I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and was usually led to think that John the Baptist launched the Baptist Church. Properly, it manufactured perception: John was a “Baptist” we have been “Baptists.” So John have to have started the Baptist Church, correct? Sure, optimistic considering at its best. Notion is, as they say, truth. At times our notion and Reality are in opposition. And, at times, we locate out the hard way.

Reading through the Bible in its entirety, instead than pulling out a convenient verse listed here and there, produces the Creator’s intended result – illumination of Reality.

At the age of 21 I began to read the Bible. Not the widespread everyday perusal through a couple of Psalms or Proverbs, but a deliberate, systematic research of the 66 textbooks that make up the Bible. Looking through the Bible brought on me to assess the factors we Baptists considered and practiced.

Soon after a cautious research, I understood that there had been a host of practices that we Baptists advocated that failed to align with the Bible. But a single Baptist doctrine stood out above all other individuals – that John the Baptist founded the Baptist Church.

Did John the Baptist start the Baptist Church? Do you want to find it for oneself, or would you like to me share what I located? If you might be studying this sentence, I can believe that you want me to share what I located. Alright, right here is expertise from the Phrase of God. I hope you will validate it for by yourself.

We find King Herod, in the 14th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, shelling out his birthday at his wintertime palace. He’d been able to seize and imprison John at his palace. Why did Herod want John in shackles? Since John had explained that Herod should not be sleeping with his sister-in-law, Herodias consequently, John was incarcerated for his incendiary assertion. Really, Herod desired to execute John, but feared the reaction of the crowds because the populous thought John to be a prophet of God.

Then, during the celebration of Herod’s birthday, Herodias’ daughter enticed Herod by dancing erotically before him. Evidently Herod was mesmerized by her seductive abilities and promised to give her anything at all she needed. She’d previously been coached by her mother on what to ask for. “Give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter!” demanded Herodias’ daughter. Herod was now among a rock and the proverbial tough-location. He did not want to incite the crowds, but he also experienced to display that he was a male of his phrase. In the long run he chose to please Herodias’ daughter. Herod experienced John decapitated.

Why is this historic account of John’s death important? Simply because it uncovers the reply to the question, “Did John the Baptist start off the Baptist Church?” How does it uncover the answer? John’s death at the hand of Herod was before the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ manufactured the first prophecy that any church would be created. Jesus explained that He would build a church – not John. Jesus explained that it would be His church – not John’s. John the Baptist launched no church. His name “John the Baptist” was merely a descriptive term of his mission and steps. John was a baptizer of guys unto the baptism of repentance.

In the sixteenth chapter of the gospel of Matthew we locate Jesus questioning His disciples. “Who are the crowds expressing that I am?” His disciples responded, “Some are declaring that you are John the Baptist. Some are saying that you are a prophet, such as Elias or Jeremiah.” But Jesus needed to know what His very own disciples thought. “But who do you believe I am?” Jesus questioned. Peter responded and mentioned, “You are the Christ (the Messiah Savior), the Son of the residing God!” Jesus exclaimed that Peter was blessed since his understanding was given by God and not by flesh. Then Jesus makes an outstanding prophecy to Peter and to the rest of His disciples, “You are Peter, and upon this rock (the rock of belief that Jesus was the Son of God, or what we would call the confession of faith in Christ) I will create my church.”

It was Jesus, not John, who said that He would construct a church. We find that the Lord’s prophecy came accurate in the last component of Acts chapter 2. That section of Scripture reveals that all who were saved had been included to the Lord’s church by God. God provides the saved to the Lord’s church. There was no earthly council, no associations, and no conventions that voted on likely church member candidates.

In addition, Christ’s church was a “blood-purchased” establishment, as said in the 28th chapter of the guide of Functions. It was to be an vital, divine, blood-acquired institution that the saved of God would be additional to by God.

Take into account this reality: John did not prophecy that he would build any church. John didn’t give his blood for a church. John was just the fore-runner for the Christ.

Heritage data that the Baptist Church was established by a guy named John Smyth, an Anglican priest ordained by the Church of England in 1594. Smyth became a “Separatist,” and fashioned the very first “Baptist” church in Holland someplace among 1607 and 1609 – some 1570 a long time right after Christ proven His church. Smyth “re-baptized” himself by pouring h2o more than his head. Then he baptized (poured) his followers. 1609 is the unofficial beginning of the Baptist Church.

Prior to his dying, Smyth deserted his Baptist views and began making an attempt to proselytize his followers into the teachings Menno Simons, and the Mennonite Church.

Modern Baptist Church customers are a group of very good, sincere, moral, and zealous people. However, baptist church in Raleigh belong to a man-produced firm. They belong to a church that was not purchased with Christ’s blood, hood-winked in believing that John the Baptist started their firm. How is this possible? Baptist folks have not taken the time to investigate their personal heritage. They haven’t taken the time to diligently study the Scriptures of God. They “believe” that what they’ve been informed is the truth.

Why would so a lot of good men and women align themselves with an firm that was clearly launched by a man, alternatively of merely obeying the recommendations of Peter discovered in the next chapter of Functions and currently being added to the church of Jesus Christ by God Himself? The reply is as plain as the nose on your face. They just never know. They are ignorant of these biblical and historical specifics.

Every single Baptist require to know that Jesus Christ started His church and gave His blood for it. Paul advised the church at Ephesus that Christ liked the church and gave Himself for it. Paul also said that Christ is the Head of His church, and the Savior of His physique, the church.

So we boil it down to this: do you want to be a member of the church that Jesus Christ recognized, or do you want to be a member of a church established by John Smyth? My option is Jesus. Give me the prospect to obey the guidelines for salvation discovered in Functions two, and God will insert me to the church of Christ, Acts two.

If you have the religious wish to be a “Christian ONLY,” and a willingness to locate the one particular, correct, New Testomony church of the Bible, Michael issues you to read the ebook Muscle mass and a Shovel. It truly is not only a tale that will get you instantly and not enable go, but it will challenge your current beliefs outside of your creativeness.