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Author: Pastor David Page 53 of 57
“And David was greatly distressed; for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and daughters: but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” (1 Samuel 30:6)
This verse is given to us in the aftermath of an Amalekite raid upon David and his men’s camp, where their wives and children were all taken captive and their city of residence burned. In this midst of that traumatic situation for all of them, including David as his wives were taken too, the men turn on David and actually talked of stoning him to death. In the midst of such turmoil in his life at that time, nevertheless, “David encouraged himself in the Lord his God.” Regardless, of what trying circumstances we encounter in our lives, our Lord can and should always be our greatest source of encouragement.
One of the distinctive marks of the Primitive Baptist Church is our assertion to be the original and true church that Jesus established in His earthly ministry. “Primitive” simply means “original”, so we hold that we are the “Original Baptist Church”, still preaching the same doctrine and maintaining the same worship and practice as originally established by Christ. Furthermore, we deny the label of “Protestants”, since we did not come out of a protest from the Catholic church, but we predate the Protestant Reformation by almost 1,500 years. How do we support these claims that almost 2,000 years later after Christ and the apostles we can still trace our origin in an unbroken chain back to the original Baptist church? We must study church history in a very careful manner to track the true church throughout all those centuries, even when seemingly at times the church vanished from public view. Even though the true, original Baptist church was obscure for many years, particularly in the Dark Ages, we can still identify this unbroken chain of church succession back to Christ and the apostles. History of the Church of God, by Elders C.B. and Sylvester Hassell, is the most comprehensive defense of the historical identity of the church all throughout the centuries. However, since Hassell’s History is over 1,000 pages long, we hope this study guide serves as somewhat of a “cliff notes” version of the church’s history. This study guide was originally published by Elder Larry Wise in 1991, and we reproduce the study guide with minimal updates to the original copy. We hope this study guide is a profitable resource and reference in your study of the history of the Primitive (Original) Baptist Church.
Click here to view and download the PDF – A Study Guide to the History of the Church
From August to December 2017, Pastor David preached through the Book of James. This book exhorts us to authentic Christianity, pure religion and undefiled, with our profession of faith in Christ backed up by robust good works to glorify the Lord.
Man’s nature tries to deflect blame for his own wicked actions to such a degree that some reach an erroneous conclusion that God has decreed all events that have or will occur in the world, which is commonly known as the doctrine of absolute predestination. Absolutism, when followed to its logical conclusion, will incorrectly make God the source of all the wickedness we see in the world around us, which is entirely contrary to the holy nature of God revealed in scripture. It’s an entirely incorrect worldview that tries to blame God for evil and wickedness that is in the world solely by the sin of man. On the contrary, any goodness and any measure of peace we find in this world is attributed to God alone. In summary, man gets all the blame for the wickedness of this world, and God gets all the glory for the goodness and blessings that we see in the world around us. In these radio messages from the Gospel of Grace Radio Broadcast delivered from October to December 2017, Pastor David details the errors of the doctrine of absolutism, while also giving the proper perspective of God’s overruling providence in the lives of His children.
“And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-Jireh: as it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen.” (Genesis 22:14)
Abraham had been called by God to offer his son, Isaac, as a burnt offering upon a mount in Moriah. Abraham was faithful to God’s command and was willing to sacrifice Isaac, but the angel of God intervened to prevent him from going through with that particular act. In the place of Isaac, God provided a sacrifice for Abraham to offer instead, in the form of a ram caught in a thicket. In response to such a miraculous intervention of God’s providence, Abraham named this place “Jehovah-Jireh” which means “the Lord will provide or the Lord has seen”. If we examine our lives, I believe that we will also see these Jehovah-Jireh memorials of not just providential blessings but the ultimate Jehovah-Jireh of the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on our behalf.
During the early 1800’s it was a time of great outpouring of God’s Spirit and additions to the Baptist Church. From 1801 to 1802 AD in the churches of Kentucky, about 6,000 persons were baptized within about an 8 month period. During the same two-year period in the Kehukee Association in North Carolina, about 1,500 members were baptized into their churches. Within 18 months beginning in 1812, Elder Wilson Thompson baptized some 400 to 500 persons into Bethel Church in Missouri. In 1829, Elder John Leland wrote, “In the south part of Virginia, North and South Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, and Kentucky, there are more than a thousand Baptist churches, now existing, which arose from that beginning” (referring to the constitution of Sandy Creek Church in North Carolina by Elders Daniel Marshall and Shubal Stearns in 1755.) This period of growth continued for many years until, unfortunately, in response to the great number of additions and baptisms, the unscriptural necessity of “missions” to continue to convert men to the church was introduced. This caused the division between the Old School, Primitive Baptists, and the New School, Missionary Baptist in the 1830’s. (numbers and quotes above are taken from Hassell’s History)
Saturday, October 1, 2017
The Promised Land, Part 1 – Elder James Conley
The Promised Land, Part 2 – Elder James Conley
Sunday, October 2, 2017
“If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.” (James 1:4)
The term “liberal” should not always be rendered as a bad or negative word. On the contrary, the term is often used in a very positive light in scripture as evidenced by the term being associated with the generous giving nature of God. The definition of “liberal” at the time the KJV was translated (when the translators chose “liberally” to describe the nature of God’s giving) was “free in giving, generous, or open-hearted” (Shorter Oxford English Dictionary). To commend the translators, using that definition, I cannot think of a more precise and accurate term to describe to free, generous, and open-hearted giving of blessings that God grants upon His children, especially when we ask of Him in prayer.
“There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.” (John 1:6-8)
John the Baptist was a very interesting character in the scriptures, to say the least. His ministry was prophesied of in the Old Testament (Isaiah 40:3-5, Mal. 3:1,4:4-6). He was to be filled with the Holy Ghost from his mother’s womb and was born again even before his natural birth (Luke 1:15,41-44). He would be God’s messenger to convert God’s children among the Jews back to a proper relationship with their heavenly Father (Luke 1:16-17). John the Baptist was also the forerunner of Christ who was to prepare the way for the ministry of Jesus Christ (Mal. 3:1, Isaiah 40:2-5). He was the “bulldozer” before Jesus Christ that filled in the valleys, tore down the hills, straightened the crooked paths, and smoothed out the rough places (Luke 3:4-5) to where the ministry of Jesus would be on a level and straight pathway. He was the last of the Old Testament prophets and came in the spirit and power of Elijah (Luke 16:16, 1:17). Even with such an impressive resume, that was not the central theme of his life and ministry – that was to “bear witness of the Light”.