The theories on Baptist origins have fascinated me since I first began to study Baptist history. I took William Estep's course on the Anabaptist Reformation and wrote a very basic paper on the relationship between Baptists and Anabaptists. Estep was a proponent of Anabaptist influence on the formation of both the General and Particular Baptists. Later on, in my dissertation on Primitive Baptists, I articulated the idea that the successionistic theory of Baptist origins was so popular among rank and file Baptists in the 19th century because they were intent to prove that they did not fall victim to the corruptions that had rendered the bulk of Christianity invalid. Baptists were pure because they had never lost the authentic expression of New Testament Christianity which they found expressed in the pages of the New Testament.
Are Baptists today interested in preserving New Testament Christianity? Is it necessary to do so? Do we need biblical authority for all our organizations such as associations and conventions? These are just some of the questions that can be raised after examining the different theories of Baptist origins. What others can you think of?
5 comments:
Abraham,
The Methodists believe that their organizational polity is ordained by the New Testament as do Presbyterians. John Calvin was very biblical in his explanation of the fourfold pattern of ministers in his ecclesiology. The real question, at least in the 19th century was which polity had biblical warrant. Baptists argued that they followed the truly biblical pattern of church organization and others did not. The whole emphasis for holding the successionist model was that Baptists asserted that they had never lost the true pattern.
Let me redirect our thoughts on this and look in the direction of our organizations.
Of course we all hope to be authentic Christians in our lives, but what the earliest Baptists were interested in was in reproducing the New Testament church in their organizations.
For instance, do local associations find precedent in the New Testament? Most early Baptists looked to the Jerusalem council and Acts 15 to give biblical warrant for such organizations.
What about church leaders? Why do Baptists not typically have elders? Because they interpreted the New Testament church to only authorize two offices, pastors and deacons.
This is the kind of reproduction of the NT church that I am referring to.
What do you make of these ideas?
I feel that I am joining the conversation a little late...but allow me to share my perspective. My church history professor at Campbell University was a strong proponent of Anabaptist origins for Baptist Christianity. I tend to agree. I find Anabaptist faith and spirituality fascinating. Being a proponent of the Anabaptist theory, I wish that Baptists today would hold more truly to their roots. That would be a very good start toward regaining the New Testament Christianity in Baptist life.
Now to the question of whether it is necessary to preserve N.T. Christianity: I certainly believe that N.T. Christianity should be the basis for all Christians. The problem is cultural accomodation and entrenchment that come from Constantinianism - and that begun before that infamous "shift" from a persecuted church to a prosperous one. Since you are a historian and I am not, I will not pretend to know my history better or more thoroughly than you do. However, I think that, in light of our current situation of Baptist theo-politics, a reclaiming of a more stripped down, intentional version of Christian faith and practice would be favorable both on the local church level and in our organizations.
I feel that I am joining the conversation a little late...but allow me to share my perspective. My church history professor at Campbell University was a strong proponent of Anabaptist origins for Baptist Christianity. I tend to agree. I find Anabaptist faith and spirituality fascinating. Being a proponent of the Anabaptist theory, I wish that Baptists today would hold more truly to their roots. That would be a very good start toward regaining the New Testament Christianity in Baptist life.
Now to the question of whether it is necessary to preserve N.T. Christianity: I certainly believe that N.T. Christianity should be the basis for all Christians. The problem is cultural accomodation and entrenchment that come from Constantinianism - and that begun before that infamous "shift" from a persecuted church to a prosperous one. Since you are a historian and I am not, I will not pretend to know my history better or more thoroughly than you do. However, I think that, in light of our current situation of Baptist theo-politics, a reclaiming of a more stripped down, intentional version of Christian faith and practice would be favorable both on the local church level and in our organizations.
Andrew,
Welcome to the conversation.
You make a good point about the Constantinian "corruption" of Christianity.
Perhaps things were more simple before Constantine, at least with regard to church order.
Baptists wanted to go back to a time prior to Constantine and claim the New Testament way of doing things.
Constantine was never viewed as the hero in either Anabaptist or Baptist ways of looking at history.
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