December 2, 2020
Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
Landmarkism – What Is It? – Conclusion
PART FOUR OF FOUR

11. It is a fact that the attempt of the few influential and. would-be popular ministers, of the early past and of this present time, to carry the denomination into affiliations and alliances of various kinds with Pedobaptists, and to influence it to recognize their societies as evangelical churches, by accepting their immersions, and their preachers as evangelical ministers, by ministerial associations with them, has caused all the strifes, angry discussions and alienations that have afflicted us as a people in this and other states. And finally—

12. It is a sad fact that in Christ’s last revelation through John, of what would take place toward the close of the present gospel dispensation, and previous to His second advent. He foretold that laxity of views and practices, general indifferentism and lukewarmness, a state which He denominated as “neither cold nor hot,” would characterize a large number in His churches; and these, He declared, unless they repented and turned from their loose ways, He would spew out of His mouth: but the faithful and zealous few would be approved and presented as the “Bride,” without spot, before the Father.

It is my deepest conviction that “this day is this Scripture being fulfilled in our ears and before our eyes!” Reader, where do you stand? Where would you stand—among the faithful few, or the most popular among the lukewarm many?

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 17

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
Landmarkism – What Is It? – Conclusion
PART ONE

Conclusions I claim that I have demonstrated, by the plain teachings of the Scriptures and the history of our denominational ancestors, the following facts—viz.:

1. It is a fact that the churches of the New Testament, covering the entire apostolic age, were instructed to hold the doctrines, and observe the policy now denominated “Old Landmarkism.” The Christians of the first century, then, were “Old Landmarkers.”

2. It is a fact that all those churches, by whatever name called, which were the recognized witnesses of the truth and the preservers of the gospel during all the subsequent ages until the Reformation, were strictly “Old Landmark” Baptists, in faith and practice, and were called Anabaptists.

3. It is a fact that the genuine Baptists, from the rise of Protestantism onward, for centuries following, were “Old Landmarkers” in the strictest acceptation of the term, according to the testimony of Bullinger, Mosheim and Owen.

4. It is a fact that the Baptists of England and Wales, from the time churches were planted in those countries until a late day, were Anabaptists who refused in any way to recognize the Pedobaptist persecuting sects of that day, as churches of Christ, and were, therefore, “Old Landmarkers.”
   (to be continued)

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 17

And yet, in the face of these facts, a Puritan poetess, with the blood of Painter and Holmes flowing before her eyes, and the midwinter prisons filled with Baptists, and the tracks of others leading into the bleak wilderness, into which Christian men were driven by the Puritans, could say:
“Aye, call it holy ground,
The place where first they trod;
They have left unstained what there they found –
Freedom to worship God!”

Conclusion:

Let the most prejudiced Anti-Landmark Baptist—the moat “liberal” Baptist on the continent—if a Christian man, with the facts of this chapter before him, decide whether the Baptists of New England, from 1638 to 1796, regarded or treated Pedobaptist organizations as Evangelical churches, and their bloodthirsty and cormorant preachers as ministers of the gospel of love and peace. Turn back to Chapter XV and learn their decision. Baptists of that age were what landmark Baptists are in this.

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 15

Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
New England Baptists 1638-1776 AD – Old Landmarkers
Baptist Land Confiscated by Presbyterian State Government Church
Letter to the Philadelphia Baptist Association
PART TWELVE

I close this century of bitter sufferings with the letter that the Warren Association sent to the Philadelphia Association, only six years before the Declaration of Independence:

Letter from the Warren Association, Massachusetts
‘The laws of this province were never intended to exempt the Baptists from paying toward building and repairing Presbyterian meeting-houses, and making up Presbyterian ministers’ salaries; for, besides other insufficiencies, they are all limited, both as to extent and duration. The first law extended only five miles round each Baptist meeting-house; those without this circle had no relief, neither had they within; for, though it exempted their polls, it left their estates to the mercy of harpies, and their estates went to wreck. The Baptists sought a better law, and, with great difficulty and waste of time and money, obtained it, but this was not universal. It extended not to any parish until a Presbyterian meeting-house should be built and a Presbyterian minister settled there; in consequence of which the Baptists have never been freed from the first and great expenses of their parishes, expenses equal to the current expense of ten or twelve years.

