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xi chapter 1 ———————AnOverviewof BaptistHistory The English separatist tradition provided the ferment from which a people that would later be called Baptists emerged during the early years of the seventeenth century.1 Early records of a group with identifiable Baptist beliefs center on an English minister by the name of John Smyth who led a small congregation to Holland in 1607. Smyth soon left the congregation, however, to join the Mennonites whose views he found more suited to his growing radicalism. Upon his departure, Thomas Helwys assumed the leadership of the church and brought it back to England in 1611. Designated “General Baptists,” because of their belief in free will, they opposed the rigid predestination of John Calvin but also criticized the Mennonites for being too radical in their emphasis on self-determination. Helwys wrote four volumes delineating his group’s beliefs, placing major emphasis on the doctrine of religious freedom. His assertion that the English king did not have authority over the souls of his subjects resulted in imprisonment, where Helwys remained until his death in 1616.2 British soil produced another variation of this sect in 1638 known as “Particular Baptists.” Having separated from the Puritans over the issue of who should receive the ordinance of baptism while retaining much of their Calvinism, this body formulated the first Baptist confession in 1644. Stressing baptism by immersion and religious liberty, General Baptists found this statement sufficiently inclusive of their own views to adopt it.3 Religious and civil authorities in England perceived the Baptists as a radical sect and viewed them with suspicion. Considered “anarchists,” incarceration in English jails became commonplace for the faithful. Court records and prison rolls form the primary documents for the student of Baptist history during this period.4 Thus, it is not surprising that independent congregations sought affiliation with others who thought as they did. Although each church functioned as an autonomous body, regional congregations began coming together for comradeship and protection. The emergence of this “associational” method of cooperation would later develop into a major element of Baptist polity. While the association exercised 1 2 no specific control over the individual churches, it provided a forum to discuss doctrine and discipline pastors who had moved beyond accepted beliefs. Despite persecution, the Baptists grew from a handful of believers in 1611 to between twenty thousand and thirty thousand at the time of the Glorious Revolution in 1688. Under the rule of Charles II, however, Baptist suffering increased. The Restoration Parliament passed several acts that singled out nonconformists for attack. Under this new legislation such groups could not absent themselves from the Church of England, teach school, or conduct services within five miles of any town.5 These restrictions stimulated an exodus of Baptists to America during the 1690s. Baptists Come to America Roger Williams originated the first Baptist work in the New World when he challenged the Puritan establishment in Massachusetts by advocating the separation of church and state. Expelled from Massachusetts, Williams fled to Rhode Island where he helped establish the first Baptist church in the colonies at Providence in 1639.6 Ill-treatment in New England, however, paralleled their difficulties in the mother country. Baptist emphasis on religious liberty threatened the “theocracy” of the Puritan clergy. Members of a Baptist church could not vote or hold office, and their children could not marry the Puritan orthodox.7 Baptists migrating from England in the 1690s encountered similar treatment in the southern colonies. Although a church existed in Charleston by 1696, settlement in the region prior to the 1740s remained marginal. Civil authorities tied to the Church of England dominated the South, and they routinely harassed dissenters, arrested them for disturbing the peace, and thereby inhibited growth. Persecution in the North and South redirected Baptist settlement toward the middle colonies. Beginning in 1698, Baptists established a church in Philadelphia that exerted tremendous influence over their development for the next 140 years. Its leadership in forming the Philadelphia Association in 1707 extended the associational method of organization throughout America. Composed of five churches, this body acted as an ordination council, settled disputes, and adjudicated doctrinal matters. The first faith statement in America, the “Philadelphia Confession,” also came from this group during the 1740s. It established Calvinism as the primary form of Baptist theology for the colonies.8 Baptists might have remained on the periphery of the nation’s religious life had it not been for two events in American history: the Great Awakening chapter 1...

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