The Ancient Witness of Baptist Existence

By Pastor Ed Rice, Good Samaritan Baptist Church, Dresden NY 14441

Baptists are not Protestant, are not a denomination, but have the same root as the New Testament Bible that they employ for all their faith and doctrine. Their root is in the WORD.

Some enlightening excerpts of Dr. Jewell Smith's Lecture, 1999 Baptist Bible Conference, Penfield NY.

Mosheim said "concerning the primitive Christian " ..."Before the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secreted in almost all the countries of Europe persons who adhered tenaciously to the principles of modern Dutch Baptists." ("Trail of Blood" Introduction pg 3) Mosheim, the great Lutheran historian says the original Christians were Baptists.

The Presbyterian historian says "It must have already occurred to our readers that the Baptists are the same sect of Christians that were formerly described as Ana-Baptists. Indeed this seems to have been their leading principle from the time of Tertullian to the present time." (Edinburg Cyclopedia) Tertulian was born just 50 years after the death of John the Apostle.

John Clark Ridpath, Methodist historian said "I should not readily admit that there were Baptist Churches as far back as AD 100, although without doubt there were Baptists then, as all Christians were originally Baptists."

Catholic Cardinal Hosius (1524), presiding at the Counsel of Trent in 1554, during the time when the Protestant Reformation was raging, and every effort was being sought to end it, said "Were it not for the fact that the Baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past twelve hundred years, they would swarm in greater number than all the Reformers." (Hosius, Letters, Apud Opera, pp. 112, 113.) The "twelve hundred years" were the years preceding the Reformation in which Rome persecuted Baptists with the most cruel persecution thinkable. The Cardinal goes on "If the truth of religion were to be judged by the readiness and boldness of which a man or any sect shows in suffering, then the opinions and persuasions of no sect can be truer and surer than those of the Anabaptist, since there have been none for the 1200 years past that have been more generally punished or that have been more cheerfully and steadfastly undergone, and have offered themselves to the most cruel sort of punishment than these people."

The Swiss Reformer Zwingli, a Presbyterian CO-laborer with John Calvin, said "the institution of the Anabaptists is no novelty but for 1300 years have caused great troubles to the (Roman) Church." Now Swinley was no friend of Baptists. Protestant persecuted and kill Baptists like the Roman Catholics did. Swinley ordered 20 Baptists lowered into a castle tower and fed bread and water till they were dead. Men, women and children were thus left in their own wastes and their own carcasses till all were dead. Baptists are no Protestants.

Johann Lorenz Von Mosheim (c. 1694-1755). German Lutheran divine and Church historian, was born at Lubeck on the 9th of October. 1694 or 1695. After studying at the gymnasium of his native place. he entered the university of Kiel (1716), where he took his master's degree in 1718. In 1719 he became assessor in the philosophical faculty at Kiel .. His first appearance in the field of literature was in a polemical tract against John Toland,Vindiciae antiquae christienorum. disci­plinae (1720), which was soon followed by a volume of Observationes sacrae (1721). These works, along with the reputation he had acquired as a lecturer and preacher, secured for him a call to Helmstädt as professor ordinarius in 1723. The Institutionum historiae ecclesiasticae libri IV. appeared in 1726. and in the same year he was appointed by the duke of Bruns-wick abbot of Marienthal. to which dignity and emolument the abbacy of Michaelstein was added in the following year. Mosheim was much consulted by the authorities when the new university of Gottingen was being formed; especially in the framing of the statutes of the theological faculty. and the provisions for making the theologians independent of the ecclesiastical courts. In 1747 he was made chancellor of the university. He died at Gottingen on the 9th of September. Among his other works were De rebus christianorum: ante Constentinum: commentarii (1753), Keizer-Geschichte (2nd ed. 1748). and Sittenlehre der heiligen Schrift (1735-53). His exege­tical writings. characterized by learning and good sense, include Cogitationes in N. T. loc. select. (1726). and expositions of 1 Cor. (1741) and the two Epistles to Timothy (1755). In his sermons (Heilige Reden) considerable eloquence is shown. and a mastery of style which justifies the position he held as president of the German Society. (Ref 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica the 11th edition.)

There are two English versions of the Institutes, that of Archibald Maclaine, published in 1764. and that of James Murdock (1832), which is the more correct. Burdock's translation was revised and re-edited by James Seaton Reid in 1848. and by H. L. Hastings in 1892 ( Boston ). An English translation of the De rebus christianorum was published by Murdock in 1851.(Ref Dr. Steven A. Hite, Dean Indianapolas Bible College)

Stanislaus Hosius, (1504-1579) Polish cardinal, was born in Cracow on the 5th of May 1504 .. He studied law at Padua and Bologna, and entering the church became in 1540 bishop of Kulm, in 1551 bishop of Ermland, and in 1561 cardinal. Hosius had Jesuit sympathies and actively opposed the Protestant reformation, going so far as to desire a repetition of the St. Bartholomew massacre in Poland .. Apart from its being "the property of the Roman Church," he regarded the Bible as having no more worth than the fables of Aesop. Hosius was not distinguished as a theologian, though he drew up the Confessio fidei Christiana catholica adapted by the synod of Piotrkow in 1557. He was however, supreme as a diplomatist and administrator. Besides carrying through many difficult negotiations, he founded the lyceum of Braunsberg, which became the center of the Roman Catholic mission among Protestants. He died at Capranica near Rome on the 5th of August 1579 (Ref 1910 Encyclopedia Britannica the 11th edition.)

