How many people are required for the proper establishment of a Baptist Church?
Gustaf Palmquist was born in 1812 into a family of seven children in Sweden. At some point, his mother came under Holy Spirit conviction, but turning to her Lutheran priest, she was told that her deep piety was sufficient for her salvation. Having no peace she turned to an old neighborhood widow who pointed Mrs. Palmquist to salvation in Christ. With the peace of God in her heart she began to pray for the salvation of her family. Eventually Gustaf was born again, but it was eight years after his mother’s death.
At the age of thirty-two, while a professor at a teacher’s college in Stockholm, the grace of God came upon Gustaf, and he trusted the work of Christ on the cross for his salvation. When he started earnestly witnessing for Christ, the Lord led him to F.O. Nilsson a Baptist pastor in Helsingland in northern Sweden. Nilsson helped Palmquist to understand God’s Word, but before his training was complete, a group of Lutheran acquaintances told him they were emigrating to the United States, and they wanted him to be their pastor. After months of preparation and travel, Palmquist found himself, almost alone, in Rock Island, Illinois. From there he started traveling all over the Midwest looking for Swedish-speaking people with whom he could share the gospel.
Then in 1851 he heard about a wonderful moving of the Holy Spirit in a Baptist church in Galesburg, Illinios, and he went to investigate. There the seed of Baptist doctrine that had been planted in his heart back in Sweden germinated. On June 27, 1852, he was immersed, and a month later he was ordained in the Galesburg Baptist Church. Then forty-seven days after his own baptism, on this day in 1852, he organized the first Swedish Baptist Church in America, consisting of two men and one woman. The church grew and prospered under the Lord’s blessings, and one church led to another and another for the glory of God.
