I. BAPTIST TEACHINGS IN EUROPE.
The beginning of the Baptist Church is shrouded in doubt. The first record we have of a group called Baptists is found in England. They were thought peculiar in those days because they baptized by immersion instead of sprinkling. We have good reason to believe some of them came from the early church and school of Columba in Ireland and northern Britain. Some kept the seventh-day Sabbath.
CALLED MENNONITES. In Europe they were known not as Baptists but as protestors against sprinkling. The first society was called Mennonites, named from a Catholic priest by the name of Menno Simons, who joined them in 1536. He became the leader of this group of Bible students.
They were very literal in their interpretation of the Scriptures, and strict in their practice of every detail of life. It is thought by some that their belief in immersion may have come from the Waldenses who settled in Switzerland. This sounds very reasonable. They went everywhere in Europe preaching and baptizing converts, and suffering persecutions and martyrdoms. They came to England during the reign of Henry VIII, and there worked in the factories.
ANABAPTISTS IN REFORMATION. Early in the Reformation they became known as Anabaptists, because every convert, even though already sprinkled, was also baptized. This was rather a nickname for the Mennonites.
They brought with them to England the truth of individual religious liberty. They stood stanchly for liberty Of conscience and separation of church and state.
In Switzerland they became very prominent. Educated leaders joined them, but the Zwingli Reformers persecuted them to destroy their leaders.
In Germany they were associated with the peasants in the Thirty Years' War, and here too they were persecuted by the Reformers. One of their number, Melchor Hoffmann, preached the prophecies and the second coming of Christ in 1533. After him Jan Matthys preached the coming of Elijah and a new dispensation. The Baptists in Germany went into fanaticism.
SEPARATIST BAPTISTS. Baptists in England were found among the Separatists, and lived in the villages of Scrooby near Gainsboro. William Bradford and Brewster were prominent members who came to America. Here they were first named Baptists, and with the Separatists of Scrooby because of persecution, had left England for Amsterdam where they formed a regular church. Their belief was the same as the Mennonites of Holland. When persecution ceased in England, churches soon sprang up. They claim to have started in 1555, but records go back only to 1700.
GROWTH. In 1650 their connection with the Mennonites ceased, and they became a strong influence for religious liberty for every individual and religion, as well as for themselves. Presbyterians held out for liberty for themselves, but not for others. Under Cromwell they prospered and grew in numbers to 20,000, but persecution came again under Charles IL The act of toleration was passed in 1689.
SIMPLICITY OF LIFE. Baptists were of the common folks, and dressed plainly like the Friends. The common dress of that time was like that of modern Quakers, but they varied it in some details. Their ministers were called elders, and had to engage in secular work for support. Fasting and washing of the feet was generally practiced, and anointing of the sick was the rule.
They had strict discipline, not allowing any to marry out of the church. Very few amusements were allowed. Close watch was kept on manners and morals. Extravagance and luxury was sternly rebuked.
Bunyan was a Baptist and had been imprisoned for preaching, when he wrote his wonderful book.
DIVISIONS. It was impertinence to invite a sinner to believe in Christ, for this was the office of the Holy Spirit. Their idea was that they were to comfort the saints and warn the sinners, but to invite them to be saved was useless.
As they grew into a larger church, discussions on doctrine divided them into the Congregationalists and Unitarians. Then a period of stagnation came when the churches did not grow. They did not yet have the vision of missions. They had hardly any great preachers for nearly one hundred years (1689-1789). Then came the Wesleyan revival. The year 1790 ushered in an era of missions, and the churches began to grow again.
The Baptists were divided into those of the Calvinistic doctrine, and the Arminian Baptists. Arminius, professor in Leiden, Holland, was a great preacher of freedom of belief to all men; Calvin held all men to one belief.
Although there had been people of the church .tid school of Columba who taught immersion and kept the seventh-day Sabbath, and had been Aclispersed earlier by the pope, some Baptists at za. later date also received the Sabbath truth. :Seventh Day Baptists were started by Francis Bampfield, a graduate of Oxford, in 1676. One church still survives in Whitechapel, London.
II. BAPTIST BEGINNINGS IN AMERICA.
In America they settled in Rhode Island, and also in Alfred Center, New York. Later some accepted the Adventist faith.
Baptists grew rapidly in America. It was a period of great spiritual revival and of prominent preachers, influenced by C. H. Spurgeon, of England. Our best spiritual songs come from this period, and this revival prepared the way for the third angel's message.
Roger Williams and Henry Ward Beecher kept individual liberty alive in contrast to that of the Puritans, whose liberty was for themselves only. But in harmony with the experience of every church, large numbers brought in worldliness and a dangerous trend in the last century. Open communion is now allowed to any Christian. Any believer in Christ may become a member, whether baptized or not. During the Revolution, Baptists prospered greatly because every member was a loyal Patriot, whereas among the members of the other churches there were Tories.
MISSIONS. Baptist missions started in 181o, and grew with the westward settlement of America. Baptist missions in England began with William Carey in 1793.
ADVENT MESSAGE. The Advent message came at a time of great advance in Protestant denominations. It was when spiritual life was at its best. The message was first given to the Baptists, but they rejected it, and spiritual decline came in, for they were left to be deceived by the papal power.
MEMBERSHIP. The growth of the Baptists was phenomenal, but they could have doubled their membership had they reached the rich. They missed opportunities for lack of money.
DIVISIONS. At first American Baptists required that only believers with a strong emotional experience should be baptized. Then the Campbellites taught that an intellectual belief was sufficient. They felt Baptists exalted the emotional side of religion too much, also that remission of sins was not confined to the rite of baptism. This discussion of belief started among the western Baptist churches and became a hindrance to their growth. At times whole churches were lost because of it.
Agitation was also started over membership in the Masonic Lodge. This and the slavery question caused division in the church.
EDUCATION. The first attempt at education for ministers was at the Rhode Island State College, and it was a failure. A theological school was then established at Hamilton, New York, in 1817, and one at Newton Center, Massachusetts, in 1825. Later there was formed a Baptist Young People's Union in 1891.
