Lesson 13The Story of Baptists in England

I. APOSTOLIC ROOTS

Crosby: “it being agreed on all hands, that the plantation of the gospel here was very early, even in the Apostles days.”

I. APOSTOLIC ROOTS

Another historian: "The whole facts of history place the truth beyond dispute. [Christian dissenters in England], may be traced back in authentic manuscripts to the Nonconformists, to the Puritans, to the Lollards, to the Vallenses, to the Albigenses, and I suspect, through the Paulicians and others, to the Apostles.“

I. APOSTOLIC ROOTS

Barclay: “the rise of the Anabaptists took place. long prior to the foundation of the Church of England, and … have existed from the times of the Apostles. … It seems probable that these churches have a lineage of succession more ancient than the Roman Church.”

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

A.300 AD Roman Emperor Diocletian

ordered a severe persecution of the Christian believers in Britain. Crosby categorically claims them to be Baptists.

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

B. End of the fourth century St Patrick worked as an evangelist in Ireland and the British Isles.

Though Patrick is venerated by the Catholics today, many old time historians have demonstrated that Patrick was in fact a Baptist

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

C. By 1000 AD groups of Paulician Baptists began to show up in England.In 1154 a group of German Baptists led by a pastor named Gerhard, living in Oxford, England were branded on the forehead, publicly whipped, disrobed and left to perish from cold and hunger.

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

D. Evidence of a Baptist church in Hill Cliffe, near Cheshire in England. There is a graveyard next to the church with a tombstone dating back to 1357.

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

E. William Tyndale, (A.D. 1484-1536) the man who translated the Bible into English, was born of Baptist parents. Tyndale taught that:•"There were only two offices in the church, pastor and deacons •The elders or bishops should be married men•That baptism does not wash away sin. •That baptism was a plunging into the water and •That baptism to avail must include repentance, faith and confession and•The church must, therefore, consist of believers"

II. ENGLISH BAPTISTS in the DARK AGES

F. During the century of 1500-1600 many Baptist churches existed in England in places like•Bow Lane and even•London•November 8, 1531 a man by the name of Ammonius wrote a letter to Erasmus complaining about the Anabaptists in England, “It is not astonishing that wood is so dear and scarce, the heretics cause so many holocausts, and yet their numbers grow.”

III. ENGLISH BAPTISTS POST 1600

John Smythe John BunyonWilliam Kiffin

III. ENGLISH BAPTISTS POST 1600

The Regular BaptistsThe Particular Baptists