Bartow Baptist Church 

Church History

Beginnings to AD 313

Through the first and second centuries AD, Roman emperors extended their rule over a vast realm that stretched around the Mediterranean Sea to Asia Minor, and northward into present-day France and England.

The Empire ranged some 3000 miles from east to west, about the length of the United States, and historians estimate that it contained about 50 million people.

By the beginning of the second century, Rome reigned and was unchallenged over the known world.

Christ was born into a Roman Ruled Empire experiencing considerable turmoil.

In Luke 2:1 we read that _________________ Caesar occupied Romes throne.

His predecessor, ____________ Caesar, had restricted the inexperienced democracy of the Roman Senate and consolidated authority into his own hands. Rome was no longer a republic; the age of imperial rule had begun

The Empires official state religion worshipped an evolving _______________ of capricious deities who supposedly governed the forces of nature.

As the empire grew in authority and prominence, the official cult became worship of the emperor himself. The goal of all religious devotion, in the eyes of Roman authorities, was to maintain civic _________ and to attain __________ favor

_________________ religions, as they were called, were widespread in the 3^rd century among those who were searching for answers that were more intellectually and spiritually satisfying than the official cults could offer. Acts 17:18-21

Christianity emerged in many ways as an outgrowth of Judaism, and were self-conscious about their roots in the ancient religion. They believed the same set of Scriptures and even claimed to worship the same God, Yahweh [_______], who created and ruled the world.

The book of Acts tells of the early years of Christianitys expansion throughout the Empire. At first, the missionaries of the new religion, most notably the apostles __________ and _________, preached their faith in Jewish synagogues.

By AD____ Churches existed in every province between Syria and Rome and in Alexandria, Carthage, and even northward into what would become France, and east into Central Asia and India.

How did Christianity spread so rapidly?

1. The preaching of the apostle Paul
2. The Empire had extensive trade routes
3. Unintentionally; even Romes continuing persecutions of the Christians aided the spread of the Gospel. Acts 8:1-4

Throughout the first three centuries of Christian history, no less than ____ official persecutions were unleashed against the church. These persecutions were severe, and thousands of Christians were tortured and put to death in gruesome ways.

As for the rest of the church, the first significant persecution broke out under ________. In 64 A.D. a tremendous fire engulfed the city of Rome. Many people in the city blamed Nero for the tragedy.

After four years of Neros reign, he was overthrown, and because of the disgrace, Nero took his own life.

Just two years after that, in A.D. ____, the Romans destroyed the Temple and Jerusalem.

Christianity had now made its final break from Judaism, as its last ties with the Temple and with Jerusalem, and emerged as its own distinctive faith

In AD 98, the Emperor ___________ launched a campaign against the church that would last for almost two decades. In a revealing correspondence between Pliny the Younger, governor of the province of Bithynia, and Trajan, Pliny asked if the mere mention of the name __________________ merited punishment, or only the activities associated with it.

Trajan replied that Christians should be punished only if they refuse to recant their faith and worship our gods. If they do recant, they are to be set free.

Another period of relative peacefulness and growth came from about 125 until the reign of _____________ _________________ (161-180), who triggered a new campaign of persecution. Many Christians were martyred during these years, including eminent church leader such as Polycarp.

Following this season of trial, Christians enjoyed another two decades of relative peace, as the faith continued to grow throughout the empire.

Then conditions became very severe in 250, as the new emperor _____________ assumed the throne desiring to restore Rome to its earlier glory.

Many apostatized and denied their faith. Others fled into exile. Some believers resisted and were executed. But the Church had grown complacent, and was poorly-prepared to handle such persecution.

Before Decius could carry out his program against the church any further, he died in battle, and the persecution decreased for a few short years.

In 257, the emperor __________________ initiated a new attempt to stamp out the church. He gave detailed instructions that bishops, presbyters, and deacons were to be punished immediately by death, while Roman senators and military officers who were Christians were to lose their dignity and property. And civil servants who were Christians were to be made slaves and sent in chains to labor on imperial estates.

Valerian was taken prisoner by the Persians in 260, and his successor son permitted relative religious freedom, which the church enjoyed for the next 40 years. During this time the church grew, permeating all levels of Roman society and spreading throughout North Africa, Egypt, Syria, and Armenia.

Christianity had attained such prominence by the year 300 that __________ writes the question had become on what terms Church and Empire could cooperate, and whether a settlement would come peacefully, or after one final, bloody encounter.

On February 23, 303, the emperor Diocletian gave his answer. Hoping to impose a uniform order on the empire of customs, military, currency, and religion, on that day he issued an edict designed to end the Christian menace to imperial unity. Initially Christians were not put to death, but rather just imprisoned or enslaved, and churches were destroyed, and Scriptures burned. But the next year Diocletian fell ill and Galerius took over, and ordered all un-compliant Christians to be executed.

