Where did the Primitive Baptists get their name?

The true Church has been known by several different names since Christ set it up during His earthly ministry. In centuries past those who made up the Gospel Church have been known by the names of Christians, Donatists, Waldenses, Albigenses, Ana-Baptists, and others.

The following statements were taken from Church History by C. B. and Sylvester Hassell, pp. 335-336. “The earliest Confession of Faith denominated Baptist was published in Switzerland in 1527.” “In 1633 the first Particular or Predestinarian Baptist Church was formed in London, and in 1639 another; and in 1644 there were seven of these churches in London, and they then published a predestinarian Confession of Faith. In 1656 sixteen churches in Somerset and the adjoining counties published a similar Confession. In 1677 and in 1688, and again in 1689, was published the fullest and most esteemed Baptist Confession of Faith, in 1689 the ministers and messengers of above a hundred churches in England and Wales meeting in London for that purpose, and, as they say in their prologue, ‘denying Arminianism.’ This Confession is published in this volume [Hassell’s Church History], and adopts, on the subject of predestination, the strong language of the Westminster (the most esteemed Presbyterian) Confession. The great majority of Baptists in England and America (those called the Particular Baptists in England, and those called Regular or Calvinistic or ‘Missionary’ Baptists in America) still profess to adhere to this old London Confession.” “…from 1633 to the present time (1886) the most of those called Baptists have professed to be Predestinarians.”

“The first Baptist Missionary Society was formed in Kettering, England, Oct. 2, 1792. Andrew Fuller was chosen and remained its secretary till his death, traveling almost continually through the British Isles, and pleading for the mission cause, and charging the society nothing for his services” (Page 341, Hassell’s Church History). “Mr. Fuller admitted these views were different from those held by the Baptists during the most of the eighteenth century. His views were essentially the declaration of the Roman Council of Trent which state that Divine commands necessarily imply human ability just as though man had never fallen” (Page 339, Hassell’s Church History). Andrew Fuller and William Carey are considered to be the fathers of Missionary Baptists.

Around the year 1832 there was a division in the Baptist family in America. Those who insisted on establishing mission boards, and other unscriptural societies in the church became know as the New School or Missionary Baptists. Those who continued to walk in the old paths were known as Old School or Primitive Baptists. The word Primitive simply means: “of early times; of long ago; first of the kind; very simple; original.” The name was more or less interpreted by many as meaning that we were backward and ignorant. It was placed upon us by those who wanted to improve on the things taught by the Holy Scriptures. It is the sincere desire of this writer that all who are interested in the truths of God’s word will study prayerfully the explanations to the twenty-four questions and that you will measure this exhaustively with all other references to which you will be led in your study. It is my belief that when you have exhausted every avenue of God’s word that you will have a solid background for our belief of what the word teaches. The name of Primitive Baptist is not the most important thing! Rather than this, it is the doctrine of God’s word. May God open your minds and hearts to the embracing of this doctrine.

This Shall Be Our Rest

“And Lamech lived a hundred eighty and two years, and begot a son: And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” Genesis 5:28-29

Methuselah came after Enoch, and lived longer on the earth than any man before or since. Lamech was born to Methuselah, and 16 years after Lamech was born, Adam died. This must have made a deep impression on Lamech because when he had a son 166 years later, he named him Noah, meaning “rest.” Did he believe Adam’s death satisfied God’s righteous anger against sin? His statement when he named Noah seems to indicate that something to that effect was on Lamech’s mind: “And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.” No doubt he had a hope that, if God was satisfied by Adam’s death, perhaps the curse He had placed upon the ground for Adam’s sake would be lifted. That would mean their lives would not have to be so hard, toiling by the sweat of their brow to scrape out a living from the earth. We should not fault Lamech for this. Every child born into the world is a token of hope to the continuance of life on the earth. Each new life holds the hope of being the source of life getting better. There was also the hope that God’s people had of the Promised One, the Redeemer. Maybe Lamech hoped that Noah was that One. He was not that One, but his birth signaled a far different end to the manner and mode of life the ten generations of Adam’s family had known up to that time.

Rest. Noah was named and proclaimed to be the source of it by his father. The problem was that the earth was in turmoil, not because of the hardship of tilling the ground for necessary food, but because doing evil was rapidly becoming the way most people lived. We don’t have to speculate what they were doing, God’s word tells us that the sons of God – God’s people – “saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took wives of all which they chose” (Genesis 6:2). In fact, the situation became so bad that, “…GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart” (Genesis 6:5-6). There was no rest for man. He did not seek it because true rest – the kind of rest Lamech hoped for when he named Noah – resides in trusting in and obeying God. The true Source of rest, the Lord Jesus Christ, would later say, “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” Man’s condition during the time of Noah was, in fact, going to change the condition of the earth – just not as Lamech had hoped. Genesis 6:7 tells us, “And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” The earth was going to have a rest from evil, because God was going to destroy the earth, as men had known it. He would change the weather, alter the face of the earth, and cause great convulsions in the depths of the earth – all because of the evil men practiced. Noah’s birth did not bring rest; but it did bring hope. Life would continue after God destroyed the earth, because, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Through Noah, human life would survive and the hope of Redeemer would continue. (Elder Bill Taylor)

Wisdom, and Knowledge, and Joy

“There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour. This also I saw, that it was from the hand of God. For who can eat, or who else can hasten hereunto, more than I? For God giveth to a man that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God. This also is vanity and vexation of spirit.” Ecclesiastes 2:24-26

What does it take to “enjoy good” in ones labor? Today, there seems to be a general feeling that labor is to be avoided, and that recreation and leisure are to be pursued with great energy. I believe part of that mindset comes from our thoughts being shaped and molded by popular opinion, and also by the “forces” of commerce that overwhelm us with advertising that moves us to desire and pursue their products. The desire to build wealth (or worse yet, to “win it” instantaneously is a very strong motivating force in today’s world, at least in those parts that enjoy a higher standard of living. So, great schemes are raised and great energy is invested in getting enough money or security so that one does not have to work. This is very short sighted, much like the case where parents do not teach their children the value of work in the home. The belief that hard work – labor – is to be avoided at all costs is a belief that will rob the holder of it of the great satisfaction that can come from a job well done.

Solomon reached the valuable conclusion that labor – doing work that results in accomplishing something that needs to be done – is a gift from God. That labor may not have to be physical labor, either; it may be working with the mind that God has given us to think through some problem and reach a conclusion that brings about good. Solomon makes a strong statement: “There is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and that he should make his soul enjoy good in his labour.” There is nothing better for a man, he says. Of course, Solomon is talking about being satisfied in our present condition. Do you have a hard job? This lesson teaches us to be thankful for it. That is a difficult thing to do sometimes, is it not? The mind tends to think through the days of a hard job and try to find some way to get out of that hard job. Perhaps we have all found ourselves in that case; however, God’s word teaches us clearly that we would be better off to try to find some satisfaction in doing that hard job than we can ever be to try to get out of it. I am reminded of Paul’s statement when he was in a situation of great need, “Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:11-13). We can apply these principles to every circumstance in life: If laboring in a hard circumstance, we should try to find a way to make our soul enjoy good in our labor. Easy to say, hard to do. I know. Maybe if we just start trying today, though, we might find great good in whatever our circumstance is, and realize that our labor may just be a gift from the hand of God. (Elder Bill Taylor)