freedom of conscience that each believer in Christ had the right to study His Bible and determine for himself what he should and should not believe and practice, and for freedom of worship that no government body should interfere with the beliefs and practices of a church. We may take these liberties for granted today, but our forefathers paid a high price to insure them for us. One of the heroes of the fight for religious liberty was John Leland, a pastor at Orange, Virginia. From 1607 to 1786, Virginia was firmly entrenched in a state church situation. The state offered licenses to preachers, mostly Episcopalian. Many others, including Baptists, chose to preach without state licenses and were often arrested and imprisoned. When the new federal government was being formed and the Constitution debated, Leland got involved in the debate. Through his written articles and his influence over James Madison, Leland was instrumental in getting a guarantee of a Bill of Rights, securing religious liberty. As historian Joseph M. Dawson has said, If the researchers of the world were to be asked who was most responsible for the American guaranty of religious liberty, their prompt reply would be, James Madison; but if James Madison might answer, he would quickly reply, John Leland and the Baptists. This was very important to the westward expansion of churches. Without the guarantee of religious freedom, Baptist work would have literally been against the law in this country and would have been severely restricted. 4

6 4. Baptist Expansion Westward At this time there were no mission societies or formal organizations to promote mission work or the westward expansion of churches. This brings us to an important point. Each individual church is responsible for carrying out what we call the Great Commission. We cannot and should not try to shift the responsibility for obeying the commands of Christ onto an association of churches. In the early years of our country, churches were doing very effective mission work without any denominational machinery. How did they do it? Mostly it happened as people moved west. As the country expanded, so did the churches. Many Baptists from Virginia and North Carolina began to move westward into Kentucky and Tennessee as early as Baptist churches were formed in Kentucky in Baptists came to the upper Midwest from Virginia in the 1700s. All this was the natural result of people s being evangelized in their hometowns and then moving into new territories and carrying the gospel with them. A tremendous door to westward expansion was opened with the Louisiana Purchase. This vast territory that now is the states of Louisiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Wyoming, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Oklahoma, Montana, and parts of Minnesota and Colorado became a part of the United States in This led to a great period of westward expansion and with it the coming of churches of all kinds including Baptists. Much of the Baptist work in the Midwest owes a debt of thanks to John M. Peck, a missionary to the region west of the Mississippi. He was commissioned by the Triennial Convention and began his work in Saint Louis. The Triennial Convention went on to pursue the evangelization of the Far West territories. 5. A Lesson for Us From a study of history it is obvious that various means were used to evangelize the New World. Sometimes single preachers were sent out by individual churches to preach the gospel, baptize those who believed and organize churches. Sometimes, as in the Welsh Tract church, entire congregations moved, even across the ocean, to establish a work in a new land. Others followed these patterns as the United States reached from sea to 5

7 sea. History reveals that often brethren would come into a new territory and form a congregation before they had a preacher or missionary to assist them. When the pioneers packed their wagons, they did not leave their faith behind, All of this suggests that each church should take the New Testament seriously and personally. Preaching the gospel to every creature, going into all the world and being witnesses of Christ are not options that we can take or leave as we see fit. These are our divine obligations. You heard the gospel because someone else took his obligations seriously, and others can only hear as we take them seriously. 6

8 LESSON 2, December 10, 2000 Baptists and Slavery LESSON AIM By the end of this lesson the student will discuss positions of Northern and Southern Baptists on the slavery issue. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: 2 Peter 3:9. Background Scripture: John 10:9; Galatians 3:26-28; Titus 2:10. Devotional Reading: Jesus Draws All Men, John 12:32. Introduction From the beginning of this nation until the end of the war between the states, no issue has been as divisive as that of slavery. Like many sociological customs of the New World, slavery was imported from Europe, but it found fertile ground in the vast undeveloped areas of North America. In this new land there was a seemingly unlimited opportunity for agriculture, and the success of farming beyond the subsistence level depended on a never ending source of cheap labor. Slavery provided that labor. From the beginning of our nation, many prominent men were slave owners. Most of these were the owners of large farms and plantations. Although many recognized slavery as an evil system, it was regarded as an economic necessity. Eventually the evils of slavery were exposed, and this practice ended, but not before a bitter and devisive struggle within most organized religions including Baptists. 1. A Few Facts It is easy to be ethnocentric, to believe that everyone else in the world is just like we are. Societies differ one from another in our time, and they were quite different in times past. For instance in 1800, there were 5,308,483 people in the United 7

