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A THUMBNAIL SKETCH OF
SEVENTH DAY BAPTISTS
1650 - PRESENT
Seventh Day Baptists are a covenant people
based on the concept of regenerate membership, believer's baptism,
congregational polity, and scriptural basis for belief and practice. Seventh Day
Baptists have presented the Sabbath as a sign of obedience in a covenant
relationship with God and not as a condition of salvation. They have not
condemned those who do not accept the Sabbath but are curious at the apparent
inconsistency of those who claim to accept the Bible as their source of faith
and practice, yet have followed traditions of the church instead.
Seventh Day Baptists date their origin with the mid-17th century separatist
movement in England. With the renewed emphasis on the Scriptures for Free Church
doctrine and practice, men such as James Ockford, William Saller, Peter
Chamberlain, Francis Bampfield, Edward and Joseph Stennett concluded that the
keeping of the seventh day Sabbath was an inescapable requirement of biblical
Christianity. Some maintained membership within the Baptist fellowship and
simply added the private Sabbath observance to their other shared convictions.
As the power of the state was used to enforce conformity to a common day of
worship, separation became necessary. The first separate church of record was
the Mill Yard church founded about 1650 in London.
The study of the Scriptures in America brought Samuel and Tacy Hubbard to the
Baptist principle of believer?s baptism in 1647, and membership in the First
Baptist Church of Newport, Rhode Island. Beginning in 1665, their family and
several others became convinced of the seventh day Sabbath and joined in
fellowship with Stephen Mumford and his wife who had held Sabbath convictions
while members of a Baptist church in Tewksbury, England. When two couples gave
up their Sabbath convictions, the others found it difficult to share communion
with them within First Baptist. Thus five members joined with the Mumfords in a
covenant relationship, establishing the first Seventh Day Baptist Church in
America in December, 1671. Even after this seperation, close fellowship with
other Baptists remained.
A similar separation occurred in 1705 in Piscataway, New Jersey, when a deacon
of the Baptist Church, Edmund Dunham, became convinced of the biblical basis for
Sabbath observance. Dunham and sixteen others withdrew to form their own church.
A third group of churches came out of the Keithian split from Quakerism in the
Philadelphia area about 1700. A pietistic movement among German immigrants was
influenced by this third group. This led to the formation of a sister conference
known as German Seventh Day Baptists which founded the cloisters of Ephrata,
Pennsylvania about 1728. From these beginnings, Seventh Day Baptists followed
the westward migration, arriving on the Pacific Coast by 1900.
Seventh Day Baptists have been characterized by their participation in
missionary activity, educational endeavors, ecumenicity and civic
responsibility. The missionary spirit led to the formation of a General
Conference in 1802. In preserving the autonomy of the local church, the
Conference has relied upon societies for implementing a range of missions,
publications, and education. Beginning in 1821 the denomination has had an
almost continuous publication, with the current house organ, The Sabbath
Recorder, unbroken since 1844.
Several early missionary societies encouraged pastors to make extended journeys
in the home field. The current Missionary Society was formed in 1843 and four
years later missionaries began an effective mission in China, embracing both
medical and educational phases until the Communist takeover in 1950. Most of the
foreign missions of the twentieth century have been of the "Macedonian
call" in response to Sabbathkeeping groups who have cried out, "Come
over and help us." This led to missions in such places as Jamaica and
Guyana in the Caribbean region; Malawi and Ghana in Africa; India, Burma
(Myanmar) and the Philippines in Asia; Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, and
scattered responses in other areas. In 1965 a World Federation of Seventh Day
Baptist Conferences was formed which has grown to nearly twenty conferences.
Seventh Day Baptists? insistence on an enlightened conscience for beliefs and
practice led to the formation of an Education Society and the establishment of
schools or academies as they migrated into the frontiers. These schools were
never limited to members of the denomination but served the areas where public
education had not become readily available. Three of these schools later became
colleges at Alfred, New York; Milton, Wisconsin and Salem, West Virginia. The
desire for an educated clergy led to the establishment of a seminary at Alfred
University in 1871. These schools were among the pioneers in women?s education
at the college and seminary level. What the academies and colleges did for
higher education was duplicated for both children and adults in the local church
through the Sabbath Schools and material prepared for them.
The sense of ecumenicity present in the earliest churches was continued as
Seventh Day Baptists were charter members of such organizations as the Federal,
the National and the World Councils of Churches. The denomination withdrew from
these ties in the 1970s when the direction of these bodies appeared to violate
the autonomy of the local church and other principles of Baptist thought and
practice. The withdrawal strengthened their relationship with other Baptists in
such organizations as the Baptist World Alliance, the North American Baptist
Fellowship, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and related kindred
groups involving women and societal interests.
Throughout their history, Seventh Day Baptists have had a strong sense of civic
responsibility. Several leaders of the first churches in England held
responsible positions in the government. In America both Richard and Samuel Ward
were governors of Rhode Island in the eighteenth century, the latter serving in
the Continental Congress in 1775-1776. Others served in government at various
levels, including Congress where Senator Jennings Randolph of West Virginia
represented his state for forty years in either the House or the Senate
beginning in 1933. Many have served in the armed forces, including chaplains in
the Revolutionary War, the Civil War and more recently in World War II. The
General Conference has taken strong stands on social issues such as temperance
and sexual immorality and has urged its members to implement those principles
and practices which would make for a more Christian society.
Due to an emphasis on freedom of thought and conscience, Seventh Day Baptists
have represented a wide diversity of theological thought. Their common bond of
the Sabbath enabled them to avoid a split during the fundamentalist-modernist
controversy of the 1920s. For most of its history, the denomination has been
rural-oriented but has found in more recent years its greatest growth in
developing urban ministries.
The Seventh Day Baptist General Conference is organized as a conference of
churches. Voting on most issues brought before the annual sessions is done by
delegates from members churches. A General Council is empowered to act for the
Conference between sessions and prepare budget and program emphases. The Council
is composed of elected members at large and ex officio members
representing the Missionary Society, the Board of Christian Education, the Tract
and Communication Council, the Council on Ministry, the Women's Society and the
Memorial Fund Trustees.
The General Conference offices are located at 3120 Kennedy Road in Janesville,
WI. The Missionary Society and the Board of Christian Education have offices in
Westerly, Rhode Island and Alfred Station, New York respectively. Geographical
associations help strengthen local fellowship, youth activities and witness.
This sketch also appears in
Baptist Around the World
A Comprehensive Handbook
by Albert W.Wardin, Jr., ed.
Broadman & Holman Publishers
? 1995
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