Isaac Johannes Dermout was born on this day in 1777 and eventually became the Protestant chaplain to the King of the Netherlands. He and Anne Ypeij, Professor of Theology in Gronigen were commissioned by the King to investigate the history of the Dutch Baptists. The following is a part of their scholarly conclusion –
“We have now seen that the Baptists who were formerly called Anabaptists, and in later times Mennonites, were the original Waldenses, and who have long in the history of the church received the honour of that origin. On this account the Baptists may be considered as the only Christian community which has stood since the days of the apostles, and as a Christian society which has preserved pure the doctrine of the Gospel through all ages. The perfectly correct external and internal economy of the Baptist denomination tends to ….. refute the erroneous notion of the Catholics, that their denomination is the most ancient.”