 |
|
We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and 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 days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground 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 Government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men. —Charles H. Spurgeon Christian history, in the First Century, was strictly and properly Baptist history, although the word "Baptist," as a distinctive appellation was not then known. How could it be? How was it possible to call any Christians Baptist Christians, when all were Baptists?" William Cathcart, The Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, p. 286. |
Last Updated:
|
||||||||||||
The First Known Baptist Congregations (?)
The first known Baptist Congregation was formed by a number of these fleeing separatists in Amsterdam, Holland in 1608. It was largely made up of British persons led by John Smyth who along with Thomas Helwys, sought to set up the group according to New Testament patterns. As they saw it, it was important to 'reconstitute' and not just 'reform' the Church. There was emphasis placed on personal conversion and on baptism, which was to be given to individuals who had personally professed faith in Jesus Christ, that is, to believers only and on mutual covenanting between and among believers. Though taking some years to crystallize, the reconstituting efforts of Smyth, Helwys and others gave distinctive shape not only to the group's belief and practice, but the various others which emerged from it. Some affiliated groups started when members of the Amsterdam group went back to Britain and took the name 'Baptist' to identify themselves. This had to do with the distinctive approach to the meaning and mode of baptism.
With the continuing religious and civil disturbances, and with the new awareness in Europe of North America, many persons, including those influenced by Baptists and related beliefs, practices and groups, crossed the Atlantic to build a 'New World'. They sought not only to establish dwellings, but their faith as well. In time the entire continent, but particularly the Eastern section, was affected, Baptist Churches, being among the many institutions, which sprang up in the seventeenth century. All these shaped not only the new American Environment, but eventually impacted beyond it as well.
William Cathcart, Baptist Historian/Author
The American Baptists deny that they owe their origin to Roger Williams. The English Baptists will not grant that John Smyth or Thomas Helwysse was their founder. The Welsh Baptists strenuously contend that they received their creed in the first century, from those who obtained it, direct, from the apostles themselves. The Dutch Baptists trace their spiritual pedigree up to the same source. German Baptists maintained that they were older than the reformation, older than the corrupt hierarchy which it sought to reform. The Waldensian Baptists boasted an ancestry far older than Waldo, older than the most ancient of their predecessors in the Vales of Piedmont. All these maintain that it ultimately reappears, and reveals their source in Christ and His apostles." (pp. 34-35 - The Testimony of the Baptists, by Curtis A. Pugh quoting William Cathcart, the Baptist Encyclopedia, 1881, pp. 620-621.)
 |
St. Patrick (A Baptist?)
John Foxe
Foxe's Book of Martyrs
The Journal of Negro History 7, No.1
Evolution of the Negro Baptist Church
N. H. Pius, D.D.
An Outline of Baptist History, 1911
Walter H. Brooks D.D.
History of Negro Baptist Churches in
America, 1910
Rev. J.A.
Whitted, D.D.
A History of the Negro Baptists
in North Carolina
E. K. Love, D.D.
History of the First African Baptist Church,
1888
James M. Simms
The First Colored Baptist Church in North
America
Joanna P. Moore
"In Christ's Stead", Autobiographical Sketches,
1902 (mid to late 1800s Negro Baptist historical sketches)
H. C. Vedder
Click here for a short Bio of H. C. Vedder
A Short History of the Baptists
William C. Hawkins and
Willard A. Ramsey
The Trail of Truth
Chris Traffensted
A Primer on Baptist History: The True Baptist
Trail
Early historical summary of Baptists with a Reformed view. A more reliable
and accurate history of Baptists than from the Baptist Successionists.
S. H. Ford
Origin of the Baptists
Joseph Ivimey
A History of the English
Baptists, 1811
Thomas Armitage, D.D.
History of the Baptists (The American
Baptists)
John T. Christian,
A.M. D.D. LL.D
Professor of Christian History in The Baptist Bible
Institute, New Orleans, Louisiana.
A History of the Baptists Together with Some Account of Their Principles and
Practices
Volume 1
Volume 2
Did They Dip?
Introduction by T.T. Eaton, D.D. LL.D.
Gene Brooks
More Than We Asked: Early Baptists of England
L. P. Brockett, M.D.
Bogomils of Bulgaria and
Bosnia; An Attempt to Restore Some Lost Leaves of
Protestant History. The Early Protestants of the East.
J. R. Graves
The Tri-lemma, or Death by Three
Horns
Discusses the Presbyterian/Baptist view of the legitimacy of Romish
"Baptism"
Christian Baptism
Examines "into what" were we baptised.
The Dispensational Expositions of the Parables and Prophecies of Christ
A Landmark Our Fathers Set
An examination of pedobaptism
The Relation of Baptism to Salvation
An obedient response to God's love
Robert Boyt C. Howell
The Evils of Infant Baptism
The Covenants
John Q. Adams
Baptists, The Only Thorough Reformers
(an American Baptist pastor who was a contemporary of C.H. Spurgeon).
Spurgeon used "Baptists Thorough Reformers" as a text book in his Pastor's
College, regarding it as the best Manual of Baptist principles he had met."
Phillip Schaff
History of the Christian Church, 8 Volumes
This material has been carefully compared, corrected¸ and amended (according
to the 1910 edition of Charles Scribner's Sons) by The Electronic Bible
Society, Dallas, TX, 1998.