9 States. The black population was 1,002,037 or 18.9 percent. Of course, not all of these were slaves. In 1860, there were 8 million people in what we today call the South, and 6 million of them did not own a slave. One monstrous fact is that after emancipation 40,000 black people owned 100,000 slaves themselves. Even preachers owned slaves. All of this shows how deeply slavery was ingrained in the fabric of life. The issue that would divide the nation would likewise divide Baptists. Consider also that the nature of Baptist work and the fellowship among churches made a formal and universal condemnation of slavery difficult. True Baptists have always believed in local church authority. Each individual church was solely responsible for its own affairs. Opinion on the slavery issue varied widely from those churches that were openly abolitionist to those that were proslavery. No national body existed or exists today that could speak for all Baptist churches. This was not so among other groups who had such ecclesiastical machinery and often used it for social and political purposes. Baptists did care about the plight of slaves even when they were not opposed to slavery. Although slaves were not permitted to have their own churches, a few were in existence prior to the Civil War. The oldest black Baptist church on record in the United States was at Silver Bluff, South Carolina, which began sometime prior to Many Baptist churches in the South had slaves as members. In the late 1700s, whites and blacks in backcountry congregations worshiped together. They called each other by the respectful titles brother and sister and wept and prayed with each other. Some white Baptist ministers in Virginia declared slavery to be a sin, freed their own slaves and advocated lifting restrictions on black men who wished to preach the gospel in public. This sentiment was not widely accepted and by the middle of the 1800s, black members were relegated to a kind of second class status as members. They were enrolled only by their first names and were segregated in all worship times. In spite of all this, the gospel was presented to many slaves, and many were truly saved in spite of the social evils of the day. 2. Before the Division Many causes have brought God s people together. Antislavery was certainly one. Antislavery societies were organized around 8

10 1780 and by the 1840s, the issue had become divisive in politics as well as religion. In 1814, there were about 120 associations of Baptist churches in America, made up of about 2,000 churches, with 160,000 members and 1,500 preachers. The General Missionary Convention was organized in Philadelphia with messengers from 11 states and the District of Columbia. This convention was to meet every 3 years and was called the Triennial Convention. This group had as an immediate purpose the support of the work of Adinoram Judson in Burma. As Baptist churches and associations grew numerically and geographically in the early nineteenth century, the groundwork was laid for a system of ventures which would blanket the country. The Triennial Convention inspired the formation of a number of voluntary societies which collected funds from interested individuals and churches for various projects. Among those was American Baptist Home Mission Society, organized in It played a central role in work among the freed slaves after Slavery ruptured nearly every American denomination and split Baptist benevolent societies along sectional lines. Mainline Northern Baptists, mostly antislavery but also anti-abolitionist, tried unsuccessfully to mediate the conflict between abolitionists and proslavery Southern Baptists. The division grew bitter in the early 1840s, when Northerners contested the appointment of slaveholders as home missionaries. Southern Baptists threw up test cases to judge whether their Northern colleagues would put political beliefs above spiritual work. In 1844, Southerners demanded a policy statement from Northern Baptists engaged in home mission work. They replied, One thing is certain: we can never be a party to any arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery. Deeply angered by this action, and impressed with their duty to evangelize more actively in their own region, white Southern Baptists convened in Augusta, Georgia, in 1845, and organized the Southern Baptist Convention. Thus was born the Southern Baptist Convention, but it was not as simple as a split over slavery. Instead of organizing separate societies for separate purposes as had been the practice among Baptist groups prior to 1845, the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention formed a single denomination with the power to appoint boards to oversee separate missionary programs. Membership was limited to individuals, churches and 9