When inducted in the military as a Christian I was asked are you Catholic, Protestant or a Baptist. Their Chaplains know that a Baptist is no Protestant. You should know that too. My military dogtags still call me a Baptist. I am no Protestant. We have never been connected to Roman Catholicism, except when we were chained to their stakes as they gathered their faggots of wood. Sir Isaac Newton said it well "The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome." (Trail of Blood Introduction pg 3)

As was stated by these historians Baptists predate the Imperial Roman Catholic Church. The first Church at Jerusalem, which added 5,000 to its membership in Acts chapter 2 was Baptist in doctrine, baptizing it's new believers into membership by immersion.

B.Myron Cedarhilm, D.D., President of Maranatha Baptist Bible College puts this Baptist History very aptly by saying

Historians testify that local churches; which hold the doctrines, beliefs, and practices of today's Bible-believing, separatist Baptists; have had continuous existence since the days of Christ. This cannot be said on any other church, churches, or religious organization. Here are a few statements by historians and religious leaders (only one of them Baptist) regarding the history of Baptists:

Sir Isaac Newton said, "The Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized with Rome."

Since the Apostles: Ypeij and Dermout, eminent historians of the Dutch Reformed Church said, "The Baptist may be considered as the only Christian community that has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society has preserved pure the doctrine of the Gospel through all the ages."

Alexander Campbell, founder of the Campbellites (Christian Church or Disciples of Christ) who rigorously opposed Baptists during the 19th century, wrote, "The sentiments of Baptists and their practice of baptism from the apostolic age to the present, have had a continued chain of advocates, and public monuments of their existence in every century can be produced."

Robert Barclay, a Quaker historian, says of Baptists, "We shall afterward show that the rise of the Anabaptists took place prior to the Reformation of the Church of England, and there are also reasons for believing that on the continent of Europe, small hidden Christian societies, who have held many of the opinions of the Anabaptists, have existed from the times of the apostles. In the sense of the direct transmission of divine truth, and the true nature of spiritual religion, it seem probable that these churches have a lineage or succession more ancient than that of the Roman Church."

All Christians Were Then Baptists: John Clark Ridpath, doubtlessly the greatest historian the world has ever produced and a Methodist by denomination, said, "I should not readily admit that there was a Baptist church as far back as 100 AD, although without doubt there were Baptist churches then, as all Christians were then Baptists." ....(Dr. Cedarholm, here quotes Mosheim, Zwingli and Cardinal Hosius as quoted previous in this article)

Not Reformers "Crossing the Centuries" edited by William C. King, says, "Of the Baptists it may be said that they are not reformers. These people, comprising bodies of Christian believers known under various names in different countries, are entirely distinct and independent of the Roman and Greek churches, and have an unbroken continuity of existence from apostolic days down through the centuries. Throughout this long period they were bitterly persecuted fro heresy, driven from country to country, disfranchised, deprived of their property, imprisoned, tortured and slain by the thousands; and yet they swerved not from their New Testament faith, doctrine, and adherence."

Now I could close this article with no greater thought than that expressed by the prince of Baptist Preachers Charles H. Spurgeon. There is an Ancient Witness to Baptist Existence. There is cause that no true Baptist will align with Romanism, Denominationalism nor Governments of this world. This Ancient Witness was written in a "Trail of Blood" as Dr. Carol has documented in his book by that title. This Ancient Witness was not directly written by the historian as Spurgeon notes below in his sermon at Newington:

"History has hitherto been written by our enemies, who never would have kept a single fact about us upon the record if they could have helped it, and yet it leaks out every now and then that certain poor people called Anabaptists (Anabaptist was the name given to Baptists before the 16th century. "Ana" means "again" but the entire name, Anabaptist, was applied to those who believed and practiced what Bible-believing, separatist Baptists do today) were brought up for condemnation, From the days of Henry II to those of Elizabeth, we hear of certain unhappy heretics who were hated of all men for the truth's sake that was in them. We read of poor men and women, with their garments cut short, turned out into the fields to perish in the cold, and anon of others who were burnt at Newington for the crime of Anabaptism. Long before your Protestants were known of, those horrible Anabaptists, as they were unjustly called, were protesting for the 'one Lord, one faith, and one baptism.' No sooner did the visible church begin to depart from the Gospel than these men arose to keep fast by the good old way. The priests and monks wished for peace and slumber, but there was always a Baptist or a Lollard tickling men's ears with Holy Scriptures, and calling their attention to the errors of the times. They were a poor persecuted tribe. The halter was thought to be too good for them. At times, ill-written history would have us think that they died out, so well had the wolf done his work on the sheep. Yet here we are, blessed and multiplied; and Newington sees other scenes from Sunday to Sunday. As I think of the multitudes of your numbers and efforts, I can only say in wonder, 'What a growth!' As I think of the multitudes of our brethren in America, I can only say, 'What hath God wrought!' Our history forbids discouragements."

Baptists are not Protestant, are not a denomination, but have the same root as the New Testament Bible that they employ for all their faith and doctrine. Their root is in the WORD.

Pastor Ed Rice.