a history of the baptists by john t christian

Taking his rejection of church tradition to the furthest extreme, Smyth decided to baptize himself by affusion (pouring water over his head) and subsequently baptized the rest of his congregation. 1570–1612), originally an Anglican priest, escaped to Amsterdam in 1608. Fleeing such persecution, Separatist pastor John Smyth (c. Many of them also adopted views similar to Mennonites on issues such as separation of church and state, and experienced similar persecution by political and church authorities. By the early seventeenth century, some Separatists concluded that complete church purity demanded a rejection of infant baptism. Hints of a Baptist movement existed in sixteenth-century England, mostly among English Separatists, radical Puritans who believed that the Church of England was corrupt beyond redemption. And that was against the law.īaptists argued that their defining practice-the baptism of Christian believers by immersion-represented a recovery of ancient Christian tradition. What had Holmes done to provoke the wrath of colonial Massachusetts? He had preached the gospel of the Baptists. “You have struck me as with roses,” he advised them. When the captors untied him, Holmes stood up and smiled.

Yet Holmes felt God’s presence more strongly than at any other time in his life the pain floated away. Holmes was tied to a post an officer took up the whip and began flailing with all his might. “I am now come to be baptized in afflictions by your hands,” he said, “that so I may have further fellowship with my Lord, and am not ashamed of his sufferings, for by his stripes am I healed.”

His captors tried to keep him from speaking, but he would not be silent. Holmes had been alone in prison for weeks that day an unusual calm came over him. On September 5, 1651, Obadiah Holmes was taken from his cell in Boston’s prison to receive 30 lashes with a three-corded whip.

A history of the baptists by john t christian