272 – Sept. 29 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

 

 

His outspoken ways brought great persecution

 Balthasar Hubmaier received the doctorate of theology from the University of Ingolstadt in Germany and entered the Roman Catholic ministry on Sept. 29, 1512.  Through his studies he became disillusioned with what he had been taught and by 1523 was in contact with the Protestant reformer, Zwingli and he was transformed by the grace of God. Later he left Zwingli over believer’s immersion. His outspoken ways brought great persecution down upon him. He like Peter, under pressure, denied the truth, but repented and was able to give a glorious testimony to God’s grace in the flames of martyrdom on March 10, 1528. Three days later his wife Elizabeth, undaunted in her faith, was thrown into the Danube River and drowned. The doctrine that caused our Anabaptist forebears to suffer at the hands of Catholic and Protestant Reformers alike was infant baptism. That wicked heresy was established in the third century as Cyprian consulted with sixty bishops upon the question of whether children were to be baptized on the third or eighth day from their birth? Our forefathers the Donatists, repudiated this falsity. The Reformers, Luther, Zwingli, and Calvin continued in this heresy, and also persecuted the Baptists, and other non-conformists over this issue, which they had received from Augustine. [Wm. R. Estep, The Anabaptist Story Nashville: Broadman Press, 1963), p. 49.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson,   pp.  533 – 34.

 

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92 – April – 02 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

Metropolitan Tabernacle

C. H. Spurgeon’s Convictions of Baptist Beginnings
On April 2nd 1861 a public meeting was held for the Baptist brethren of London at the famed “Metropolitan Tabernacle,” known to many as “Spurgeon’s Tabernacle,” where dedicatory services were extended as church members and London residents united in praising God for His blessings!
Consider the words of greeting from Spurgeon, as he welcomed the area Baptist brethren to the new building.
“We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our  martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men.”
Dr. Dale R. Hart adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 134-135.
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69 – March – 10 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

Balthazar Hubmaer
Baptists are not Protestants
1528 – May this ever mark the day, that it is settled in blood, that Baptists are not Protestants.  Balthazar Hubmaer was burned at the stake with his wife urging him to remain strong.  Sulfur and gunpowder was rubbed into his long beard.  All the time he was exhorting others, praying for forgiveness, exhorting others, and commending his spirit unto God.  Three days later his dear wife joined him as they drowned her in the Danube River.   Once again we see the State Church staining its garments with the blood of the saints.  Hubmaer was born in Bavaria in 1480 and studied Theology under Dr. Eck, Luther’s antagonist, but had embraced Luther’s views by 1522.  He became allied with Zwingli and assisted him in his debates with the Catholics in 1523 and became a close friend.  Being a Biblical scholar, he soon discovered that the Reformation in Zurich had not gone back to the apostolic model, he deliberately embraced Anabaptist principles, which caused a severe rupture in his relationship with Zwingli.  He formed an Anabaptist church and baptized more than three hundred of is former hearers.  He would preach in the open air, and soon the population became largely Baptist.  His popularity soon attracted the attention of the Protestants and Catholics alike and he was soon arrested and taken to the dungeon.  There he appealed to his old friend Zwingli, the emperor, and to the Confederation and Council, to no avail.  His health broke, his wife was in jail and his only hope was recantation on infant baptism.  Finally they broke him, but at the church when he was to read his confession, God gave him strength, and he rose up and shouted, “Infant baptism is not of God, and men must be baptized by faith in Christ.”   The authorities rushed him and dragged him back to the dungeon and death.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson /, pp. 98.
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92 – April 02 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

C. H. Spurgeon’s Convictions of Baptist Beginnings

On April 2^nd 1861 a public meeting was held for the Baptist brethren of London at the famed “Metropolitan Tabernacle,” known to many as “Spurgeon’s Tabernacle,” where dedicatory services were extended as church members and London residents united in praising God for His blessings!

Consider the words of greeting from Spurgeon, as he welcomed the area Baptist brethren to the new building.

“We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the very days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel underground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our  martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men.

Dr. Dale R. Hart: Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 134-135.

 

38 – Feb. 07 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

The Reformers Un-Spiritual Men
The reformers (I.E. Luther, Calvin, Zwingli, and others) could hardly be considered spiritual men. Even as they are held in high esteem by many groups, please be reminded that these men led in the persecution of the Anabaptists.
In 1807 Dr. Samuel Jones was pastor of the Baptist Church in Lower Dublin, Pennsylvania, where he served for over fifty years until his death in 1814.  On Feb. 7 that year, Dr. Jones preached a Century Sermon commemorating the Centennial of the Philadelphia Baptist Association.  In his famed message he said: “The reformation, which has been so much gloried in was but a poor piece of business, although it has been attended with valuable consequences.  The reformers shook off the Papal yoke, but in the main retained its principles and spirit.  They did not establish the right of free inquiry, Liberty of conscience, and the word of God as the only rule of faith and practice…They were influenced by worldly motives, connected religion with worldly establishments, were the abettors of tyranny and oppression, and even of persecution by fire and the sword.”
Freedom of religion in America came not through the theology of the reformation, but rather through the influence of our godly Baptist forebears.  The historian, Leonard Woolsey Bacon put it this way: “ other sects, mainly the Presbyterians had been effective in demanding their own liberties, the Friends and the Baptists agreed in demanding liberty of conscience, worship, and equality before the law, for all alike.  But the active labor in this cause was mainly done by the Baptists.
 
Dr. Dale R. Hart, adapted from:  This Day in Baptist History  III (David L. Cummins), pp. 77-78.