NOTES AND QUOTES FOR TODAY:
Why We Believe What We Believe III
“Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee: thy elders, and they will tell thee…” Deuteronomy 32:7
3.We are Baptist Because Protestant Churches go way back to Reformation; we trace our origin back to 1st Century New Testament Churches:
The name “Protestant” was first applied to Bible believing Christians about 16 Century after the founding of the Christian church. But down through the centuries there has always been an unending line of faithful Christians who have held the same truths which are held by Bible-believing Baptists. They are the only ones who can legitimately trace their history back to the disciples the to Jesus.
In clarifying one misconception, we say, that many people fail to realize that the Baptist Church was never a part of the Roman Catholic Church, as to be labeled as “a breakaway” from the Church of Rome as the Protestant Churches of the Reformation. Many people also fail to realize that though the the Baptist churches (Anabaptists) share many of the fundamental truth of the protestant Churches, they were never part of that movement either! Tertullian ( a prolific early Christian writer, who goes way back to 200A.D. said, ” ….Then, all Reformation Churches have the same visages of Roman Catholicism including infant Baptism, Sacraments, ecclesiastical hierarchy, amillennialism – The Church is the kingdom.”
First, let us say that the enlightened person knows that the Roman Catholic Church is not the true church; it does not go back to Jesus and the apostles, for its teachings are in direct contradictions to the Bible. That it teaches salvation by works this they don’t deny.) Whereas the Bible teaches salvation by faith alone! All protestant churches go back no further than the reformers. Lutherans began with Luther; Reformed began with Calvin; Presbyterian with Knox, etc. Sir Isaac Newton said, “ The Baptists are the only body of Christians that have never symbolized with Rome.”
Mosheim (the German Theologian and historian of the 17th Century) said, “ Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secret in almost all the countries of Europe, persons who adhered tenaciously to the principles of modern Dutch Baptists.”
The Edinburgh Cyclopedia( Presbyterian) says, “ It must have already occurred to our readers that the Baptist are the same sect of Christians that were formerly described as Anabaptists. Indeed, this seems to be their leading principle from the time Tertullian to the present time.”
4.We are Baptists Because Our History Can Be Traced to the Bible and Apostolic Age:
The great church historian Philip Schaff, says of the Waldenes (who are Anabaptists): “ They were the strictly Biblical sect of the Middle Ages.” They appeared long before 1200 A.D. There were many other similar groups, among them the Paulicans and the Albegences. These believers observed the Lord’s Supper as a memorial (not a sacrament) and practiced baptism upon believing adults only.
They were severely persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church, whole villages and areas being destroyed, many years before the Inquisition was instituted. Luther and other Reformers also persecuted the Anabaptists. History attests to the fact that the Church is more victorious when it is hated of the world. These Anabaptists were always hated and despised by those who sought to bring about the establishing of errors. During the 1200 years of the “dark ages” it is stated that fifty million died of the terrible persecution. The great majority of those who were killed were Anabaptists. During this period it is recorded that along one single European highway, thirty miles distance, stakes were set up every few feet along this highway, the tops were of stakes sharpened, and on the top of each was placed the gory head of the martyred Anabaptists. This seems almost beyond the limits of human conception. Human imagination can hardly picture a scene so awful!
There were the Cathari, who go back to within a few centuries of New Testament times. The Novatians and the donatists were of the same tradition and became prominent in the third and fourth centuries. The mainstream of the church was already becoming quite corrupt in its doctrines and practices. Both these groups rejected heretical baptism and practiced baptism by immersion only on believing adults.
At the heart of their belief was the purity and separation of the church which in their day was being polluted by it association with the Roman Empire. At the end of the second century, only a hundred years after the last of the apostles, one finds the Montanists. One of the most notable was Tertullian, a lawyer who was saved in his forties. He strongly opposed infant baptism and was a leader in establishing the orthodox doctrine of the Trinity. He also was a strong believer in the Premillennial return of Christ. We are not suggesting of these groups were perfect, but they did stand in the line of orthodoxy the emanated from Christ and His Apostles through His word.
Today many Baptist churches are taking the word “Baptist” out of their names in order to be more acceptable to the world (discussed in detail in the first part.) We hear from many of our faithful listeners and supporters, that it is just about impossible to find a true, old-fashioned, fundamental Baptist Church in their areas. And from what we see and hear, this is not abnormal but the usual thing. So many express their grief saying, “ We just left a Church for sometimes now. The pastor (?) hardly ever started without telling jokes. The coffee pot and cakes are in the sanctuary so the people had them in the pews (while the church goes on). We have been in different churches (Baptist all of them) that have TVs;…. we have gone to many Baptist Churches in in our area. A lot of the women wear pants and the people (men) come looking as though they were going to wash the car ….In one church, a man led the singing in shorts….In many of these churches when the service starts you would think you were at a rock concert.” This sort of thing is pervasive, and sad to say it is everywhere. Old fashioned Fundamental Baptist churches are few and further apart!
How many call (and write to us) expressing their dismay that there is no Fundamental Baptist Church within any reasonable distance in their area. If these are not the last day of apostasy, we don’t know what you could call them. Just read 2nd Timothy 3:1-5, “ This know also, that in the last days perilous (dangerous) times shall come. For man shall be lovers of their own selves…. Traitors, heady, high minded, lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God: having the form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” We might be ashamed of many who call themselves Baptists, but we are not ashamed to be a Baptist. It is the only Church on God’s earth that is in the line of the one that Jesus built! We stand upon the Rock!!
From The Staff of The Peoples Gospel Hour
How to be Saved …and KNOW it – your most important stop on this site.
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The Bible reveals two ways which people are following to get into heaven. One way, the true way, is God’s way. God’s way into heaven is the way of peace and truth and righteousness. It is the only way approved of God. This way centers in the Lord Jesus Christ who said: “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by Me” (John 14:6). The Bible declares that there is another way. “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death” (Prov. 14:12).
There are so many popular ways today filled with lost multitudes all over the land, such as the way of morality, the way of respectability, the way of religion, the way of churchianity, the way of baptism, the way of christening, the way of confirmation, the way of penance, the way of confession, the way of “doing the best I can”, the way of self, the way of education, the way of philosophy, the way of false isms and cults that crowd the street. Little wonder then when we speak to people about the way of salvation, that so many have asked, “How can I know which is the true way? There are so many different ideas and so many religions.”
But there is ONE difference between God’s way of salvation and man’s way, and that difference is found in a Person, the Lord Jesus Christ. You will notice that man leaves Christ out of the center of his way. You will discover that the modern false cults and isms demote Christ to a mere man and add something to what He has already done for your salvation and mine. We become children of God through a supernatural birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus: “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). Jesus also said, “Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again” (John 3:7)
“May the Lord bless you, and make you a blessing!” – The PGH Staff.
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