Baptist History and Heritage articles from March 2004

Baptist History and Heritage archives from March 2004

Baptists and Calvinism: my friend, Jimmy Allen of Heritage Baptist Church in Wake Forest, North Carolina, recently shared with me a "Baptists and Calvinism" story.(Editorial)(Editorial)
March 22, 2004... One Sunday morning just prior to the worship service, a young couple entered Ruby Reid Child Development Center, where the church was then meeting. Jimmy, being the friendly pastor he is, welcomed the couple and offered to show them the...

Publishing local-church history: many people have shaped my life for fifty-nine years--parents, grandparents, siblings, wife, daughters, friends, professors, and colleagues at work. But if I am honest with myself, I have to admit that local churches probably have influenced me as much or more than anyone or anything else.
March 22, 2004... In local churches, I committed my life to Christ, was baptized, observed the Lord's Supper, studied the Bible, learned about missions, worshiped weekly, took study courses, participated in revivals, served as Youth Week pastor, attended...

Ill Newes from twenty-first century America: most of the readers of this journal are well acquainted with John Clarke and his 1651 Ill Newes from New England.
March 22, 2004... Ill Newes, a seventeenth-century religious literary classic that screamed for religious freedom, is important for those of us in contemporary America for many reasons. Read Ill Newes carefully. Then read some of the legislation proposed in...

The influence of Calvinism on seventeenth-century English Baptists: theological labels need to be treated with care, for they are not, and cannot be, representative of fixed systems, totally resistant to reinterpretation according to changing context, be this temporal, geographical, or political.
March 22, 2004... In tracing ecclesiastical influences, care must be taken, in default of specific evidence, not to confuse the process of "derived from" with "conforms to," particularly given that numerous groups were thumbing the scriptures at one and the...

The influence of Calvinism on colonial Baptists: an ongoing argument emerging in the past decades of Baptist life revolves around the theological origins of early Baptists generally, specifically in America, and the role that Calvinist theology played in Baptist development.
March 22, 2004... This article surveys the origins of the first Baptist churches in colonial America and the multiple traditions and diverse contexts that aided the development of early Baptists in America. The assumption is that colonial Baptist life began in...

Youth for Calvin: reformed theology and baptist collegians: a few years ago a fellow employee at a Baptist college decided to enter the pastorate. He gave me a copy of his resume and asked that I look it over (1).
March 22, 2004... I was not surprised to see an affirmation of inerrancy, but I did not expect to see an affirmation of the 1689 Second London Confession. This thirty-something minister was, at minimum, a five-point Calvinist. I told him that I doubted many...

Traditional Baptists and Calvinism: if we are not Calvinists, what shall we call ourselves? Arminians does not describe us accurately, and many Baptists think Arminians are people from Armenia. Non-Calvinistic Baptists is negative.
March 22, 2004... In our book, God So Loved the World, (1) Paul Robertson and I chose to call ourselves traditional Baptists, a name which is controversial and calls for some justification. I think that it is justified because for a quarter of a century the...

Baptists and "Calvinism": discerning the shape of the question: Baptists and "Calvinism" is an important topic. Much is at stake, if for no other reason than it concerns yet another fault line through Christ's people, sadly divided in their endeavor to be faithful.
March 22, 2004... Yet, important questions have not received due attention in the current debate between those who would at least ideally locate Baptist identity in a large area of overlap between Baptists and "Calvinism" and those who would minimize the...

Contributions of William Owen Carver to the missions movement among Southern Baptists: William Owen Carver was professor of Christian missions at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1896 to 1943. More than anyone else, he shaped the theology of mission for Southern Baptists.
March 22, 2004... He became head of the seminary's department of missions in 1900, helped in the establishment of the Woman's Missionary Union Training School in 1907 (changed to the Carver School of Missions and Social Work in 1953), and wrote more than twenty...

