Baptist History & Heritage

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 6

2009-08-17T12:09:00.000-07:00

...[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

2009-06-25T11:56:00.000-07:00

[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

2009-06-24T10:35:00.000-07:00

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

2009-06-15T11:34:00.000-07:00

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!

2009-03-17T13:19:00.000-07:00

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

2008-08-21T12:16:00.000-07:00

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

2008-07-04T13:09:00.000-07:00

...[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

As With Roses Released

2008-07-03T14:33:00.000-07:00

I mentioned the movie, As With Roses, before. It has now come out on DVD. The following is another trailer that Shiloh Films has put out.

The road to religious freedom is one that is bathed in the blood of Baptist persecution.

You can purchase As With Roses by going to ShilohWeb.org.

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 3

2008-07-03T13:24:00.000-07:00

...[N]o disestablishment of religion as such is possible in any society...there can be no tolerance in a law-system for another religion.
- Rousas J. Rushdoony, The Institutes of Biblical Law, A Chalcedon Study with Three Appendices by Gary North, 1972

..[T]o make the Declaration of Independence into a fundamental statement of the political philosophy upon which the United States was founded is both misguided and futile.
- William Einwechter, Religious Right leader, "Declaration of Independence and National Renewal", The Christian Statesman, July-August 2000

A third myth is that the Declaration has, or once had, some sort of legal standing in American law. It never had the force of law. It was a very superior piece of wartime propaganda, but it was no more legally binding than one of Thomas Paine's pamphlets.
- Gary North, The Journal of Christian Reconstruction, Vol. 3 N. 1, 1976

It was against the Puritan's vision of a New Israel in the New England wilderness that the citizens of Rhode Island rebelled, and in doing so, they led the world, step by step, into a political conspiracy against God.
- Gary North, Political Polytheism

Forgotten Baptists III

2008-06-25T17:09:00.000-07:00

Seditious Baptist Books

The year was 1664, and the young man standing before the judge for sentencing was a Baptist minister named Benjamin Keach, only twenty-four years old. A few weeks earlier he had published a little book, entitled The Child's Instructor; of, a New and Easy Primer, to be used for the religious instruction of children. Copies of the book had sold rapidly, and one had fallen into the hands of the local justice of the peace. Horrified by Keach's printed statement that "believers, or godly men and women only, who can make confession of their faith and repentance," were the only fit subjects for Christian baptism, the justice of the peace had Keach seized and jailed until a speedy trial could be arranged. The evidence had been placed before the jury and he was soon found guilty.

Thus Benjamin Keach was called to the bar, and the judge passed sentence as follows: "Benjamin Keach, you are here convicted, for writing, and publishing, a seditious and schismatical book, for which the court's judgment is this, and the court doth award: That you shall go to gaol for a fortnight without bail or mainprize; and the next Saturday, to stand upon the pillory at Ailsbury, in the open market, for the space of two hours, from eleven of the clock to one.. And the next Thursday, to stand in the same manner and for the same time, in the market of Winslow; and there your book shall be openly burnt, before your face, by the common hangman, in disgrace to you and your doctrine."

The sentence was carried out to the letter, but to the judge's surprise, young Keach used his time in the pillory to preach to the throngs in the marketplace. When he was forced to stop speaking by the sheriff, his young wife stood beside the pillory and continued her husband's sermon.

--from The Forgotten Heritage: A Lineage of Great Baptist Preaching by Thomas R. McKibbens, Jr. (p.16).

John Weatherford

The amazing story of Pastor John Weatherford of Chesterfield County [Virginia] represents a classic illustration of the church-state intolerance prevailing at that time. Weatherford, a father of fifteen, spent six months in the county gaol [in 1773] for "preaching without a license." However, his oppressors soon discovered that they had more on their hands than they had bargained for. So many locals started getting converted below the grates of Weatherford' s cell that the magistrate ordered a twelve-foot wall be erected directly in front of the preacher's window. However, they quickly learned, to their chagrin, that out of sight was not out of range! When Weatherford' s faithful congregation assembled for "church", a handkerchief on a pole would be raised as the signal that they were ready for the Sunday sermon. The man of God then proceeded to throw his voice through the grates, over the twelve-foot impediment. Such an unorthodox "worship service" was known back then as "denying the prison bounds."

