The Baptist Doctrine of the Trail of Blood

[Bob Higby]

Even Spurgeon believed that Baptistism as it existed in his day was founded by Christ and the apostles:

"We believe that the Baptists are the original Christians. We did not commence our existence at the reformation, we were reformers before Luther and Calvin were born; we never came from the Church of Rome, for we were never in it, but we have an unbroken line up to the apostles themselves. We have always existed from the days of Christ, and our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents. Persecuted alike by Romanists and Protestants of almost every sect, yet there has never existed a Government holding Baptist principles which persecuted others; nor, I believe, any body of Baptists ever held it to be right to put the consciences of others under the control of man. We have ever been ready to suffer, as our martyrologies will prove, but we are not ready to accept any help from the State, to prostitute the purity of the Bride of Christ to any alliance with Government, and we will never make the Church, although the Queen, the despot over the consciences of men."

An example of how far men will go in promoting historical lies, in my estimation. I could write volumes on the falsity of this claim of Baptistism as the only true church descending from the blood of Christ and apostles. Spurgeon's form of church government (imitating one bishop rule) came from the apostasy as outlined in the Judy Schindler article I pointed to in another post. And Baptists have always persecuted those who differed from their dogma, shutting out the non-submerged from their company. The primitives who got away from one-bishop rule established a form of multiple eldership that denies the every believer priesthood, the opposite extreme.

Comments? --Bro. Bob

Above Spurgeon quote at this 'Particular Baptist' site which defends the trail of blood doctrine: http://www.reformedreader.org/history/list.htm

[Brandan]

The “trail of blood” dogma is very dangerous because it takes our eyes of the Gospel. People get obessed with water baptism, “church history”, and things that we DO as opposed to what Christ has done. The folks that I have been associating with lately are not that way - even though some go to a “baptist” church. Yeah, they practice submersionism, but you hardly ever hear them talk about water baptism. When you do hear about water baptism it’s never in conjunction with “church membership.” It’s seen only as something believers do to publicly identify with Christ. There is true acceptance, friendship, and fellowship based on Gospel confession alone. And that is a precious thing.

[Bob Higby]

Thanks Brandan. I also fellowship with those in Grace doctrine of the 'Baptist' label as much as I can. The original Baptists from the continent (John Smythe--1609) who migrated to the British Isles were non-baptized according to submersionist dogma, their difference with Mennonites had to do with the involvement of Christians in human government of the world and participation in 'just' military (Mennonite--no, Baptist--yes). It was around 1640 that the Baptists migrated to full submersionism (being persuaded by the 'immersion Baptists' of the 1630's, who at first were viewed as the lunatic fringe of the Baptist movement), though the migration was of course gradual. It is interesting that Baptists cannot claim Tobias Crisp because he was martyred by the English Anglican and Presbyterian establishment before submersionism--1643. He was stripped of all his earthly goods (which he had previously shared generously with other believers in need--he came from a wealthy family heritage) and thrown into the streets to dwell with those infected by smallpox--similar to the ancient practice of condemning those hated by Jewish leaders to dwell with lepers. Dr. George Ella documents this history at evangelica.de . --Bob