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Note: This essay first appeared in the
June 2008 Baptist Studies Bulletin.
Some ten to twelve generations ago, the Baptist faith emerged in
Holland in the form of
exiled Puritan Separatists in 1608-1609. Over the next
eighteen months, modern Baptists will celebrate the 400th anniversary
of their common heritage, a celebration that will take the form of
heritage tours,
special book releases, historical emphases within some
local congregations and Baptist groups, and featured articles within
journals, including the Baptist Studies Bulletin.
It is only fitting to celebrate four centuries of a
Christian people whose early years were so filled with persecution
that their continued existence was questionable. That well over 100
million Baptists exist in the early twenty-first century is testimony
to the staying power of the beliefs initially shared by the handful of
earliest Baptists living in exile and uncertainty in the early
seventeenth century. And yet a survey of modern Baptists reveals
something unsettling: many are not faithful to their own
denominational heritage. While some are simply unaware of the Baptist
legacy, others have wandered down paths studiously avoided by previous
generations of Baptists.
At their simplest, the earliest historical Baptist
convictions could be summarized as a unique blend of freedom and
community under the Lordship of Christ. The original freedom fighters,
the early Baptists insisted upon freedom of conscience, religious
freedom for all persons, separation of church and state, freedom from
creeds and the individual's free access to God. Advocating voluntary
community and local church autonomy, the earliest Baptists limited
church membership to regenerate believers who expressed personal faith
and participated in believer's baptism. The freedoms and community
claimed by early Baptists were lightening rods at a time in history
when the only Western models of government entailed alliances with
religious entities that dictated state religions, all other churches
were hierarchical in nature, and infant baptism served as the entryway
into church membership. For their radical beliefs, Baptists
were persecuted by theocratic states on both sides of the Atlantic for
most of their first two centuries of existence.
Yet in a twist of historical irony, the foundational
heritage of freedom and community and nearly-two centuries of
attendant persecution has been forgotten, discarded, neglected and/or
distorted in many twenty-first century Baptist circles, at the very
time that Baptists face some of the greatest challenges and
opportunities experienced since the eighteenth century. This century
is already characterized by
the
numerical decline of Southern Baptists and stagnation for
North American Baptists as a whole, while African-American Baptists
and those of the earth's southern hemisphere experience notable growth
and European Baptists evidence signs of revival. Concurrent with these
trends, many conservative to fundamentalist Baptists in America now
reject separation of church and state, seek special privileges in the
public square for Christians who share their theology, and scoff at
freedom of conscience. At the same time, some moderate Baptists in
America have tilted the historical Baptist blend of convictions in
such a way as to
bury freedom under an avalanche of hierarchical community.
In short, not only will some modern Baptists avoid
recognition of four centuries of faith heritage in the coming months,
but some will continue an ongoing campaign to dismantle or reconstruct
the faith of their spiritual forefathers. At this 400-year point, the
future of the faith handed down from the early Baptists lies in the
hands of those Baptists in North America and around the world who are
not afraid to hold aloft and celebrate the unique blend of freedom and
community that first surfaced among a handful of persecuted believers
and survived despite severe opposition.
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