Pastor Weatherford was eventually released after a lawyer by the name of Patrick Henry paid his fine. Today, a giant memorial bearing witness to the preacher's ordeal can be viewed less than twenty feet from the site of the incarceration itself. His final resting place is not so easy to find, however. A small, worn headstone bearing the sole inscription, "J.W.", stands by itself in an obscure clump of trees in the middle of a field about a mile from the road behind the Shockoe Baptist Church in Java, Virginia.

--From How Satan Turned America Against God by William P. Grady (p.140).

Forgotten Baptists II

2008-06-19T13:07:00.000-07:00

James Petigru Boyce
The Encyclopedia Americana, 1918

BOYCE, James Petigru, American clergyman:

b. Charleston, S. C, 11 Jan. 1827; d. Peau, France, 28 Dec. 1888. He was graduated at Brown University in 1847 and studied theology at Princeton from 1849 till April 1851. He was ordained to the ministry in December of the latter year and settled at Columbia, S. C. In 1855 he became professor of theology in Furman University. He was elected professor in the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary at Greenville, S. C., February 1858, and entered upon the duties of the office in October 1859. The operations of the seminary having been practically suspended during the Civil War, he entered the confederate army as a chaplain and served in that capacity for six months. He was elected to the legislature of South Carolina in 1862 and re-elected in 1864. In 1863 he devised a plan for extinguishing the Confederate debt and was appointed a special commissioner to secure its adoption. After the war he gave his attention to the resuscitating and re-establishing the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky, and in 1874, secured pledges to the amount of $90,000 for the support of the seminary. For several successive years he was president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He contributed frequently to current literature and published several volumes of sermons and addresses. He received the degrees of S.T.D and LL.D. from Columbian and Union (Tenn.) Universities, respectively.

[The Encyclopedia Americana: A Library of Universal Knowledge, 1918, p. 372. — jrd]

Forgotten Baptists

2008-06-19T13:00:00.000-07:00

J. M. C. Breaker
The Baptist Encyclopedia

Rev. J. M. C. Breaker was born near Camden, Kershaw District, S. C., July 25, 1824; graduated from Furman Literary and Theological Institution, Fairfield, S. C., June, 1846; ordained to the ministry July 3, 1846; has been pastor of Greenville, Granville, Beaufort, Columbia, Spartansburg, S. C.; Newbern, N. C.; Park Avenue, St. Louis, Liberty and First church, St. Joseph, Mo.; and has been pastor at Houston, Texas, since April, 1877, where he is excelled by no other city minister in ability and influence; for several years was secretary of the South Carolina Baptist State Convention; founded and edited at Columbia, S. C., during the war, a weekly paper called The Confederate Baptist; received the degree of D. D. from Lagrange College, Mo.; is a life-member of the American Baptist Missionary Union, American Baptist Publication Society, and the American Bible Society; has baptized 1520 persons; is author of a prize essay on "Communion," published in 1859, and has contributed a number of articles to the Christian Review and other perioicals [sic].

[From The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881; rpt. 1988, pp. 131-132. - jrd]

Pawing in the Valley - Lester Roloff

2008-06-12T13:13:00.000-07:00

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 2

2008-06-11T17:12:00.000-07:00

The Reformation was essentially a revival of Augustinianism.
- Loraine Boettner, Reformed theologian, The Reformed Doctrine of Predestination, 1932

The Reformers refused to others the right of protest which they claimed and exercised for themselves, and the civil magistracy visited the poor Anabaptists with capital punishment.
- Phillip Schaff, History of the Christian Church, 1910

The history of the Anabaptists of the Reformation period has yet to be written from an impartial, unsectarian standpoint. The political attitude of the Reformers against them has warped the judgment of historians. They were cruelly treated in their lifetime by Romanists and Protestants, and misrepresented after their death as a set of heretical and revolutionary fanatics who could not be tolerated in a Christian state.
- Phillip Schaff, The Baptist Quarterly Review, 1890, vol. 12, No. 43