Blood flowed freely as many Christians suffered martyrdom during this time, known as the __________ ___________________.

The Lord preserved His church, and in 311 _____________ recanted. He admitted failure to extinguish Christianity because too many Christians refused to obey him and remained faithful. He issued an edict saying let the Christians once more exist and rebuild their churches and pray to their God for our well-being, for that of the state and for themselves.

The next two years brought sporadic outbreaks of persecution, until ___________________ took power in 313, and declared an empire-wide policy of tolerance for Christianity.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/aRTBmplO/Church_History--Beginnings_-_A.html

AD 312-500

Threats from outside the Church (Roman authority) and turmoil from within threatened the churchs very existence during its first few centuries. Therefore Churches began to focus on the issue of authoritywho or what determines the true faith?

These early Christians relied on the same sources we do today: ________________ and ____________.

In AD 312, a dramatic political change occurred in Rome that would have profound consequences for the Christian faith. Constantine became Romes leader and immediately prepared for battle against Maxentius, his last rival for the throne.

The next year Constantine issued the __________ of __________, which granted Christians the right to worship, restored to them their properties and churches, and allowed them to be compensated for other losses they had suffered under persecution.

Constantine did not fully understand the doctrines of Christianity, or the implications of it.

While Constantine did not permit his own image to be worshipped in the temple, he allowed the royal cult to remain, and continued to practice some pagan rites. He also maintained images of pagan deities on his coinage for more than a decade, most notably his personal favorite, the _____, which he may have identified with Christ.

He also used his power and prestige to help settle church disputes, such as convening the monumental church council at ___________ in AD 325. But in his effort to harness the power of Christ in the service of Rome, he laid the foundation for the harmful establishment of ________________________, the belief that the secular ruler, by divine mandate, becomes head of the church as well.

Constantine even saw himself as the 13^th Apostle.

Christianity became a cultural norm (not the exception), and the church became confused with the world. Many of the ancient practices of the pagans began to infiltrate Christian worship, leading to unbiblical practices such as the worship of Mary and the saints.

Other than Constantine, three other 4^th century leaders need to be mentioned.

______________, bishop of Milan

After the Arian bishop of Milan died, a spontaneous outpouring of support from the people elected Ambrose as bishop of Milan. This early example of strong congregationalism succeeded in completing the overthrow of Arianism in the West. Yet Ambrose left perhaps his greatest legacy by serving as a mentor to St. Augustine.

Secondly was St. ____________

He was the leading Biblical scholar of the late 4^th and early 5^th centuries and lived at Antioch.

In 374, Jerome went to Rome to serve as secretary for Pope Damasus.

When Damasus died, Jerome moved to Bethlehem and completed the Vulgate, which became the standard translation used by the Roman Catholic Church.

He regarded a _____________________ Rome as the culmination of divine agency in human history.

ThirdlyThe most influential and important of the Church Fathers was __________________ of Hippo.

Born in 354 in a small town, he spent his young adult years living a sinful and lustful life, even to the point of fathering an illegitimate son by his concubine.

As a pastor, he saw the consequences of false teachings and errors in the daily lives of those under his care. For example, in a misguided effort to create a completely pure church on earth, a group called the Donatists taught that any ordination of a minister or any administration of baptism or the Lords Supper that was not performed by an indisputably pure and genuine bishop was invalid. This made the legitimacy of ordination and the sacraments dependent not on God but on man.

Augustines most fierce and famous dispute was against _____________________.

Lead buy their leader; a British monk named Pelagius; denied original sin and taught that humans are born basically good and through enough effort can attain perfection.

Modern examples of Pelagian doctrinal errors might include some varieties of liberal Protestantism, health and wealth teachings, Mormonism, Christian Science.

Augustine taught that only through Gods initiative in graciously choosing to give us the gift of faith in Christ could we repent of our sins and trust in Christ for our salvation.

Along with these Church Fathers came Church Creeds and Councils to help identify the true faith of God.

The earliest and most well-known is the _________________ Creed, a version of which we find as early as 110 AD from the pen of Ignatius of Antioch.

We can summarize each council as an attempt to each by four questions, all centered on the nature of Jesus Christ.

First, Is Christ divine? Second, Is Christ human? Third, if yes to both, how are the two elements combined? And fourth, what language or terms do we use to describe Him?

The First is the Council of __________ (325 A.D.)

This Council addressed the first question. Is Christ divine?

Sometime around AD 318 an elder by the name of Arius, under the influence of Platonic thought and desiring to maintain the absolute supremacy of God the Father, proposed that Jesus had been created, had not existed eternally, and could therefore not be divine like the Father. The bishop over the city, Alexander, and his archdeacon Athanasius vehemently opposed this false teaching and defended the Trinity and the Incarnation from serious error. In 321, a synod called at Alexandria deposed Arius and condemned his doctrine.