11 associations which made specific contributions to the denomination. Thus, Baptists were divided. The Baptists not in the Southern Baptist Convention, and there were many, both in the North and in the South remained in loosely organized groups, often consisting of no more than local associations. It was not until 1907 that the Northern Baptist Convention, now known as the American Baptist Convention, was organized. It is safe to say that no other single issue so divided the Baptists of the nineteenth century as that of slavery. 3. Baptists Before the Civil War With the division of 1845 and the organization of the Southern Baptist Convention, Baptist thought began to proceed along two very divergent paths. The Northern Baptists, though not represented by a formal body, generally took an antislavery position. Apparently many of these churches were in word and form against slavery, but history records only a few that were socially or politically active against it. This is explained by many factors, not the least of which was the great debate of the day over hardshellism. The hardshells, or Calvinists, opposed most of the work of the Triennial Convention. Their belief in fatalism obviously forbade involvement in any way in political affairs. If what would be would be, then slavery was unavoidable as were other social ills of the day. Such sentiments were widely held in the early nineteenth century. Preachers such as David Parker preached predestination, so as to deny any responsibility in man for his own conduct or condition. You can easily see how this idea could excuse slavery and most any other conduct. The Southern Baptists rationalized slavery in an altogether different manner. Historians seemed to agree that Southern churches in general languished in cultural captivity. Southern churches rarely sought to overturn the Southern social and racial hierarchy, but reinforced and even defined it. This cultural captivity to some extent explains the moral failings of Southern religion, but there is more to it than that. Southern culture has been identified closely with decentralized, local, traditional patterns of life. Well into the twentieth century, Southerners remained intensely defensive of local norms and reluctant to break from entrenched practices. They found in Baptist churches a powerful, theological and ecclesias- 10

12 tical tradition congregational independence which taught that God had granted local churches the right to run their own spiritual affairs. The fierce localism of Southern Baptist churches, the tenacity of rural religious practices and the conflict between these practices and the centralizing desires of denominational reformers and progressive-era activists offered another way to look at Southern religion and Southern culture. Since each congregation was independent, there could be no movement against slavery or anything else. If an individual congregation were tolerant of slavery, there was no superior denominational authority to set it straight. If a congregation admitted slaves as members, there was no one to say that they should not. Perhaps this explains the lack of an organized resistance to slavery. 4. A Lesson for Us The purpose of a New Testament church is not to socially reform or set right the world around us. Instead we are commissioned to preach the gospel. We must do this in the social climate of our day. Remember the words of the Text. God is not willing that any should perish. We can never set aside our responsibility because of adverse social conditions. Slavery could not be used as an excuse to refuse to spread the gospel to slaves as well as to the free. We should not be easily diverted from the main duty given us by our Master. We are to be the workmen of God, carrying out the spiritual principles of the kingdom of Christ. We must always remember the word of our Lord, My kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). 11

13 LESSON 3, December 17, 2000 Baptists and Mission Societies LESSON AIM By the end of this lesson the student will explain the purpose of these mission societies. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: John 9:4. Background Scripture: Acts 11:27-30; 13:1-4; 14:26-28; 15: Devotional Reading: Commissioned to Missions, Matthew 28:19, 20. Introduction Time may not be important to an eternal creature, but timing certainly is. This explains the imperative of the Text verse. Jesus put it simply when He said, I must. The reason for the imperative is clear. Time was short; darkness was approaching when no work could be done. Time is vital in all our spiritual endeavors, but nowhere is it so evident as in mission work. When God opens a door, we must go through it. We cannot tell how long the door will be open, or if it will ever be opened a second time. Wise men down through the ages have grasped this principle. When the British and European nations began to occupy and colonize North America, a great door of mission work was opened. Many realized this and responded to the great opportunity to spread the gospel to the New World. 1. Missions in Colonial Times Before the United States gained independence from England, there were those in England who saw the New World as a missionary project. No doubt some of this was a pious excuse to gain wealth and respectability in doubtful endeavors, but it is clear that many who came to the New World brought with them 12

14 a responsibility to convert the Indians or native peoples of this land. On most pilgrim ships one man and sometimes two were charged with this responsibility. This was not a church sending out a missionary, but it did show that a part of the duties our forefathers took on themselves was to Christianize the Indian nations. Even the charters of some of the colonies stipulated that one of the primary purposes of the new communities would be the conversion of the Indians. A man named John Elliot was a missionary of the Congregationalist church as early as He learned to speak the Indian language and translated much Scripture into that language. In 1701, a Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts was established. This may be the oldest mission society in the English speaking world. As you might expect, scant information is available on this subject. We do know that between 1607 and 1732 all the major denominations of Europe were planted in what would become the United States. Interestingly it was not until the early 1800s that organized missionary efforts emerged. 2. Missions in the New Nation We must make an important distinction at this point. Because there was no organized mission effort or interchurch mission effort among Baptists does not mean that there was no mission work being done. The opposite is true. Baptists were spreading to all the colonies and beyond through the individual work of local churches and their church sent missionaries. Remember Jesus gave His commission to a church. The local church is responsible for carrying out that commission, and local churches can do this without any other societies or organizations whatever. Properly understood the mission organizations are servants of the churches. The churches do not serve the mission organizations. From 1638 and Dr. John Clarke on, preachers were called, ordained and sent out to start churches all over the colonies. There was no organization because none was needed, and considering the limitations on travel and communication none was probably possible. 13

