Missionary or New School Baptists.
Zion's Advocate, Vol. 40, No. 8, August 1901.
We do not believe that the denomination known by the title which heads this article is the original Baptist church or true church of Christ. Our not believing that it is, however, is no proof that it is not. Our belief is groundless if we have not good reasons for it. In these articles we propose to give some of our reasons for believing that order to be a seceding party with no just claim to be recognized as the Old Baptist church.The Baptist church is admitted by her enemies to be of ancient origin. Mosheim, the learned Lutheran historian, says, 'The true origin of that sect which acquired the denomination of Anabaptists (rebaptizers), by their administering anew the rite of baptism to those who came over to their communion, and derived that of Mennonites from that famous man to whom they owe much of their present felicity, is hidden in the depths of antiquity, and is of consequence difficult to be ascertained." "It may be observed," he further says, "that they are not entirely in an ereror when they boast of their descent from the Waldenses, Petrobrussians, and other ancient sects, who are usually considered as witnesses of the truth in times of general darkness and superstition."
No historian of any note attempts to refer to any man as the founder of the Baptist church, or any place or date as the point in time of its origin. It is generally stated that Baptists claim to have originated with Christ and his apostles, while no attempt is made to prove the claim false. In the "Hand-book of all Religions" we find this statement: "In all ages since the first, the Baptists have believed their denomination more ancient than themselves. The American Baptists deny that they owe their origin to Roger Williams. The English Baptists will not grant that John Smyth or Thomas Helwysse was their founder. The Welch Baptists strenuously contend that they received their creed in the first century, from those who had obtained it direct from the apostles themselves. The Dutch Baptists trace their spiritual pedigree up to the same source. The German Baptists maintained that they were older than the Reformation, older than the corrupt hierarchy which it sought to reform. The Waldensian Baptists boasted an ancestry far older than Waldo, older than the most ancient of their predecessors in teh vales of Piedmont. So, too, may we say of the Lollards, Henricians, Paterines, Paulicians, Donatists, and other ancient Baptists, that they claim an origin more ancient than that of the men or the circumstances from which they derived their peculiar appellations. If in any instance the stream of descent is lost to human eye, 'in the remote depths of antiquity,' they maintain that it ultimately reappears, and reveals its source in Christ and his apostles." Chambers' Encyclopedia of Universal Knowledge says of the Baptists, "This denomination of Christians refuse to acknowledge any great name as founder of their sect. They trace their origin to the primitive church itself, and refer to the Acts of the Apostles and their epistles as affording, in their opinion, incontestible evidence that their leading tenets had the sanction of inspiration."
This bold claim has never been proved false. It is disputed but cannot be overthrown. It is not at all surprising that the modern Missionary Baptists seek to identify themselves with this ancient order. If they are the old order of Baptists, we are anxious to know it. That they are not we propose to prove. In doing so we intend to deal with plain facts, not designing to treat them with any disrespect. They form a large denomination, and, in some places, a very popular one. Many of their members are opposed to their missionary machinery, and even some of their churches are opposed to it. The genuineness of their christianity we do not call in question - we merely deny that they are the Primitive Baptists.
It is an indisputable fact that from the foundation of the Baptist church by Christ to the year 1792 no missionary society existed in the ancient church. For more than seventeen and one-half centuries that church had served the noble purpose of him who founded it, standing amid storms of persecution as a monument of his wisdom and power. Without a Sunday School or Missionary Board or Society this old church lived on through the ages, holding up the standard of truth and maintaining the practice of its ancient worthies. But on the 2nd day of October, 1792, the first Baptist Missionary Society was formed and the first collection was taken for its treasury, which amounted to 13 L, 2 s. and 6 d., about $63.53. Kettering, England, was the place of the birth of this new institution. The inspired writers of the Bible had not been informed of the necessity or expediency of this Society, if indeed it was necessary or expedient. The Lord had given no instructions to his apostles regarding anything of the kind, and his apostles were not informed by the Spirit that the church would ever need a move of this kind. Millions of heathen had died within these centuries, and, if the theory which gave rise to the move be true, they had sunk down to hell because God had failed to provide a necessary means for their salvation! Does it not seem a pity that God allowed seventeen and a half centuries to elapse before he caused this Society to be formed if he really caused it to be formed? Mr. Andrew Fuller became secretary of this new Society and held that position till his death, which occurred in 1815. He spent the most of his time traveling through the British Isles pleading for the new Mission movement. Associated with Mr. Fuller in this work was Mr. William Carey, who had been ordained in 1787. Mr. Fuller makes this statement in his writings: "Our undertaking to India really appeared to me, on