BAPTISTS ARE NOT PROTESTANTS, BUT PIOUS, POLEMIC PATRIOTS!
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational, and research purposes:
Don Boys, Ph.D.
http://donboys.cstnews.com/baptists-are-not-protestants-but-pious-polemic-patriots
A generation ago, it was common for hospitals, jails, schools, and
other institutions to have a place on their forms for a person to state
their Religion–Protestant, Catholic, or Jewish. However, there was no
Baptist designation. Many will say that Baptists are like Methodists,
Assembly of God, etc., just another Protestant group; but that is not
true. Baptists protested the Roman Catholic excesses as did other
groups, but unlike the other groups Baptists were never a part of Rome.
Baptist Churches or baptistic groups were always contemporaries with the
Roman Church and never broke away since they were never in that
religious group.
Since this is the 500
th year of the anniversary of the
Reformation, many have asked why so many groups split from the church
that Christ established while others want to know what was the first
authentic church. It is assumed by the uneducated that the Roman
Catholic Church was the “mother church” but that is not an historical
fact. Well, if not the Catholics, then who?
The first church was in Jerusalem and it was a Baptist or baptistic
church! If not, what were they? My critics can tell me what the
Jerusalem church believed and practiced and I will adjust to their
beliefs and practices.
- Porter wrote in 1914, “The first Baptist preacher was John the
Baptist. We learn from the Scriptures that he was a Baptist and a
preacher, and certainly it is impossible for a man to be a Baptist and a
preacher and not be a Baptist preacher.” Can anyone argue with that
statement? Since Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, did that make
Christ a Baptist? Just asking.
The
Encyclopedia Britannica revealed, “Baptists can be
traced to 618 A.D. and it is presumed that they originated from the
original source of the churches.”
In 1819, the King of Holland appointed Dr. J. Dermout and Dr. Ypeij
to prepare a history of the Dutch Reformed Church and also to report on
the claims of the Dutch Baptists. Following their research, they wrote:
“We have now seen that the Baptists, who were formerly called
Anabaptists, and in later times, Mennonites, were the original
Waldenses…On this account, the Baptists may be considered as the only
religious community which has stood since the
days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrines of the gospel through all ages.”
The above account can be found on page 148, Volume I., of the work entitled
History of the Dutch Reformed Church,
by A. Ypeij, Doctor and Professor of Theology at Groningen, and I. J.
Dermout, Secretary of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church,
and Preacher at The Hague, at Breda, 1819. Of course, they were not
Baptists.
The best evidence for your position is when evidence comes from your
enemy or opponent, and the Campbellites or Church of Christ people have
been longtime opponents of Baptists. The following words of Alexander
Campbell, founder of the Church of Christ movement, are taken from the
authorized edition of the
Campbell-McCalla Debate, “Clouds of witnesses attest the fact that before the reformation from Popery, and from the
apostolic age,
to the present time, the sentiments of Baptists and the practice of
baptism have had a continued chain of advocates, and public monuments of
their existence in every century can be produced” (Alexander Campbell,
in debate with W. L. McCalla, held at Washington, Mason Co., Ky., Oct.
15, 1823, p. 378).
Baptists have been fervently opposed to government control or
involvement in their church affairs even when it would have benefited
them! In colonial Virginia, everyone was taxed to support the
established religion of the Episcopal Church (Church of England);
however, Baptists refused to support that error by not paying the tax.
Those Baptists were hassled, harassed, and hunted; then fined,
whipped, and even imprisoned; but they prevailed. They would not pay
taxes to support the local vicar of the Church of England. In fact, they
were told that they could receive tax dollars to support their Baptist
Churches, but the principled Baptists refused the free money! That
resulted with the Anglican Church being disestablished in Virginia. Now,
no tax dollars would support any church.
In our day, almost all groups are taking “free” money, even Baptists!
Day cares, Christian schools, homeless shelters, etc., are being
financed with tax dollars. And even Baptists have learned to live with
the attached strings–later to be called,
chains. The strings
always begin very tenuously; but it must be remembered that what the
government funds, it runs. Maybe not at first, but eventually with the
government’s nickel comes a noose.
Baptist History is not without its blemishes and stains. Because of
its independence, some peculiar people with peculiar teachings attached
themselves to Baptist Churches and baptistic groups going back before
Baptist
was attached to a church name. The lack of a hierarchal organization
without a “pope” required every single Baptist Church to police its own
affairs. That system has worked rather well; after all, it is the
biblical system.
Baptists have been the loudest voices for religious freedom and
separation of church and state (although not separation of God and
state) from the very beginning of this nation. Honest, informed
historians credit Baptists for that reality.
- W. Bacon, in A History of American Christianity, wrote of
the Baptists: “….that we are chiefly indebted for the final triumph, in
this country, of that principle of the separation of church and state,
which is one of the largest contributions of the New World to
civilization….” High praise indeed and well deserved from a
Congregationalist and later Presbyterian!
