A History of the Baptists

The term which was a precursor of Baptist was once a term of derision. Those who held the beliefs which were considered to be Anabaptist were considered to be the lowest of the low. The Baptist denomination of Christianity did not arise from the Reformation, but rather, preexisted and in some cases played a role in the Protestant Reformation. Much of the history written about the groups that eventually led to the modern Baptist denomination was written by those who desperately wished to obliterate them from memory. Yet, they persisted and in this digital age, we are fortunate to have available the works of modern theologians, historians, and pastors who researched these early Anabaptist groups as thoroughly as possible before the records could be lost in the mists of history. One of those dedicated researchers was John Tyler Christian. He was born in Kentucky and served as pastor of a number of Baptist churches in the south during his lifetime. He also was the first librarian of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. The library there is now named after him and contains his personal library of some 18,000 books and archives of his writing on Baptist History. He authored the book titled, A History of the Baptists in answer to the many questions of the true origins and practices of Baptists. This week marks the beginning of a serial project on his book. We submit today the Prelude and Chapter on of his exhaustive book on the groups which shared a number of the beliefs which are central to the Baptist identity. They differed from modern Baptists in many regards and some, certainly, promoted great doctrinal error, but as we will see as the book unfolds, the provide a rich legacy to the Baptist Denomination and to the history of a perspective of Christianity which was at grave risk of being lost and even erased from history.

This is the first recording and is, frankly, a little choppy. In future recordings, many of the in-text references will be omitted to make the reading flow better for the listener, however, links will be provided with each new installment to the actual book so listeners can check the research for themselves. This book is in the Public Domain. The audio recording may be freely shared as long as it is credited to Passing Through the Valley of Baca and Nadina Medlin and as long as links to the book are included.

Going forward, a number of the chapters are quite long. These may be broken up into segments of about 30 minutes.

http://www.reformedreader.org/history/christian/ahob1/ahobp.htm