__________ himself was removed and excommunicated, and the council adopted a creed that stands today as an orthodox statement of Christian belief.

Arianism persists in various forms even today; _____________________ ___________________, for example, hold to this false teaching.

The Second was the Council of ________________________ (381)

One group, led by Apollinaris, who denied that Christ had a human soul, thus pressing the second question of Christs humanity.

Another group known as the Pneumatomachians, who denied the full divinity of the Holy Spirit.

The Council of Constantinople in 381 rejected both of these heresies, and affirmed the full divinity of all three persons of the Trinity as well as the full humanity of Christ. This Council also slightly modified the Nicene Creed to give us the version we still confess together today.

Constantinople also marked the final death of _______________.

The Third was the Council of _______________ (431); or, A Tale of Two Cities

If Jesus was both God and man, our third question was: how are these two elements related to each other?

This question proved especially difficult in the Eastern Church. Two schools of thought emerged in the East. One group emphasized the human nature of Jesus, and held that his two natures were distinct and only loosely connected within the person of Christ. The other group emphasized Jesuss divinity to such an extent that they diminished his human nature.

The emperor in 431 called the bishops of the empire to assemble in Ephesus to decide the question. Ultimately leading to the banishment of Nestorius into exile in a monastery, and saw to it that the Council of Ephesus affirmed the dynamic interchange of the two elements in the person of Christ

The Fourth was the Council of __________________ (451)

In 446, a monk in Constantinople named ________________ began to argue that before Christs incarnation He had two natures, but after His incarnation, these two unions were thoroughly blended, the human nature being dissolved into the divine much as a drop of wine is dissolved into the sea. The nature of Jesus, therefore, was neither perfectly divine nor perfectly human. Emperor Theodosius learned of this latest controversy in the East, and called a council in 449 to settle the question.

____________________, the Bishop of Alexandria, paid the Emperor large amounts of gold and shrewdly maneuvered his supporters to guarantee that their views would prevail at the council.

The new emperor who succeeded Theodosius affirmed the orthodox view of Christ, and immediately called for a new council at Chalcedon, across the river from Constantinople, in 451.

Apostles Creed

I believe in God the Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth.

And in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord;

who was conceived by the Holy Spirit,

born of the Virgin Mary,

suffered under Pontius Pilate,

was crucified, dead, and buried;

he descended into hell;

the third day he rose again from the dead;

he ascended into heaven, and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty;

from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit;

the holy catholic Church;

the communion of saints;

the forgiveness of sins;

the resurrection of the body;

and the life everlasting. AMEN.

Athanasian Creed

Whosoever will be saved, before all things it is necessary that he hold the catholic faith; Which faith except every one do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish everlastingly. And the catholic faith is this: That we worship one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity; Neither confounding the persons nor dividing the substance. For there is one person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Spirit. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit is all one, the glory equal, the majesty coeternal. Such as the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Spirit. The Father uncreated, the Son uncreated, and the Holy Spirit uncreated. The Father incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Spirit incomprehensible. The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Spirit eternal. And yet they are not three eternals but one eternal. As also there are not three uncreated nor three incomprehensible, but one uncreated and one incomprehensible. So likewise the Father is almighty, the Son almighty, and the Holy Spirit almighty. And yet they are not three almighties, but one almighty. So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Spirit is God; And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Spirit Lord; And yet they are not three Lords but one Lord. For like as we are compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by himself to be God and Lord; So are we forbidden by the catholic religion to say; There are three Gods or three Lords. The Father is made of none, neither created nor begotten. The Son is of the Father alone; not made nor created, but begotten. The Holy Spirit is of the Father and of the Son; neither made, nor created, nor begotten, but proceeding. So there is one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits. And in this Trinity none is afore or after another; none is greater or less than another. But the whole three persons are coeternal, and coequal. So that in all things, as aforesaid, the Unity in Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped. He therefore that will be saved must thus think of the Trinity. Furthermore it is necessary to everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ. For the right faith is that we believe and confess that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and man. God of the substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and man of substance of His mother, born in the world. Perfect God and perfect man, of a reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting. Equal to the Father as touching His Godhead, and inferior to the Father as touching His manhood. Who, although He is God and man, yet He is not two, but one Christ. One, not by conversion of the Godhead into flesh, but by taking of that manhood into God. One altogether, not by confusion of substance, but by unity of person. For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and man is one Christ; Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the third day from the dead; He ascended into heaven, He sits on the right hand of the Father, God, Almighty; From thence He shall come to judge the quick and the dead. At whose coming all men shall rise again with their bodies; and shall give account of their own works. And they that have done good shall go into life everlasting and they that have done evil into everlasting fire. This is the catholic faith, which except a man believe faithfully he cannot be saved.

Nicene Creed

We believe in one God,
the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ,
the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, light from light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father;
through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation
he came down from heaven,
was incarnate of the Holy Spirit and the Virgin Mary
and became truly human.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again
in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven
and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father [and the Son],
who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified,
who has spoken through the prophets.
We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come. Amen.