Baptists are also responsible for the ten amendments to the constitution not only the first one! Cathcart tells us in his
Centennial Offering
that “Denominationally, no community asked for this change in the
Constitution but the Baptists….The Baptists asked for it through
Washington; the request commended itself to his judgment and to the
generous soul of Madison; and to the Baptists, beyond a doubt, belongs
the glory of engrafting its best articles on the noblest Constitution
ever framed for the government of mankind.”
The separation of church and state was enshrined in the Bill or
Rights in the U.S. Constitution because of a Baptist preacher named John
Leland. The Bill of Rights is comparable to England’s
Magna Carta signed in 1215.
The Constitution was approved in 1787 at the Philadelphia Convention
and was sent to the states for ratification. Virginia was by far the
largest and most politically powerful colony so there would be no
Constitution without Virginia. Each Virginia County elected two members
to the state ratifying convention. James Madison and James Gordon, Jr.
were candidates from Orange County (and there were two other candidates
opposed to the Constitution) and Madison thought he was a sure winner.
He was warned by his father and others that the Baptists had turned the
citizens against the Constitution because it did not have a Bill of
Rights. Madison headed home from New York through Philadelphia and
stopped to spend a few hours with the Baptist preacher John Leland who
was the major Baptist in Virginia and Orange County, home also of
Madison.
The
Penn State Law Review declared that religious liberty
concerns of Virginia Baptists particularly the concerns of John Leland
“…played a substantial role in James Madison’s elections to the Virginia
ratifying convention in March of 1788 and to the First Congress in
February of 1789. Those elections, in turn, were key events in the
ratification of the Constitution and in the adoption of the Bill of
Rights.”
Leland was a friend of James Madison, James Monroe, and Thomas
Jefferson, and because of that relationship, he was asked to preach to
Congress with President Jefferson in attendance in the House of
Representatives. Pastor Leland met with Madison, a candidate to
Virginia’s ratifying convention, to convince him of the need for a Bill
of Rights to be added to the newly approved Constitution of the United
States. Madison was lukewarm to the subject.
The preacher and politician, both Virginians, later met near Orange,
Virginia, in what is known today as Leland–Madison Memorial Park. During
that four-hour meeting, Leland was successful in extracting a
commitment from Madison for a Bill of Rights to the Constitution. During
that meeting, it was understood that Leland would oppose Madison’s
election if he did not commit to a Bill of Rights. Madison knew the
Baptist pastor was very popular in his district and agreed to his
request. (He also knew his party had been trounced in the previous
election in Orange County.) Leland supported him strongly and the two
pro-Constitution candidates won: Madison had 202; his fellow candidate
187 and the two opposing candidates 56 and 34!
Madison kept his word when he went to Congress in the first
congressional election in 1788; and America became the most unusual
nation in the world: the first nation having a written Constitution that
guaranteed freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, etc.
America has a Bill of Rights because of a persistent pastor and a principled politician! This nation is short on both today.
Madison submitted twelve Constitutional amendments to the Congress
about a month after Washington promised his help to the Baptists. Two
amendments were rejected, but the ten original amendments were approved
on September 23, 1789 after much opposition and were then submitted to
the states for ratification.
The eleventh state had approved them by December 15, 1791 and America
became the most unique nation on the face of the earth! We became a
nation that guaranteed the people their God-given rights and limited the
power of government, and we did it with a written Constitution and Bill
of Rights–thanks to a Baptist preacher.
Historian of the Episcopal Church Dr. Hawks wrote in the
Ecclesiastical Contributions:
“The Baptists were the principal promoters of this work, and in truth
aided more than any other denomination in its accomplishment.” Again,
praise from a non-Baptist!
When Methodists, Presbyterians, Roman Catholics, etc., pass a Baptist
church, they should doff their hats in respect and whisper a word of
thanks for the freedom everyone is guaranteed because of our Baptist
forefathers. Even non-Baptists agree that the Bill of Rights was a
fantastic achievement in the annals of government.
The smallest Baptist church in America can swell with justified pride
and appreciation of Baptist forefathers who believed in personal
liberty for everyone–even the right to be wrong!
Now you know why Baptists are not Protestants and why I’m a Baptist.
Boys’ new book
Muslim Invasion: The Fuse is Burning! was published by Barbwire Books; to get your copy,
click here . An eBook edition is also available.
(Dr. Don Boys is a former member of the Indiana House of
Representatives; ran a large Christian school in Indianapolis, wrote
columns for
USA Today for eight years; authored 16 books and
hundreds of columns and articles for Internet and print media
publications; defended his beliefs on hundreds of talk shows. These
columns go to newspapers, magazines, television, and radio stations and
may be used without change from title through the end tag. His web sites
are
www.cstnews.com and
www.Muslimfact.com and
www.thegodhaters.com . Contact Don for an interview or talk show.)
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