Baptist History

History…times gone by. What are we but what we were? The historian’s pen as well as the publisher’s money can and often do control present thinking with the hope of changing future thinking and actions. Convince people of a certain past and command the present; that is the goal of modern historical ‘novels’. The history of the Baptists in America has not necessarily been hidden, but has been lumped together with every other professing ‘Christian’ religion. Christendom, as viewed in the minds of the unregenerate thinkers of our country, includes Catholics, Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, and many others as well as Baptists. Some may ask what difference it makes considering that the focus is on the same God, the same Heaven, the same Hell, and the same Saviour. The difference goes to the beginnings of these denominations. When a sect of ‘Christendom’ can be traced to a man or a certain group of people removed from Jesus Christ or the Apostles, it takes away from the authority of what is preached from that sect. When a lost person sees that ‘all’ Christian denominations begin with a man or a group from the 4th century through the 18th century, and they all teach and preach things a little different, then it makes rejecting the truth of God easier. How easy is it to reject the false ideas of cults when their background and roots are known? What if the history of a certain denomination can be traced backed to the Apostles, or Jesus Christ, or John the Baptist? Would that hold more weight that a denomination that came out of a worldly ‘religion’ in the 16th century? No doubt the devil would fight against such a lineage.
When a move was made to a country where the promise of religious freedom permeated the air, Satan formed a plan. How could he let a nation be controlled by people that love God and had faced untold persecution through the ages? When Satan can’t stop a work that is blessed by God, rest assured that he will not let future generations learn the truth and be strengthened to continue doing the things that labor against his evil designs. Baptists have been slighted by historians that may actually be innocent of the evil intentions of the Wicked One. The god of this world blinds the eyes of them that believe not (2 Cor. 4:4). A brief scan through a modern public school or secular college history text book will illuminate the mind of any Baptist that thinks history is fair to their denomination.
This paper will not attempt to reconstruct the entire history of the Baptists through the ages, but will focus on the history of the Baptists and those with baptistic beliefs in America. It is not enough just to follow the line of those who hold the name ‘Baptist’ in the title of their church, but to follow those who have held to the doctrines of the New Testament without corruption or error, no matter what persecution they were threatened with.
When the New World was discovered and opened up to settlers, Baptistic people saw an opportunity that could not be wasted. After years, decades, and even centuries of persecution, a land of freedom uncorrupted by the religious establishments of Europe, Asia and Africa held a bright hope for them. Since Baptists (the use of this word will not necessarily be limited to established churches with ‘Baptist’ in the title, but people that have held to the tenets of the New Testament) have always been independent and not under the yoke of a religious hierarchy, it is often hard to see their move to America. The Church of England, the Presbyterians, Congregationalists, Methodists, etc. all made denominational moves to the New World. Why is this even a consideration? The fact that all of the ‘Protestant’ denominations not only came out of the Catholic Church, but have all been interested in civil matters and ruling over the people in their secular lives, shows that all of them had designs on setting up a religious governmental system to rule over the peoples of the land. The Baptists came to the new world to escape the religious rule of other denominations and had no desire to rule in civil or even social matters. The belief that all men should be free to worship the way they see fit was the spark that started the fire in the hearts of those who braved the waters to step foot on new soil. Baptists didn’t believe in forcing their beliefs on others, but they did believe in the freedom to witness for Jesus Christ.
There were several groups that suffered the persecution of the ruling class in order to give the religious freedom America experiences today. Without trying to give explanations of every incident and reasons for why things happened, we will simply follow the beginnings of Baptists in America and trace their movement throughout American history as space allows.
To look at the first Baptists in America will bring a picture of a man named Roger Williams. Born in London around 1599, Williams attended ST Sepulcher’s church and won a scholarship to Cambridge. Among the subjects he mastered were languages, theology, stenography and short hand. His skills came to the attention of Sir Edward Coke, who was involved in the legal process against Sir Walter Raleigh and the members of the Gunpowder Plot. Williams became the office manager for Coke, helping him in his court duties. His views were shaped by the Separatist leaders of England and the independent mind of Coke and others opposed to King Charles I. The main vein of thought was the right to worship as a separate church, independent of the Church of England. This may have been a novel thought to most of the Separatist leaders of the time, but was comfortably entrenched in the minds of Baptists since the time of Christ. Williams was opposed to many of the practices and ideas of the established religious order of that day (the New England Congregational Church of Massachusetts) including The Oath of a Freeman, which required that a man not only swear allegiance to the commonwealth government, but also be a member in good standing of the Congregational, or standing order, church. Williams was burdened for the American Indians and began to publicly protest the “Law of Patents”, which ‘authorized’ Christian Kings to claim land by conquest or discovery, which he thought was nothing but robbery. This stand caused him to lose his pulpit in Salem. Perhaps the most Baptist like stand he took was against the “First Table of the Law” which gave national government the right to impose religious beliefs on citizens. Williams was banished from Massachusetts but did not wait to be deported. Instead, he fled into the American wilderness with his family. This move led to the founding of a colony called Providence and the approval of the first public document establishing government without interference in religious matters, The Providence Compact.