Creed of Chalcedon

We, then, following the holy Fathers, all with one consent, teach men to confess one and the same Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the same perfect in Godhead and also perfect in manhood;

truly God and truly man, of a reasonable [rational] soul and body;

consubstantial [co-essential] with the Father according to the Godhead, and consubstantial with us according to the Manhood;

in all things like unto us, without sin;

begotten before all ages of the Father according to the Godhead, and in these latter days, for us and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to the Manhood;

one and the same Christ, Son, Lord, Only begotten, to be acknowledged in two natures, inconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably;

the distinction of natures being by no means taken away by the unity, but rather the property of each nature being preserved, and concurring in one Person and one Subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son, and only begotten, God the Word, the Lord Jesus Christ;

as the prophets from the beginning [have declared] concerning him, and the Lord Jesus Christ himself has taught us, and the Creed of the holy Fathers has handed down to us.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/1XgHDOz8/Church_History--AD_312_-_500.html

AD 400-1500

This period is commonly known as the ________ ________, because of its relative lack of intellectual and cultural development, and its beginning is usually traced to the fall of the Roman Empire in the early fifth century.

The first incursions began in 376, when tribes of nomadic horsemen known as the Huns swept through the Black Sea region and terrorized its inhabitants, the Goths.

Alaric rose up as ruler of these Visigoths, and in 410 he led his people in a three-day uprising known as the ________ of Rome.

Other barbarian tribes began invading other parts of the weakened empire, so that by 500, the Western Empire had been divided between several barbarian kingdoms: In Italy, the Ostrogoths and then the Lombards were masters of the country.

The most important of the tribes, though, were the ______________, who consolidated their control of Gaul and the Rhine Valley.

In the East, the Emperor Justinian took the throne in 527. Justinian brought about a resurgence in Byzantine law and culture, codifying old Roman laws and building a towering, spectacular church known as the Hagia Sophia, which still stands today in Istanbul.

Born about the year 570, a man named Mohammed claimed to receive visions from the angel Gabriel, which came to be recorded in the book known as the __________.

From the start, Islam expanded with the sword. While Mohammed died in 632, all of Arabia had come under Islam, and within ten more years Muslim armies had taken Syria, Palestine (including Jerusalem), and Persia. By one hundred years after Mohammeds death, Islam had conquered Egypt and the rest of North Africa, and southern France and parts of Spain, and had laid siege to Constantinople.

With the insurgence of Islam, most Christians chose one of two avenues; they either chose ___________________ or __________________.

Monasticism means to withdraw from the world and pursue only the things of the spirit. Monks began to appear in the fourth century.

Christendom was the way of thinking that lead ultimately to the pope as the authority. In the early centuries of the church, the Bishop of Rome periodically attempted to assert his authority over the rest of the church, and many Christians, especially in the West, viewed the church in Rome with special reverence.

__________ _____ __ in the fifth century took particular steps to assert his authority in matters of doctrine, and to increase the power of his office. He seems to have been the first Bishop of Rome to claim the title ________, from the Greek word papa used for senior church officials.

The office attained its greatest stature to date, however, under ______________ I, who held the office from 590-604.

More than any other pope, Gregory established the papal monarchy, the idea that the popes were the successors to the great Caesars of the earlier Empire.

By the end of the seventh century, Cloviss dynasty had weakened, and a new ruler emerged named ____________ ____________, who gained renown for his battle victories against Muslim invaders.

After Martel came his son __________ and he completed the process of allying church with empire.

On Christmas day of 800 Charlemagne attended a worship service at the main cathedral in Rome. At the end of the service, Pope Leo III came up to the emperor and placed a crown on his head. The people in the church, prompted by the pope, then arose and shouted out three times: To Charles Augustus, crowned by God, great and peace-giving emperor of the Romans, life and victory! The process was complete. Church and state were united, and one emperor who was crowned by one cleric ruled all of Europe.

When secular power began to increase to medieval lords, they also grasped for religious authority. This was known as the _________________ ____________________, this became one of the most important and fiercely contested episodes in all of church and European history; in it were the roots of the Reformation as well as modern notions of church and state.

The only consistency during these chaotic years was the corruption and lust for power that consumed popes and emperors alike.

In 985, the controversy reached a boiling point when ________________ VII died suddenly, probably the victim of poisoning, and was dragged through the streets of Rome, his body left naked and unburied for the gawking eyes of the populace.

In the middle of the turmoil, __________ III became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire and determined to put a stop to the papal tug-of-war in Rome.

In 1049, he convened a synod in Germany and strong-armed the resignation or deposition of all three rival popes and the election of _____ IX to the papal throne.

With these disputes it ultimately lead to the great split of 1054 between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Upon Henry IIIs death in 1059, a new pope named _________________ II.