Sounding a false alarm: W. O. Carver and the 1914 controversy over the virgin birth: one of the most intriguing questions in the history of southern religion concerns the nature and extent of theological liberalism in denominations, particularly the Southern Baptist Convention (1).
March 22, 2004... Did theological liberalism exist below the Mason-Dixon line? And if so, how did denominations handle yet another form of outside agitation that seemingly threatened the doctrinal status quo of churches and their institutions? The following case...

Southern Baptist women ministering in Metro New York, 1970-1995: the story of Southern Baptist women ministering in Metro New York from 1970 to the mid-1990s is remarkable.
March 22, 2004... As a pastor in Metropolitan New York Baptist Association (MNYBA) in 1970-73 and as a staff minister of MNYBA in 1974-95, I had opportunity to observe the work of numerous women in churches related to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). ...

William Carey's Muslim encounters in India: the founding of the Baptist Missionary Society of England in 1792 and its sending of William Carey to India the following year resulted from Carey's sermonic pamphlet, An Enquiry into the Obligation of the Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathen.
March 22, 2004... Carey's missionary activity among Hindus in the Bengal province of India is widely known, particularly among Baptists in England and America. Indians, too, readily acknowledge Carey's important place in the modernization of their country, its...

The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... The Challenges of Roger Williams: Religious Liberty, Violent Persecution, and the Bible. By James P. Byrd, Jr. Macon: Mercer University Press, 2002. 286 pp. After being largely overlooked by Americans for over 200 years, Roger Williams and...

Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: a History of Church and State in America.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Proclaim Liberty Throughout All the Land: A History of Church and State in America. By Edwin S. Gaustad. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. 157pp. With his characteristic elegance and clarity, Edwin Gaustad has written a readable...

Baptists in Colonial New Zealand: Documents Illustrating Baptist Life and Development.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Baptists in Colonial New Zealand: Documents Illustrating Baptist Life and Development. Edited by Martin Sutherland. Auckland: New Zealand Baptist Research and Historical Society, 2002. 223 pp. In this interesting book of primary documents,...

William Louis Poteat: a Leader of the Progressive-Era South.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive-Era South. By Randal L. Hall. Lexington, Kentucky: University of Kentucky Press, 2000. 261 pages. William Louis Poteat: A Leader of the Progressive Era South, by Randal L. Hall, contributes...

Putting Women in Their Place: Moving Beyond Gender Stereotypes in Church and Home.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Putting Women in Their Place: Moving Beyond Gender Stereotypes in Church and Home. Edited by Audra and Joe Trull. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2003. 149 pp. In their recent book Putting Women in Their Place, Joe and Audra Trull set out to...

A Journey of Faith: the Memorial Baptist Church, Greenville, North Carolina, 1827-2002.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... A Journey of Faith: The Memorial Baptist Church, Greenville, North Carolina, 1827-2002. By Hugh Wease. Brentwood, TN: Baptist History and Heritage Society, 2002. 183 pp. Hugh Wease has done North Carolina Baptists a great service by...

The Sacred Trust: Sketches of the Southern Baptist Convention Presidents.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... The Sacred Trust: Sketches of the Southern Baptist Convention Presidents. By Emir Caner and Ergun Caner. Nashville, Tennessee: Broadman & Holman Press, 2003. In The Sacred Trust, church historians Emir and Ergun Caner present brief...

Call Me Jeremiah! A Memoir Response to the Takeover, Dismantling, and Restructuring of a Christian Denomination.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... Call Me Jeremiah! A Memoir Response to the Takeover, Dismantling, and Restructuring of a Christian Denomination. By E. C. Watson. Brentwood, TN: Baptist History and Heritage Society, 2003. 48 pp. In colonial America, Puritan preachers often...

The Papers of Isaac Backus, 1630-1806: a Guide to the Microfilm Edition.(Book Review)
March 22, 2004... The Papers of Isaac Backus, 1630-1806: A Guide to the Microfilm Edition. Edited by Leigh Johnsen. Ann Arbor, MI: ProQuest Information and Learning, 2003. 241 pp. Isaac Backus (1724-1806), a well-known Separate Baptist pastor of the 1700s,...