I often get requests to teach Baptist History, especially in an age where Christians seems to be so myopic. We don’t know our own history, and often fall for the revisions by people with agendas. In one e-mail, I was asked, “is there a website that you use as a resource in Baptist History?”
Yes – it is www.BaptistTheology.org
Dr. Malcolm Yarnell does a masterful job as the Director of the Center for Theological Research at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is also the managing editor of www.BaptistTheology.org, a site that is an invaluable resource for those who study the history of Free Church groups such as the Anabaptists and Southern Baptists. Any group that holds to believer’s baptism and congregational polity has a rich history of dissent, against Catholic and Protestants alike. We were not a part of the “Reformation,” but rather went much further, becoming known as the “Radical Reformation.”
On the aforementioned site, they have posted one of the lesser known confessions in Baptist history, but one that represents a great number of us- It was called the Orthodox Creed of 1679. In the article, Yarnell makes this statement:
“The most famous of these confessions, for the Particular Baptists, is the Second London Confession of 1677, subsequently revised in 1689. The Second London Confession was modeled after the Westminster Confession in hopes of presenting a unified Protestantism. However, the General Baptists also attempted to model a confession after the Westminster Confession, and the result of that attempt is The Orthodox Creed of 1679.”
When Thomas Crosby published the History of English Baptists in 1739, he placed the creed in the third volume, but left out the signatures, Preface and postscript. One author, writing in 1814, speculated that Crosby was “attempting to amalgamate all the Baptists into one denomination, and therefore he has endeavoured to prevent the General and the Particular
Baptists from being distinguished.” [Joseph Ivimey, The History of the English Baptists Vol. II (London: 1814) 90-91].
Doesn’t that sound familiar? The one thing I have learned from being a Baptist for over twenty years is that we are like a mongrel dog– our breeding has been a mix of many different types. We are a mixed breed. Get ten Baptists in a room, the saying goes, and you will find twenty opinions.
There are certain fundamental tenets that hold us together, such as Christ as Savior, believer’s baptism, a believer’s church, congregational polity, missions and evangelism, and a dependence on only the Bible.
That said, I wanted to show you some of the more interesting of the fifty articles found in the 1679 Orthodox Creed, and encourage you to visit www.BaptistTheology.org to get the full document, signatures and all. It is a firm reminder that we come from many streams…different streams.
FROM THE PREFACE:
There are but three main Opinions among our Protestant Professors in England, and they are commonly known by these three Names (viz.) Episcopalians, Presbyterians, or Independants, and Anabaptists, (but rightly called Baptists). Now the difference between these may be much in Ceremonies, or Circumstantial things, and in their Discipline, and Government of the Church. (page 2)
We have also in this our Confession of Faith, laboured to avoid the
dangerous Rocks of Pelagianism, Antinomianism, Arminianism, and the Remonstrants.
As also, ( as well as we may) we have endeavoured to avoid the extreams of the
Superlapsarians, and Sublapsarians, and others: Which said latter Opinions, we humbly
conceive, and judge in many things, are inconsistent with God’s Revealed Will in
Scripture, especially that of irrespective Reprobation of particular Persons, before they
have done wither Good, or Evil. (page 3)
FROM ARTICLE NINE:
Therefore God hath (we believe) decreed, that Faith as the means, and Salvation as the
end, shall be joyned together, that where one is, the other must be also: for it is written,
He that believeth, shall be saved. Also, Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt
be saved. Now here is a great Mystery indeed, for God so administereth his absolute
Decree, that he leaveth us much place for an Efficacious Conditional-Dispensation, as
if the Decree it self were conditional.
ARTICLE TEN ON REPROBATION
WE do believe, that known unto God are all his Works from Eternity.
Therefore he foresaw Adam’s fall, but did not decree it, yet foreseeing it in his eternal
Counsel and Wisdom, did Elect and chuse Jesus Christ, and all that do or shall believe in
him, out of that fallen Lump of Mankind. And hath manifested his Love and
Grace by Jesus Christ, (his Elect, or beloved Son) through the Gospel means, to all; and
hath given us his Word and Oath, to assure us that he desires not the death of the Wicked,
but rather that they repent, or return to him and live; and if any do perish, their
destruction is of themselves.