In 1073, at the death of Nicholas II, ____________________ was literally carried from his home to the center of Rome, where the cardinals quickly ran a formal election to install the deacon as pope. He took the title Gregory VII, after his role-model Gregory the Great of the late 6^th century. Over the course of his twelve-year tenure on the throne, he would make papal power even more widely felt than had his great mentor from the past.

After the death of Gregory VII, several powerful popes filled his position, such that the 12^th and 13^th centuries saw the papacy reach its pinnacle of authority. The greatest of these, and arguably the most powerful of any pope, was ________________ III, who reigned from 1198-1216.

Innocent further solidified the popes claim to absolute spiritual authority. He declared that the successor of Peter is the Vicar of Christ...he has been established as a mediator between God and man, below God but beyond man; less than God but more than man; who shall judge all and be judged by no one.

This resulted in the ________________; a term which refers both to a series of military campaigns and to an entire attitude of militancy in the church.

The First Crusade began in 1096 at the prompting of Pope Urban II.

In 1096, he preached a sermon in which he called on the people of Western Europe to take up arms and avenge the atrocities of the Muslim infidel and to rescue the holy land. The sermon ended with an impassioned promise, Undertake this journey for the remission of your sins, with the assurance of the imperishable glory of the Kingdom of Heaven!

In 1099, they managed to recapture Jerusalem. The victory was short-lived. By the end of the 12^th century the Muslims had been united under the leadership of a new and able ruler named ______________, who is to this day a legendary figure in the Islamic world.

In 1187, Saladin proclaimed a __________, or holy war, against the Christians, and his forces soon recaptured Jerusalem itself.

In 1202, Innocent III, called for another Crusade and another attempt to retake the Holy Land.

Several other Crusades followed, though with little success. The Holy Roman Emperor managed to gain Jerusalem in 1229 by negotiation, but it fell to the Muslims once again in 1244 and would remain in their possession until the 20^th century.

By 1500, several historical streams had converged that made conditions ripe for the Reformation of the 16^th century.

The monastic revival, the moral decline of the papacy, and the evolving political atmosphere in Europe all would contribute. Another stream that flowed into this river was the beginning of an intellectual movement known as Scholasticism. The goal of the scholastics was to ascertain the relation of faith and reason.

One of the most important of the scholastics was ____________.

He developed the renowned ontological argument for the existence of God. As Anselm put it, God is that than which no greater can be conceived and whose non-existence would be inconceivable. After all, if a mans mind could conceive anything better than [God], the creature would rise above the Creator and judge him, which is absurd.

Scholasticism reached its peak in ____________ ______________.

He developed the First Cause argument for the existence of God, contending that everything that existed needed to be caused by something and come from somewhere. Working backwards to its logical origin, this led to God as the original prime mover or first cause behind everything else in existence.

More than anyone else in all the Middle Ages, Thomas Aquinas provided Christianity with a firm intellectual base and gave reason a place within the Christian faith.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/9vT6daV1/Church_History--AD_400_-_1500.html

AD1300-1546

Martin Luther and the Protestant Reformation

Perhaps Luthers greatest significance for his day and for our day is in his answer to the most important question any person will ever ask: What must I do to be saved?

They used this practice, known as ____________________, because the peoples offering money would be sent directly to the pope, filling his coffers while depriving the people of pastoral care.

Moreover, in an abuse known as __________ (after Simon the Sorcerer, who in Acts 8:18-24 tries to buy spiritual authority from Peter), many church officials would sell positions of church authority to the highest bidder.

Many popes and other church officers also kept concubines and fathered illegitimate children, breaking the celibacy requirement.

The corruption of the papacy reached its height or depth under _________ ______________ VI.

Superstition and idolatry crept in, as the common people were encouraged to worship ____________ of saints, including supposed splinters and nails from the Cross, and even pieces of bone and hair from the apostles.

The selling of ____________________ joined many of these problems into one detestable practice. An indulgence was the Churchs remission of works of penance to atone for a particular sin or sometimes sins.

A man named ____________, perhaps the most successful and notorious peddler of indulgences in Luthers day, summed up the principle in a pithy jingle: As soon as the coin in the coffer rings, a soul from purgatory springs.

While this was going two men arose to challenge the church not only for its corrupt practices, but for its erroneous doctrines.

_______ _____________

Influenced by reading Augustine, Wycliffe held that Christs true church is not necessarily the pope and his hierarchy. Rather, the real Body of Christ consists of those ___________ by God unto salvation.

This teaching had powerful implications:

First, Wycliffe came to believe that the pope and many other church leaders were probably reprobate.

Second, because all true believers comprised the church, it followed that they should be able to read the Bible in their own language, in order to know Gods will for themselves and for the church.

Finally, Wycliffe declared transubstantiation in communion to be false. ____________________: declared an official doctrine of the church in the 13^th century, held that the bread and wine actually became transformed into the body and blood of Christ.

