Baptist History Lesson 8

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Baptist HistoryLesson 8

• Associations, Confessions Controversy
  demonstrated in the life and ministry of William
  Kiffen

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Elizabeth 1558-1603
James I 1603-1625
Charles I 1625-1649
English Commonwealth 1649-1653
Cromwell 1653-1658
Charles II 1660-1685
James II 1685-1688
William Mary 1688-1702
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I. Period of Revolution (1640-1648)
Religious

• High Baptist Visibility

• Establishment mentality

II. Period of the Protectorate (1649-1659)
Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658)
A. Commonwealth-governed by House of Commons
(1649-1653)
You have sat too long for any good you have been
doing lately ... Depart, I say and let us have
done with you. In the name of God, go!
B . Protectorate (1653-1659)
Instrument of Government
Lord Protector
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C. Baptists in Prominent Places
D. Rise of Sectarian Religion
1. Levellers
2. Diggers
3. Seekers
4. Quakers
5. Fifth Monarchy
The messianic kingdom, the fifth monarchy
prophesied by Daniel, would be realized by the
return of Christ following the English civil war
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E. Baptist Highlights During this Period
1. Increase in churches

• Effective lay ministry

• Mobility provided by army

2. Development of the theory of religious liberty
This is important as a theological truth
3. Identification with mainstream Protestantism
4. Churches were strengthened for the upcoming
persecution
Associations
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RENEWED PERSECUTION 1660-1689
I. Political
A. Restoration of the Stuart monarchy
Edward Hyde Lord Clarendon
Clarendon Codes
Charles II (1630-1685)
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II. Religious Condition
A. Clarendon Code
1. Corporation Act (1661)
2. Act of Uniformity (1662)
3. Conventicle Act (1664)
4. Five Mile Act (1665)
B. Declaration of Indulgence 1672
C. Second Declaration of Indulgence, 1687
D. Act of Toleration 1689
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III. Baptist Suffering and Confessing
A. Suffering
1. John Bunyan
2. Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)
3. William Kiffen
The Father of the Particular Baptist Joseph
Ivimey
Wm. Kiffen (1616-1701)
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b. ca. 1616 lost parents at age 9
Apprenticed to a mean calling
Converted around age 15 (1631)
I thought I felt my heart greatly to close with
the riches and freeness of grace, which God held
forth to sinners in Jesus Christ. I found my
fears vanish, and my heart was filled with love
to Jesus Christ.
Joined with Spilsburys church ca. 1638
1640 Led a group to found a church at Devonshire
Square
Independently wealthy
it pleased God to bless our endeavors to
increase it from scores to hundreds and thousands
of pounds, giving me more of this world than ever
I expected to enjoy
Led in organization and administration of the
young churches
1644 First London Confession of Faith
XLVII. And although the particular congregation
be distinct and several bodies, every one a
compact and knit city in itself yet are they all
to walk by one and the same Rule, and by all
means convenient to have the counsel and help one
of another in all needful affairs of the church,
as members of one body in the common faith under
Christ their only Head
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Associations
Dr. Barrie White a nationwide strategy between
1644 and 1660 aimed at gathering congregations
and organizing them into associations linked
with the London leadership.
model of associations 1) county associations
for protection 2) organization of Cromwells
army
Why did Particular Baptist Churches do it?

• Supply pulpits

• Spread gospel

• Maintain church order

Wales
1649 John Miles Thomas Proud in those places
where the Lord had work to be done.
Abingdon
Meetings attended by messengers
All recommendations were returned to the local
church for ratification and implementation
Desired leadership from London association
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Diverse brethren had such sweet, and lively, and
soul-ravishing manifestations of Gods gracious
presence, as they could not sufficiently express
and such as some of them and not enjoyed in all
their lives, till this day
The Churches of Christ in Ireland
to solemnly seek the face of our God and by
fasting and prayer to humbly mourn before him
Conclusions
1. Importance of London theology and leadership
2. The association or general meeting was
characteristic method of organization
3. Local associations kept in close touch by
personal visitation and sharing reports of their
meetings
4. A Comparatively small group of men made it
their business to supply the cement to this
nation-wide program
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Restoration of Charles II led to increased
persecution of Kiffen and other Baptists
February 1660
December 1660
March 1662
this great deliverance was a cause of wonder to
all that heard of it
Occasion for the issuing of the 2nd London
Confession
Michael A. G. Haykin has given four reasons
1) The common experience of persecution had
brought Particular Baptists closer to both
Independents and even Presbyterians
Particular Baptists desired to adopt a confession
of faith that would make clear their Calvinistic
orthodoxy.
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2) Some Reformed churches were beginning to
embrace views that later became called
hyper-Calvinism or High Calvinism Particular
Baptists desired to distance themselves from that
heterodox movement.
3) The Quaker movement was growing rapidly,
attracting many Baptists (especially Generals,
but also some Particulars) Particular
Baptists desired to more firmly assert biblical
authority than was necessary when the First
London Confession was published.
4) Thomas Collier, a former Army chaplain and
itinerant church-planter nicknamed the apostle
to the west, had published A Body of
Divinity (1674) wherein he rejected original sin,
particular atonement, and made heterodox
Christological claims Particular Baptists
desired to distance their movement from the more
Arminian and eccentric views of Collier
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Differences between 1644 and 1677 (W.R. Lumpkin
Baptist Confessions of Faith)
New topics the Scriptures, the Sabbath, and
marriage
The treatment of the doctrine of the church was
more extensive
The Calvinism was more pronounced
The confession followed the sequence of topics in
the WCF
More complete treatment of many subjects, notably
the Lords Supper
1. The Holy Scripture is the only sufficient,
certain, and infallible (a) rule of all saving
Knowledge, Faith and Obedience
Is there any basis for the charges of certain
current Particular Baptists that there is a
marked difference between the 1644 and the 1677
(89) on the issue of law and grace more
particularly, that the 1677abandoned the New
Covenant language of the 1644?
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1688 Glorious Restoration
1689 Kiffen Knollys called for a General
Assembly of Particular Baptist Churches
as that Confession is not now commonly to be
had and also that many others have since
embraced the same truth which is owned therein
it was judged necessary by us to joyn together in
giving a testimony to the world of our firm
adhering to those wholesome Principles, by the
publication of this which is now in your hand.
In those things wherein we differ from others,
we have exprest our selves with all candor and
plainness yet we hope we have also observed
those rules of modesty, and humility, as will
render our freedom in this respect inoffensive,
even to those whose sentiments are different from
ours.
We have also taken care to affix texts of
Scripture, in the margin for the confirmation of
each article in our confession
We shall conclude with our earnest prayer, that
the God of all grace, will pour out
those measures of his holy Spirit upon us, that
the profession of truth may be accompanyed with
the sound belief, and diligent practise of it by
us that his name may in all things be glorified,
through Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
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I consider Mr. Kiffin to have been one of the
most extraordinary persons that the denomination
has produced, both as the consistency and
correctness of his principles and the eminence of
his worldly and religious character.