220 – August, 08 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Baptism has always been by Immersion                                                                        

At Westminster in England on August 8, 1644, after another warm dispute, it was voted that “’pouring or sprinkling water on the face’ was sufficient and most expedient.” This event was reported by the historian, Dr. John Lightfoot, who was present. Out of this meeting came the Westminster Confession of Faith, “a creedal standard for all Presbyterian churches.” This conference was called on June 1, 1643. Some Episcopalians, Independents, and Puritans were present but no Baptists. Lightfoot’s entry for Aug. 7, 1644 tells of a “great heat” in the debate over the issue of baptism.  Rabbi Coleman, a great Hebrew scholar and Marshall, a great pulpit orator insisted that the Hebrew word tauveleh – dipping, demanded immersion “overhead.”  The vote was 24 for dipping, 25 against it. How did this Presbyterian body, without a Baptist in it, come to such a “great heat” on this subject of immersion if it were a novelty and among believers in England at that time? The answer is clear. Immersion was practiced from the days of the N.T. Dr. Philip Schaff, a member of the German Reformed Church, wrote:  In England immersion was the normal mode down to the middle of the 17th century. The New Catholic Edition of the Holy Bible with the imprimatur of Francis Cardinal Spellman states: “St. Paul alludes to the manner in which Baptism was ordinarily conferred in the primitive church, by immersion. The descent into the water is suggestive of the descent of the body into the grave, and the ascent is suggestive of the resurrection to a new life.” The ordinance of believer’s baptism has historical perpetuity from the days of the apostles until now.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 325-26.

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180 — June 28 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Jewett-Milo

 

The Pastor Who Couldn’t Ignore Immersion

 

Milo P. Jewett was born in Johnsbury, Vermont, on April 27, 1808, into the family of Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Jewett. Being the son of a medical doctor, young Jewett was offered the opportunity of a fine education and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1828. Looking forward to a career in the legal profession, Jewett spent a year in a law office in New Hampshire, but in 1830 he abandoned law and entered Andover Seminary. His brilliant mind fully equipped him for the field of education, and “he decided that teaching and not preaching was the work for which God had fitted him…In 1834 (he) accepted a professorship in Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio.”

 

Professor Jewett was persuaded to accept the pastorate of a Presbyterian church along with his educational duties, and for two years he served as pastor-professor. A disturbing situation developed which changed Jewett’s life, and that we might hear it in his own words, we quote from a letter he wrote from Marietta College, dated June 28, 1838:

 

Perhaps you know I have preached for about two years past to a Presbyterian church in the country. Some eighteen months ago, an elder of that church became a Baptist. On the occasion of his baptism, a sermon was preached by Rev. Hiram Gear, the Baptist minister in Marietta. This sermon disturbed several members of my church, and the session requested me to preach on baptism. . . . .

 

Afterwards I took up infant baptism; and here I found myself in clouds and darkness…I would lay down the subject for weeks, then resume it, till, some three or four months ago, I was obliged, in the fear of God, to conclude that none but believers in Jesus have a right to the ordinance of Jesus.

 

In January 1839 Jewett was baptized and united with the Baptist church in Marietta.

 

In 1840 he authored Jewett on Baptism, and the volume was blessed by the Lord in helping many to see the spiritual truth of the ordinance. Jewett passed into the Lord’s presence in 1882 after a full life of spiritual obedience and service.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: from This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (Thompson/Cummins) pp. 261 – 262.

 

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58 – February – 27 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

Posted: 26 Feb 2014 07:20 PM PST

 

Dunster House

 

Erected 1930

 

He wouldn’t bend or bow 1659 – Henry Dunster died on this date February 27, 1659.  He was born in England around 1612 and came to know Christ as his savior.  He graduated from Cambridge in 1630 and then received his master’s degree in 1634.  He was ordained as a minister in the Church of England but was grieved with its corruption and sailed for America where he was soon installed as the President of Harvard College in 1640.  In those days some in the Anglican Church practiced immersion, as did Dunster.  In 1641 Dunster married a widow of a minister and took her five children as his own.  Two years later she died, he remarried and she had five more.  During this time he came to the conclusion that visible baptism of believers alone was correct Biblically.  When he refused to have an infant son sprinkled he was indicted and put on trial and convicted for disturbing the ordinance of infant baptism.  Because of these firm convictions Dunster left Cambridge. Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 80.