In order that the dangerous, wicked, turbulent and seditious sect of the Baptists may be eradicated, we have thus decreed:
If anyone is suspected of rebaptism, he is to be warned by the magistracy to leave the territory under penalty of the designated punishment. Foreign Baptists are to be driven out; if they return they shall be drowned.
- Huldrich Zwingli, Council of St. Gall, September 9, 1527

Anti-Liberty Quotes vol. 1

2008-06-10T17:40:00.000-07:00

We think it is as lawful for us to ask assistance against [the Donatists], as it was for Paul to employ a military force against the conspiration of factious men.
- Augustine, Bishop of Hippo

Opatus (an enemy of the Donatists) argued that the killing of the Donatists by Marcarius in his war against them for heresy, was sanctioned by Moses killing three thousand for worshiping the golden calf, and Phinehas and Elijah for those they killed.
- David Benedict, History of the Donatists

...[T]hey [the Anabaptists] are not only blasphemous but also seditious men, let the sword exercise its rights over them. For it is the will of God, that he shall have judgment who resisteth the power.
- Martin Luther

Augustine frequently made of this passage against the Donatists, to prove that godly princes may lawfully issue edicts, for compelling obstinate and rebellious persons to worship the true God, and to maintain the unity of the faith; for, though faith is voluntary, yet we see that such methods are useful for subduing the obstinacy of those who will not yield until they are compelled.
- John Calvin, Institutes, Commentary on Matthew, Mark, Luke, vol. 3

A Charge from Dr. Lee Roberson

2008-06-09T10:28:00.000-07:00

A Charge from the Life and Ministry of Dr. Lee Roberson

Baptist Quotes of Liberty vol. V

2008-06-06T14:37:00.000-07:00

Originally posted on the Swamp Fox Files as FREEDOM QUOTES VOL. XLVI, The Baptist Edition Part V

In all our history no name shines with a purer light than his whose memorial we have lately placed in the Capital. In the history of all the world there is no more striking example of a man grasping a grand idea, at once, in its full proportions, and all the completeness, and carrying it out, unflinchingly, to its remotest legitimate results. Roger Williams did not merely lay the foundations of religious freedom, he constructed the whole edifice, in all its impregnable strength, and in all its imperishable beauty....The religious freedom, which now, by general consent, underlies the foundation principles of civilized government.
- Senator Henry Anthony, official dedication of the statue of Roger Williams at the national capitol, 1872

...A most flourishing civil state may stand and best be maintained and that among our English subjects, with a full liberty in religious concernments.
- John Clarke

Thus for the first time in history, a form of government (Rhode Island) was adopted which drew a clear and unmistakable line between the temporal and the spiritual power, and a community came into being which was an anomaly among the nations.
- Professor J. L. Diman

...[I]t may be asserted that the future of America was in a large measure determined by that General Court which summoned Roger Williams to answer for "divers news and dangerous opinions", and his banishment became a pivotal act in universal history.
- Alonzo Williams

...[I]f I were asked whom to hold before the American people and the world to typify the American spirit of fairness, of freedom, of liberty in Church and State, I would without any hesitation select...the great and immortal Roger Williams. He became a Baptist...a community and a church which is famous for never having stained its hands with the blood of persecutors.
- Oscar S. Straus, first Jew to serve in a US presidential cabinet position

Dr Law & Dr Grace - Lester Roloff

2008-06-05T14:47:00.001-07:00

THE BLOUDY TENENT OF PERSECUTION

2008-06-05T14:09:00.000-07:00

Roger Williams (July 15, 1644)

First, that the blood of so many hundred thousand souls of Protestants and Papists, spilt in the wars of present and former ages, for their respective consciences, is not required nor accepted by Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace.

Secondly, pregnant scriptures and arguments are throughout the work proposed against the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience.

Thirdly, satisfactory answers are given to scriptures, and objections produced by Mr. Calvin, Beza, Mr. Cotton, and the ministers of the New English churches and others former and later, tending to prove the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience.

Fourthly, the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience is proved guilty of all the blood of the souls crying for vengeance under the altar.

Fifthly, all civil states with their officers of justice in their respective constitutions and administrations are proved essentially civil, and therefore not judges, governors, or defenders of the spiritual or Christian state and worship.

