The Test Answer- Obadiah Holmes

Obadiah Holmes was sent to the whipping post in 1651 for holding a Baptist meeting with John Clarke in the home of William Witter. Holmes refusing to pay his fine (it was illegal to be a baptist at this time) was sent to the post to recieve 30 lashes (the death penalty at this time was 40 lashes). William Cathcart supplies us with Obadiah Holmes’ words regarding the whipping: 

“As the strokes fell upon me I had such a spiritual manifestation of God’s presence as the like thereof I never had nor felt, nor can with fleshly tongue express; and the outward pain was so removed from me that indeed I am not able to declare it to you; it was so easy to me that I could well bear it, yea, and in a manner felt it not, although it was grievous, as the spectators said, the man striking with all his strength (yea, spitting in his hand three times, as many affirmed) with a three-corded whip, giving me therewith thirty strokes.”

 

We should know about Obadiah Holmes. Instead we know about the christian killing Zwingli, Luther, and Calvin, OR their baby baptizing spiritual descendents Moody, and Sunday.

 

A Baptist History Test

How well do we know our Baptist History?

Here is a simple test of how well you know our heritage.

Which set of names do you find most familiar and/or associate with your Christian heritage.

Group A

1. Dwight L. Moody
2. Gipsy Smith
3. Billy Sunday

 Group B

1. John Leland
2. Shubal Stearns
3. Obadiah Holmes

Group C

1. Martin Luther
2. John Calvin
3. Ulrich Zwingli

I would estimate that most would answer they are more familiar with, or associate their heritage with groups a or c. Sad to say none of the six men in those groups were Baptists. Now forgive me for being frank, but I wouldn’t pay a dime for a rooster who wouldn’t crow in their own barn, and I think since I’m a Baptist I ought to be able say the three Baptist men listed in the middle (Group B) did more for God than the other six combined. Let me take it one step further, I would venture to say that any one man from Group B did more for God than the other six combined. Now you might be thinking, “Well they preached the Gospel.” If you are saying that about Group C, I would simply say it certainly wasn’t the same gospel that saved me (all three teach baptismal regeneration (baptism saves) and infant baptism), besides they were probably too busy persecuting my Baptist forefathers to preach. What is interesting about Group C is that while they were fleeing from the persecution of the catholic church they were busy establishing their own churches and then married them to their state government and began to persecute others for not believing in infant baptism. In response to Group A I would like to remind you that none of them were Baptists. They were post-millennial, and they were pedobaptists (“pedo” meaning infant and “baptist” meaning one who baptizes). They belonged to religious sects that teach baptism is and “sealing ordinance”, and a “means of grace”. That sounds like baptismal regeneration to me. In addition, not any man in Groups A or C did not have a proper understanding of soul liberty or separation of church and state (You may say”separation of church and state is not in the constitution”, and you would be correct, but it is in the Bible and it is in a letter Thomas Jefferson wrote to the Danbury Baptist Association to ease their consciences because of the tyranny of church-state marriages that reigned supreme persecuting, and imprisioning Baptists and others in colonial and early America.)

All in all I’m a Baptist, and I’m tired of Baptists, hiding under the umbrella of “fundamentalism”, embracing a protestant heritage and letting the memories of the heroes of our faith (the Baptist faith) vanish off into obscurity. For more about that issue you definitely need to read “Fundamentalist or Baptist” on baptistbyconviction.wordpress.com. That will explain a lot. Especially if you are new to this issue.

Coming up next will be short biographies of John Leland, Shubal Stearns, and John Clarke.

Baptist Church Perpetuity- A Bibilical Illustration

Matthew 7:16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?…
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.  - Jesus KJB

Genesis 1:11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth… and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so. KJB

For thousands of years mankind has relied on the fact that when he plants a corn seed a corn stalk will grow in its place. Never once in history has man cultivated a whale, gerbil, or apple from a corn seed. You say, “No, that sounds ridiculous.”, and I strongly agree. When you plant a seed of certain kind of plant you may get a big plant or a little plant, but it will always be the same kind of plant. Evolution relies on the kind of reasoning that if you plant a corn plant for millions of years eventually you will get something to grow in its place that is not corn. But that is completely non-observable and certainly not provable in any sort of empirical scientific sense. It takes faith to believe something like that. Allow me now to illustrate.

It is a common teaching (it has its different forms and variations) that Baptists are protestents or reformers from the days of Luther, Zwingli, Calvin etc. I object from this conclusion from a strictly Biblical perspective viz. because it is impossible for anything, whether it be an animal, plant, or human or what have you to produce anything other than its kind. When someone goes out to start a new church somewhere, as Baptists, we refer to him as what? A church-planter. Why do we do that? Tradition, perhaps, but I prefer to believe it is because we know that churches also reproduce after their kind. Remember you may get a big one or a little one but it will be the same kind of church. You will never get a catholic or a protestant to go out and start a Baptist church. They can’t. So if we have the right seed (really meaning authority) today to plant churches then we must have had it in the past, and if in the past who else to trace this seed to than the Lord Jesus Christ himself starting the first church during his earthly ministry. God said in Gen. 11:1 the seed for the fruit would be found in the fruit, and they would bring forth after their kind. Jesus said by their fruits ye shall know them. The Catholic church and protestant sects came from bad seed that have brought forth bad fruit, and continue to produce bad seed. We can then conclude, Baptists, having the correct doctrine ie. seed, have the authority and responsibility to plant more churches, and we, having the correct seed today, must have come from the good fruit in the past and so on and so forth, and this “good seed” can be traced back to no man save the Lord Jesus and his first church. (A church that was Baptist in doctrine and practice that brought forth after its kind, down through the ages until today. Matthew 16:18)