Baptist Church History

The terms, “church of God” or “churches of Christ” in the Bible are common names, not proper names because proper names are usually capitalized.  Such only show ownership that the church belongs to Christ.  Like for example, “The car of George”, it shows that the car belongs to George, but it is not the proper name of the car.   If George’s car has a mark, Honda Civic, then that is the proper name of the car. If George is asked, “What is the name of your car, it is wrong for him to say “the name of my car is the car of George.”  That is not the proper name of the car. If his car is named “Honda Civic”, then that is the proper name of the car.

One of the identifying marks of the Lord’s churches is that it has a right history.  When Christ established His church, He did not give a specific proper name.  They were simply called “disciples” or “brethren”.  It was in Antioch that they were mocked as “Christians” and later on, they were identified by that name.

And when he had found him, he brought him unto Antioch. And it came to pass, that a whole year they assembled themselves with the church, and taught much people. And the disciples were called Christians first in Antioch. -Acts 11:26

It was John the Baptist who prepared the people for the Lord’s ministry by preaching repentance and baptizing believers and Jesus (John 1: 6; Matthew 3).  After John’s work of baptizing, the Lord Jesus called out the baptized believers in the shores of Galilee and that marks the beginning of the Lord’s church (Matthew 4).  The church ministered with Jesus but after his death and resurrection, he told them to tarry in Jerusalem and wait for the empowering of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:21-22; Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24: 49).  Then,  Lord’s church which started from the seashore of Galilee, moved to Jerusalem and despite persecutions, continued to grow and increased in number, and it reached Rome .

There were two groups who persecuted the Lord’s churches.  The religious Jews and the imperial Rome.  The religion of Rome was Pagan at that time.  The Pagan Rome had been trying to destroy the Lord’s churches by persecutions.  Because they cannot destroy it by violence so they tried to destroy it from within, by infiltration.  In 251 AD, a pastor of the church of Rome died, and there were two candidates for leadership namely Novatus and Cornelius.  Novatus was strict and Biblical but Cornelius was liberal and not strict in doctrine.  Because there were already many infiltrators in the church at Rome, so when the church decided who would be the pastor, the majority chose Cornelius who was with the empire side. The church was divided, and though the majority was with Cornelius yet the lineage of the true church was with Novatus. The church led by Novatus stood for the true faith despite persecutions and their persecutors dubbed them as Novatians.

Later about 312 AD a pagan emperor named Constantine the Great saw in the sky a red fiery cross with the words “In Hoc signus vinces” and it means by this sign you will conquer.  So he interpreted it that if he will become a Christian he will be able to conquer the world. Constantine realized that they had been killing Christians yet they continue to grow and increase.  So he realized that there is power in Christianity since they continue to flourish and increase in number despite persecutions. Emperor Constantine was after wealth and power so he decided to join the Christians and professed himself to be a Christian.  The church led by Cornelius later on became the church that was headed by Constantine the Great who was responsible for uniting the church and state.  They brought paganism into the church at Rome which gradually developed into a Roman Catholic Church, their so called Christianity was mixed with paganism and judaism.     It was prophesied:

Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; Forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God hath created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: For it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer. -1 Timothy 4:1-5

Constantine was responsible for uniting the church and state in 313 AD.  Such was contrary to the teaching of Jesus which he stated:

And he said unto them, Render therefore unto Caesar the things which be Caesar’s, and unto God the things which be God’s. -Luke 20:25

He then created an ecumenical council calling all churches to unite with him.  Those churches who stood for the faith and did not join him became object of persecutions.  They were deprived of the name Christians and were called by various names, were called as “Ana-Baptists” and dubbed as “heretics” and were severely persecuted.  Until in the sixteenth century, the prefix “Ana” was dropped off and the Lord’s true churches were simply called Baptists.

Prior to the 16th century, some members within the Roman Catholic became dissatisfied and wanted to reform the church yet they did not succeed.  It was in the 16th century that Martin Luther protested and he was hunted, and through the help of Melanchton eventually was able to establish a Lutheran church which became a state church in Germany.  Other protestant reformers later followed and started their own churches.  The protestants started in the 16th century who came out from the Roman Catholic church.  John Calvin who founded the Presbyterian church taught unconditional election and predestination which influenced many Baptists and divided them.  Because of the doctrine of hyper-Calvinism, some Baptist churches were influenced and became anti-missions.   So the Baptists were divided into two groups, missionary Baptists and anti-mission Baptist, which were called as Primitive Baptists.

In 1845, some Baptists of the South formed a convention which they call, “Southern Baptist Convention”.  According to their constitution, they are composed of regular missionary Baptists.  At the beginning of the SBC, there were many who believed in the local church and uphold sound doctrines.  Many missionary Baptists remained independent, but others were in that convention who later came out due to their inclination to modernism.   Gradually SBC churches adopted some protestant doctrines such as the universal church, Baptist as protestant reformers, etc.  When Dr. J.M. Carroll wrote the Book the Trail of Blood, his belief of succession of churches is the same as Missionary Baptists.  True Missionary Baptists believe in church perpetuity and that the gates of hell was not able to prevail against the church.

And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. -Matthew 16:18