#american baptists

[drag-tween]

Southern Baptist leaders called Kamala Harris a ‘Jezebel.’ That’s not just insulting, it’s dangerous, experts say

The Biblical reference has a long history of being used to justify violence against Black women in the United States

Harris happens to be raised Baptist –– just the wrong sect (American, not Southern)...

[nabpr]

CFP: ''Incarnation and Identity''

CFP: ”Incarnation and Identity”

Call for Papers ”Incarnation and Identity” A Scholarly Conference held in conjunction with the ABC/USA Biennial Mission Summit Virginia Beach, Virginia June 20th, 2019

The Office of the General Secretary of ABC-USA and the Theologians’ Commission will host the fifth pre-biennial theology conference around the theme Incarnation and Identity in an effort to foster ongoing, vigorous theological…

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[nabpr]

American Baptist Quarterly, Call for Papers

American Baptist Quarterly, Call for Papers

American Baptist Quarterly (ABQ) is the peer-reviewed journal of the American Baptist Historical Society. Both established and emerging scholars are invited to submit papers written from original research. Articles and essays should be between 6,000 and 10,000 words. If you are interested in submitting a paper for one of the upcoming issues, please contact editor Curtis Freeman…

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[alanrudnick]

The Bethlehem you don't know

  The wall that separates Bethlehem from Jerusalem. In the background right, you can see the Mount of Olives , which overlooks the Temple Mount and the Old City of Jerusalem.

As millions of Christians around the world sing “O Little Town of Bethlehem” this Advent and Christmas. If you visit Bethlehem today, you would see that it is indeed still, but not in that Christmas-y way. The hopes and…

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[baptisthistory-blog]

James H. Linsley’s Baptism

In January/February 1811, James Harvey Linsley (1787-1844) of Connecticut, who would later become the father-in-law of S. Dryden Phelps, became convinced that he needed to be baptized. At that time he also came to see baptism as only properly administered when done by immersion. He observed in his journal that “it requires some self-denial, situated as I am in the family of a Congregational minister.”

On February 17th, Linsley observed a baptism of eleven converts and was convicted by what he saw and heard preached. He felt “much condemned that [he] had not joined them.” On April 12, 1811, he was baptized at the age of 23. It was a fast day in North Haven. The pastor of the Baptist Church in North Haven, Joshua Bradley (1773-1855), had the sermon with Matthew 5:45 as the text.

After the sermon, James was asked to deliver his testimony. Eight other candidates were baptized with him “at the river side” on a “very cold blustering day” which featured occasional snow. In his journal, Linsley noted that his “soul was in exstacy of love and gratitude to that blessed Jesus, who set me an example in this ordinance, and has given a promise that He will be with His children even unto the end of the world.” To him it was “the happiest day [he] ever saw.”

Almost immediately, James would be impressed with a desire to preach the gospel and within a week or two after his baptism, he became a student at the Wallingford Academy.

Sources:

Memoir of the Rev. James H. Linsley, 38-39, 42-43.

“Joshua Bradley” in William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (1860), 6:400.

“James  Harvey Linsley” in William Buell Sprague, Annals of the American Pulpit (1860), 6:795-801.

[baptisthistory-blog]

James H. Linsley and the Revival at Yale

In the early 1800s, Yale College produced an “usually large amount” of ministers. This was at least partly due to three revivals that occurred during 1808-1815. The last of these, which was the last revival to occur during Timothy Dwight’s term as president of the college (Dwight was grandson of Jonathan Edwards), occurred in 1815. S. Dryden Phelps’ father in law James Harvey Linsley (1787-1844) had participated in this revival.

One professor recalls the revivals commencement by saying that “prayers were at length answered and a revival of great power commenced…Its immediate cause was the reading at Sabbath evening prayers of an account of the death of Sir Francis Newport…[which produced] a kind of electric power on the whole body of students. Nearly every individual in the college became anxious for the salvation of his soul; and those who had been most thoughtless seemed to be most affected.”

According to that same professor, some 80 students professed to have been converted during  that year.  Linsley, a student at Yale at the time, was kept very busy during the revival. His daughter called it a “glorious outpouring of the Holy Spirit.” Before the revival occurred, Linsley along with some other classmates woke up at an early hour, before the official time of prayer, in order to pray for “impenitent students.”

The event deeply impressed Linsley. In a letter he wrote to  his sister at the time, he said: “my emotions are unutterable…such an outpouring of the Spirit of God, never did I witness before… The Lord is here indeed.” In the same later he recalls how he barely had time to study because classmates were coming to his room one after the other and saying “O I am a poor sinner Linsley; do pray for me; what shall I do?”

A review of the letter gives that impression that Linsley is grasping at words sufficient to describe what happened. “The Lord  has shaken these colleges to their centre in a spiritual sense.”

Sadly, as was a common theme in his life, the hectic pace of his energy caused Linsley’s body to give in. The revival took a serious toll on his frail health and he once again had a violent attack of hemmorrhage in his lungs and almost died.

Sources 1. Memoir of the Rev. James H. Linsley

2. Robert Buckingham Mouheb, Yale Under God.

3. Thomas H. Kiker, The relationship between Samuel J. Mills Jr. and the influence of the Second Great Awakening on missions and evangelism

[baptisthistory-blog]

James H. Linsley (1787-1844): Baptist Naturalist

When the 19th century Connecticut Baptist minister James H. Linsley’s health no longer allowed him to preach, he turned his attention to studying nature. In fact, he became one of the most prominent names in the study of the birds reptiles, mammals, and shell animals of Connecticut, discovering many new ones.

Linsley’s contributions to Connecticut zoology were “great and unprecedented” and he “ascertained more species of bird in Connecticut than [the reputed father of American ornithology, Alexander] Wilson found in the United States; more of Mammalia than has been found elsewhere in New England; and of Shells more than double the number supposed to be resident here.” His findings were published in The American Journal of Science And Arts.

Linsley published the first catalogue of fishes in Connecticut and the first definitive list of birds in the state. He discovered the presence of the Least shrew (Cryptotis parva) in Connecticut in 1840, and nobody would see another one for 100 years. He also saw the first red-bellied woodpecker in Connecticut in 1842.

[baptisthistory-blog]

James H. Linsley Reaches Out To A Socinian

In compiling a memoir of her father, the 19th century Connecticut Baptist James H. Linsley’s daughter noted that he had “power in controverting heresy.” She provides as an example an instance where a female relative of his embraced the error of “Socinianism.”

“Socinianism” was a system of doctrine named after Fausto Sozzin. It was a departure from Christian orthodoxy in the areas of God’s knowledge, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, and soteriology. For instance, it taught that Jesus was merely a created person who only had a human nature. The Baptists of the 18th and 19th century, such as Andrew Fuller for instance, often grappled with Socinians. For instance, one of Fuller’s works was: “The Calvinistic and Socinian Systems examined and compared as to their Moral Tendency.

”The women in question was “a woman of uncommonly strong powers of mind, and peculiarly tenacious of her own opinion.” She had “most unfortunately imbibed the fatal errors of Socinianism.” Due to her vigorous spirit, there was little hope of persuading her. Nevertheless, Linsley was “was not disposed to be discouraged” and was eager to win her over to the truth.  He spent many painstaking hours arguing and pleading and attempting to convince her of her error. He felt he could not stop until she had been won over. Some of his tenacity and vigor is evidenced in the account.

In the end Linsley, whose “glorious mission is to take the things of Christ and show them to men,” was able to prevail. The discussion lasted until midnight and at the end she fully abandoned her views, confessed that she was deluded, and gave him her Socinian Bible to testify that she was serious about rejecting her old views.