About Our Forefathers
Faith of our fathers, we will strive
To win all nations unto thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
Mankind shall then indeed be free.
Faith of our fathers! holy faith!
We will be true to thee till death!
Free and Sovereign Grace
Centuries before there ever was a Calvin or a Puritan, the doctrine of grace had been set forth among pre-Reformation groups, some of whom we would identify today as "baptistic." These anabaptist "heretics" had bathed the Roman Catholic sword with their own blood and the blood of their children.
By the seventeenth century in England, the term "baptist" became a denominational title. The Seven Strict and Particular Baptist Churches of London formed the first Baptist association and penned their doctrine in two splendid confessions of faith, the First and Second London Confessions. These first Baptists, denominationally speaking, were called "particular" because they held that the blood of Christ was shed particularly for His sheep; they were called "strict" because they restricted communion to regenerated and biblically baptized communicants. From this first Baptist association came Dr. John Clark, who left England and founded the first Baptist church in America at Newport, Rhode Island. Thus the first American Baptist church was a Strict and Particular Baptist Church.
From this humble beginning, the American Baptist church spawned its first association and confession of faith at Philadelphia in 1742. The Philadelphia Confession of Faith was in fact the Second London Confession of Faith writ verbatim. Thus no one can dispute that the first American Baptist Church, the first American Baptist association, and the first American confession of faith were "Calvinistic," as were its great leaders throughout the nineteenth century including the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention and their great seminaries. But Baptists today hardly resemble their ecclesiastical ancestors. But (and we say this humbly) we do!
We are the Strict and Particular Baptists of London; we are the pioneers of American Baptist life. We are Benjamin Keach, John Clark, Isaac Watts, John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, William Carey, Andrew Fuller, J.P. Boyce, B. H. Carroll, and John Broadus. And though our preaching and practice may strike strange all who hear and see them, we hold with history and the "faith of our fathers, living still."
By God's grace we endeavor to keep that faith of free and sovereign grace "once delivered to the saints," the faith for which our forefathers have died. Let the undeniable voices of history attest--the doctrine of Christ's free and sovereign grace is the truth of God's word, and to the perpetuity of this eternal truth, we dedicate ourselves.
By the seventeenth century in England, the term "baptist" became a denominational title. The Seven Strict and Particular Baptist Churches of London formed the first Baptist association and penned their doctrine in two splendid confessions of faith, the First and Second London Confessions. These first Baptists, denominationally speaking, were called "particular" because they held that the blood of Christ was shed particularly for His sheep; they were called "strict" because they restricted communion to regenerated and biblically baptized communicants. From this first Baptist association came Dr. John Clark, who left England and founded the first Baptist church in America at Newport, Rhode Island. Thus the first American Baptist church was a Strict and Particular Baptist Church.
From this humble beginning, the American Baptist church spawned its first association and confession of faith at Philadelphia in 1742. The Philadelphia Confession of Faith was in fact the Second London Confession of Faith writ verbatim. Thus no one can dispute that the first American Baptist Church, the first American Baptist association, and the first American confession of faith were "Calvinistic," as were its great leaders throughout the nineteenth century including the founders of the Southern Baptist Convention and their great seminaries. But Baptists today hardly resemble their ecclesiastical ancestors. But (and we say this humbly) we do!
We are the Strict and Particular Baptists of London; we are the pioneers of American Baptist life. We are Benjamin Keach, John Clark, Isaac Watts, John Gill, Charles Spurgeon, William Carey, Andrew Fuller, J.P. Boyce, B. H. Carroll, and John Broadus. And though our preaching and practice may strike strange all who hear and see them, we hold with history and the "faith of our fathers, living still."
By God's grace we endeavor to keep that faith of free and sovereign grace "once delivered to the saints," the faith for which our forefathers have died. Let the undeniable voices of history attest--the doctrine of Christ's free and sovereign grace is the truth of God's word, and to the perpetuity of this eternal truth, we dedicate ourselves.