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William Kiffin, merchant-pastor

William Kiffin died. The pastor-merchant had been raised up by God’s providence so that his talents, influence, and wealth might be used to assist the persecuted brethren in the distressing period of Baptist suffering in England. For half a century, William Kiffin was the “Father of the English Baptists.” When the plague swept London in 1625, killing an estimated one third of the population, little William was but 9 years old. He experienced 6 plague sores yet miraculously recovered, though he was left an orphan as his mother and father passed. Surely God’s Almighty hand was upon the boy, for he was to grow up to be “the most beloved Baptist of his time.” William Kiffin was regenerated in his teen years through the ministry of Puritan preachers. Around age 22, he joined an independent church in London. Later he came to Baptist convictions and united with the Baptist church that John Spilsbury was pastoring. In 1640 Spilsbury’s church supervised the establishment of a “sister church” in Devonshire Square, and William became pastor, serving that capacity for the remaining 61 years of his life. He also became one of the most successful businessmen in England as he carried on trade with foreign countries as he used an assistant in the work at Devonshire Square. According to the historian Macaulay, “Kiffin was for a half century the first man in the Baptist denomination.” He was arrested many times, His first son died at age 20, his second son was poisoned by a priest that he witnessed to, and his daughter died young. His two grandsons, Benjamin and William Hewling, were martyred for their faith.
Condensed by Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 402-04.

The Whipping of Obadiah Holmes

September 05, 1651 – Obadiah Holmes was publicly flogged in the Colony of Massachusetts when the prosecutor, John Cotton said that he, along with Dr. John Clarke, and John Crandall deserved to be put to death for visiting William Witter, a sick friend in the town of Lynn and conducted Baptist worship services in his home. Governor John Endecott said that they deserved to “be hanged.” However, Cotton said that he would let them off with a fine, but if they did not pay the fine and leave the territory they would be well whipped. While the three men were confined to jail, friends in Newport, Rhode Island, raised money for the fines for all of the men. Crandall was released from the fine. Dr. Clarke and Holmes refused permission for their fines to be paid, believing that it would be an admission of guilt. As Clarke was led to the whipping post, a friend pressed money into the hands of the Puritan official, and Clarke was released. “Agreeing to the payment of my fine would constitute admission of wrong-doing,” Holmes continued to maintain. As he was stripped to the waist, Holmes preached a brief sermon to the dense crowd of men, women, and children that formed a circle about the whipping post, exhorting them to remain faithful to their beliefs. According to Holmes’s own testimony, the flogger used a whip with three hard leather lashes, stopped three times to spit on his hands, and applied the whip with all his might. Each of the thirty strokes cut three gashes through the skin. Holmes said later about the whipping: “…having joyfulness in my heart, and cheerfulness…I told the magistrates, ‘You have struck me as with roses.’”
Condensed by Dr. Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History I: Cummins/Thompson, pp. 366-67.

The First Baptist Church in America

"The Baptist Blogger," Pastor Josh Davenport has done an excellent job of addressing the controversy over which church is the first Baptist church in America. This may seem like a non-issue to many people. It may even seem to be petty hair-splitting to others. Far from it. This controversy strikes at the heart of Baptist identity and Baptist distinctives.

If Baptists are to maintain our distinct identity, we must come to terms with "landmark-ism." Baptists must deal with our doctrinal and historical identity or lose that identity; probably within the next generation. The ancient Waldenses allowed it to happen to them. We've seen it happen to the Southern Baptists over the past 100 years. Today, the SBC identifies itself as "evangelical, Protestant." Increasing numbers of independent Baptists are following the pied "Pipers" of Calvinism, new evangelicalism, "purpose-driven," and "emerging" philosophies.

At issue is really whether Roger Williams and the "church" he started were Baptist at all. Bro. Davenport hits this head on. The facts are: Roger Williams was baptized by Ezekiel Holliman, then Williams in turn baptized Holliman and ten others. It really doesn't matter if Williams' group did precede the church gathered by Dr. John Clarke. It never was a biblical, New Testament church! If we are to accept Williams'and Holliman's self-baptism and the church they started as valid then millions of Baptist martyrs died in vain as "re-baptizers." If Williams' and Holliman's defective baptism were valid then Baptists today have no biblical or logical basis for requiring that candidates for membership from other denominations be "re-baptized."

Study the issue brethren! It's far more important than you might think!

Seventh Day Adventists and Harold Camping

Whether they would like to admit it or not, Seventh Day Adventists have a few things in common with false prophet Harold Camping. Mr. Camping is infamous for his recent false prophecy that the rapture and the judgment of God would occur on May 21st, 2011. His predictions were based on his own convoluted mathematical computations of prophetic dates and numbers found in the Bible. Mr. Camping deceived many people into believing his wild speculations, and I am genuinely sorry for those people. Many of them sold their homes, left their families,sold their possessions and took to the road spreading Camping's message. They should have known better. Camping has been making wild-eyed predictions since the 1980's, and falsely predicted the end of the world in 1994. It has been well said that time is the enemy of false prophets.

When his 6:00 p.m. May 21st, 2011 prediction failed, Camping went into damage control mode and did what other date setters have been forced to do: claim that the event was spiritual or heavenly and that the real date is in the future. In Camping's case, according to this Fox News report May 21st was a spiritual judgment day in which "God's judgment and salvation were completed," and the actual end will come five months from now on October 21st, 2011.

There is the striking similarity to the Seventh Day Adventist cult. The Adventists began with the convoluted mathematical computations of prophetic dates and numbers of a Baptist preacher by the name of William Miller. His followers, like many of Camping's sold their possessions and waited anxiously for the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.