its commencement, to be somewhat like a few men who were deliberating about the importance of penetrating into a deep mine which had never before been explored. We had no one to guide us; and, while we were thus deliberating, Carey, as it were, said, 'Well, I will go down if you will hold the rope.' But before he went down he, as it seemed to me, took an oath from each one of us at the mouth of the pit to this effect, that, while we lived we should never let go the rope. You understand me. There was great responsibility attached to us who began the business." Thus he admits that he and Carey and others "began the business." In this he is evidently correct. There had been no such "business" as that in the Baptist church before 1792. Then in the very beginning of this "business" there was manifested faith and dependence in men and money instead of in the Lord, and this has been characteristic of modern missionism from that day to this. The cry still is, "You hold the rope and I'll go down, but don't let go the rope!" The rope is money raised by the modern machinery in operation. To let go the rope would result in a disaster. We are reminded of the Irishman who was letting another Irishman down into a well by a rope which was slipping through his hands. His hands becoming warm in the operation, he called out to the other, "Hould tight, Pathrick, till I shpit on me hands." As he let go to spit on his hands the result is easily imagined. The people must not let go the rope, though their hands become hot and their muscles and brain tired. They are induced to believe that the money they send actually results in the salvation of heathens. The whole scheme stands upon a financial and human basis. Unsupported by the Bible and unknown to the church for more than seventeen hundred years, this Missionary Idol has been reared and stands today as the golden calf to which the people are bowing, and to which they are giving the praise of the salvation of sinners. As proof of this read what was declared in Elder Potter's debate with Throgmorton: "The heathens are dying at the rate of a hundred thousand a day, and sinking down to hell, because of the neglect of the church in her duty." At this rate in one month of thirty days 3,000,000 heathens go down to an endless hell because the people who could send the gospel to them do not do it. In one year, at the same rate, the enormous number of 36,000,000 heathen are eternally lost for want of the gospel. They are lost because the gospel does not reach them, because the preachers do not take it to them. Preachers do not take it to them because the people do not give them their money. The money causes the preachers to go, their going is the cause of the gospel reaching the heathen, the gospel is the cause of their salvation. The great cause in this series of causes is money, and the causes that follow are the works of men. Mr. J. R. Graves, a New School editor of the "Tennessee Baptist," said in 1860, "any organization which has for its foundation a money basis is unscriptural."
What has the death, resurrection, and intercession of Christ to do in the matter of salvation according to this theory? Simply nothing. Christ may have died for a sinner, may have been exalted as his advocate, and yet that sinner will sink down to endless torment if money and men be not employed, for upon these hinges his eternal salvation! The theory we are now considering supposes it impossible for the Spirit to regenerate a sinner where the gospel is not preached. In a conversation with a New School Baptist minister we asked him if all who never hear the gospel preached will be lost. To this question he gave what was intended as an evasive answer, saying, "I am not going to say they will all be lost, but I have no authority to say any will be saved who never hear the gospel preached." While he thought to escape the conclusion he knew I would force upon him if he took the stand that they would all be lost, he unwittingly admitted that to be his position. For if he had no authority for saying that any will be saved who never hear the gospel preached, he believed they would all be lost though he seemed afraid to say so. Now if they are lost it is without any chance of being saved, which all Arminians declare to be unjust. Also they are lost because of the disobedience of those who are "enlightened," who could have taken or sent the gospel to them if they would have done so, which is adding injustice to injustice. This is the heresy which was introduced into the Baptist church by the leaders in this new movement, causing those who were in favor of standing by the old landmarks to declare non-fellowship for them, which resulted in a division into what became known as Old School and New School Baptists. Which of these two is the primitive denomination? Is it those who have introduced and adopted the new order of things, or those who are contending for the old doctrine and practice? Our brethren in fellowship know which is, and our New School brethren know also.
We here give a list of New School Baptist Societies and the dates of their organization as given in Elder Webb's "Scrap Book."
1797. English Baptist Home Missionary Society.
1814. Baptist Irish Society.
1816. Baptist Highland Mission.
1816. Society for Aged or Infirm Baptist Ministers.
1724. Baptist Building Fund - London.
1841. Baptist Tract Society - London.
1845. Southern Baptist Convention (Home Missionary and Bible.)
1850. American Bible Union.
1853. American Baptist Historical Society.
1792. Baptist Missionary Society - London.
1814. American Baptist Missionary Union.
1816. General Baptist Missionary Society - London.
1843. American Baptist Free Mission Society.
1845. Southern Baptist Convention (Foreign Missions.)
J. R. D.
Copyright c. 2005. All rights reserved. The Primitive Baptist Library.