J. H. Shakespeare
Baptist and
Congregational Pioneers
J. M. Cramp
Baptist History
Joseph Banvard
Protestant Persecution of the Baptists in
Early America
Elder J.H. Grime
Catechism of
Ecclesiastical History
Blood Before Water and
Christ Before the Church
John Henry
The
Beliefs, Antiquities & Succession of Baptists
John Spittlehouse & John More
A Vindication of the
Continued Succession of the Primitive Church of Jesus Christ (Now
Scandalously Termed AnaBaptists) From the Apostles to the Present Time
The History of Baptists in Slovakia
David Benedict
A History of the Baptist
Denomination
A Miniature History of
Baptism
THE EARLY ENGLISH BAPTISTS
From the Baptist Reporter
1851
1858
From the Baptist Almanac
1852
THE ANABAPTISTS
Daniel Kauffman
Dr. Francis Nigel Lee
Mennonite History
© Copyright, Mennonite Publishing House
The Anabaptists and Their StepchildrenElizabeth Scott
©Anabaptists: Separate by Choice, Marginal by ForceWilliam R. Estep
The Anabaptist StoryStanley A. Nelson
The Anabaptist StoryRonald J. Gordon
Anabaptism in 16th Century EuropeBeginnings of the Anabaptist-Mennonite
1517-1525: The Beginnings of Anabaptism
as told in The Chroncile of the Hutterian Brethren, Vol. 1, pp. 41-47.
Hutterians
CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN (ANA-BAPTISTS)
BRETHREN REVIVAL FELLOWSHIP
Brethren Revival Fellowship (BRF) is a concern movement within the Church of the Brethren, seeking to call the Church to a firm stand for the authority of the Scriptures, and to an emphasis upon the teachings of the New Testament as historically understood by the Brethren.
The Brethren Card
Handbook of Basic Beliefs
THE DONATISTS
Click here for a brief explanation of the Donatists
David Benedict, D.D.
Click here for a short Bio of David Benedict
History of the Donatists,
THE WALDENSES
J. A. Wylie
The History of Protestantism
Click here for a short Bio of James A. Wylie
The History of the WaldensesThomas Williamson"Wylie's 'The History of Protestantism' is the best history extant. I welcome its republishing. Read it. Study it. Circulate it. And by so doing you will help to dispel the dark cloud of priestly superstition, popish idolatry and papal tyranny encircling our land."
Ian Paisley
The Waldenses Were Independent BaptistsJohn L. Waller
Were the Waldenses Baptists or Pedo-Baptists?The Nobla Lecon, (Noble Lesson)
The "Noble Lesson" written in the Language of the ancient inhabitants of the Valleys (The Waldenses); in the Year 1100. Extracted out of a most authentic manuscript, the true original whereof is to be seen in the public library of the famous University of Cambridge. "The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piedmont." by Samuel Morland. 1658. CHRAA. 1982. p.99
SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS
Andrew N. Dugger
History of the Church of God, Seventh Day Baptist
PRIMITIVE BAPTISTS
J.V. Kirkland & C.B. Hassell
Elder Michael N. Ivey
A Condensed History of the Church of God, 1896? [130k]
A Welsh Succession of Primitive Baptist Faith and Practice
MENNONITES
LANDMARK BAPTISTSMennonite Confession of Faith, 1963: a CMEO Source Document
J. R. Graves
J.M. Carroll
Old Landmarkism
The origin and history of the appelation "Landmarkism"
Trail of Blood
Trail of Blood ChartClassic Landmarkist view of Baptist History
This little book is sent forth for the purpose of making known the little-known history of those FAITHFUL WITNESSES of the Lord Jesus, who, as members of the CHURCH JESUS BUILT, "Overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony: and they loved not their lives unto death," Rev. 12:11. (Historical events are entirely the work of the author and are not to be intended by The Reformed Reader as a definitive source for historical fact)
Curtis A. Pugh, Pastor, Southern Lakes Baptist Church
Three Witnesses for the Baptists
WINEBRENNERIANS
The popular designation of a Baptist denomination officially called "The Church of God." The founder, the Rev. John Winebrenner, was a minister of the German Reformed Church, more.
John Winebrenner, V.D.M. Harrisburg, PA
History of the Church of God, 1854
Brief Scriptural View of the Church of God, 1885
Brief Biography of John WinebrennerS.G. Yahn, D.D.
History of the Churches of God, 1926
RECENT HISTORICAL REVIEWS
Baptist History Out Of Focus (Founders Online)
by Tom AscolA Critique of the English Separatist Descent Theory in Baptist Historiography
by Philip R. BryanBiblioteca de la Historia Cristiana (Spanish)
The History of Christianity (video)
by Timothy GeorgeThis video of six half-hour programs gives a fast-paced overview of the almost 2,000 year history of the Christian church. It will be a full curriculum kit that you will find convenient to use. The series is written and presented by our good colleague, Dr. Timothy George, one of the key advisors on our William Carey film, Candle in the Dark. This series is a fine addition to our history collection, and we urge you to plan on using it as a basic introduction to the fascinating and perplexing pilgrimage across the ages of the Christian peoples and faith. This is a survey course designed to stimulate further your curiosity by providing glimpses of some of the pivotal events in the spread Christianity and sketches of great Christian figures who have significantly affected Christian history thereby shaping the history of the world.
Early Church Fathers Collection (FREEWARE!)
The 'Early Church Fathers Series in WinHelp Format' is a 37-volume electronic collection of writings from the first 800 years of the Church. This collection is divided into three series, Ante-Nicene, Nicene and Post-Nicene Series I, and Nicene and Post-Nicene Series II. These writings include apologetics, biblical commentary (mainly by St. Augustine and St. John Chrysostom, the Golden Mouthed), sermons, treatises, letters, liturgies, poems and hymns, dialogues, ascetic writings, Church canons and history
HISTORY OF THE PAPACY
History of the Papacy
by J. A. Wylie
Copyright ©1999-2007, The Reformed Reader, All Rights Reserved