225 – August, 13 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

 

The First Swedish Baptist Church in America

Rev. Gustaf Palmquist became the first pastor at the founding of the first Swedish Baptist church in America at Rock Island, Illinois on August 13, 1852.  It consisted of only three members, two men and one woman. It had been commissioned by the Baptist church at Galesburg, IL where Palmquist, formerly a Lutheran, had been baptized in 1852 and ordained. The true honor however must go to Palmquist’s dear mother. Gustaf was born on May 26, 1812, into a family of seven children during a time of great spiritual dearth in Sweden. His mother came under deep conviction and turned to the parish priest who told her that her piety was sufficient. Having no peace she turned to an old widow who was considered spiritually odd who pointed her to Christ. Mrs. Palmquist began earnestly praying for the salvation of her children, though Gustaf and his brother Per did not come to full assurance until eight years after their mothers death. By now, at 32, Gustaf was a professor in a teachers’ college in Stockholm, and his vocal witness brought him into contact with F.G. Hedberg of Finland and Rev. F.O. Nilsson, the exiled Baptist preacher. In Helsingland in northern Sweden, there was a group of believers who, in an attempt to escape persecution, determined to imigrate to America. They asked Gustaf to go with them as their pastor which he did and they landed in N.Y. in August of 1851. He was soon disheartened to learn that his flock was scattered over three states so he went westward and settled in Rock Island, Illinois. He heard of a wonderful moving of the Spirit of God in the Baptist church in Galesburg and went to examine it for himself. This is where he was baptized and ordained into the ministry.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 332-34.

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210 – July 28 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

The Bible leads men to Baptist principles In the entry on July 1, the power of the state church (Lutheran) was considered in Norway and the antecedents of the Baptists in that country. Many soldiers had embraced Baptist (Bible) principles also, and on July 28, 1743 some were ordered by the colonel to participate in a Lutheran church parade, and the soldiers refused. They were brought before a court-martial in Jan. of 1744. The verdict was that Hans and Christopher Pedersen should “work in iron” for six months, and that the rest should be sent to prison in Oslo so that they might “work constantly and receive instruction, so they might change their mind.” King Christian VI changed the sentence, ordering all to be sent to the penitentiary in Oslo. The officials had underestimated these Baptist prototypes, for they were a greater problem behind walls than they were outside. Jorgen Njcolaysen was ordered to attend services in the prison chapel, and when he refused, he was dragged by force from the building. The King had him whipped and then be given religious instruction. They continued to witness, and soon other prisoners surrendered their lives to the Lord. The bishop wrote to the King on July 11, 1744 stating that the six military persons had misused both the King’s and God’s grace and longsuffering. Also that six different priests had tried to get them to repent, but there work had been in vain. Their work had been in vain, because these separatists were not only stubborn in regard to their own heresy, but, “I ask that they be removed from the prison because they are a danger to the other prisoners.” They were finally sent to separate forts. These men believed in justification by faith, believer’s baptism, autonomy of the church and separation of church and state and the sole authority of scripture. Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 309-10. The post 210 – July 28 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST appeared first on The Trumpet Online.

183 – July 01 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

They paid the price for their faith in Norway

King Christian the sixth sat on the throne of Norway and Denmark when Soren Bolle immersed Johannes Halvorsen on July 1, 1742, in the river that flows through Drammen. On July 8 Halvorsen immersed Bolle, Nills Buttedahl, two others, and then Bolle immersed his wife. This was not done in secret but openly before the eyes of everybody, in order that they might show the world that they were “the true disciples of Christ.” There were no Baptists in Norway, and the state church was Lutheran, but Bolle, having prepared for the Lutheran ministry, was dissatisfied in his learning and could not subscribe to the doctrines of the state church. This has happened from time to time during the ages, when groups of people have come to the knowledge of believer’s immersion without any connection to Baptists elsewhere. The first person to administer the ordinance had never been immersed. He then immersed himself (this is called “sebaptism”). In almost every case, those whom he baptized lacked the assurance of the validity of their baptism due to a lack of succession. Nevertheless it wasn’t long until the wrath of the State Church backed by the government came upon them. Bolle said, “In regard to infant baptism, “my heart would rejoice if anybody could show me out of the Bible, one word that speaks about it, because what we say or do must be founded on the scriptures…because they shall judge me one day.” All of these men suffered in prison and the confiscation of their goods for their faith.

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: From This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 269-70.

