Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 6

...[T]he ideas of the Reconstructionists have penetrated into Protestant circles that for the most part are unaware of the original source of the theological ideas that are beginning to transform them.
- Gary North, Unholy Spirits, 1986

A new system of schools and a new curriculum based on the theology and philosophy of the reformers is taking root, sprouting and budding in church classrooms across America.... A Christian curriculum based upon the Biblical Theism of the reformers is taking shape in a form equal to or superior to that of government education and is gaining a quality of credibility against a growing opposition.
- Donald Howard, founder of Accelerated Christian Education, Rebirth of Our Nation

We are now in a position to fuse together in a working activist movement the three major legs of the Reconstructionist movement: the Presbyterian-oriented educators, the Baptist school headmasters and pastors, and the charismatic telecommunications system. When this takes place, the whole shape of American religious life will be transformed.
- Gary North, Backwards Christian Soldiers? An American Manual For Christian Reconstructionism, 1984

Baptist Quotes of Liberty Vol. VI

[Editor's note: The following quote from CH Spurgeon has a lot! It applies to Baptist history, Baptist thought on religious freedom, and the Baptist view of government. In particular the portion at the end shows how Baptists should feel regarding yoking up to the government, i.e, 501(c)3 incorporation.]

We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the Reformation; we were Reformers before Luther or Calvin were born. We never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the state, to prostitute the purity of the bride of Christ to any alliance with the government, and we will never make the church, although the queen, the despot over the consciences of men.

- Charles Haddon Spurgeon

Baptist Influence on the Republic of Texas

Earlier today, I posted the Declaration of Rights from the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas on one of my other blogs, Dixie Historical Society. The following is one of seventeen Rights outlined at the end of the Texas Constitution.

Third. No preference shall be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship over another, but every person shall be permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

What makes this so interesting to me, is that this statement is clearly influenced by Baptist thought. Historically, Baptists have been the only religious group that have stood firmly in favor of complete and unabridged religious liberty and tolerance. The phrase, "the dictates of his own conscience", is one often used by Baptists, along with "Liberty of conscience". I began wondering what kind of an influence did Baptists have on the early settlement of Texas?

After doing some digging, I found my answers.

According to the Texas Almanac, Baptists were some of the first to evangelize Texas. Baptists began arriving in Texas shortly after Stephen Austin's call for colonists.

In 1820, Baptist preacher Joseph Bays camped on the American side of Sabine River with other colonists. Bays quickly began doing the typical Baptists thing - making a general nuisance of himself by getting the Gospel out. Bays ventured into the Spanish territory to preach, and was ordered out by the authorities. About three years later, he was arrested in San Felipe for preaching the Gospel, but escaped from his captors while being taken to San Antonio for trial. Sneaky Baptist.

The first recorded Baptist church in Texas was organized in Bastrop County in1834. There may have been more, but keep in mind, their churches were technically illegal in Texas at this point in time.

Baptists brought Sunday Schools to Texas very early on, the first of which were organized in 1829. One was organized by T. J. Pilgrim at San Felipe (the same place where a few years earlier Joseph Bays was arrested for preaching), and another was organized by New York Baptists at Matagorda.

Baptists would continue to have an influence in Texas throughout the Lone Star Republic years, and beyond. But it is clear that their efforts had an influence early on, particularly when it came to religious liberty.

Swampfox

Dead, But Not Silent

In the last few years, quite a number of the Baptist preachers who are recognized as "great" men have gone home. Several of these led long prosperous lives, while others just did make their "three score and ten".

June 2009 has brought us the loss of Joe Boyd and Carl Hatch. No matter what your personal feelings toward either of these men are, one cannot deny that they did a lot to get the Gospel of Jesus Christ out, and made known abroad throughout these United States.

Joe Boyd

Joseph Milton Boyd was born on May 5, 1917, and died on June 1, 2009. Joe Boyd is most well-known for his tent revivals across various parts of the country, but he also started and pastored three churches, and founded the Mt. Salem Revival Grounds in West Union, West Virginia.

Joe Boyd spent over 62 years preaching the Gospel.

Carl Hatch

Carl hatch was another Baptist evangelist who was well-known for getting out the Gospel. He died on June 14, 2009, after a long battle with a lung disease. (This entry will be updated as soon as more biographical information becomes available.)

Liberty Now & Forever!

Baptist Contributions to Religious Freedom
The Baptist Studies Bulletin
http://tinyurl.com/9z2l8g

"Biblical Basis for Church-State Separation"
By J. Brent Walker

Baptists became champions of religious liberty and church-state separation in large measure because we are a people of the Book. For many Baptists, religious liberty is well grounded in Scripture. Its taproot runs deep into the creation accounts in Genesis. The creation of human beings in God’s own image necessarily implies a freedom on our part to choose for or against a relationship with God, voluntarily and without coercion.
http://tinyurl.com/cjpp7z

Baptist influence on history of U.S., world a mixed bag, historians say
By Robert Marus/Associated Baptist Press

"The Baptist people did not accidentally stumble upon the idea of religious liberty after years of opposing the idea; they were born crying for freedom of expression,” he said, in a recent speech about 17th-century Baptist leader John Clarke.
http://tinyurl.com/c3vw7l

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 5

The United States is one of the few countries that practices religious tolerance....Today we have too much freedom.
- Civics LifePac 9.1, Highschool level, Alpha-Omega Publications

Liberty of conscience means..."Nobody is going to tell me what I should do or believe." Taken out of balance and pursued to its extremes..., it becomes a license to disregard all authority with which we do not happen to agree at the time.
- Peter Marshall & David Manuel, The Light and the Glory, 1977

So let us be about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible based social, political and religious order which finally denies the religious liberties of the enemies of God.
- Gary North, The Failure of the American Baptist Culture, 1982

The long-term goal of Christians in politics should be to gain exclusive control over the franchise. Those who refuse to submit publicly to the eternal sanctions of God by submitting to His Church's public marks of the covenant - baptism and holy communion - must be denied citizenship, just as they were in ancient Israel.
- Gary North

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 4

...[T]he U.S. Constitution is judicially anti-Christian. It is an explicitly covenantal document; it is also explicitly not Christian. It was designed that way. But if not Christian, then it must be anti-Christian. What Madison and the framers proposed was a revolutionary break from the history of mankind's governments, with only one glaring exception: the state of Rhode Island...the Framers adopted it as the judicial foundation of the proposed national government.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism, 1989

James Madison was a covenant-breaking genius, and the heart and soul of his genius was his commitment to religious neutralism. He devised a Constitution that for two centuries has fooled even the most perceptive Christian social philosophers of each generation into thinking that Madison was not what he was: a Unitarian theocrat whose goal was to snuff out the civil influence of the Trinitarian churches whenever they didn't support his brainchild. For two centuries, his demonic plan has worked.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism

There is no escape from this conclusion: the United States Constitution is an atheistic, humanistic covenant.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism

In order to make the results of their closed-door conspiracy sound more authoritative and legitimate, the conspirators added these words in the Preamble: "We the People". Democracy literally means "people's rule". The sovereignty of the people is the basis of the modern democratic order.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism

James Madison and the Framers put forth a new national covenant based upon [Roger] Williams' model in 1787, and the voters' representatives ratified it in 1788. We live under its jurisdiction still. We will not live under it forever.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism

Politically, the only legitimate long-term biblical goal is the creation of a world-wide theocratic republic.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism