Baptists & Religious Liberty

Yesterday, the United States of America celebrated her 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. Our purposes, as a church, are not to gather together and be patriotic, although as God Christians and citizens I think we should do so at the appropriate time and in the appropriate place.

We are in a church, God’s House, where the people of God from all nations (Rev. 7:9) assemble to worship the Triune God of glory, Father, Son and Spirit, to pray on behalf of the church local, universal, for spiritual progress in sanctification, for the leaders and officials of nations, and for the proclamation of the Gospel, for the public reading, teaching, and preaching of sacred Scripture, all occuring on the Lord’s Day, Sunday, the Christian Sabbath, until the Lord’s return.

So why bring up America’s 250th birthday? Because tied closely with the founding and development of our country is a wonderful principle of Baptist faith and practice: religious liberty. We will unpack the phrase religious liberty in a moment as well as why it is important. But for now, I want to situate the importance of Baptists in working to protect the freedom to worship for all in the US.

John Quincy Adams, in his book Baptists: Thorough Reformers, writes this,

“American principles are, essentially, Baptist principles, and this is owing to the fact that Baptist principles have impressed themselves upon the nation, as the only principles consistent with a government divorced from ecclesiastical control, and recognizing the universal right to civil and religious liberty.” John Quincy Adams, Baptists: Thorough Reformers

We are going to discuss a brief history of Baptists, then work on developing that key principle of religious liberty, and then end our time by discussing the importance of that principle in life today.

I. A Brief History of the Baptist

The origin of the Baptists is one that has been discussed for hundreds of years. There are some who erroneously trace baptists back to the original baptist, so they claim, John the Baptist. Most, however, know the Baptists began some time during the 17th century (1600s) in two strands, General Baptists and Particular Baptists. The basic difference between General Baptists and Particular Baptists was their view of salvation. General Baptists viewed that man could, without any divine assistance, chose to be saved or not; whereas Particular Baptists viewed that was was incapable of believing, and God had to save him. As an interesting side-note, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 (and its previous iterations in 1963 and 1925) were based on the Philadelphia Confession, which was adapted from the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith in 1689, which is, in essence, the founding statement of faith that our church held to when we were officially constituted on 6 April 1810.

Baptists, since their beginning, endured persecution in Europe and eventually in the Colonies. They fled or endured persecution, up to and including death. But we will touch on that in a few moments.

We will discuss the General Baptists first because they appeared in history first, in connection with two main men. The first man was John Smyth (c. 1570-1612).

Smyth began separating from the Church of England over various issues, eventually embracing what is called believer’s baptism. Now, before we continue this brief look at the baptists, I think it would be important to discuss our differences over baptism with other denominations.

The apostolic church, that is the church in the New Testament, practiced believer’s baptism. That is, someone was saved by God’s grace and then they were baptized (which simply means to dip or immerse).

Eventually, the practice of baptism switched from believers to children, the justifications ranging from baptismal regeneration (a teaching similar to the present Roman Catholic Church) to baptism as a covenantal sign or an expression of our need for God’s grace or something similar to our practice of baby dedication (think here of the Church of England or Anglican Churches, Lutheran Churches, Presbyterian churches, and Methodist Churches).

John Smyth eventually embraced believers baptism, influenced by Anabaptist and Mennonite theologians and his own study of Scripture. In a debate between Separatist Richard Clifton, Smyth published his work, The Character of the Beast in 1609, and that same year baptized (by affussion, or pouring water) himself along with his congregation, and thus the first Baptist church was established in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Eventually the influence of the Mennonites would lead Smyth’s (who died in1612) congregation away from Baptist life, but another man was also influential in the General Baptist movement, Thomas Helwys.

Thomas Helwys (1570-c. 1616) was the second man. Initially he left England and was a part of Smyth’s congregation, although he and about ten others left Smyth’s congregation, ultimately over the Mennonite influence/teachings embraced by Smyth and his congregation. Helwys was a writer, and we have several of his works still available, but of special importance to us today is his work A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity published in 1612.

This work pushed against the church-state relationship, for it outlawed any practice that veered from the accepted norms in the Church of England, including worship outside the Book of Common Prayer and the practice of infant baptism.

Helwys writes,

“The king is a mortal man, and not God; therefore hath no power over the immortal souls of his subjects, to make laws and ordinances for them, and to set spiritual Lords over them…” Thomas Helwys, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity, 1612

Two Baptist historians describe this work as, “‘the first demand made in England for universal religious liberty’ and was a major milestone in the entire struggle for religious liberty.” The General Baptists strove for religious liberty which is reflected in their works.

The Particular Baptists grew out of similar but distinctly different soil. They arose as they embraced believer’s baptism, but held to a different view on the atonement. Three main individuals are connected with the beginning of the Particular Baptist movement: Henry Jacob, John Lathrop, and Henry Jessey. The three pastors (where the clever name of Jacob-Lathrop-Jessey Church originated), worked hard in the Word and, although differences arose, provided the ground work for the Particular Baptist church. Eventually, one named John Spilsbury (1593-1668), a pastor, was joined by members of the JLJ Church, and, as Baptist historian Leon McBeth writes, “By 1638, and possbily by 1633, there was a Particular Baptist church formed in London.”

Eventually, Spilsbury would be joined by other men such as William Kiffin and Samuel Richardson, and they would work together to produced the First London Confession of Faith in 1644 (subsequent editions would be updated in 1646 and 1651). This was the first step in the Particular Baptist movement pushing for their acceptance as true believers with different views, but hoping to be allowed to worship and continue worshipping according to their consciences.

Eventually, an updated Confession was needed and provided through Nehemiah Coxe, a pastor in London, and his (and others) work were published in 1677, what we know as the Second London Baptist Confession of Faith. We attach the date 1689 to it because in a General Assembly of these churches in September of 1689 they embraced this confession as their own.

As the persecution of the Baptists, by both Anglicans and Presbyterians continued, they would eventually flee to the New World in hopes of gaining religious liberty. Several key individuals enter the picture, such as Roger Williams (c. 1603-1683), who established the first colony (Rhode Island) with religious liberty (in fact, the first Synagogue and mosque were built in RI), Isaac Backus, and John Leland, all important figures in Baptist history and in particular the push for religious liberty initially in the colonies and eventually in the United States.

The Church of England still influenced the colonies, and many baptists were imprisoned, or beaten, or fined.

In Colonial Massachusetts, for example, this was a law (1644),

“It is therefore ordered by this Court & Authoritie therof, that if any person or persons within this Jurisdiction shall either openly condemn or oppose the baptizing of Infants, or goe about secretly to reduce others from the approbation of use thereof, or shall purposely depart the Congregation at the administration of that Ordinance; or shall deny the Ordinance of Magistracy, or their lawfull right or authoritie to make war, or to punish the outward breaches of the first Table, and shall appear to the Court willfully and obstinately to continue therin, after due means of conviction, everie such person or persons shall be sentenced to Banishment.”

In July 30, 1651, three Baptist pastors were arrested while preaching, fined, and imprisoned. One pastor in particular, Obadiah Holmes, spent several weeks in jail and refused to pay the fine, was whipped publicly, all for holding to believer’s baptism and religious liberty. By the way, Holmes was whipped thirty times and his wounds so severe that he could only stay on his hands and knees in a bed.

Virginia was an especially difficult place for baptists, and on June 4 1768, John Waller, Lewis Craig, and James Childs were arrested and imprisoned for 43 days.

We could go on, but time is slipping away. Needless to say, Baptists, in their study of sacred Scripture, believed and held dear (and sometimes paid a significant price) our views of baptism and the nature of the church (a point that we really have not discussed, but a significant point of difference between Baptists and every other denomination).

The Declaration of Independence was adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, but it did not protect religious liberty. For the next four years, Virginian baptists could not legally perform marriages, their children were declared illegitimate, and their inheritances lost, all because they rejected infant baptism and the combination of church and state.

It was not until 1789 that the Bill of Rights were amended to the Constitution, granting true religious liberty to the inhabitants of this Country, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

This was due to the work of Baptists, especially John Leland, in conjunction with James Madison and George Washington. They never used weapons to procure their freedom (and others) to worship according to their consciences bound by the Holy Scriptures. They followed the example of the apostles and early church, preaching the Word and enduring persecution at the hands of the sovereign and good God.

What is this doctrine of religious liberty, though?

II. The Doctrine of Religious Liberty

Or consider the words from our Confession, the Baptist Faith & Message 2000, article 17, Religious Liberty.

XVII. Religious Liberty

“God alone is Lord of the conscience, and He has left it free from the doctrines and commandments of men which are contrary to His Word or not contained in it. Church and state should be separate. The state owes to every church protection and full freedom in the pursuit of its spiritual ends. In providing for such freedom no ecclesiastical group or denomination should be favored by the state more than others. Civil government being ordained of God, it is the duty of Christians to render loyal obedience thereto in all things not contrary to the revealed will of God. The church should not resort to the civil power to carry on its work. The gospel of Christ contemplates spiritual means alone for the pursuit of its ends. The state has no right to impose penalties for religious opinions of any kind. The state has no right to impose taxes for the support of any form of religion. A free church in a free state is the Christian ideal, and this implies the right of free and unhindered access to God on the part of all men, and the right to form and propagate opinions in the sphere of religion without interference by the civil power.”

If we could summarize the biblical principles of religious liberty from the BF&M 2000, I think we would see several key points.

A. There should be a separation of Church and State (Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:1-7; 1 Pet. 2:13-17)

The government is an institution give by God for the establishment of an orderly society (see Gen. 9:6; Rom. 13:1—7; and 1 Pet. 2:13-17). It’s realm of authority are civil issues. God has provided the Church for the spiritual good of people.

What the baptists had endured resulted from certain denominations having governmental authority. The Roman Catholic Church enjoyed state protection and enforcement for years. After the Reformation, many Reformed churches employed the same state-sponsored religion, forcing people to violate their consciences.

The Baptists saw in Scripture no use of physical force, as Paul says the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, 2 Corinthians 10:4 “4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.”

B. The Church should preach the Gospel and live faithful Christian lives to spread the faith (John 18:33-38; 2 Cor. 10:4; 1 Tim. 2:1-2; 4:1)

Jesus made it abundantly clear that His kingdom was not of this world. Our methods should be in consonant with God’s inspired Word. We are to preach and pray in evangelizing the lost. We should seek the liberty of everyone to worship according to their consciences.

We do not see Christ, not His apostles, gathering weapons and “converting people” by the sword or fear or oppression, as we do with other religions and even certain expressions of the Christian faith.

C. The Church should pray for religious liberty, follow God’s will for public office, and submit to God’s sovereign hand in the affairs of men (2 Thess. 3:1; Luke 3:7-14; Acts 5:40-41)

Paul tells us to pray that the Word would spread rapidly, that the Gospel would advance. And along with the Gospel the freedom to worship as they practiced in the book of Acts.

John does not forbid people from serving in political offices, nor does Scripture. Some Christians should work to protect and spread religious liberty (ERLC).

Regardless of what comes, the blessings of religious liberty or persecution, believers should submit to God’s sovereign hand in the affairs of men. The apostles and early church rejoiced that they had been considered worthy to suffer shame for the name of Christ.

D. Applicational Thoughts

So, what do we do with a sermon on Baptist and Religious Liberty? How should respond?

1. Praise God for the work of our baptist forefathers.

The first application is to praise God for men and women who studied the Scriptures and endured persecution. All religions enjoy freedom to worship here in the US thanks to the efforts of the Baptists. We can gather here this morning without fear of persecution from the Church of England, or the Roman Catholic Church, or a Presbyterian Church, or a Congregationalist Church.

2. Pray that God will protect our religious liberty and grant it to others.

We need to pray for governmental authorities for many reasons (see 2 Tim. 2:1-2), but especially for the protection and spread of religious liberty, not just so that we can come to church without fear of persecution, but that we can spread the Gospel to other countries. According to a report released in 2024 by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom, there are 12 countries are of particular concern because they severely violate religious freedom. There are Middle Eastern countries where Christians cannot spread the Gospel without breaking the law. There are African countries where Christians are butchered for their faith.

We can pray for our continued religious liberty and for the spread of it so the Gospel can spread.

3. Practice the example of Jesus, the apostles, and the early church in spreading the faith.

There are some today, and this conversation will have to weed only in the shallows, that advocated for a Christian Nation, similar to the various kingdoms during the Middle Ages, and it is sometimes called Christian Nationalism.

The Church is not called to navigate the souls of men and women with physical weapons or legislative authority. The Church preaches the Gospel, using the spiritual weapons of the Word of God and the Spirit of God and the a Christ-like life to spread the Gospel.