15 We do not see this readily, but all associated work depends entirely on communication and travel. When it is impossible to travel and to communicate, each church is forced to do its work without outside assistance. In earlier times travel was difficult and expensive, and communication was almost nonexistent. This did not mean that there was no church fellowship, but apparently it was confined to individual localities. As families moved westward into unsettled territory, they took their religion with them. Those who were Baptists led in the organization of new Baptist churches. Other organizations likewise increased with the spread of the population. This was a natural and quite successful mission work. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War, there were four hundred ninety-eight Baptist churches in America. By 1795, that number had grown to one thousand sixty-seven. Before 1814, Baptist associations in the Northern states and in North and South Carolina had commissioned and supported missionaries on the frontier. In addition, churches formally sent out missionaries into Indian territories. The First Baptist Church in Providence, Rhode Island, sent missionary David Orr to preach in North Arkansas and paid his salary from 1833 to At that time Arkansas was mostly wilderness, and there were fierce tribes of Indians present. This was what we would call foreign mission work in every way. It was more difficult to travel from Rhode Island to Arkansas in 1833 than it is to go around the world today. 3. Mission Societies Begin One great source of increased mission activity and one of the leading causes of the organization of mission societies was the Great Awakening that began about George Whitefield was sent to establish an orphanage in Georgia in Henry Barclay began a work among the Indian tribes in New York State. His congregation numbered over five hundred. Jonathan Edwards was an intellectual preacher and also a successful missionary to the Indians. As revival fires spread across the country, concern for missions grew. Many churches of the day were small and isolated and realized that their individual contribution would be limited, but by working together they could further the cause of mis- 14

16 sions. Out of this simple yet profound idea of churches helping churches came the first Baptist mission societies. The earliest society formed by Baptists with a distinctive missionary purpose was the Massachusetts Baptist Missionary Society, formed in Boston in Its goal was to help send preachers to isolated settlements on the frontier. The society was able to evangelize many Indians and to help small struggling Baptist churches. The second awakening of 1786 brought renewed interest in missions. About this time the midweek prayer meeting was added in many churches as a stimulus to prayer, and Sunday School was instituted for the instruction of the Word of God. Numerous colleges and seminaries were established, and organized mission programs were initiated to reach out to the expanding nation. One great contribution that must not be overlooked is the Baptist belief in absolute religious liberty. This idea, incorporated into the Bill of Rights, forbade a state church and made the work of individual churches and mission societies possible. Baptists would have had a far more difficult time of it had this nation retained the English system of union of church and state. 4. Mission Societies in England William Carey was born at Paulersbury, England, in He was baptized at twenty-one and became a preacher at twenty-four. He served as a pastor for six years. While reading about the voyages of Captain Cook, who had traveled around the globe, he began to think about the four hundred million heathen who had never heard of Christ, and at that moment the modern missionary movement was born. When Carey proposed preaching to these regions beyond, it shocked even the most visionary men of his day. On May 31, 1792, at an association meeting in Nottingham, Carey preached from Isaiah 54:2, 3, Expect Great Things from God and Attempt Great Things for God. In October of that year in Andrew Fuller s study at Kettering, the English Baptist Missionary Society was constituted with twelve members. Fuller became secretary. In June of 1793, Carey and a surgeon named Thomas sailed for India. Within forty years, Carey had translated parts of the Bible into forty different languages that were spoken 15