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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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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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02 – January 02 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

 

Johann Gerhard Oncken

Baptists go to Germany

1884 – Johann Gerhard Oncken, the “Apostle of the German Baptists,” finished his course, and went home to be with His Lord. As a young Lutheran he had left his native Germany for England to serve an apprenticeship under a devout Presbyterian tradesman. He treasured his Bible, but it was only after a serious accident, and a near death encounter, that brought him to salvation in Christ after hearing a rousing sermon in a Methodist church. Immediately he desired to be a missionary and from that day he became a witness for Christ. He was sent to Germany by the British Continental Society. He united with the English Reformed Church and set out for Hamburg, Germany, but the German State Church for bid him to preach. He became an agent of the Edinburg Bible Society. During his lifetime he distributed over two million copies of the scriptures. Upon the arrival of his first child he began to question infant baptism and after studying His Bible, he longed to be immersed himself, but had to wait five years before he could. In time he found the Rev. Barnas Sears, an American studying in Germany. On April 22, 1834, seven believers were immersed at night in the river Elbe near Hamburg. This became the First Baptist Church in modern Germany, and Oncken became their pastor. Within four years churches were begun in Berlin, Oldenburg, and Stuttgart. In May of 1840, he was arrested and cast into prison, for the first, of what was to become numerous imprisonments. But the opposition merely caused spiritual advancement by the Baptists. Oncken’s work spread into Denmark, the Netherland’s, as well as Lithuania, Switzerland, Poland, and Russia. In 1860, Germany passed a law granting religious freedom. The Hamburg church seated 1400 people.
Dr. Greg J. Dixon, Adapted from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins Thompson /, pp. 02-03

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209 – July 28 – This Day in Baptist History Past

 

The Bible leads men to Baptist principles

 

In the entry on July 1, the power of the state church (Lutheran) was considered in Norway and the antecedents of the Baptists in that country. Many soldiers had embraced Baptist (Bible) principles also, and on July 28, 1743 some were ordered by the colonel to participate in a Lutheran church parade, and the soldiers refused. They were brought before a court-martial in Jan. of 1744. The verdict was that Hans and Christopher Pedersen should “work in iron” for six months, and that the rest should be sent to prison in Oslo so that they might “work constantly and receive instruction, so they might change their mind.” King Christian VI changed the sentence, ordering all to be sent to the penitentiary in Oslo. The officials had underestimated these Baptist prototypes, for they were a greater problem behind walls than they were outside. Jorgen Njcolaysen was ordered to attend services in the prison chapel, and when he refused, he was dragged by force from the building. The King had him whipped and then be given religious instruction. They continued to witness, and soon other prisoners surrendered their lives to the Lord. The bishop wrote to the King on July 11, 1744 stating that the six military persons had misused both the King’s and God’s grace and longsuffering. Also that six different priests had tried to get them to repent, but there work had been in vain. Their work had been in vain, because these separatists were not only stubborn in regard to their own heresy, but, “I ask that they be removed from the prison because they are a danger to the other prisoners.” They were finally sent to separate forts. These men believed in justification by faith, believer’s baptism, autonomy of the church and separation of church and state and the sole authority of scripture.  

 

Dr. Greg J. Dixon: adapted From: This Day in Baptist History Vol. I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 309-10.

 

 