His followers, known as ________________, eagerly began to spread his teachings, as well as copies of his English Bible, throughout the land. Though many Lollards were put to death for their beliefs, they took Wycliffes writings as far as Bohemia, or present-day Czechoslovakia.

The second man worth mentioning is ________ ________

Influenced by Wycliffe, Huss came to believe that only Gods elect people comprised the true universal church, and that the Bible provided the supreme authority by which all Christians are to be guided and judged including the pope.

Huss believed that only God can forgive sins, and that attempting to profit off Gods prerogative was profoundly wrong. He protested against the Popes cynical moves, and in response, the Pope excommunicated Huss.

________ ________ XXIII had him burned at the stake in 1415 when Huss refused to recant his beliefs. As he was being tied to the stake, Huss prayed aloud Lord Jesus, it is for Thee that I patiently endure this cruel death. I pray Thee to have mercy on my enemies.

The stage for reformation was set. On it walked the most unlikely of figures: a monk with a hammer, a manifesto, and a mission____________ ____________ 1483-1546.

From his youth, Luther was deeply religious. He grew up under church teaching, and spent most of his early years in mortal fear of divine judgment and the devil in hell.

At the age of 22, he knew of no better way to protect himself from the Evil One than to abandon the study of law and enter a monastery.

Shortly thereafter Luther joined a monastery in Wittenberg, Germany and began the long road toward mortification of his sin and fitness for the kingdom of heaven.

Luther was a monks monk, devoting himself constantly to the most rigorous forms of prayer, fasting, and work.

Luther was convinced that God was an awful judge waiting to damn him, even Christ seemed too terrible to contemplate.

Luthers supervising priest encouraged him to become a professor of the Bible at the university. His first project was to teach the Psalms, which he did by systematically working through them in numerical order. When he reached Psalm 22, he was captured by the statement, My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?

This understanding that salvation came not by works of penance but by faith alone in the crucified Savior was further confirmed as Luther studied more and more in the New Testament, most notably the book of Romans, which led to the ___________________ _____________________.

What prompted Luthers engagement was when ________ ______ X, wanted to build a prosperous new cathedral named after St. Peter, and commissioned a new round of indulgences for sale to pay for the construction.

In Luthers mind, this could not stand and on ____________ 31, 1517, Luther nailed a series of 95 propositions to the door of the castle-church in Wittenberg.

These ____ ____________, as they quickly came to be known, made two major points.

First, if the pope truly has such control over purgatory, then why doesnt he just release everyone from the wretched place?

Second and more importantly, Luther held that remorse for sins is not a bad thing, and one should not seek to escape it by gathering indulgences, whether through paying money or visiting shrines. In fact, it is precisely this repentance that leads one to trust in Christ.

In 1518, Luther was summoned to appear before a ________ in the city of Augsburg to answer charges of heresy. Luther refused to recant and declared that the pope and church councils could err.

In 1520 Luther published a series of books and tracts attacking the pope and elaborating on his positions. The most inflammatory and consequential of these was titled The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.

Not surprisingly, The Babylonian Captivity caught the attention of Pope Leo X, who issued a bull (or written mandate) Latin: _____________ ____________.

The declaration began, Arise O Lord, and judge Thy cause! A wild boar has invaded Thy vineyard!

Emperor Charles V summoned Luther to appear before the Diet at __________ on April 17, 1521. Upon arriving, Luther was presented with a pile of his books and commanded to renounce them. After asking for some time to consider the matter, Luther reappeared before the Diet and gave his reply.

Perhaps the most famous speech given by Luther:

Since Your Majesty and your lordships desire a simple reply, I will give an answer without horns and without teeth. Unless I am convicted by Scripture and plain reason I do not accept the authority of popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other my conscience is captive to the Word of God, I cannot and I will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen!!!

As one scholar has said, with these words, _________________________ was born.

And it was born on the foundation of the Bible as the supreme and final authority.

Back in Wittenberg, Luthers followers carried out concrete reforms of the church based on Luthers teachings. On Christmas Day, 1521, one of these ministers held a mass after the new fashion in plain clothes, with no mention of sacrifice, and in the German tongue.

For the first time in their lives, the people heard in their own language the words, This is my body! At this mass, the element was actually handed to the people instead of being placed on their tongues.

He engaged in numerous theological debates with the leading thinkers of the day.

For example, he carried on a lengthy discussion with the humanist scholar _____________ over the nature of human ______________ and the effects of our sin on our inability to choose God on our own.

_____________ is a word grossly over-used today, but it certainly applies to Luther.

The theology of the cross summed up for Luther the great paradox that a perfect, righteous, and omnipotent God would make Himself vulnerable to the point of powerlessness, to die a humiliating death that we deserved, all for the purpose of graciously redeeming His miserable, rebellious people. Luthers theology of the cross does not disregard glory; it just gives the glory to God.