Sixthly, it is the will and command of God that (since the coming of his Son the Lord Jesus) a permission of the most paganish, Jewish, Turkish, or antichristian consciences and worships, be granted to all men in all nations and countries; and they are only to be fought against with that sword which is only (in soul matters) able to conquer, to wit, the sword of God's Spirit, the Word of God.

Seventhly, the state of the Land of Israel, the kings and people thereof in peace and war, is proved figurative and ceremonial, and no pattern nor president for any kingdom or civil state in the world to follow.

Eighthly, God requireth not a uniformity of religion to be enacted and enforced in any civil state; which enforced uniformity (sooner or later) is the greatest occasion of civil war, ravishing of conscience, persecution of Christ Jesus in his servants, and of the hypocrisy and destruction of millions of souls.

Ninthly, in holding an enforced uniformity of religion in a civil state, we must necessarily disclaim our desires and hopes of the Jew's conversion to Christ.

Tenthly, an enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh.

Eleventhly, the permission of other consciences and worships than a state professeth only can (according to God) procure a firm and lasting peace (good assurance being taken according to the wisdom of the civil state for uniformity of civil obedience from all forts).

Twelfthly, lastly, true civility and Christianity may both flourish in a state or kingdom, notwithstanding the permission of divers and contrary consciences, either of Jew or Gentile....

TRUTH. I acknowledge that to molest any person, Jew or Gentile, for either professing doctrine, or practicing worship merely religious or spiritual, it is to persecute him, and such a person (whatever his doctrine or practice be, true or false) suffereth persecution for conscience.

But withal I desire it may be well observed that this distinction is not full and complete: for beside this that a man may be persecuted because he holds or practices what he believes in conscience to be a truth (as Daniel did, for which he was cast into the lions' den, Dan. 6), and many thousands of Christians, because they durst not cease to preach and practice what they believed was by God commanded, as the Apostles answered (Acts 4 & 5), I say besides this a man may also be persecuted, because he dares not be constrained to yield obedience to such doctrines and worships as are by men invented and appointed....

Dear TRUTH, I have two sad complaints:

First, the most sober of the witnesses, that dare to plead thy cause, how are they charged to be mine enemies, contentious, turbulent, seditious?

Secondly, shine enemies, though they speak and rail against thee, though they outrageously pursue, imprison, banish, kill thy faithful witnesses, yet how is all vermilion'd o'er for justice against the heretics? Yea, if they kindle coals, and blow the flames of devouring wars, that leave neither spiritual nor civil state, but burn up branch and root, yet how do all pretend an holy war? He that kills, and he that's killed, they both cry out: "It is for God, and for their conscience."

'Tis true, nor one nor other seldom dare to plead the mighty Prince Christ Jesus for their author, yet (both Protestant and Papist) pretend they have spoke with Moses and the Prophets who all, say they (before Christ came), allowed such holy persecutions, holy wars against the enemies of holy church.

TRUTH. Dear PEACE (to ease thy first complaint), 'tis true, thy dearest sons, most like their mother, peacekeeping, peacemaking sons of God, have borne and still must bear the blurs of troublers of Israel, and turners of the world upside down. And 'tis true again, what Solomon once spake: "The beginning of strife is as when one letteth out water, therefore (saith he) leave off contention before it be meddled with. This caveat should keep the banks and sluices firm and strong, that strife, like a breach of waters, break not in upon the sons of men."

Yet strife must be distinguished: It is necessary or unnecessary, godly or Ungodly, Christian or unchristian, etc.

It is unnecessary, unlawful, dishonorable, ungodly, unchristian, in most cases in the world, for there is a possibility of keeping sweet peace in most cases, and, if it be possible, it is the express command of God that peace be kept (Rom. 13).

Again, it is necessary, honorable, godly, etc., with civil and earthly weapons to defend the innocent and to rescue the oppressed from the violent paws and jaws of oppressing persecuting Nimrods (Psal. 73; Job 29).

It is as necessary, yea more honorable, godly, and Christian, to fight the fight of faith, with religious and spiritual artillery, and to contend earnestly for the faith of Jesus, once delivered to the saints against all opposers, and the gates of earth and hell, men or devils, yea against Paul himself, or an angel from heaven, if he bring any other faith or doctrine....