 

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54 – February – 23 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

James Smith Coleman

Lutheran’s Bible meant immersion

1827 – James Smith Coleman was born on Feb. 23, 1827, and was saved as just a boy in his native Kentucky.  He became known as the “Old War Horse” for good reason.  He refused calls to large city churches preferring to stay in the country ministering as pastor-evangelist to the hill people.  His great-grand parents had become Baptists when they came to America from Germany.  After reading Lutheran’s translation of the scriptures, they knew that the Greek baptizo with the German “taufen,” meant immersion.  James united with the Beaver Dam Baptist Church at age eleven, but at adulthood he forgot his call to preach and became county sheriff.  At a revival meeting the Holy Spirit burdened his heart again, and he resigned as sheriff and began preaching the gospel with great power.  His efforts produced converts every time he graced the pulpit.  He was especially a great debater and often put the pedobaptists to flight with his oratory and effective humor.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 74.

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179 — June 28 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

Milo P. Jewett

 

The Pastor Who Couldn’t Ignore Immersion  

 

 

Milo P. Jewett was born in Johnsbury, Vermont, on April 27, 1808, into the family of Dr. and Mrs. Calvin Jewett. Being the son of a medical doctor, young Jewett was offered the opportunity of a fine education and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1828. Looking forward to a career in the legal profession, Jewett spent a year in a law office in New Hampshire, but in 1830 he abandoned law and entered Andover Seminary. His brilliant mind fully equipped him for the field of education, and “he decided that teaching and not preaching was the work for which God had fitted him…In 1834 (he) accepted a professorship in Marietta College, Marietta, Ohio.”

 

Professor Jewett was persuaded to accept the pastorate of a Presbyterian church along with his educational duties, and for two years he served as pastor-professor. A disturbing situation developed which changed Jewett’s life, and that we might hear it in his own words, we quote from a letter he wrote from Marietta College, dated June 28, 1838:

 

Perhaps you know I have preached for about two years past to a Presbyterian church in the country. Some eighteen months ago, an elder of that church became a Baptist. On the occasion of his baptism, a sermon was preached by Rev. Hiram Gear, the Baptist minister in Marietta. This sermon disturbed several members of my church, and the session requested me to preach on baptism. . . . .

 

Afterwards I took up infant baptism; and here I found myself in clouds and darkness…I would lay down the subject for weeks, then resume it, till, some three or four months ago, I was obliged, in the fear of God, to conclude that none but believers in Jesus have a right to the ordinance of Jesus.

 

In January 1839 Jewett was baptized and united with the Baptist church in Marietta.

 

In 1840 he authored Jewett on Baptism, and the volume was blessed by the Lord in helping many to see the spiritual truth of the ordinance. Jewett passed into the Lord’s presence in 1882 after a full life of spiritual obedience and service.

 

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I. (Thompson/Cummins) pp. 261 – 262.

 

 

88 – March 29 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

No Protection for Hypocrites

The events surrounding the ministry of Isaiah Wallace of New Brunswick, was published in the Christian Messenger on March 29, 1871.  Wallace was born in Hopewell, New Brunswick on Jan. 17, 1797, the first-born child of James and Catharine Wallace.  Early on he trusted the Lord Jesus as his savior, and was baptized by immersion.  As he reached maturity, God the Holy Spirit burdened him to preach, and he did so as the opportunity presented itself.  He served as a pastor, agent for the Baptist College at Acadia, and an evangelist.  Everywhere he ministered he experienced the hand of the Lord upon him, and the Baptist work greatly expanded throughout both Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.  How we need to pray that God will once again awaken that beautiful but spiritually destitute portion of North America.  Often in his evangelistic crusades, Bro. Wallace would preach three times a day, baptize converts, serve communion and move on to another area to do the same thing, crossing bodies of water in cold weather and often walking for many miles.  Many times multitudes were saved in his evangelistic meetings.  At another time ministering in the northern portions of New Brunswick, he was able to establish the Campbellton Baptist Church.  A lady of high social standing requested baptism.  She had belonged to another communion and her friends discouraged her on the basis that she would surely endanger her health by going into the cold water.  Her husband asked Rev. Wallace if he knew of any that he had baptized, taking cold, and Wallace, said, “No.”  He then asked him if he had ever heard of anyone taking cold and Wallace said that T.S. Harding told him that out of a 1,000 converts that only one had caught a cold and that she was a hypocrite.  The man said, “My wife is no hypocrite.”  So he allowed her to be baptized without incident.  Let us pray that Nova Scotia and New Brunswick will once again know the power of God.

