Happy 188th Birt=
hday,
FREEDOM VOICES OF OUR BAPTIST FOREFATHERS
Let’s talk about some of our Baptist forefathers= . While doing this, however, we need= to realize that they might not approve of our service today: celebrating the b= irthday of our nation and our church. The church part would be fine with them—but they would probably have seri= ous issues with the nation part. = We need to understand why.
Let’s begin with John
Smyth and Thomas Helwys.
These two men lived in
1. Those= who resisted the King’s decree, attempting to do church their own way, were called = Separatists. They sought to “separate” from the Church of England in order to form their own congregations.&nbs= p; Smyth and Helwys were among them, and they were persecuted because of it.
The church they started came to be known as “Baptist” because of their insis= tence that only those who personally professed faith in Christ should be baptized (1609). Coming to God thr= ough Christ should be a decision made in complete freedom without any coercion, = they insisted. We call that “soul freedom”—the freedom to decide for one’s self.
They believed this to be what the Bible teaches, and t= hey were determined to live according to God’s word; but “believer’s baptism” and “soul freedom” was n= ot all that they stood for.
Here are some other important Baptist principles that = were non-negotiable to these men, whatever their allegiance cost them:
A. The Separation of Church and State—No government has the right to tell any individual or church what it must beli= eve or how it must practice faith. Nor should it provide any support, financial or otherwise, to the church.
B. Church Autonomy—each congre= gation has the right to make its own decisions, organize itself in the way it choo= ses, baptize and accept into membership those who share its beliefs, and ordain = into ministry only those persons it chooses to ordain—and to do this witho= ut interference from any government or any church hierarchy beyond that of that local congregation.
2. But
there’s more to the story; so next, I want to tell you about Roger Williams. Because of persecution in
A little fellow was asked by his teacher why the Purit=
ans
came to this country on the Mayflower?&nbs=
p;
He answered: “To wors=
hip
God in their own way, and to make other people d=
o the
same.”
That boy was “right on” in his answer. The Puritans came here for religio=
us
freedom, but then they turned right around and practiced the same kinds of
religious oppression that they had been victims of back in
Roger Williams made the Puritans in
So Williams was banned from the Massachusetts colony i=
n mid-winter. Some friendly Indians saved him fr=
om
freezing or starving to death. He
bought some land from those Indians and founded a town called
Williams made sure the state and the church were kept
separate in
3. Now, =
let me
add to these just one more Baptist voice—down in the colony of
Leland managed to become friends with (PHOTOS) James Madison and Thomas Jefferson, men who already believed in freedom; but Leland convinced them that when a new nation was formed, there should be complete freedom for all faiths, not just for some.
And there should never be an official state religion, = he insisted, because that would inevitably lead to some form of coercion to be part of it and/or persecution toward those who were not.
Leland understood the principle that so many struggle =
to
wrap their minds around today, that the only way=
for
Baptists to be free, or for members of any church, denomination, or religio=
n to
be free, for that matter, is for freedom to be extended to all religions.
In large measure, then, it was the influence of Leland=
and
other faithful Baptists that led to the adoption of the first amendment to =
the
U.S. Constitution: “Congress=
shall
make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free
exercise thereof…”
If you are a principled Baptist, you understand that it’s not the government’s job to promote religion. That’s our job—the church’s--assigned to us by the Lord Himself.
Nor is it government’s job to promote one religi=
on
over another, or any religion over non-religion, as attractive as some peop=
le,
including many Baptists who have forgotten our principles and the sacrifices
made for them, find the notion of the government helping or promoting the
church to be. We’re
So, we celebr=
ate and
thank God that we live in a free nation.&n=
bsp;
We celebrate =
and
thank God that we are part of a free church.
We value our church and our nation; and we understand,= as our forefathers did, that our nation and our church are at their best when = they are both free and separate from each other.
Brothers and sisters, we need to hear and heed the voi= ces of our Baptist forefathers. And = when necessary, we need to speak up ourselves—for freedom! “For freedom, Christ has set= us free!”
A CHURCH FREELY BIRTHED
The emphasis on freedom among the Baptists is probably= one reason Baptist churches sprouted up all over the frontiers of this country. Our convictions reso= nated with a young nation that had sacrificed so much for the cause of political freedom—just as Baptists had sacrificed for religious freedom.
In July of 18=
21, 188
years ago now, Mount Tabor Baptist &n=
bsp;
Church was constituted with 56 members. Rev. James Burriss had helped to g=
et the
mission started, and Rev. Sanford Vandiver became its first pastor.
Think about this: when our church got its start, the Declaration of Independence was only 45 years old. We call the signing of that docume= nt our nation’s birthday, but that was really hardly anything more than its conception.
Nothing had actually been born yet. It was only after years of struggl= e, sacrifice, and uncertainty that this nation began to take shape and show si= gns of potential longevity.
I wonder if the founders of this church talked much ab= out politics? Did they, for example, like (PHOTO) Pr= esident James Monroe, our nation’s fifth chief executive? Did they get enough news to even k= now what they thought about him, or were they too busy just trying to survive?<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>
Walk through our church’s cemetery, and you̵= 7;ll find that most of them didn’t live very long. I doubt they wasted much time talk= ing politics at church!
Did they hear the news back in 1821 when Napoleon died= , or when Michael Farraday invented the first, crude electric motor? What a change= that would soon bring to the world, including this place that would later come t= o be known as “The Electric City.”
I bet they got word about Davy Crockett, though, who had obtained hero status in Tennesse=
e. His acclaim came from making the st=
ate so
much safer. He did this by
personally killing 105 bears out in the
Well, let’s bring this back home now. When the village of Anderson began=
to
take shape about a mile away from Mount Tabor, the church, with its 86 memb=
ers,
relocated in 1834 to a little white
frame building on the village square (present location).
They changed their name to
There is so much about our predecessors in this place = that we don’t know—but we do know this. They were people of faith. And they were tenacious about free= dom.
It was the combination of these two characteristics th= at attracted them to the expression of Christian faith known as Baptist. As free and faithful people, they = formed a Baptist church--and the Lord blessed it, and grew it.
They served and sacrificed. They built buildings, proclaimed t= he Gospel, and cared for one another through good times and bad—and there were lots of times far worse for them than anything we’ve ever seen.<= span style=3D'mso-spacerun:yes'>
But they stayed faithful to the Lord and to one another. They did all the oth= er things that churches must do if they are to last for 188 years!
So, Happy Bir=
thday,
Stay strong.
Stay faithful. Love God
supremely, and love one another as you should.
Continue to have a heart for God and a heart for this community in which He
planted us.
May the Lord continue His blessings upon us, our famil=
ies,
and this church we love as we serve Him and seek to further His Kingdom
together.
Amen.