Luthers biographer Roland Bainton provides the best summary of Luthers life: The God of Luther, as of Moses, was the God who inhabits the storm clouds and rides on the wings of the wind. At His nod the earth trembles, and the people before Him are as a drop in the bucket. He is a God of majesty and power, inscrutable, terrifying, devastating, and consuming in His anger. Yet the All Terrible is the All Merciful too. Like as a father pitieth his children, so the Lord But how shall we know this? In Christ, only in Christ. In the Lord of life, born in the squalor of a cow stall and dying as a malefactor under the desertion and derision of men, crying unto God and receiving for answer only the trembling of the earth and the blinding of the sun, even by God forsaken, and in that hour talking to Himself and annihilating our iniquity, trampling down the hosts of hell and disclosing within the wrath of the All Terrible the love that will not let us go

http://www.4shared.com/audio/8Dy-BOv7/Church_History--AD_1300_-_1546.html

Zwingli, Calvin, and the Reformed Churches 1500-1564

Ulrich Zwingli (1484-1531)

Born in 1484, Zwingli was a contemporary of Luther's generation. He became ordained to the priesthood in 1506, and soon thereafter through study of Scripture, independently concluded that the Church was deeply corrupt and that Church doctrine was incorrect in many areas.

Zwingli, under the strong influence of Wycliffe and John Huss, as well as Erasmus pointed Zwingli away from the Catholic traditions and teachings he had inherited, and towards the source of Christian revelation: the __________.

Having realized that the Bible was the supreme authority, Zwingli passionately sought to apply this to his own life, and the life of the church.

One Theologian: True reformation, springs not from one mans opinions, or even one social groups frustrations, but from the ________ of ______.

We can date the beginnings of the Reformation in Zurich to New Years Day, 1519, when Zwingli already a popular preacher among the people commenced a series of expositional sermons beginning in the first chapter of Matthew.

This new focus on the Bible and Biblical doctrines soon brought tensions to a boiling point, as Zwingli realized he could no longer stay in communion with the Roman Catholic Church. Matthew 10:34-36; Isaiah 55:11

Zwinglis and Zurichs final break with Rome came in early ______, when Zwingli sought to defend himself against the criticisms of the Catholic hierarchy by calling a special town council meeting where he presented his ___ ________________, theological points he had composed to summarize his differences with Rome.

This became known as the __________ ____________ _____________________, and marked a key moment in the Reformation, as it vindicated Zwingli against the charge of heresy and produced the first Reformed confession of faith

Zwingli affirmed the core doctrines of the Reformation salvation by __________ alone, through __________ alone, in ___________ alone, based on ________________ alone, and to the glory of God alone.

At the core of Romes errors, corruptions, and excesses, Zwingli sniffed the stench of idolatry. Shocked at the rampant superstition of his day, Zwingli sought to remove all relics, icons, and other manner of idols from his churches and the lives of his people, and turn their worship to God in heaven alone

Zwingli wanted Christian worship to focus on the transcendent, living God in heaven not on human creations or pale images.

Zwingli opposed the Catholic mass because he saw it as ____________________ as a superstitious reverence for something in the place of Christ. Thus Zwingli differed with Luther and saw the Lords supper as only a ____________ or memorial to Christ.

Zwingli also differed with Luther over what could take place in Christian worship gatherings. While Luther allowed what the Bible did not prohibit, Zwingli rejected what the Bible did not prescribe.

The ____________________ __________________, as it came to be known, holds that church gatherings should only include those practices mandated by Scripture: prayer, Scripture readings, confessions of faith, singing of hymns and songs, the preaching of the word, baptism, and the Lords supper.

Zwingli believed in a much closer relationship between church and state, where both church and the civic community were almost united as one body and the kingdom of God brought nearer to earth. In his words, the Christian man is nothing else but a faithful and good citizen and the Christian city nothing other than the Christian church.

Zwingli was also a passionate Swiss ___________________, so much so that as chaplain of the Zurich army, he took up armor and the sword in a war against the Catholic forces. On October 11, 1531, Zwingli suffered mortal wounds on the battlefield, and uttered his last words: You may kill the body, but you cannot kill the soul.

JOHN CALVIN (1509-1564)

Born in Noyon, France, in 1509, Calvin as a youth was deeply religious, serious and moral. Besides his legal studies, Calvin also steeped himself in classic works of philosophy and literature. Again, we see here the influence of humanism, with its emphasis on clear thinking, rigorous logic, and especially the original text sources. With this background, it naturally followed that Calvin, like his predecessors Luther and Zwingli, would be drawn to the Bible.

Calvin came under close scrutiny for his Protestant sympathies, and King Francis I ordered his arrest for heresy. To escape imprisonment, in 1535 Calvin fled to Basel, Switzerland. It was there, at age 26, that Calvin published his first draft of the Institutes of the Christian Religion, which was written as a defense to the man who had ordered his arrest, the King of France.

