I grew up in the Southern Baptist Church and was often led to believe that John the Baptist started the Baptist Church. Nicely, it manufactured perception: John was a “Baptist” we had been “Baptists.” So John should have started out the Baptist Church, proper? Indeed, optimistic thinking at its ideal. baptist church in Raleigh is, as they say, actuality. Sometimes our notion and Fact are in opposition. And, often, we uncover out the challenging way.

Reading through the Bible in its entirety, instead than pulling out a convenient verse right here and there, creates the Creator’s intended influence – illumination of Fact.

At the age of 21 I started to go through the Bible. Not the widespread casual perusal through a number of Psalms or Proverbs, but a deliberate, systematic review of the sixty six publications that make up the Bible. Reading the Bible brought on me to evaluate the factors we Baptists believed and practiced.

Right after a careful examine, I understood that there were a host of practices that we Baptists advocated that did not align with the Bible. But one particular Baptist doctrine stood out above all other people – that John the Baptist founded the Baptist Church.

Did John the Baptist begin the Baptist Church? Do you want to find it for your self, or would you like to me share what I identified? If you’re reading this sentence, I can suppose that you want me to share what I found. Alright, listed here is understanding from the Term of God. I hope you will verify it for by yourself.

We uncover King Herod, in the 14th chapter of the gospel of Matthew, spending his birthday at his winter palace. He’d been in a position to seize and imprison John at his palace. Why did Herod want John in shackles? Because John experienced said that Herod shouldn’t be sleeping with his sister-in-law, Herodias for that reason, John was incarcerated for his incendiary assertion. In fact, Herod wished to execute John, but feared the response of the crowds due to the fact the populous believed John to be a prophet of God.

Then, during the celebration of Herod’s birthday, Herodias’ daughter enticed Herod by dancing erotically ahead of him. Evidently Herod was mesmerized by her seductive abilities and promised to give her something she wished. She’d presently been coached by her mother on what to request. “Give me John the Baptist’s head on a platter!” demanded Herodias’ daughter. Herod was now in between a rock and the proverbial challenging-location. He didn’t want to incite the crowds, but he also had to display that he was a man of his word. Ultimately he selected to make sure you Herodias’ daughter. Herod had John decapitated.

Why is this historic account of John’s dying important? Due to the fact it uncovers the answer to the question, “Did John the Baptist begin the Baptist Church?” How does it uncover the response? John’s death at the hand of Herod was just before the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ manufactured the initial prophecy that any church would be constructed. Jesus said that He would develop a church – not John. Jesus mentioned that it would be His church – not John’s. John the Baptist started no church. His name “John the Baptist” was simply a descriptive term of his mission and actions. John was a baptizer of guys unto the baptism of repentance.

In the 16th chapter of the gospel of Matthew we locate Jesus questioning His disciples. “Who are the crowds stating that I am?” His disciples responded, “Some are stating that you are John the Baptist. Some are expressing that you are a prophet, this kind of as Elias or Jeremiah.” But Jesus needed to know what His personal disciples thought. “But who do you believe I am?” Jesus questioned. Peter responded and stated, “You are the Christ (the Messiah Savior), the Son of the dwelling God!” Jesus exclaimed that Peter was blessed because his information was offered by God and not by flesh. Then Jesus makes an incredible prophecy to Peter and to the rest of His disciples, “You are Peter, and upon this rock (the rock of perception that Jesus was the Son of God, or what we would get in touch with the confession of faith in Christ) I will construct my church.”

It was Jesus, not John, who said that He would construct a church. We uncover that the Lord’s prophecy arrived correct in the previous component of Acts chapter 2. That section of Scripture reveals that all who had been saved have 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.

Furthermore, Christ’s church was a “blood-acquired” institution, as said in the 28th chapter of the ebook of Acts. It was to be an important, divine, blood-bought establishment that the saved of God would be extra to by God.

Think about this real truth: John didn’t prophecy that he would construct any church. John didn’t give his blood for a church. John was merely the fore-runner for the Christ.

Heritage documents that the Baptist Church was established by a gentleman named John Smyth, an Anglican priest ordained by the Church of England in 1594. Smyth grew to become a “Separatist,” and fashioned the 1st “Baptist” church in Holland someplace among 1607 and 1609 – some 1570 many years right after Christ established His church. Smyth “re-baptized” himself by pouring water above his head. Then he baptized (poured) his followers. 1609 is the unofficial beginning of the Baptist Church.

Prior to his dying, Smyth abandoned his Baptist sights and commenced attempting to proselytize his followers into the teachings Menno Simons, and the Mennonite Church.

Modern Baptist Church associates are a team of good, sincere, ethical, and zealous people. Nevertheless, they belong to a gentleman-made firm. They belong to a church that was not bought with Christ’s blood, hood-winked in believing that John the Baptist started their firm. How is this possible? Baptist men and women have not taken the time to examine their possess heritage. They haven’t taken the time to diligently examine the Scriptures of God. They “believe” that what they have been informed is the reality.

Why would so numerous great individuals align on their own with an business that was evidently launched by a male, as an alternative of merely obeying the recommendations of Peter found in the second chapter of Functions and getting additional to the church of Jesus Christ by God Himself? The solution is as plain as the nose on your experience. They just never know. They are ignorant of these biblical and historical facts.

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 beloved the church and gave Himself for it. Paul also explained 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 founded by John Smyth? My selection is Jesus. Give me the chance to obey the guidelines for salvation found in Acts 2, and God will add me to the church of Christ, Functions two.

If you have the religious desire to be a “Christian ONLY,” and a willingness to discover the 1, true, New Testomony church of the Bible, Michael problems you to read through the book Muscle and a Shovel. It’s not only a tale that will get you right away and not enable go, but it will challenge your current beliefs outside of your imagination.