This is the present case of the people of Ashfield, which is a Baptist settlement. There were but five families of other denominations in the place when the Baptist Church was constituted; but those five, and a few more, had lately built a Presbyterian meeting-house there, and settled an orthodox minister, as they called him; which last cost them 200 pounds. To pay for both, they laid a tax on the land; and, as the Baptists are the most numerous, the greatest part fell to their share. The Presbyterians, in April last, demanded the money. The Baptists pleaded poverty, alleging that they had been twice driven from their plantations by the Indians’ last war; that they were but new settlers, and had cleared but a few spots of land, and had not been able to build commodious dwelling-houses. Their tyrants would not hear. Then the Baptists pleaded the ingratitude of such conduct; for they had built a fort there at their own expense, and had maintained it for two years, and so, had protected the interior Presbyterians, as well as their neighbors, who now rose against them; that the Baptists to the westward had raised money to relieve the Presbyterians who had, like them, suffered by the Indians; and that it was cruel to take from them what the Indians had left! But nothing touched the hearts of these cruel people.

Then the Baptists urged the law of the province; but were soon told that that law extended to no new parish till the meeting-house and minister were paid for. Then the Baptists petitioned the General Court. Proceedings were stopped till further orders, and the poor people went home rejoicing, thinking their property safe; but had not all got home before said order came, and it was an order for the Presbyterians Presbyterians to proceed. Accordingly, in the month of April, they fell foul on their plantations; and not on skirts and corners, but on the cleared and improved spots; and so, have mangled their estates, and left them hardly any but a wilderness. They sold the house and garden of one man, and the young orchards, meadows, and cornfields of another man; they sold their dead, for they sold their graveyard. The orthodox minister was one of the purchasers. These spots amounted to three hundred and ninety-five acres, and have since been valued at 363 pounds, 8s., but were sold for 35 pounds, 10s. This was the first payment. Two more are coming, which will not leave them an inch of land at this rate.
(tomorrow – Baptist wait on the Assembly)

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 15

December 4, 2020
Baptist History, Heritage and Distinctives
New England Baptists 1638-1776 AD – Old Landmarkers
Persecution of Baptist in America Did Not End with the Declaration of Independence
PART ELEVEN

“To the Baptists in the province of the Massachusetts Bay, who are, or have been, oppressed in any way on a religious account, it would be needless to tell you that you have long felt the effects of the laws by which the religion of the government in which you live is established. Your purses have felt the burden of ministerial rates; and, when these would not satisfy your enemies, your property has been taken from you and sold for less than half its value. These things you cannot forget. You will, therefore, readily hear and attend when you are desired to collect your cases of suffering, and have them well attested; such as the taxes you have paid to build meeting-houses, to settle ministers and support them [i.e., for their enemies], with all the time, money, and labor you have lost in waiting on courts, feeing lawyers,” etc., etc. (Backus, vol. 2, p. 155).

I add but one more instance of persecution which took place twenty years after the Declaration of Independence:

“Mr. Nathan Underwood [Pedobaptist minister of Harwich] and his collector seized six men, who were Baptists, on the 1st day of December, 1795, and carried them as far as Yarmouth, where one of them was taken so ill being old and infirm before, that he saw no way to save his life but to pay the tax and cost [all Baptists were taxed to pay the salaries of Pedobaptist ministers still!]; which he did and the other five were carried to the prison at Barnstable, where they also paid the money rather than to lie in the cold all winter. . . . Their collector went to the house of one of the Baptists when he was not at home, January 8th, 1796, and seized a cow for a tax to said minister; but his wife and daughter came out and took hold of the cow, and his wife promised to pay the money, if her husband would not do it, and they let the cow go, and she went to Mr. Underwood the next day and paid the tax and costs, and took his receipt there for. Yet four days after, the woman and two daughters, one of whom was not there when the cow was taken, were seized and carried before the authorities, and fined seven dollars for talking to the collector and his aide, and, taking hold of the cow while they had her in possession, so they had to let her go” (Backus, vol. 2, p. 551).

This and scores of such like exactions and oppressions took place in New England, in the year 1796.
(tomorrow – Just six years before the Declaration of Independence)

Presented by Thomas E. Kresal from excerpts: Graves, James R.. Old Landmarkism: What is it? . First Vision Publishers. Kindle Edition. Chapter 15