17 then by one-third of the human race. Throughout his ministry he and Fuller operated on the principle that Fuller would hold the rope while Carey went down the well. This was the operating principle of mission societies in the beginning, and it remains a viable plan for our day. We cannot all go into the world, but we can hold the rope for those who do. 5. Baptist Mission Societies in America One of the most thrilling mission stories, especially for Baptists in America, is that of Adoniram Judson and Luther Rice. Judson was born in Massachusetts in Judson was the son of a Congregationalist preacher. Judson and Rice began their ministries as Congregationalists. Judson was educated at Brown University and Andover Theological Seminary where he and other students organized the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. In 1812, Judson and his wife, Ann, were sent to India where they knew some English Baptist missionaries were working. Judson thought he would have to defend his Congregationalist position on baptism, so on the ship he began to study baptism seriously. The more he sought to find scriptural authority for infant baptism and for sprinkling, the more he was convinced that neither could be found in the Bible. After landing at Calcutta, they sought out the English Baptist missionaries. Convinced that the Baptist position was right, Judson and Ann were immersed in the Baptist Chapel at Calcutta on September 12, Shortly afterward, Luther Rice had the same experience and was also baptized. This left them in a confused situation. Their convictions had cut them off from the board that sent them out and was supporting them. It was resolved that Rice would return to America and seek support from Baptist churches. He arrived in Boston in September 1813, and almost at once the Baptist churches of the vicinity took responsibility for support of Rice and Judson. That gave rise to the American Baptist Mission Union, organized in Philadelphia in 1814, and eventually the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denominations in the United States, better known as the Triennial Convention. 16

18 LESSON 4, December 24, 2000 LESSON AIM The Social Gospel Affect upon Baptists By the end of this lesson the student will discuss the affect of the social gospel upon Baptists. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: 2 John 2. Background Scripture: Psalm 25:5; 117:2; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 2:15. Devotional Reading: Knowing the Truth, John 8: Introduction The good can become the enemy of the best. Such a situation began about a century ago with the introduction of what has come to be called the Social Gospel. Until the time period following the American Civil War, most true churches had as their only goal to preach the gospel and carry out the mandates of the Great Commission. It was commonly believed that the entire mission of the churches was spiritual in nature. With the coming of the social gospel, a dramatic shift in emphasis took place in many churches. The physical well-being and, moreover, the social situation of individuals began to take equal and in some cases superior importance in church work. This notion has advanced today to the point that few recognize the social gospel for what it is. Instead, it is taken for granted that this is an integral and necessary part of church work. 1. What Is the Social Gospel? The essence of the social gospel is in the perception of the mission of the church. What is the church s purpose and what is it to do? The answers to these questions have a profound influence on the nature of church work. 17

19 For centuries churches had recognized their mission in the world as primarily spiritual. Churches were to be primarily concerned with the spiritual welfare of people, including the salvation of their souls and their knowledge of the truth. The social gospel teaches that the primary concern of churches is the physical well-being and social conditions of people. The relief of social problems from poverty to racism is seen as the primary function of a church. Spiritual matters, when they are dealt with at all, are of secondary importance to the physical welfare of individuals. It is important to note here that these two ideas do not have to be mutually exclusive. Both have a basis in the Bible and properly understood, we have responsibility in both areas. 2. The Origin of the Social Gospel The modern social gospel movement began with a single preacher, a man named Walter Rauschenbusch of Rochester, New York. Rauschenbusch pastored the Second German Baptist Church in the Hell s Kitchen area of New York City for eleven years in the late 1800s. His insights did not come from the churches of the day or from the Bible but from his own personal experiences with the dreadful conditions of his day. He wrote of his experiences in a book, Christianity and the Social Crises, published in This book had a profound affect on Baptist churches in the North and led to many congregations shifting their focus from the spiritual to the physical needs of those around them. About this same time two other movements were coming to fruition in Europe. One was the Salvation Army led by William and Catherine Booth. Founded in London on August 17, 1865, this was a movement originally designed to help drunkards. Just before this, the first Young Men s Christian Association was founded in London by George Williams. This took place on June 6, The Young Men s Christian Association was founded to help those who were suffering as a result of the industrial revolution. Many young men had come to the cities and were living in horrible conditions in company shops and tenements. By 1851, the movement had spread to America, first to Montreal and then to Boston on December twenty-ninth. Through the influence of D.L. Moody and John Mott, who dominated the movement in the last part of the nineteenth and first 18