PATRIOT PREACHERS

These patriot-preachers were   staunchly patriotic, seriously independent, and steadfastly courageous. They   were found in almost all of the various Protestant denominations at the time:   Baptist, Presbyterian, Congregational, Anglican, Lutheran, German Reformed,   etc. Their Sunday sermons — more than Patrick Henry’s oratory, Sam Adams’ and   James Warren’s “Committees of Correspondence,” or Thomas Paine’s “Summer   Soldiers and Sunshine Patriots” — inspired, educated, and motivated the   colonists to resist the tyranny of the British Crown, and fight for their   freedom and independence. Without the Black Regiment, there is absolutely no   doubt that we would still be a Crown colony, with no Declaration of   Independence, no U.S. Constitution, no Bill of Rights, and little liberty.
The exploits of the Black Regiment are legendary. When General George   Washington asked Lutheran pastor John Peter Muhlenberg to raise a regiment of   volunteers, Muhlenberg gladly agreed. Before marching off to join   Washington’s army, he delivered a powerful sermon from Ecclesiastes 3:1-8   that concluded with these words: “The Bible tells us there is a time for all   things and there is a time to preach and a time to pray, but the time for me   to preach has passed away, and there is a time to fight, and that time has   come now. Now is the time to fight! Call for recruits! Sound the drums!”
Then Muhlenberg took off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a   Virginia colonel. Grabbing his musket from behind the pulpit, he donned his   colonel’s hat and marched off to war. And as he did, more than 300 of his   male congregants followed him.
Muhlenberg’s brother quotes John Peter as saying, “You may say that as a   clergyman nothing can excuse my conduct. I am a clergyman, it is true, but I   am a member of society as well as the poorest layman, and my liberty is as   dear to me as any man. I am called by my country to its defense. The cause is   just and noble. Were I a Bishop … I should obey without hesitation; and as   far am I from thinking that I am wrong, I am convinced it is my duty so to do   — a duty I owe to my God and my Country.”
Remember, too, it was Pastor Jonas Clark and his congregants at the Church of   Lexington who comprised that initial body of brave colonists called   Minutemen. These were the men, you will recall, who withstood British troops   advancing on Concord to confiscate the colonists’ firearms and arrest Sam   Adams and John Hancock, and fired “the shot heard round the world.”
The “Supreme Knight” and great martyr of Presbyterianism was Pastor James   Caldwell of the Presbyterian church of         Elizabethtown   (present-day Elizabeth), New Jersey. He was called the “Rebel High Priest”   and the “Fighting Chaplain.” He is most famous for the story “Give ’em   Watts!” It is said that at the Springfield engagement, when the militia ran   out of wadding for their muskets, Parson Caldwell galloped to the   Presbyterian church and returned with an armload of hymnbooks, threw them to   the ground, and exclaimed, “Now, boys, give ’em Watts! Give ’em Watts!” — a   reference to the famous hymn writer, Isaac Watts.
Not an easy path: Presbyterian   minister James Caldwell, who gained fame during the battle of Springfield,   New Jersey, when he gathered Watts hymnals from a church for use as rifle   wadding and shouted to the troops as he handed them out, “put Watts into   them,” was killed in the war, as was his wife.
 Then   there was the Baptist, Joab Houghton, of New Jersey. Houghton was in the   Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house at worship when he received the first   information of Concord and Lexington, and of the retreat of the British to   Boston with heavy losses. His great-grandson gave the following eloquent   description of the way he treated the tidings:
Stilling   the breathless messenger, he sat quietly through the services, and when they   were ended, he passed out, and mounting the great stone block in front of the   meeting-house, he beckoned to the people to stop. Men and women paused to   hear, curious to know what so unusual a sequel to the service of the day   could mean. At the first words a silence, stern as death, fell over all. The   Sabbath quiet of the hour and of the place was deepened into a terrible   solemnity. He told them all the story of the cowardly murder at Lexington by   the royal troops; the heroic vengeance following hard upon it; the retreat of   Percy; the gathering of the children of the Pilgrims round the beleaguered   hills of Boston. Then pausing, and looking over the silent throng, he said   slowly: “Men of New Jersey, the red coats are murdering our brethren of New   England! Who follows me to Boston?” And every man of that audience stepped   out into line, and answered, “I!” There was not a coward nor a traitor in old   Hopewell Baptist Meeting-house that day. [Source: Cathcart, The Baptists and the American   Revolution, 1876]
Consider,   too, Pastor M’Clanahan, of Culpepper County, Virginia, who raised a military   company of Baptists and served in the field, both as a captain and chaplain.   Reverend David Barrow “shouldered his musket and showed how fields were won.”   Another Baptist, General Scriven, when ordered by a British officer to give   up Sunbury, near Savannah, sent back the answer, “Come and get it.” Deacon   Mills, of the First Baptist Church of Philadelphia, “commanded skillfully”   1,000 riflemen at the Battle of Long Island, and for his valor was made a   brigadier general. Deacon Loxley of the same church commanded the artillery   at the Battle of Germantown with the rank of colonel. (Source: McDaniel, The People Called Baptists,   1925)
A list drawn up by Judge Curwen, an ardent Tory, contained 926 names of   British sympathizers living in America — colonial law had already exiled a   larger number — but there was “not the name of one Baptist on the list.”   Maybe this is why President George Washington, in his letter to the Baptists,   paid the following tribute: “I recollect with satisfaction that the religious   society of which you are members has been, throughout America, uniformly and   almost unanimously, the firm friend to civil liberty, and the persevering   promoters of our glorious Revolution.” Maybe it explains why Thomas Jefferson   could write to a Baptist church, saying, “We have acted together from the   origin to the end of a memorable Revolution.”
(Source:   Ibid.)

25 – Jan. 25 – THIS DAY IN BAPTIST HISTORY PAST

She was found guilty and sentenced to death by drowning. 
The unnamed daughter of Hans Hut, the outstanding Anabaptist leader in Germany died the martyrs death for her faith, by drowning, on Jan. 25, 1527 in the city of Bamburg.  Hut was a convert of Hans Denck, and on May 26, 1526, followed His Lord in believers baptism.  His daughter was one of his first converts who followed him in his new found faith.  Women among the Anabaptists held a superior position above other groups.  They referred to them as “sisters” and the ladies had a ministry of personal witnessing.   Their enemies accused them of practicing “free-love.”  There was no basis to the lie.  In fact, the high basis of morality of the Anabaptists was often mentioned by sincere historians of that era.  Hans daughter lived but a few months following her conversion to Christ.  Hans was accompanied by his family when he went to Bamberg in evangelistic work where he met with considerable success and then left them there when he departed for Augsburg.  While he was gone, his daughter was arrested.  She had participated in many Anabaptist meetings and had a firm grasp on the New Testament.  When arrested by State Church authorities (Lutheran) she gave clear answers as to her faith in Christ and refused to disavow her Lord.  She was found guilty and sentenced to death by drowning.  On this date, she was led to the river where she was placed in a bag with heavy weights and thrown to her death by drowning.  How blessed it must have been, as Stephen of old to have been greeted by our Lord Himself, who no doubt stepped off his throne to greet such a precious prize jewel, and no doubt gave her a name that her Lord has reserved just for her.  Revelation 2:17 “To him that overcometh will I give…a white stone, and in the stone a new name written, which no man knoweth saving he that receiveth it.”
Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History Vol. IIII: Cummins, pp. 51-52.