A Sketch of Baptist History

Dr Kenneth Dix, Dunstable

The Elizabethan Settlement of 1559 provided for a state church and, in an intolerant age, those who chose to separate and form independent congregations were bitterly persecuted. Among them was John Smyth, a clergyman who emigrated to Holland, where he adopted Baptist views and where the first English-speaking Baptist Church came into being in 1609. The earliest Baptist Churches on English soil were formed soon after this, and were of General Baptist persuasion (Christ died for the sins of all men). The first Calvinistic, or Particular Baptist Church, (Christ’s death was for the elect) was formed in London in 1633.

Apart from a brief period during the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell, both groups were persecuted. They suffered imprisonment and sequestration of goods for holding separatist meetings and not going to church, and they were maligned for daring to question the almost universal acceptance of infant baptism. They also prospered. By 1660 there were well over 200 Baptist churches in England, with more in Wales.

In 1644 seven Particular Baptist (PB) churches in London combined to formulate a confession of faith, as an answer to false charges being made against them. A second PB Confession, based on the Westminster Confession, was issued in 1677. A reprint of this was commended to the churches at the PB Assembly in 1689, attended by representatives from over 100 churches.

The Eighteenth Century

Early in the 18^th century many General Baptists (GBs) lapsed into Unitarianism. A New Connexion of GBs was brought into being in 1770 by Dan Taylor, a Yorkshireman, and friend of the PB John Fawcett, author of many hymns, including ‘Blest be the tie that binds’. These churches merged with the Baptist Union in 1891.

Meanwhile the number of PB churches slowly increased, with a considerable quickening towards the end of the century. When John Rippon, a London minister, produced the first Baptist magazine in 1790, he listed 326 PB Churches in England, and most had a pastor.

As in the period of the Commonwealth in the 17^th century, associations were formed, for mutual support and encouragement, among them the Northants Association. Its leaders included the Rylands, John Sutcliffe and Andrew Fuller, who by the end of the century had taken the place of John Gill (died 1771) as the leading Baptist theologian. At a meeting of ministers in Kettering in 1792 the sum of £13.2.6d was promised towards the formation of a ‘Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Amongst the Heathen’ (later the Baptist Missionary Society). When, under its auspices, William Carey sailed for India, Baptists were leading the evangelical churches in missionary endeavour.

The Nineteenth Century

The Baptist Union, with its Calvinistic basis, was formed in 1813, with the purpose of ministers and churches becoming better acquainted with each other. At its reconstitution in the 1830s the Calvinistic emphasis was omitted, reflecting the changes taking place in many Baptist circles. This shift from the older doctrinal standards was accompanied by a gradual acceptance of higher critical attitudes toward Scripture. In the ‘downgrade’ controversy of the late 1880s C H Spurgeon sought, unsuccessfully, to arrest these changes.

Another strand of 19^th century Baptist thought and practice developed from issues that were agitating PBs towards the end of the 18^th century. These were the place of the moral law in the life of the believer, the propriety or otherwise of calling on sinners to repent and believe, and whether or not membership and attendance at the Lord’s Supper should be open to those who had not been baptised on profession of faith. William Gadsby in Manchester and John Stevens in London differed on the moral law issue, but they both opposed ‘offers of the gospel’ and adhered rigidly to restricted communion. Through their influence, together with that of J C Philpot, John Foreman, James Wells and others, there emerged a group of churches that were to become known as Strict Baptists (SBs). But, as their periodicals show (Gospel Standard first published 1835, Earthen Vessel 1845, and Gospel Herald 1883), there was considerable internal disunity. However, sensing the need for overseas mission, and unhappy with doctrinal laxity in the BMS, a group of SBs came together to form the Strict Baptist Mission in 1861 (renamed Grace Baptist Mission in 1982).

The Twentieth Century

At the beginning of the new century there were over 2000 Baptist Churches in England, almost a third of them Strict Baptist. The Baptist Union consolidated its position as the largest Baptist group in the country. Victorian optimism was still at its height and large congregations met in chapels occupying prominent positions in town centres. But as with other denominations, numbers were declining.

Within the BU, Arminianism and liberalism had now taken a firm hold. The BU also became affiliated with the ecumenical movement. But as many of us can testify, men and women were still being brought to salvation in churches associated with the Union, and in recent years there is evidence that some churches are returning to their PB roots.

Strict Baptists also declined, and by the 1930s less than a third of the churches had pastoral oversight. There was also a division. In 1934 churches and ministers associated with ‘The Gospel Standard’ formally separated from all other SBs over the issue of the eternal Sonship of Christ. Since 1934 the Gospel Standard Strict Baptists have continued to maintain their distinctive position as expressed in the 1878 Articles of Faith.

Immediately following the Second World War the National Strict Baptist Federation was formed, with a view to bringing the churches into closer union. This was later integrated with the National Assembly of SB Pastors and Deacons (now Grace Assembly). A new Affirmation of Faith was published in 1966.

‘The Christian’s Pathway’, which for many years had printed a monthly Directory of the churches, ceased publication in 1969. A few months later ‘The Gospel Herald’ was replaced by a new magazine named ‘Grace’. Since then the term Grace Baptist has tended to supplant the more traditional Strict Baptist. Restricted communion is now less rigidly observed than it once was, and there is far greater freedom on calling sinners to repent and believe. Another change adopted in many churches has been to replace pastor and deacons with elders and deacons.

The early English Baptists were religious radicals, and they were innovators; when they formed independent churches, they were doing something new. And when they fearlessly proclaimed believers’ baptism, they were throwing the entire parochial system into chaos. By unflinchingly persevering in what they believed to be the ‘faith once delivered’ they set an example that is a hard act to follow.