I have learnt how Baptists dealt with the issue of slavery which was not only the biggest challenge for America but also for the Church. The timeline of slavery starts from 1501 all the way to 1865. We see that in 1804 it became a sectional issue where, by definition, northern states were free states and southern states were slave states.
The Baptists were actually at the forefront of anti-slavery movements in the South prior to 1820; David Barrow led anti-slavery efforts in Kentucky.
Richard Furman was one of the most important Baptist figures in the early republican period of American history. Furman did not believe slavery to be an evil. He wrote a treatise defending slavery as a positive good and argued that slavery was a biblical right. He said that in the Old Testament there was a law regulating the institution of slavery and that the Old Testament embraces slavery; it is not condemned as being immoral or evil. Slavery is actually regulated in the New Testament. The inspired apostles who authored the New Testament, as Furman said, never rejected slavery.
Formation of the SBC
The Southern Baptist Convention separated from the Northern Churches because SBC explicitly said that it was for the sake of missions, it was for global propagation of the gospel, in particular for those who had not yet heard and believed.
When the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 there was no statement of faith connected to the group and every church had its own statement of faith. In 1925 the Baptist faith and message was formulated in order to provide a consensus statement. It was not perfect and underwent several revisions especially in 1963 and then in the year 2000.
Baptists have since then demonstrated a commitment to be a confessional people. They believe that the statement of faith is the abstract of principles. The Baptist faith and message 2000 is a faithful summary of biblical teaching that provides Baptists with an outline for cooperation.
Baptist in the Frontiers
I learned about the American history and how it got independence from the Great Britain. In 1783 after the Revolutionary War ended, the Treaty of Paris was made, which formally separated the former 13 American colonies from the British Empire. Those13 colonies became 13 American states. Louisiana’s purchase included the territory from Mississippi River to the western continental, all the way to the Rocky Mountains. The Crest of the Rocky Mountains became American territory which the United States purchased from France for $15 million, while it was under the rule of Napoleon.
From 1783 to 1850 Baptists began to engage themselves in the frontier and gained a great deal of clout on the border. The Baptists were victorious during the religious freedom struggle between 1760 and 1780. They also had a very powerful influence in getting the 1st amendment added to the constitution which was enacted in 1791 and went into effect the same year. The Baptists became very political and socially significant during the Revolutionary War.
In 1820s a full-scale movement against missionaries was launched. The movement was against great organizations, missionary societies, and missionary endeavors. There were many Baptists who were active in the movement and the reason for that was theological. Many hyper Calvinists, and Baptist congregations rejected the concept of missions because if one believes that God is sovereign over electing people to salvation then missionary efforts, missionary societies are all human inventions. They were of the view that missionary efforts and missionary societies were not biblical.
Baptist Engagement on the frontier through missions was very successful. With success, however comes controversy and Baptists faced a lot of controversy in the anti-mission movement as well as in the Campbellite movement. What Baptist really faced in terms of controversy, however, was in the 1830s and definitely in the 1840s regarding the issue of slavery.