20 part of the twentieth centuries, The American Young Men s Christian Association grew and prospered. By the 1890s, the purpose of the Young Men s Christian Association was transformed into the triangle of spirit, mind and body. By the time of World War I, the influence of the social gospel on churches was sufficient to have many churches declare that war was not and cannot be made holy. Many Northern Baptist Convention churches were concerned for fair treatment for conscientious objectors. By the Korean War this convention took a position opposed to the war itself. By the mid 1960s, churches were involved in the civil rights movement, all on the basis of the social gospel, the teaching that a church was primarily responsible for improving the world and bringing about social change. 3. Two Divergent Philosophies Like so many lies, there is a grain of truth in the social gospel. The men who began the movement had good intentions and good hearts. No one can sit idly by and watch others suffer, but this or any other area of our concern must be examined in the light of God s Word. The men who began this movement never claimed that it was based on the Bible. Instead, they based their involvement and intervention on what they observed around them. They saw what they perceived as wrongs and set out to right them. A basis for right thinking on this matter can be found in Luke 12:13, 14. Here a man came to Jesus and asked for the resolution of a social injustice. The man s brother would not rightly divide their inheritance. Jesus flatly refused to get involved. Did Jesus care that a man had been done wrong? Yes, Jesus cared, but there were more important things at stake than who got what. Jesus came to seek and to save that which was lost, not to divide inheritances. In this exchange we see two divergent philosophies of church work. One is that the churches are to try in every way to improve the conditions of those around them, to right wrongs and to generally make things better. The other is that a church s main duty is toward the souls of men. Like many things each of these can be taken to extremes. The social gospel takes the care of the physical world to such an extreme. From a desire to get children out of slums, this movement has grown to 19

21 embrace such extreme positions as political and environmental activism. We can see our duty as spiritual to the exclusion of any responsibility to share a physical burden. This, too, is an extreme position. We are in the world. We can help when we can, but our main duty is to prepare precious souls for eternity through faith in Jesus Christ. To see this clearly, we must answer one simple question, Can this physical world be saved? If you believe the Bible, then you know that it cannot. This world is reserved for a fiery judgment, and most social activism is just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. The ship is going down, and we must do all we can to rescue ourselves and everyone we love. 4. Our Responsibilities What should our response be to social disorder and disaster? We find valuable information in the book of James. First, we are not to be respecters of persons. We are to serve all men. We cannot do this materially, but we can do it spiritually. We cannot feed all the hungry, but we can preach to all the hungry souls. Then we are to be concerned with those in distress. Jesus taught this in the story of the good Samaritan. When we have opportunity to help those in need, we should do so, but we must always remember our primary mission in the world. We are to love our neighbors as ourselves. Now realizing that no matter what we do we cannot stay here, do we want to go someplace better? The best thing you can do for your neighbor is to see to it that he has what he needs to go Heaven when he dies. Everything else that you can give him will perish. It is good to do good, but it is better to do best. Jesus could have healed every sick person in the world. He could have wiped out disease and poverty. He could have reformed government and brought social justice to every corner of the globe. He did not. Instead, He died on the cross so that our souls can be set free from the curse of sin. That freedom is still the greatest gift ever given and the greatest need in the world. 20

22 LESSON 5, December 31, 2000 LESSON AIM Arminian and Calvinist Influence upon Baptists By the end of this lesson the student will tell how the word missionary became a part of the Baptist name. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: John 3:16. Background Scripture: John 5:24; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13; 1 John 4:15. Devotional Reading: Water of Life, Revelation 22:17. Introduction One of the amazing things about a study of the Bible is how things that are so simple when God says them can be made so complicated when men interpret them. Such ideas are the subject of the lesson today. James (Jacob) Arminius ( ) was a Dutch theologian who studied, taught and eventually broke with Calvinism. He was particularly at odds with John Calvin s emphasis on unconditional election and irresistible grace. The Synod of Dort ( ) strongly reaffirmed ultra- Calvinism in reaction to Arminius growing influence. Arminius strong emphasis on free will, salvation for all and resistible grace continued to be influential, finding perhaps its strongest proponent in John Wesley. On the other hand, John Calvin came to Geneva, Switzerland, crossroads for exiles and expatriates in He rapidly became more influential than Zwingli, second only to Luther. He wrote a popular, systematic presentation of Christian doctrine and life, titled The Institutes (1536, final edition in 1559). Most important of Calvin s Institutes was obedience to God s will as defined in the Scriptures. Salvation, he wrote, came by faith in God s grace, mediated through word and sacrament by the power of the Holy Spirit. Good works were 21

