Perhaps this is a day which should go down in infamy. History records that at least twice, some of our Baptist forefathers were arrested on this day prior to being punished for their faith.
In 1768 four gospel preachers were arranged in Orange County, Virginia for using God’s word to tell sinners they needed to be born again. Satan had such a control over the government and society of that day, even in this country the truth of God was suppressed to the damnation of souls.
Earlier, in 1743, in Norway, a group of six Baptist soldiers were ordered by their colonel to participate in a nonmilitary, religious parade which was to culminate inside a local Protestant church. The soldiers did as they were ordered until they stood before the church door. As believers they refused to participate in religious rites which they considered to be unscriptural. On this day in that year, they were arrested for insubordination, and the following January they were brought before a judge to be court-marshaled. They were given various punishments, but eventually King Christian VI, who was not a Christian, ordered that they all be sent to the penitentiary in Oslo, so that they might “work constantly and receive instruction, so they might change their mind.” But things didn’t turn out the way the king and his henchmen intended. The witness and the words of God’s men resulted in the salvation of other prisoners.
When the bishop, overseeing the Baptist’s punishment, saw what they were doing with other prisoners, he recommended that the six be sent to six different military bases in the north. The recommendation was carried out, but the men couldn’t be silenced, and in their punishment they then had six, rather than one pulpit, from which to preach God’s free grace of salvation.
Source: “This Day in Baptist History,” Thompson & Cummins