 

Dr. Greg J. Dixon, adapted from: This Day in Baptist History III (David L. Cummins), pp.182-184.

66 – March 07 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

He Had a Baptist Bible

Oliver Willis Van Osdel was born to godly Methodist parents on October 30, 1846, in the village of Middlebush, near Poughkeepsie, New York. His father was a blacksmith and served the Lord until his death. The family moved to Illinois in 1854. Oliver intended to prepare for a career in law but sensed God’s call to the ministry. This led him to an examination of his own beliefs. Though Methodist by heritage, he had come to the conclusion that New Testament truth was most accurately taught by the Baptist people. Thus on March 7, 1869 Oliver was baptized by immersion and joined the Baptist church of Yorkville, Illinois. That night he preached his first sermon. When Oliver’s family pressed him about his decision to become a Baptist, he replied flatly that: “he had a Baptist Bible.” Oliver attended the old Chicago Baptist Theological Seminary, and in 1874 he assumed the pastorate of the Community Baptist Church in Warrenville, Illinois, and was ordained to the ministry on April 30, 1874. The next thirty-five years were eventful as Oliver held a number of pastorates during this period.

Van Osdel developed some strong convictions and the courage to stand by them during his years of ministry.  He faced opposition from several fronts throughout these years and stood firmly for the Gospel, for the truth of God’s Word, and against unbelief. In 1909 something unusual happened to Oliver.  He was called to return to Grand Rapids to pastor the church he had formerly led, the Wealthy Street Baptist Church. At age sixty-two, he began a ministry that would span twenty-five years!

Dr. Dale R. Hart, adapted from: “This Day in Baptist History III” David L. Cummins. pp. 137 – 138.

42 – Feb. 11 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

“He said the word “baptizo” is to immerse or dip.”
Dr. Alexander McLaren was born on Feb. 11, 1826, and lived until May 5, 1910.  He was a Baptist and an outstanding Bible expositor from Manchester, England who wrote for the Sunday School Times.  These lessons were used in all denominations throughout England.
In one of his lessons he commented on the immersion of the Lord Jesus in the Jordan.  Immediately the editor was bombarded by pedobaptists for allowing such a statement.  The editor himself a Presbyterian, replied that though he was not a Baptist, he concurred.  When McLaren used it a second time they were attacked again.  This time the Editor of the times quoted several scholars who all agreed that in every instance they agreed that “baptizo” is translated immersion.  These included John D. Davis, professor in the Theological Seminary at Princeton, NJ copyrighted by the Trustees of the Presbyterian Board of Education.  He said the word “baptizo” is to immerse or dip.”  Every lexicon renders it the same way.  Thayers Lexicon, Liddel and Scott, Bagsters Greek New Testament, all render that word to be either immerse or to dip.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon,  adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History III (David L. Cummins), pp

03 – Jan. 03 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

On Jan. 03, 1644, the British Parliament passed a law making sprinkling mandatory for all, making outlaws of all who were not.  This meant that they would be deprived of the “inheritance of the state, the right of burial, and of all the rights granted to other “sprinkled” citizens.  The purpose of passing this law was to choke the Baptists that were prospering in the land.  The law said that the minister, in the name of the “Father, of the son, and of the Holy Ghost”, was to pour or sprinkle water on the face of the child, “without adding any other ceremony.”  Prior to the time that the Presbyterians gained power in Great Britain, the same law read by “immersion” but the members of the Westminster Assembly who presented the famed Presbyterian Westminster Confession of Faith, came within one vote of demanding immersion as the form of Baptism.  Therefore “so goes the church, so goes the state”.  Prior to that time all denominations in Great Britain practiced immersion except for the Roman Catholics.  It was a novelty for any sect until the Presbyterians introduced it.  Dr. W.H. King of London made a complete search of the subject of Baptism in the British Museum.  He said that he had examined more than 7,000 pamphlets on the subject of baptism, or the opinions and practices of the Baptists.  And that he can report that: “There is not a sentence or a hint…that the Baptists generally, or any section of them, or even any individual Baptist, held any other opinion than that immersion is the only true and scriptural method of baptism, either before the year 1641 or after it.”  We know that baptism does not save us, in eternity, but is “an answer of a good conscience toward God”   ( 1 Pet. 3:21).