November 14

I often refer to Shubal Stearns, as I did last Sunday. It is because he was an extremely important man when it came to the evangelization and the establishment of Baptist churches in the South. Stearns was saved during the Great Awakening under George Whitefield. He...

October 31

The Baptists in early Virginia often suffered physical pain and imprisonment in order to preach the gospel of Christ to the lost, but this kind of persecution was not always the most painful. The scorn and ridicule they endured often left more scars. On this day...

October 10

William Duncan was born in Amherst County, Virginia, in the year of this country’s birth. His father was a highly respected Baptist pastor, but it wasn’t until William’s twentieth year that he was converted to Christ. Immediately he began growing in the things of the...

October 3

John Clarke began his earthly life on this day, October 3rd, 1609 in Suffolk County, England. We don’t know when he began his spiritual life, but it appears to have been at an early age. He was well-educated, not only receiving degrees in England but also from...

September 12

The early Baptists in Connecticut were persecuted by the state, especially in the area of ministerial taxes. Everyone, by law, was to pay an assessed amount for the support of the local Protestant minister. The Baptists, on principle, refused. They were often taken to...

September 5

On this day (September 5) in 1651, Obadiah Holmes was whipped nearly to death in a public ceremony. His crime was only that he was a Baptist trying to serve the Lord according to the principles of the Bible. But Holmes is not the subject of this history. When Holmes...

August 29

Thomas Baldwin died on this day (August 29) in 1825. Baldwin had been born 72 years earlier in Bozrah, Connecticut. Having a love for books, he decided to prepare for a profession as a lawyer, but the Lord had other plans. When he was seventeen he was brought under...

August 22

In these days when church after church is throwing aside the name “Baptist,” people need to consider the life and choices of Isaac Backus. On this day (August 22) in 1751, Isaac Backus was dipped into water as a testimony of his faith in Christ. A man who had been...

August 15

Over the course of several years, there were forty-three different Baptist preachers arrested in Virginia for preaching the gospel. According to historical records, the least among them, the most meek of those preachers was William Webber. He was born on this day...

August 8

I am currently reading a book which was highly recommended by Spurgeon – “A Body of Divinity” by Thomas Watson. It is a study and exposition of the Westminster Confession of Faith – the first major doctrinal statement of the early Presbyterians. It was produced about...

August 1

John Comer was born on this day (August 1) in 1704. He grew up hearing the religious instruction of the famous Increase Mather, father of Cotton Mather. But that preaching didn’t produce any eternal effect. And then Comer became deathly ill. Through that disease, he...

July 25

John Mason Peck was born in 1789 in Litchfield, Connecticut, where he was raised as a Congregationalist. Twenty years later he married Sally Pane. Despite the lack of Biblical preaching in their church, the Lord saved the souls of both John and Sally. Then when God...

July 18

Some of you are going to shake your heads at this story, but it is reportedly true. The Gum Spring Baptist Church of North Carolina was constituted on this day in 1829 after Elders Hezekiah Harmon, Isaac Kerby, and another man named Hicks, had ministered in the area...

July 11

The Baptists in England had been slandered and persecuted for some time when the churches of London decided to defend their doctrines by publishing an outline of what they believed. In a note to “the judicious and impartial reader,” the 1689 Confession of Faith reads,...

July 4

I have mentioned pastor and evangelist John Waller many times, but you probably won’t remember him until I remind you that his nickname was “Swearing Jack,” due to his very worldly former life. After his conversion, Waller became an highly successful Baptist preacher...