PEACE. I add that a civil sword (as woeful experience in all ages has proved) is so far from bringing or helping forward an opposite in religion to repentance that magistrates sin grievously against the work of God and blood of souls by such proceedings. Because as (commonly) the sufferings of false and antichristian teachers harden their followers, who being blind, by this means are occasioned to tumble into the ditch of hell after their blind leaders, with more inflamed zeal of lying confidence. So, secondly, violence and a sword of steel begets such an impression in the sufferers that certainly they conclude (as indeed that religion cannot be true which needs such instruments of violence to uphold it so) that persecutors are far from soft and gentle commiseration of the blindness of others....

For (to keep to the similitude which the Spirit useth, for instance) to batter down a stronghold, high wall, fort, tower, or castle, men bring not a first and second admonition, and after obstinacy, excommunication, which are spiritual weapons concerning them that be in the church: nor exhortation to repent and be baptized, to believe in the Lord Jesus, etc., which are proper weapons to them that be without, etc. But to take a stronghold, men bring cannons, culverins, saker, bullets, powder, muskets, swords, pikes, etc., and these to this end are weapons effectual and proportionable.

On the other side, to batter down idolatry, false worship, heresy, schism, blindness, hardness, out of the soul and spirit, it is vain, improper, and unsuitable to bring those weapons which are used by persecutors, stocks, whips, prisons, swords, gibbets, stakes, etc. (where these seem to prevail with some cities or kingdoms, a stronger force sets up again, what a weaker pull'd down), but against these spiritual strongholds in the souls of men, spiritual artillery and weapons are proper, which are mighty through God to subdue and bring under the very thought to obedience, or else to bind fast the soul with chains of darkness, and lock it up in the prison of unbelief and hardness to eternity....

PEACE. I pray descend now to the second evil which you observe in the answerer's position, viz., that it would be evil to tolerate notorious evildoers, seducing teachers, etc.

TRUTH. I say the evil is that he most improperly and confusedly joins and couples seducing teachers with scandalous livers.

PEACE. But is it not true that the world is full of seducing teachers, and is it not true that seducing teachers are notorious evildoers?

TRUTH. I answer, far be it from me to deny either, and yet in two things I shall discover the great evil of this joining and coupling seducing teachers, and scandalous livers as one adequate or proper object of the magistrate's care and work to suppress and punish.

First, it is not an homogeneal (as we speak) but an hetergeneal commixture or joining together of things most different in kinds and natures, as if they were both of one consideration....

TRUTH. I answer, in granting with Brentius that man hath not power to make laws to bind conscience, he overthrows such his tenent and practice as restrain men from their worship, according to their conscience and belief, and constrain them to such worships (though it be out of a pretense that they are convinced) which their own souls tell them they have no satisfaction nor faith in.

Secondly, whereas he affirms that men may make laws to see the laws of God observed.

I answer, God needeth not the help of a material sword of steel to assist the sword of the Spirit in the affairs of conscience, to those men, those magistrates, yea that commonwealth which makes such magistrates, must needs have power and authority from Christ Jesus to fit judge and to determine in all the great controversies concerning doctrine, discipline, government, etc.

And then I ask whether upon this ground it must not evidently follow that:

Either there is no lawful commonw earth nor civil state of men in the world, which is not qualified with this spiritual discerning (and then also that the very commonweal hath more light concerning the church of Christ than the church itself).

Or, that the commonweal and magistrates thereof must judge and punish as they are persuaded in their own belief and conscience (be their conscience paganish, Turkish, or antichristian) what is this but to confound heaven and earth together, and not only to take away the being of Christianity out of the world, but to take away all civility, and the world out of the world, and to lay all upon heaps of confusion? . ..

PEACE. The fourth head is the proper means of both these powers to attain their ends.

First, the proper means whereby the civil power may and should attain its end are only political, and principally these five.

First, the erecting and establishing what form of civil government may seem in wisdom most meet, according to general rules of the world, and state of the people.

Secondly, the making, publishing, and establishing of wholesome civil laws, not only such as concern civil justice, but also the free passage of true religion; for outward civil peace ariseth and is maintained from them both, from the latter as well as from the former.