About this same time in Boston the Court of Deputies made anabaptism a crime, along with rejecting certain Calvinist doctrines. The Boston Court also banished a preacher named Wheelwright for his opinions about how a person could know he was saved. This would become known as experimental religion or being born again, which the Court decided was illegal to believe or preach. Wheelwright, after refusing to cease preaching these ideas, was disfranchised, disarmed and banished. In the middle of this struggle for biblical truth came a man named Dr. John Clarke. Knowing that Mr. Wheelwright and other disfranchised citizens were very popular could lead to danger or conflict. Dr. Clarke became the leader of the banished brethren and became the ‘Moses’ of Aquetneck Island. His suggestion that they move in order to keep the peace led a group of 18 families to New Hampshire in the winter of 1637-38. They moved again by sailing vessel heading to Delaware. They didn’t make it but sailed into the Narragansett Bay to lodge with Roger Williams. Mr. Williams convinced the travelers to consider the Island of Aquetneck in the spring of 1638. After receiving assurance from Plymouth that the island was out of the Pilgrim and Puritan jurisdiction, they purchased Aquetneck from the Indian sachems, Caunannicus and Miantinomi, and rename the island the Isle of Rhodes, or Rhode Island. This was the setting, just 75 miles southwest from Boston, which brought forth the Portsmouth Compact, which protected religious opinion. John Clarke was the main designer of this Compact, which was written on the Isle of Rhodes and signed on March 7, 1638. This was the first document that severed both political and religious ties with mother England.
The first Baptist Church in America was no doubt the group of believers associated with the Portsmouth Compact. Dr. John Clarke was a man that not only organized this church, but wrote the third and fourth most important document in American history: the Portsmouth Compact and the Rhode Island Constitution, was called upon to state his beliefs and left behind a statement of faith that leaves no doubt about his belief in the Bible, the blood, man’s sinful condition and the work of grace in the hearts of those receiving Christ as Saviour. While some sources refute the date the church was founded, there can be no debate that those believers worshipped as a ‘called out assembly’. Satan has long tried to box up the church inside a building, with confining walls and religious leaders. To reckon a group of saved, Spirit-led believers would not worship the God that redeemed them is absurd. This church became known as the Newport Baptist Church.
By 1663 there were 4 Baptist churches in America: The First Baptist Church, Newport, Rhode Island, 1638; the First Baptist Church, Providence, Rhode Island, 1639; Second
Baptist Church, Newport, Rhode Island, 1656; and the First Baptist Church, Swansea, Massachusetts, 1663. There was about to be a fifth, the Boston Baptist Church. This was brought about by the efforts of a man named Thomas Gould, who was a member of the first Congregation church in Boston. His mind often traveled the path of Bible versus religion on the issues of church membership, regeneration and infant baptism. He received encouragement and was influenced by Henry Dunster, who lost his position as President of Harvard for his opposition to the practice of infant baptism. In the year 1655 Gould began to articulate his doubts about the validity of infant baptism, even refusing to have his infant daughter baptized by Zechariah Symmes, the pastor of the church at Charlestown. Later that year he was summoned to a meeting at the church to discuss his refusal. This was the first of many meetings to dissuade Mr. Gould of his biblical beliefs. His conscience would not allow him to be brought back into religious falsehood and he began protesting by walking out during infant baptism, or turning his back while a christening was conducted. He was threatened with beatings and excommunication and even spent time in jail. Thomas Gould’s courage inspired other believers to officially begin the Baptist church in Boston on May 28, 1665. The members were Thomas Gould, Thomas Osburne, Edward Drinker, John George, Richard Goodale, William Turner, Robert Lambert, Mary Goodale, and Mary Newell. After many battles and imprisonments, not to mention many years, the church was granted permission to meet as a church in February of 1681 by the court. This date did not mark the beginning of the church, which began when saved people gathered together to worship God, but only documented the ‘official right’ to be a church. It seems that no matter what believers do, especially Baptists that desire no relation to government, there is always a secular/religious group that wants to control worship that should be given freely by men to God.
There are many other instances of churches starting in America, no doubt many that are not recorded in any history text and some that were forgotten by even the staunchest of Baptists. Religion in America was the great catalyst that formed a great nation. It was not that there was no religion in other countries, but this was an unusual situation. America, while suffering many political regimes, was to be a free, independent nation. This meant not only political freedom, but also religious freedom. The group that benefited most from this freedom was the Baptists. Why would sinful man have a problem with any denomination that did not point to his lost condition? If an infant could receive grace by being sprinkled with water, then that led all ‘civilized’ and religious people to deny their own sinful state. The fight against the new birth and believer’s baptism is one that continues in America today. The main opponents are the unbelievers that are prodded by Satan to disrupt and challenge the true faith, the false religions bent on human works to bring in a perfect state, the denominational sects that appease their flesh by performing penitent works, and the modernist upheaval in Baptist churches. These together form the best effort of the enemy to bring down the truth of the Word of God. Many in America today have been deceived by the myriad of lies, half truths, and covered-up history about the Baptists, and have been led to have more respect for obviously corrupt denominations, sects and religions. Perhaps the most destructive tactic of the enemy is sowing tares among the wheat, by inserting unsaved people into our Baptist churches, or leaving the whole lump with false ideas. Our enemy has control over the minds of our society and the information our society receives, that all the wrong that is done in true churches will be brought out, all the wrong done in other denominations will reflect on our churches, and any good that comes out will be looked upon with disdain and criticism.
Seeing the enemy shouldn’t cause alarm because true born again believers know he is out there already. The sighting of an enemy in times of conflict is a good thing since an enemy that is hidden can cause more harm by attacking unfortified defensive positions. When the Baptist churches of America can see the enemy, then the battle cry can be sounded and a glorious victory for Jesus Christ can be won, leading to many more souls saved and Baptist churches founded. Thank God for his ‘providence’ in establishing a country where Baptists can flourish and impact the world with His glorious gospel in these last days.