23 consequences of union with Christ in faith, not the means of salvation. Calvin considered the law an indispensable guide and spur to the Christian life; prayer provided nourishment for faith. He argued that faith was a divine gift resulting from God s unconditional decree of election. A Bible scholar could easily see that both these men held extreme positions. We shall proceed to examine them and their influence on Baptists. 1. Baptists and Arminianism It is fair to say that those doctrines influenced many groups beside Baptists, but the Baptist work is the focus of this lesson. The Arminian theology has found its largest reception among those called Freewill Baptists. Among the Freewill Baptist pioneers in America was Paul Palmer in the 1720s. The National Association of Freewill Baptists was formed in Nashville, Tennessee, in The Arminian influence on Freewill Baptists is found in their belief concerning the perseverance of the saints or what we would call security of the believer. This group holds that a saved person who has sinned may fall into the practice of sin and make shipwreck of his faith and be lost. They also teach foot washing as a church ordinance. The belief that salvation, once obtained, can be lost can be traced directly to Arminius. As noted earlier, John Wesley, father of the Methodist church was a proponent of Arminius, as are most Pentecostal and Holiness works. It is important to note here that the doctrine of falling from grace is not only a cosmetic difference in the Baptist work. The idea that once we are saved we are saved forever is a basic and differential Bible doctrine, taught throughout the Word of God. Jesus repeatedly taught that those who trusted in Him had eternal life and that they would never perish. To teach that by some post-salvation action we can undo our spiritual birth is to deny the power that made us whole. 2. Baptists and Calvinism On the other side of the theological extreme is Calvinism, often referred to as hyper-calvinism. This doctrinal position, originating with the theology of John Calvin, teaches an extreme form of predestination to the extent that the salvation of a soul is a predetermined decision of God and that men have nothing to do with it. Whatever will be will be, and nothing that 22

24 we can do will change it. If God wants you saved, you will be saved and if not, you will be lost. This doctrine is comforting to the flesh. It takes all decisions out of our hands and all responsibility off our shoulders. If we by our actions or decisions cannot change things, then we are not responsible for things, especially the welfare of our souls or the souls of others. Calvinism and its extremes have given rise to the names Hardshell Baptist and Primitive Baptists. These people believe that, God s elect were chosen in Christ before the world began and were therefore appointed unto faith and obedience in love. This idea takes away any responsibility you and I might have in the salvation of our souls. It means that God has made all our decisions for us and we cannot change our eternal destiny. If we are lost, we are lost; if we are saved, we are saved. This, too, is a basic departure from truth. This is not a small difference. If we adopt this heretical notion, we remove from men and churches any obligation to mission work or witnessing. What good would either do if there could not possibly be any results? 3. Arminianism and Calvinism and Missions As we have seen, both of these heresies have had an adverse affect on the truth in the lives of individual believers. They have also had an adverse affect in the life of churches and associations of churches. The predestination movement renders mission work irrelevant, and this led to an antimissions movement in America that took shape in the early 1800s. The Kehuckee Declaration of 1827 and the Black Rock Address of 1832 were both strong statements against missions. The purpose was to discard all missionary societies. By the mid 1800s, Baptists were divided along the lines of promission and antimission churches. These were named Missionary and Antimissionary. Over time the term antimissionary was dropped, but the term missionary became a part of the name of many Baptist churches. Originally this term was not a title, but was a description of the anti-calvinist position of the church with regard to missions; however, by the early 1900s, the term had lost much of its force as a descriptive adjective and was incorporated into the name of many churches. 23