Civil peace cannot stand entire, where religion is corrupted (2 Chron. 15. 3. 5. 6; and Judges 8). And yet such laws, though conversant about religion, may still be counted civil laws, as, on the contrary, an oath cloth still remain religious though conversant about civil matters.

Thirdly, election and appointment of civil officers to see execution to those laws.

Fourthly, civil punishments and rewards of transgressors and observers of these laws.

Fifthly, taking up arms against the enemies of civil peace.

Secondly, the means whereby the church may and should attain her ends are only ecclesiastical, which are chiefly five.

First, setting up that form of church government only of which Christ hath given them a pattern in his Word.

Secondly, acknowledging and admitting of no lawgiver in the church but Christ and the publishing of His laws.

Thirdly, electing and ordaining of such officers only, as Christ hath appointed in his Word.

Fourthly, to receive into their fellowship them that are approved and inflicting spiritual censures against them that o end.

Fifthly, prayer and patience in suffering any evil from them that be without, who disturb their peace.

So that magistrates, as magistrates, have no power of setting up the form of church government, electing church officers, punishing with church censures, but to see that the church does her duty herein. And on the other side, the churches as churches, have no power (though as members of the commonweal they may have power) of erecting or altering forms of civil government, electing of civil officers, inflicting civil punishments (no not on persons excommunicate) as by deposing magistrates from their civil authority, or withdrawing the hearts of the people against them, to their laws, no more than to discharge wives, or children, or servants, from due obedience to their husbands, parents, or masters; or by taking up arms against their magistrates, though he persecute them for conscience: for though members of churches who are public officers also of the civil state may suppress by force the violence of usurpers, as Iehoiada did Athaliah, yet this they do not as members of the church but as officers of the civil state.

TRUTH. Here are divers considerable passages which I shall briefly examine, so far as concerns our controversy.

First, whereas they say that the civil power may erect and establish what form of civil government may seem in wisdom most meet, I acknowledge the proposition to be most true, both in itself and also considered with the end of it, that a civil government is an ordinance of God, to conserve the civil peace of people, so far as concerns their bodies and goods, as formerly hath been said.

But from this grant I infer (as before hath been touched) that the sovereign, original, and foundation of civil power lies in the people (whom they must needs mean by the civil power distinct from the government set up). And, if so, that a people may erect and establish what form of government seems to them most meet for their civil condition; it is evident that such governments as are by them erected and established have no more power, nor for no longer time, than the civil power or people consenting and agreeing shall betrust them with. This is clear not only in reason but in the experience of all commonweals, where the people are not deprived of their natural freedom by the power of tyrants.

And, if so, that the magistrates receive their power of governing the church from the people, undeniably it follows that a people, as a people, naturally consider (of what nature or nation soever in Europe, Asia, Africa, or America), have fundamentally and originally, as men, a power to govern the church, to see her do her duty, to correct her, to redress, reform, establish, etc. And if this be not to pull God and Christ and Spirit out of heaven, and subject them unto natural, sinful, inconstant men, and so consequently to Satan himself, by whom all peoples naturally are guided, let heaven and earth judge....

PEACE. Some will here ask: What may the magistrate then lawfully do with his civil horn or power in matters of religion?

TRUTH. His horn not being the horn of that unicorn or rhinoceros, the power of the Lord Jesus in spiritual cases, his sword not the two-edged sword of the spirit, the word of God (hanging not about the loins or side, but at the lips. and proceeding out of the mouth of his ministers) but of an humane and civil nature and constitution, it must consequently be of a humane and civil operation, for who knows not that operation follows constitution; And therefore I shall end this passage with this consideration:

The civil magistrate either respecteth that religion and worship which his conscience is persuaded is true, and upon which he ventures his soul; or else that and those which he is persuaded are false.

Concerning the first, if that which the magistrate believeth to be true, be true, I say he owes a threefold duty unto it:

First, approbation and countenance, a reverent esteem and honorable testimony, according to Isa. 49, and Revel. 21, with a tender respect of truth, and the professors of it.

Secondly, personal submission of his own soul to the power of the Lord Jesus in that spiritual government and kingdom, according to Matt. 18 and 1 Cor. 5.

