Baptists: Thorough Reformers Review

Baptists: Thorough Reformers by John Quincy Adams is a short book demonstrating the impact on the Church and individual Christians when infant baptism is practiced.  Filled with quotes from Baptists and Paedobaptists, this is an informative resource on the question.  John Quincy Adams (yes, the president) is on the side of volitional baptism by immersion, having himself converted from the paedobaptist denomination in which he was raised.  Topics range from biblical interpretation and translation to the doctrine of sola scriptura and discussions of the need for a member of the Church to demonstrate their faith by the fruit promised in the Bible.  The author does a good job of tying together the doctrines for which Baptists are distinctively famous, including separation of church and state.  To me the most interesting aspect of reading this book was seeing how little Baptists of today understand their roots, even as recently as the founding of this country.  When Thomas Jefferson wrote his letter to the Danbury Baptists, their denomination was just beginning to surface from centuries of persecution; no wonder they were concerned that the new constitution would protect them from another round of political oppression.

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

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Learning About the Reformation: Are Emergents Modern Quakers?

I am reading (parts of) an awesome book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to the Reformation & Protestantism.  This is not a confession of idiocy.  As a homeschooler we pride ourselves on knowing history, especially that pertaining to the Church.  I heard of most of these people and events as a student in world history class, but this book is a much fuller treatment.  I think the intervening studies of ecclesiology (you know, that prompting Changing Church) between high school and now has enabled me to grasp where the reformers stood, and what denominational traditions descended from whom. 

Here is what I learned this morning:

• Martin Luther fired up the reformation.  He was mainly mad about abuses in the Catholic church, especially concerning indulgences.  He affirmed salvation by faith alone, and sola Scriptura.  However, Luther was not anti-Catholic, and retained many of the worship forms rejected by mainstream protestantism today. 
• John Calvin is remarkably human.  Some present day denominations might consider this heresy, but I think I can see where he was coming from.  Though I thought presbyterians were very Calvinist, the presbyterian style of church was actually begun by someone else:
• John Knox, who established the Auld Kirk, Church of Scotland.  I have been in a church run essentially on his model.  The impact he had on Scotland, which I have always admired for their theology and conservatism, is huge. 
• Anabaptists were the 2-time baptizers not because they thought you had to be baptized twice, but because they didn’t count the infant baptism almost everyone had experienced.  They varied on other beliefs, but were traditionally more withdrawn from “outsiders”, politics, and wars. 

This last thing I learned so far is big.  Quakers are strikingly reminiscent of the Emergent church movement today.  From Idiot’s Guide to the Reformation & Protestantism: “The foundational belief of the Quakers is that God gives the individual divine revelation.  Each and every person may receive the word of God internally, and each should endeavor to receive that word and heed it… The Quakers rejected the formal creeds and regarded each worshiper of God as a vessel of divine revelation.”  Listen to a debate between, we’ll say he’s probably closest to a Calvinist, and an Emergent leader done by Way of the Master Radio. 

I checked this book out from the library to reference for another post I will hopefully publish today.  Stay tuned. 

To God be all glory,

Lisa of Longbourn

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