To contextualize the gospel for a generation is hard work. To represent the Word accurately for hearers is daunting. To guard the church from the adversary is hazardous. Pastors have a difficult yet glorious calling. With this glorious calling comes a privileged camaraderie with the church historical. This blog exists to provide resources to pastors out of the vast wisdom of the church.
About the Author
John Sherwin Banks grew up in a church planter’s home in Eastern Canada. He met his beautiful wife and talented ministry partner in South Carolina while in University. He and Abby have just recently celebrated 22 years of marriage, and together, have five children and two cats.
John has been a pastor for 11 years at an increasingly healthy congregation in Wayne County, PA. He is also a PhD candidate with the Free University of Amsterdam. Prior to study with Prof. Dr. Willem van Vlastuin, John earned an interdisciplinary ThM with a focus in Church History at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky.
Blog
Be Careful Not to Fight with a Baptist (Part 3)
Continued from part 2 HERE English Persecution For a period of thirty years General and Particular Baptists experienced “intermittent, state persecution and mob-harassment” along with Presbyterians, Congregationalists, and Quakers. This was a period of extreme anxiety and constitutional crisis precipitated by the beheading of Charles I on January 30, 1649, during the British Civil Wars. …
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Be Careful Not to Fight with a Baptist (Part 2)
Continued from Part 1 located HERE The English Baptists The origin of the English Baptists is somewhat debated; however, there is enough consensus to say that the practice of believer’s baptism was picked up by English while in exile. John Smyth is often cited as the first English Baptist; however, those who were excommunicated from …
Continue reading “Be Careful Not to Fight with a Baptist (Part 2)”
Be Careful Not to Fight with a Baptist (Part 1)
“If you want to protect the gospel, get rid of infant baptism and be congregational. Make the whole congregation vote. You’ll keep the gospel!” Like red meat before wild animals these words elicited applause and shouts last fall (September 2022) at Southeastern Baptist Seminary in Wake Forrest, NC. Yet, nearly nine months later, Mark Dever’s …
Continue reading “Be Careful Not to Fight with a Baptist (Part 1)”