I’m not a Bible history scholar so I really don’t know, but I wonder where people went to church before there were Baptist churches? Did they go to Catholic, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist, Mormon, Church of Christ, Church of God, Mennonite, Hindu, Buddists, Islam or Hebrew churches? I really don’t know, but I wonder…
I wonder because if they didn’t go to a Baptist church, their experience was probably different than mine has been for 50 years. Did they have a priest, preacher, pastor, rabbi, clergy, apostle, leader, head, overseer, elder, deacon or who held them accountable?
So I am wondering…
If you did away with all the religions and did away with all the offices held by “men of the cloth” of all these religions, what would you have left? Could it be you might have a body of believers known as the Church with a capital “C”?
Could it be you would find yourself accountable to Jesus? Might this be God’s plan?
Yikes! I might have just talked myself out of a job. Forget I said anything. Ha!
Surf to: http://www.freshc.org for a Fresh Connection…
Comment by:Timothy
The definitive book on Baptist history is Goldrick’s Baptist Successionism. Goldrick lays to rest the Trail of Blood myth and documents Baptists seperating from the Anglican/Church of England. So before they were Baptists, they were Anglican.
Keep in mind that the English Reformation began less than 100 years before the Baptist movement started, so historically, Baptists were Latin Rite (Roman) Catholic before they were Baptists. Most Americans tracing their roots back to Europe will discover most, if not all, their ancestors before 1500 were Catholic.
God bless…