25 With the rise of the Pentecostal and Holiness movements in the early 1900s, the Arminian influence on Baptists dwindled. Those seeking Arminian doctrine found a ready source in these new movements, often leaving the Baptist work altogether. As far as can be seen, there was never a descriptive term such as missionary that was applied to distinguish an anti-arminian group. Missionary Baptists today should proudly wear the title Missionary. Although we no longer need it to distinguish us from the Calvinists, it does set forth a great part of what we believe the Bible to teach about the way God spreads His message of salvation in this church age. 4. The Truth Among Extremes Did God foreknow all things? Of course He did. Is a man responsible for the destiny of his own soul? Yes, definitely. Can I reconcile these two ideas? No, not a chance. There are some things we cannot understand with our limited abilities. To paraphrase Paul, We see through a glass darkly. Our understanding is limited, and this is where our faith must take over. We can ponder many hours over what we do not understand and in the process ignore things that are crystal clear. God now commands all men everywhere to repent (Acts 17:30). God is not willing that any should perish (2 Peter 3:9). These are obvious and easy to understand teachings. We are to preach the gospel to every creature (Mark 16:15). We are to go into all the world. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God (Rom. 10:17). Can I reconcile all the things I would like to understand about the Bible? No, I cannot. But I cannot let what I do not know get in the way of what I do. God does not look to you and me for reconciliation of theology. He looks to us for obedience to His commands. It is not important that I understand His commands; it is important that I obey them. Many around us today, as did our forefathers, are getting lost in doctrinal sophistication to the point of excluding the simple and readily understood actions expected of all of us. The Text verse is simple and easy enough for children to understand. We need to make it our motto and our message. God loves us; He gave His son for us; we can believe in Him, and we can have eternal life. This message will save your soul and change your life. Stick with it. 24

26 LESSON 6, January 7, 2001 Baptist Confessions of Faith LESSON AIM By the end of this lesson the student will discuss characteristics of these confessions of faith. SCRIPTURES TO READ Text: Titus 2:1. Background Scripture: Romans 6:17; Ephesians 4:14; 2 Timothy 3:16, 17; 2 John 9. Devotional Reading: Confess with the Mouth, Romans 10:9, 10. Introduction Since there have been believers, there has been the need to define the things believed. Luke had this purpose when he introduced the Gospel of Luke: Forasmuch as many have taken in hand to set forth in order a declaration of those things which are most surely believed among us (Luke 1:1). The Text teaches we are to speak things which become sound doctrine. To do this on a consistent basis, it is necessary to have a concise statement or declaration of the chief or principal things we believe. This became especially necessary during the Protestant Reformation when many groups were splitting from the Catholic church. Baptists were never Protestants. The history of true churches reaches back to the ministry of Jesus. Since Jesus started His church during His personal ministry, there have been Bible patterned churches in all ages. In the early years these churches had no difficulty distinguishing themselves from other groups. With the coming of the Protestant Reformation and a proliferation of churches opposed to Rome, it became more and more necessary for true believers, who were given the name Anabaptist shortened to Baptist, to state plainly what they believed. Thus confessions of faith were born. 25

27 1. What Is a Confession of Faith? All true churches hold that the Bible is the all sufficient standard for belief and practice. As Baptists we base our beliefs on the Word alone. This is different from many groups which hold that the traditions of men or the pronouncements of leaders have the same force as Scripture. Remember that no confession of faith, church covenant or doctrinal statement has the same force as Scripture. The Bible was given by the inspiration of God. Confessions of faith were written by men. A confession of faith is a brief statement of the beliefs of a certain group of people at a certain time. They are intended to emphasize common beliefs, not to point out minor differences in interpretation. It may be fair to say that no two individuals agree on every point of Scripture. Certainly no two churches will. However, churches may and indeed must fellowship with one another, and to do so in harmony it is necessary to have common ground based on biblical principles for such fellowship. So that this could be accomplished, confessions of faith were born, short statements supported by Scripture, that set forth the ground for fellowship among like-minded churches. 2. Why Were They Needed? Confessions of faith were needed to serve two purposes. First, they were to educate those outside the church to the basic beliefs of the churches. Then, they formed a basis for either assent stating what their church believed both as the basis for unity of the local body, or for dissent the reason for refraining from remaining in or joining other denominations. In times when there are many groups, each claiming to have and teach the truth, it becomes important to know exactly what each group believes and practices so that intelligent decisions can be made. An individual might want to join another group and would need to know what it believed. A person might come for membership, and the church would want to be clear that both shared the same doctrinal position. In order to accomplish this, a statement of belief or confession of faith was written and adopted. This educated those outside the churches and served as a standard for exchange and reception of members. Among many important confessions of faith is the London Confession of Faith which came out of the Particular churches, mainly Calvinistic, in A second, slightly revised version 26