268 – Sept. 25 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

They loved the Navajos

 Rev. and Mrs. Samuel Gorman were approved on Sept. 25, 1852, by the American Baptist Home Mission Society, to serve among the Navajos in New Mexico. That field had recently been opened by H.W. Read of Connecticut. Two additional couples had also recently gone to that field of service, including James Milton Shaw and his wife from New York. A letter from Bro. Gorman dated in 1876 relates many of the trying experiences from the time that they arrived in Laguna in 1852. They had a nine month delayed entrance into “the Pueblo” as promised by Capt. Henry L. Dodge. The priests (Catholic) had done everything possible to “rout” them from the village including suing them at law in Taos, which they won at great cost of time and money. At times they had a hard time finding enough to eat and were out of funds most of the time. Thankfully when Capt. Dodge did come he persuaded the Indians to allow them to teach their children and to preach Christ to them. He was able to preach every Sabbath except when on mission tours and finally in 1858 he was able to build a little chapel. The first Indian convert in N.M. was Jose Senon who carried on the work when the missionaries had to leave when the area was occupied by the Confederate soldiers during the Civil War. Gorman died at 92 after he also pastored successful churches in Ohio and Wisconsin. [Lewis A. Myers, A History of N.M. Baptists (Baptist Convention of New Mexico, 1995), pp. 59-60.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson,   pp. 525-27.

 

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314 – Nov. 10 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Why America became a Republic

 

1745 – Isaac Backus and others were excommunicated from the Congregational church at Norwich, Connecticut. The name of Isaac Backus is one of the brightest lights in Baptist history. He was born on Jan. 9, 1724 in Norwich. He grew up during the time of the Great Awakening under George Whitefield and other lesser-known men. In Nov. of 1741 a revival broke out in his home town, and Backus received full assurance of salvation. Many in the Congregational state churches did not look with favor on evangelism and these converts were called “New Lights.” However, wanting to receive communion, after 11 months, Backus finally united with the church. Starving spiritually, these “New Lights” in the congregation began meeting together for fellowship and Bible study. This division is what led to the impasse that caused the church to excommunicate them. The converts of the Great Awakening started Separate churches. Backus, called to preach and ordained, was quite at home in this movement and carried on an itinerant ministry for fourteen months until he took a church at Titicut, Mass. It was there that he became convinced of believer’s immersion, and on Aug. 22, 1751, he and six fellow church members were immersed on profession of their faith. At that point Backus formed a Baptist church and served for almost sixty years as evangelist, pastor, author and fighter for religious liberty in early America. It is estimated that he traveled over 67,000 miles and preached nearly 10,000 sermons. Backus was one of the main reasons that America adopted a constitutional Republic over Calvin’s “Geneva Theocracy” model. [B.L. Shelly, Dictionary of Baptists in America (Downers Grove, Ill.: InterVarsity Press, 1994), p. 36. This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: Greenville, S.C. 2000 A.D. pp. 614-15.]   Prepared by Dr. Greg J. Dixon

 

 

325 – Nov. 21 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

The oppression of Baptists continued in CT until 1771

November 21, 1752 – Elisha Paine, was seized by the authorities of Windham, Connecticut, and imprisoned because he failed to pay a tax to the state church minister. In defending liberty of conscience…Baptists often had to remind Congregationalists of the time when the “shoe was on the other foot,” and their fathers suffered under papal authority and tyranny as well as from Rome’s child, the Church of England. Paine, in an eloquent speech reminded them of the “Golden Rule” and how he marveled at how soon they had forgotten the sword that drove their fathers into this land and now had taken hold of it as a jewel to kill their grandchildren. “O, that man could see how far this is from Christ’s rule! I believe the same people, who put this authority into the hands of Mr. Cogswell, their minister, to put me into prison for not paying him for preaching, would think it very hard for the church I belong to, and am pastor of, if they should be so unjustly taxed at; and yet I can see no other difference, only because the power is in his hands…and yet he hath taken from me by force two cows and one steer, and now my body held in prison only because the power is in his hands.” He compared the law of CT to Rome and referred to Ps. 94:20-22 – Shall the throne of iniquity have fellowship with thee, which frameth mischief by a law? They gather themselves together against the soul of the righteous, and condemn the innocent blood. But the Lord is my defense; and my God is the rock of my refuge. five days later Paine was released from prison. The severe winter kept him from his family, who suffered much in an unfinished house for lack of his assistance. The oppression of Baptists continued in CT until 1771 when liberty prevailed over tyranny in the area of religious freedom.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins /Thompson/ , pp. 485-86.

320 – Nov. 16 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

At every opportunity he preached the gospel

November 16, 1786 – Abraham Marshall returned to his beloved home state of Georgia from a round trip on horseback to Connecticut to care for matters of his deceased father’s estate. The trip had begun on May 10. The bachelor pastor made a similar trip of 2,200 miles in 1792 in search of a life partner. Abraham’s greatest delight was in his preaching. At every opportunity he preached the gospel and defended the faith. As he traveled northward he met a man named Winchester who knew some of his relatives of whom one was Rev. Eliakim Marshall, Separatist, Congregationalist minister, respected citizen, and long-time pedobaptist in New England. When Abraham arrived at Windsor, CT, he was the house guest of his cousin Eliakim, and it wasn’t long until the subject of Baptism came up. After long discussions from the Word, Eliakim was convinced of immersion. But his wife opposed it on the basis that he had been raised a Congregationalist. But after his conversion he had left the church and was fined in 1746 for non-attendance. He had been ordained as a pastor of a New Light Separatist church in Wetherfield, CT. He was also active politically and served the state assembly and also ran for governor in 1780, thus his wife thought it demeaning for him to admit doctrinal error. But he did so in a powerful sermon in the presence of his congregation. Abraham Marshall recorded in his diary, “…then we advanced…to a river…and baptized Eliakim Marshall in the presence of hundreds who had never seen the ordinance administered according to the pattern and example of the great Head…before.” The following day Abraham had the privilege of delivering the ordination sermon of Eliakim as a Baptist preacher, and until his death Eliakim served as a Baptist pastor.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins /Thompson/, pp. 476-78.