Baptists have no founder. They have no certain month, day and year of beginning. It is risky at best to find the earliest tender roots of a people who have become one of the world's major religious denominations.
Across the years there have been Baptists who believed fervently that their spiritual ancestors could be traced in unbroken line to John the Baptist. Scholarship, often rejected, maintained that the peculiar people who came to be known as Baptists could, at best, be proven only to the early 1600s. Much of the debate centers upon the mode of baptism with the eventual chief identification of Baptists reduced to immersion. The opponents of the early Baptists chided them as a “new-washed company” or simply as “dippers” and, eventually, “baptist.” Like most nicknames, it stuck. It was meant at first as a derogatory term, but those who practiced it proved themselves not only peculiar but honorable.
There also has been a running argument that Baptists are not Protestants. It is part and parcel of the “trail of blood” theory which dates Baptist beginnings to Calvary and, therefore, centuries before those who protested the Catholic Church. Robert Torbet, a leading Baptist historian of a generation ago, maintained, “Baptists can be understood best by seeing them as a part of the expression of the Free Church movement in Christianity.”
He continued: “The Free Churches made their most direct contribution to the individual citizen by upholding liberty of conscience. Their position held that a church is truly free when it can assemble individuals who have the right to exercise their personal beliefs … [and] a church must be free, as a community of biblical faith, to be governed by the Spirit of God not by political or cultural influences.
“Early Baptists, as they emerged as a group in history, were characterized by emphases which distinguished them from other Protestants. In particular, they pointed to the idea of the gathered church, with its attempt to maintain a regenerate membership by practicing believer's baptism and discipline. In this, they were in sympathy with the Anabaptists' thinking about the church.
“They also held to a view of congregational church order which involved all members in the total life of the believing community …. It was their conviction that God had entrusted the authority to proclaim the gospel not to a clerical class but to the whole community of faith.
“These early Baptists emphasized the need for a wider fellowship of the congregations through membership in what were called associations. Their protection of the autonomy of each congregation with respect to its inner life was intended not to stress independency from other congregations nor to disavow the reality of the larger church, but to recognize the Lordship of Christ over each congregation ….”
Torbet noted that these views of the church were developed “by 17th-century Baptists like John Smyth, Thomas Helwys and John Bunyan, and influenced by the Congregationalist, John Owen, whose writings on the church were read widely by Baptists of that period.”
For a people with no founder, in time, the Baptist historians centered upon Smyth, the pastor, and Helwys, the lay leader, who were part of the small group of English dissenters that had fled to Holland for safety. It was their distinguishing practice of believer's baptism which dates the 400th anniversary. Yet it also is their inclusion of the freedoms enumerated by Tolbert which gives reason for a world-wide celebration.
In 1889 Alfred E. Dickinson, editor of the Religious Herald, delivered a landmark address on Baptist principles which eventually was printed in several countries and in different languages. Over a million copies of his message were once in circulation. He called it “What Baptist Principles Are Worth to the World.”
Dickinson elaborated upon each of the time-honored principles. He especially centered upon the Baptist concept of freedom in its fullest dimensions and observed that in developing countries there was a cry to adopt the same kind of freedom in a political sense as the Baptists exhibited in their religious life. He concluded, “Baptist principles have not only been valuable to the world but invaluable.”
Today those principles are still invaluable but they are definitely endangered. A worthy way of celebrating would be to educate today's generation about Baptist distinctives and principles.
A practical idea for celebrating the anniversary would be to order copies of the 12th edition of Heritage Seekers to use with children, ages 8-12, and adults. The forthcoming issue celebrates the 400th anniversary and emphasizes the stories of Smyth and Helwys as well as later English Baptists. There are activities especially for children to take part in the large Baptist family's celebration. Order copies from the Center for Baptist Heritage & Studies, P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173 or call (804) 289-8434. The issues sell for $5 each, plus $2 shipping and handling, or bulk orders are $3 each for 2-24 copies and $2 each for 25+ copies. The Center will bill shipping and handling for multiple orders. Children's workers and families may want to order previous issues of Heritage Seekers as well as God's Stories for Children. Check the Center's website at www.baptistheritage.org for further information and for future projects related to the anniversary.
Order complimentary bulletin inserts throughout the year and use these in Baptist worship services. The PDF inserts are available by emailing [email protected].
The 400th anniversary inserts are a joint project of the Baptist History & Heritage Society and the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University.
Churches are finding creative ways to customize their celebration. Some ideas include designating a Baptist Heritage Sunday with a special emphasis, creating a bulletin board display illustrating the church's role in the larger Baptist story, and staging dramatic vignettes based upon the lives of Baptists from the four centuries. Several churches have scheduled group tours of the Heritage Gallery of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society.
An anniversary always prompts memory keeping. It is a good time for updating a church or association history. It also is a good time to gather valuable historical records and bring them to the Virginia Baptist Historical Society for preservation. Contact the VBHS at (804) 289-8434.