In a scathing article against the Edenton Baptist Church, where he had served as pastor and would eventually resume that role, Thomas Meredith wrote that a majority of the congregation had recently discovered that their forefathers "in many important particulars" had been "entirely mistaken," and that their ministers had been guilty of "'darkening counsel by words without knowledge'," a quotation from Job 38:2, in which the Lord describes and challenges uninformed Job. Furthermore, the congregation had recently determined "that some of the distinctive principles of the Baptist Church are entirely unauthorised by the scriptures;" that "Articles of Faith, Church Covenants, Church Constitutions, Rules of Decorum, Systems of Discipline, &c. are unnecessary, unscriptural, and hurtful." They had also concluded "that the practice of receiving members into the church on the ground of a religious experience is unauthorised, and ought to be abolished," and that "any person is qualified for baptism who will say that he believes in Christ, loves God, and is desirous for the ordinance." If the congregation were continue on its present course, wrote Meredith, the world would finally have "at least one genuine Apostolical Church!!"
Thomas Meredith, "Something New," North Carolina Baptist Interpreter 1, no. 7 (July 1833), 161-62.
No comments:
Post a Comment