Two Honest Answers
Where did Baptists come from? A history professor will likely say Amsterdam, 1609. An old Baptist preacher might say the New Testament. We give two answers, and we hold both. Baptist churches come from Jesus, who started His church and promised it would never cease. And people called Baptists enter the documentary record in the early 1600s. The first answer is a promise. The second is a paper trail. Trouble comes when anyone confuses them.
“And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”MATTHEW 16:18 · KJV
This study tells the whole story as honestly as we can. It begins with what Christ promised. It follows the churches that stood apart from the state church under many names. It shows where English Baptists enter the record, explains why we are not Protestants, and treats fairly those who tell the story differently. It ends where all church history should end, with the One who owns the church.
Christ's churches never ceased. Baptists did not come out of Rome. English Baptist churches enter the record in 1609 and 1612, and that is when the records begin, not when the churches began. Our confidence rests on Christ's promise, not on a traceable chain.
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For Deeper Study
- The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist WitnessAmazon H. Leon McBethThe standard one-volume history. McBeth holds the English Separatist view, and we differ on Baptist origins, but his account of the records is valuable.
- The English Baptists of the Seventeenth CenturyAmazon B. R. WhiteA careful short history of the General and Particular Baptists in England, from the Baptist Historical Society. It works from the documentary record and does not take up perpetuity.
- The Anabaptist StoryAmazon William R. EstepA sympathetic introduction to sixteenth-century Anabaptism by a Southern Baptist historian.
- A History of the BaptistsAmazon John T. ChristianAn older two-volume Baptist history that traces believers through the centuries. It leans further toward succession than we do, so read it alongside the documents.
- A Glorious Church: A Study of the Origin, Identity, Heritage, and Integrity of the New Testament ChurchAmazon Mike GassA study of the New Testament church from an independent Baptist publisher.
- Foxe's Book of MartyrsAmazon John FoxeThe classic Protestant record of those who died for the faith, from the early church to the English Reformation.
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The Perpetuity of the Church
Christ's churches of saved and baptized believers have existed in every age since He founded them, distinct from the institutional church of Rome.
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