Thirdly, protection of such true professors of Christ, whether apart, or met together, as also of their estates from violence and injury, according to Rom. 13.

Now, secondly, if it be a false religion (unto which the civil magistrate dare not adjoin, yet) he owes:

First, permission (for approbation he owes not what is evil) and this according to Matthew 13. 30 for public peace and quiet's sake.

Secondly, he owes protection to the persons of his subjects (though of a false worship), that no injury be offered either to the persons or goods of any....

...The God of Peace, the God of Truth will shortly seal this truth, and confirm this witness, and make it evident to the whole world, that the doctrine of persecution for cause of conscience, is most evidently and lamentably contrary to the doctrine of Christ Jesus the Prince of Peace.

Amen.

Baptist Quotes of Liberty vol. IV

2008-06-05T13:59:00.000-07:00

Previously published as Freedom Quotes Vol. XLV, The Baptist Edition Part IV

John Locke's letters on religious toleration and the freedom of conscience explicitly influenced the thought of James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, two founders who played such an important role in working out early legislative formulations of freedom. And Locke's ideas, in turn, are, with one or two exceptions, simply restatements of the central arguments in favor of freedom of conscience developed by Roger Williams in the middle of the seventeenth century, when Locke's opinions on these subjects were being shaped.
- David Little, Conscience, Theology and the First Amendment

...[T]his Declaration of Independence [is] considered as the ground and foundation of a future government.
- John Hancock

In England, from the time of Henry VIII to William III, a full century and a half, the Baptists struggled to gain their footing and to secure liberty of conscience for all. From 1611 they issued appeal after appeal, addressed to the King, the Parliament, and the people in behalf of "soul liberty", written with a breadth of view and force of argument hardly since exceeded.
- Appleton's American Encyclopedia, Vol. II

...The principles which he [Roger Williams] first sustained...he soon found occasion to publish to the world, and to defend as the basis of the religious freedom of mankind.
- George Bancroft, History of the United States, vol. 1, 1879

The political history of the United States after 1689 has essentially been the extension of Roger Williams' view of civil government, as opposed to John Winthrop's.
- Gary North [North favors a Puritanical view of history, and is not in favor of Williams, Clarke or any of the Baptists], Political Polytheism, 1989

Baptist Quotes of Liberty vol. III

2008-06-03T17:33:00.000-07:00

Originally posted on the Swamp Fox Files as, Freedom Quotes Vol. XLIV, The Baptist Edition Part III

Thus for the first time in history a form of government was adopted which drew a clear and unmistakable line between the temporal and the spiritual power, and a community came into being which was an anomaly among the nations.
- Professor J. L. Diman on the Baptists and the founding of Rhode Island

In the code of laws established by them [Roger Williams and John Clarke], we read for the first time since Christianity ascended the throne of the Caesars, the declaration that conscience should be free and men should not be punished for worshiping God in the way they were persuaded He requires.
- Joseph Story on the founding of Rhode Island

I make bold to say that these Separate Baptists have proved to be the most remarkable body of Christians America has known.
- George Washington Paschal, History of North Carolina Baptists vol. 1, 1930

Ideas rule the world. A denomination is moulded by its ruling principles, just as a nation is thus moulded and just as individual life is thus moulded. Our fundamental essential principles have made our Baptist people, of all ages and countries, to be the unyielding protagonists of religious liberty, not only for themselves, but for everybody else as well.
- George W. Truett

The plebeian sect of Anabaptists, "the scum of the Reformation," with greater consistency than Luther applied the doctrine of the Reformation to the social relations of life and threatened an end to kingcraft spiritual dominion, tithes and vassalage. They were trodden under foot with foul reproaches and most arrogant scorn; and its history is written in the blood of myriads of the German peasantry; but its principles, safe in their immortality, escaped to Providence.
- George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. 2, 1879

To the advocacy and propagation of the principles here presented, our country owes all it possesses of true greatness. American principles are, essentially, Baptist principles, and this is owing to the fact that Baptist principles have impressed themselves upon the nation, as the only principles consistent with government...recognizing the universal right to civil and religious liberty.
- Dr. J. Q. Adams, Baptists, The Only Thorough Religious Reformers

