I. Background History A. A Review of Church History up to the Reformation B. A Review of the Reformation 1. Predecessors to the Reformation 2. Key Concepts of the Reformation 3. The Radical Reformation C. The Church in Sixteenth and Seventeenth

Century England 1. The Establishment of the Church of England 2. The English Separatists

By Scripture aloneScripture alone is the source of authority

By faith aloneJustification comes by faith

“not by works lest any man should boast”(Ephesians 2.9)

By grace aloneSalvation comes by God’s grace

“By grace are you saved through faith”(Ephesians 2.8)

One of the marks of the true church is where the Word of God is

rightly preached“How shall they hear without a preacher?”

(Romans 10.14)

The Radical ReformationThe Anabaptists

Rejected Infant Baptism Baptized Believers

The Church of EnglandThe Church of EnglandKing Henry VIII

English SeparatistsEnglish Separatists

II. The Early Baptists A. Identity 1. The name “Baptist” 2. Baptist Distinctives 3. Baptists are not THE church

B. Theories of Origin 1. Successionism 2. Anabaptist Spiritual Kinship 3. From English Separatists

4. Lollard influence C. The First Baptists 1. The General Baptists 2. The Particular Baptists

THE RISE OF THE BAPTISTSTHE RISE OF THE BAPTISTS

Who?What?

Where?When?How?

Baptist DistinctivesBaptist DistinctivesCongregational Polity

Two Ordinances

Believer’s Baptism Lord’s Supper

Authority of Scripture

Religious Liberty

Separation of Church and State

Local Church Autonomy

Priesthood of All Believers

“I am a Baptist”may mean

(1). “A ‘convention’ Baptist gains identity by alignment with, for example, the

Southern Baptist Convention.”

(2). “A ‘cultural’ Baptist gains identity based upon geographical location (e.g., Texas

Baptist, Virginia Baptist) or orthodoxy of belief (e/g., Bible-believing Baptist). “

Walter B. ShurdenThe Baptist Identity: Four Fragile

Freedoms

(a) Bible freedom (b) Soul freedom

(c) Church freedom (d) Religious freedom

A Baptist Acrostic (a). Biblical authority (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Timothy 3:16-17) (b). Autonomy of the local church (Matt. 18:15–17; 1 Cor. 6:1-3) (c). Priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5-9; 1 Timothy 5) (d). Two ordinances (believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper) (Acts 2:4147

1 Cor. 11:23-32) (e). Individual soul liberty (Romans 14:5–12)

(f). Separation of Church and State (Matthew 22:15–22) (g) Two offices of the church (pastor-elder and deacon) (1 Timothy 3:1-13;

Titus 1–2)

Bill J. Leonard Baptist Questions, Baptist Answers

(a). Biblical authority is normative for faith and practice(b). The church is a community of believers who can testify to an experience of grace

through faith in Christ.(c). Baptism is administered to those who testify to faith and is by immersion.(d). Baptist and the Lord’s Supper are the two “ordinances” of the church.(e). The authority of Christ is mediated through the congregation of believers. each

congregation has the autonomy to determine its ministry and method.(f). Congregations may join together in “associations” of churches for mutual ministry

and fellowship.(g). The priesthood of all believers means that all baptized believers are “called” to

minister to others in the world. Both laity and clergy are called to minister in the church and the world.

(h). Certain persons are “set aside” for the ministry of the Word and pastoral service in the church.

(i). Religious liberty should be normative in the state.(j). Liberty of conscience means that believers can be trusted to interpret Scripture

aright in the context of community under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Daniel Vestal

(a). nonhierarchical approach to doing church—hierarchical structures diminish personal faith and individual responsibility

(b). a non-creedal approach to faith—Baptists use confessions which are voluntarily accepted (we will deal with this in a separate lecture)

(c). individual and corporate freedom—note other lists that speak of soul freedom and local church autonomy

(d). personal experience of God’s grace through Christ—thus the Lordship of Christ has priority and the church, both local and universal, is made up of believers

Martin E. Marty“Baptistification Takes Over,”

Christianity Today September 2, 1983

“Hallmarks of the Baptist Identity and Focal Points of the Baptist Vision”

FreedomChoice

Voluntarism

Theories of Baptist Origin

• Successionism

• Anabaptist Spiritual Kinship

• English Separatists

Baptist Successionism:An Analysis

Morgan W. Patterson Baptist Successionism: A Critical ViewValley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1969.

Anabaptist Spiritual KinshipJames Leo Garrett

Baptist Theology: A Four Century Study

“Anabaptist influence can be most clearly seen in believer’s baptism as constitutive of a truly ordered church, church discipline as necessary, the New Testament as superior to the Old Testament, and religious freedom for all humans”

English Separatists

The Church of England

Separatists

Baptists

Presbyterians

Congregationalists

Quakers

Inde

pend

ents

English SeparatistsJames Leo Garrett

Baptist Theology: A Four Century Study

“English Separatist influence can be most accurately identified in terms of humanity’s Adamic disability, the Bible as the rule of faith and practice, the priesthood of all Christians, and congregational polity”

Woodcut of the Burning of the Lollard Sir John Oldcastle in 1413

John Smyth and Thomas Helwys

From England to Amsterdam and back to England

England Amsterdam England

Thomas HelywsA Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity

1612“The king is a mortal man and not God; therefore has no power over the immortal souls of his subjects, to make laws and ordinances for them, and to set spiritual lords over them.”

Particular BaptistsParticular Baptists

From the “JLJ Church” to the

First London Confession of Faith in 1644

Particular BaptistsParticular BaptistsThe turn from

Pouring to immersion

III. Some Concluding Points A. Walter B. Shurden

B. Timothy George on the Reformation Influence C. Bill Leonard—Five Key Points

D. Bruce Gourley

Walter B. Shurden“The Baptist Identity and the Baptist Manifesto”

“Baptists do not agree on where they came from, who they are, or how they got that way. In other words, Baptists do not agree on their historical origin, their theological identity, or their subsequent denominational history”

Timothy George

“For Baptists the great doctrines of the Reformation were refracted through the prism of persecution and dissent which informed their intense advocacy of religious liberty and the separation of church and state”

Bill J. LeonardThe Challenge of Being Baptist

1. “[Baptist] congregations must exercise greater intentionality in exploring and defining the nature of the Baptist heritage for themselves.”

2. “Baptists should not succumb to the fallacy of origins, that noble but naïve belief that there exists a pristine, systematic, and unified source of Baptist identity in the beginning that need only be discovered and installed.”

3. “Baptists might come to understand their classic ‘distinctives’ as significant ideals that are ever held in tension, in a continuing and elusive quest for balance.”

4. “Baptists would do well to continue to cultivate their role as religious dissenters from establishments political and religious.”

5. “Baptists might remember that historically and theologically there are many ways to be a Baptist.”

Bruce Gourley“A Very Brief Introduction to Baptist

History, Then and Now”

“Those who would research Baptist history via the Internet be warned: there is an abundance of information about Baptist history, much of which comes from biased perspectives originating from personal agendas.

A old saying among Baptists notes that when two Baptists get together, three different opinions result! This is quite evident when one reads online Baptist history resources, and the discerning reader will pay attention to biases evidenced within web sites.

History, in fact, is subject to various (and often contradictory) interpretations, and Baptist history is not exempt from the interpretive confusion. Indeed, Baptists have long been in disagreement over how they originated!”