"Adventism originated with the disappointed Second Coming movement of the 1800’s. William Miller, a Baptist layman, concluded in 1818 that Christ would return to earth in 1843. When that was proven wrong, he changed the date to October 22, 1844. This belief was based largely on an interpretation of Daniel chapters nine and twelve using the erroneous day/year equation (one prophetic day equals one historical year). Tens of thousands followed Miller’s conclusions, and many
diverse, unscriptural adventist (advent refers to Christ’s coming) groups sprang up within this excited religious atmosphere.

Until the end of 1844, Miller held resolutely to his conviction that Christ would return to “cleanse the sanctuary,” which he interpreted to mean the earth. After
the set dates passed, Miller wisely left off with date setting, admitted his mistake, and no longer participated in the adventist movement. He did not become a Seventh-day Adventist. From the shambles of the confused and unscriptural date-setting movement, there emerged various groups with various doctrinal peculiarities. Some of these groups were gradually formed into Seventh-day Adventism." (Way of Life Encyclopedia)

Unlike Mr. Camping, William Miller gave up prophetic speculation with his spectacular failure. Unfortunately Satan was able to use Miller's speculations and the un-biblical visions of false prophetess Ellen Harmon (who later married James White) to deceive multitudes of people since 1844.

In the visions of Ellen G. White, the 1844 date was a spiritual judgment in which Christ entered into the heavenly holy of holies to begin investigating the records of human works in order to figure out who is to be saved. The Adventists teach this false doctrine of "Investigative Judgment" to this day.

Beware of date-setters, and beware of those who claim to have extra-biblical visions and prophetic "knowledge!"

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Matthew 24:36

Silas Noel: Stalwart Against Campbellism

May 05, 1839 – Silas Mercer Noel in the fifty-sixth year of his earthly journey was called home to glory. His remains were taken to Frankfort, Kentucky and buried in the family burying ground. On Aug. 12, 1783 Silas was born into the family of Rev. and Mrs. Theodoric Noel in Essex County, Virginia. At an early age he was placed under the instruction of Robert B. Semple, the famed Baptist historian who had been baptized by Rev. Noel in 1789. Later he studied medicine and law and was admitted to the bar before his twentieth birthday. When he was 21 he married Miss Maria Warring, and they parented 13 children. Silas prospered in the law profession until he came under the conviction of sin, when a great revival swept through Kentucky at the turn of the century. In 1811 he received full assurance of his salvation, and received believers baptism by Rev. William Hickman, an early Baptist preacher in Ky. Silas showed a great zeal for the Lord’s work, and was licensed to preach, and then ordained as pastor of the Church at Big Spring in Woodford County in 1813, and the work of God grew. Then he was called to pastor the Baptist church at Frankfort, and the church grew into a large, prosperous congregation. Also five other Baptist churches were started in adjacent communities. At this time Noel was appointed circuit judge of the Fourth Judicial District, but he gave it up to devote full time to the church, looking to the church to supply his needs. As pastor of the Great Crossing Baptist Church of Scott Co. he baptized 359 converts the first year of his ministry. He also founded the Baptist Education Society of Kentucky.

Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 246-48. [CF: William B. Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (New York: Robert Carter and Brothers, 1865), p. 628.]

Noel was also a great opponent of the innovations of Alexander Campbell. He was the author of a circular letter to the Franklin Baptist Association of Kentucky in 1830 detailing Thirty-nine Articles on the errors of Campbellism taken directly from Mr. Campbell's publications "The Christian Baptist" and "The Millennial Harbinger." Dr. Noel was a stalwart in the struggle against Campbellism, which at that time was causing great schism in the churches of Kentucky. Campbell was a dissembler who subverted churches and over-threw the faith of some. Silas Noel rose to the challenge of his day and nobly defended the faith once delivered to the saints.

MT

This Day in Baptist History

April 19, 1836 – Adoniram Judson Gordon (AJ) was born. His grandfather, deacon John Calvin Gordon had gone with the Hyper Calvinist split in the Baptist church which he had been a member, but his son was caught up in the new wave of missionary spirit that was sweeping across the land with the ministry of the Judson’s and others that were moving out across the mission fields of the world. So as the father had been loyal to the name of the reformer, the son was now faithful to his vision in the naming of his son. A.J. Gordon was saved when he was fifteen years old, and received his theological training at Brown University (1857-60) and Newton Theological Seminary (1860-63) after which he was ordained and became a pastor in Jamaica Plain, Mass. Soon thereafter he married Miss Maria Hale. In late 1869 he accepted a call to the prestigious Clarendon Street (Baptist) Church in Boston. For over 25 years he was one of the best known pastors in America. He was a defender of the faith and unafraid to battle agnosticism, Unitarianism, religious liberalism, and doctrinal error such as evolution and baptismal regeneration. The cults feared his pulpit and pen. Dr. Gordon was a Fundamentalist, and he said, “The world’s motto is, ‘In union there is strength;’ the church’s motto is, ‘In separation there is strength.” He edited a religious weekly, authored at least eleven outstanding volumes, and was a persistent soul-winner and evangelistic preacher. A.J. Gordon was a favorite in college and university chapels, where he was totally at home with college students. He also founded a Bible institute that was directed to train young people for missions. Condensed by Greg J. Dixon from: This Day in Baptist History II: Cummins and Thompson, BJU Press: pp. 215-16. [CF: Ernest B. Gordon, Adoniram Judson Gordon (New York: Fleming H. Revell Company, 1896), pp. 15-17.]