Baptist Quotes of Liberty vol II

2008-06-02T14:38:00.000-07:00

Originally posted on the Swamp Fox Files as Freedom Quotes Vol. XLIII, The Baptist Edition Part II

Novatian held that apostacy was a sin which disqualified them from again entering into church fellowship, and to secure a pure community, he formed a separate church, which elected him for its pastor. These purer churches multiplied, and continued in existence for more than three centuries, the members being everywhere looked upon as Puritans [not to be confused with English Puritans] and Dissenters. They were Anabaptists, baptising again all who had been immersed by the orthodox and corrupt church. The Novatians, then, were Baptists.
- Charles H. Spurgeon

...[T]he Emperor at the same time issued an edict whereby he called upon the North African Christians to return back to the unity of the church. Of the failure of this convert scheme for gaining the Donatists, forcible measures were the next resort. The Donatists now were to be deprived of their churches, and they were actually fallen upon by armed troops while assembled in them for the worship of God. Hence followed the effusion of blood, [beginning in AD 347] and the martyrdoms of which the Donatists so often complained of their adversaries.
- David Benedict, History of the Donatists, 1875

A late author, Rev. Mr. Patilloe, in giving an account of the rise of other societies, says, "the Baptists made their appearance in Germany, soon after the Reformation began." Has the good Mr. Patilloe got this by wrote, hearing of it so often? or has the judicious pen of Mr. Smith [John B. Smith, president of Hampden-Sydney College] helped him out in a dead lift? ...let the Rev. gentleman remember, that the Baptists can produce sacred proof for their appearance in Judea, about fifteen hundred years before those tumults in Germany.
- John Leland, 1780, The Writings of Elder John Leland

When Clarke, the pure and tolerant Baptist of Rhode Island...began to preach to a small audience in Lynn, he was seized by the civil officers.... He and his companions were tried, and condemned to pay a fine of twenty or thirty pounds; and Holmes, who refused to pay his fine, was whipped unmercifully.
- George Bancroft, History of the United States, Vol. 1, 1854

Baptist Quotes of Liberty vol. I

2008-06-02T08:27:00.000-07:00

This originally appeared on the Swamp Fox Files as Freedom Quotes Vol. XLII, the Baptist edition Part I

We shall do well, both as citizens and as Christians, if we will hark back to the chief actors and lessons in the early and epoch-making struggles of this great western democracy, for the full establishment of civil and religious liberty - back to the days of Washington and Jefferson and Madison, and back to the days of our Baptist fathers, who have paid such a great price, through the long generations, that liberty, both religious and civil, might have free course and be glorified everywhere.
- George W. Truett

All who know much of the Baptist denomination must have regretted that so few are acquainted with its early history...it remains a matter of great surprise that our own congregations should be, for the most part, uninstructed in the past doings of our body.
- Charles H. Spurgeon

The Mennonites [Anabaptists] consider themselves as the descendants of the Waldenses....The mennonites are not entirely in error when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrussians, and other ancient sects....Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay concealed in almost all the countries of Europe, who adhered tenaciously to the following doctrine which the Waldensians, Wycliffites, and the Hussites had maintained....
- John Lawrence Moshiem, German Reformed historian

I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as 100 AD, although without doubt there were Baptist churches then, as all Christians were then Baptists.
- John Clark Ridpath, Methodist historian

There shall be no faith more certain and true, than is the Anabaptists, seeing there be none now, or have been before time fore ye space of these thousand and two hundred years, who have been more cruelly punished, or that have more stoutly, steadfastly, cheerfully take their punishment, yea or have offered themselves of their own accord to death, were it never so terrible or grievous. Yea in Saint Augustine his time, as he himself saith, there was a certain monstrous desire of death in them. [Rewritten using modern spellings]
- Stanisslaus Hosius, Roman Catholic theologian, president of the Council of Trent

As with Roses Trailer

2008-05-28T17:19:00.001-07:00

To Be Released June 2008 at our Baptist Preservation Campmeeting.

Objection Sustained

2008-05-28T17:17:00.000-07:00

A short Film by Shiloh Baptist Church/Shiloh Films about Early America and our Baptist Forefathers

The Old Temple - Jack Hyles

2008-05-28T17:10:00.000-07:00

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4