The ____________________ became a bestseller as soon as it was released, and Calvin was to revise, expand, and republish the Institutes several times throughout his life, bringing it to its completed form and the version we read today in 1559.

To avoid arrest, Calvin chose an unplanned route that took him to Geneva for one night. Another Protestant preacher, _____________ __________, had already planted himself in Geneva and begun to protest against Rome and for reform.

Calvin maintained a rigorous preaching schedule during his next 23 years in Geneva, preaching two sermons from the New Testament every Sunday, and one sermon from the Old Testament every day during the week, on alternate weeks.

Timothy George: gives us this about Calvins daily routine: When not preaching or studying, Calvin kept a vigorous pace of pasturing, counseling, teaching, and corresponding with thousands of people ranging from kings and emperors to poor, imprisoned Protestants. He did all of this in the midst of acute physical suffering. Always of a frail structure, towards the end of his life Calvin detailed a catalogue of his various ailments: arthritis, kidney stones, hemorrhoids, fever, nephritis, severe indigestion (whatever nourishment I take sticks like paste to my stomach), cholic, and ulcers. He rarely let these afflictions inhibit his ministry, even preaching his last sermon by being carried into the pulpit on his bed.

While Calvin only held the office of minister and sought to preserve both the independence and the supremacy of the church, Church and State worked closely together to create a "__________________" city.

Calvin did not confine his vision to Geneva. He sent out missionaries to spread the Gospel not only throughout Europe, but as far away as Brazil.

Calvin should be appreciated as a second-generation reformer, after the first generation led by Luther and Zwingli. They recovered the gospel but Calvin refined, systematized, and further implemented the reforms into a positive vision of the church and the Christian life.

Calvin paid more than just lip service to the Bible, but rather devoted himself to Scripture as Gods revealed Word.

Though Calvinism today is often ridiculed as focusing only on human sin and Gods sovereignty in salvation, any fair reading of Calvins original work will reveal a Christian profoundly concerned with declaring the __________ ______________ of God for the entire Christian life.

Though Calvin is widely and rightly known for his emphasis on the sovereignty of God, this does not give the full picture. For Calvin, Gods sovereignty points to Gods ______________ and __________.

Calvins emphasis on Gods glory and sovereignty in salvation led naturally to a great love for the church as Christs body here on earth

Going beyond Luthers preoccupation with ________________________, Calvin also focused on ____________________, or the believers responsibility out of gratitude for Gods grace to then live a new and holy life.

The church for Calvin was key, both as a help in sanctification and as a display to the world of Gods glory in making a holy people.

He distinguished between the ________________ church, which included all people for all time who had been saved by Christ, and the ______________ church, which was the particular local manifestation of Christs body.

There was and would always be a tension between the invisible church, which consisted of all the elect and could only be known by God, and the visible church, those local congregations whose members usually included both believers and unbelievers.

Calvin hoped for the visible church to mirror the invisible church as closely as possible, and he identified two distinguishing marks of a true visible church: the right preaching of the Word and the right administration of the Sacraments.

Were these followed faithfully, the Gospel would flourish.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/Kw2nAEtA/Church_History--AD_1500_-_1564.html

http://www.4shared.com/audio/9L4RF7IR/Church_History--Zwingli_and_Ca.html

The English Reformation, 16^th Century

There was a notorious adulterer, sexual pervert and murderer that actually started the Reformation in England. His name was ________ _________ VIII.

By the early 1500s, a small group of English theologians and pastors at Cambridge University began to discuss reforming the church. The Cambridge gatherings centered on a pub called the _________ _________ ______, which soon became known throughout the city as Little Germany because of the Luther adherents meeting there.

These same decades brought the further development of the English Bible, an effort led by William Tyndale. Not only had Wycliffes version of 120 years earlier been banned in England, it was also inaccurate in some places, since it had been translated from the Latin Vulgate, which was the only version permitted by the Catholic Church. The most notable example of its inaccuracy comes from the Vulgates rendering of Matthew 4:17 which had Jesus saying Do penance, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

As both Luther and Tyndale discovered in the original Greek text, the most accurate translation of this was ____________

These English Bibles began to make their way back to England and became so widely used that by 1537 Edward Fox, Bishop of Hereford told his fellow priests

Make not yourselves the laughingstock of the world; light has sprung up, and is scattering all the clouds. The lay people know the Scriptures better than many of us

Tyndale paid the ultimate price for his efforts, he was murderes by the Catholic Church.

England struggled with many of the same problems in the church that plagued Germany and elsewhere. King Henry VIII was no exception. He had married Catherine when her first husband, Henrys older brother had died, and the family had attained a special dispensation from the Pope for Henry to marry his older brothers widow, which was otherwise a violation of church law.

The politically-savvy Pope granted permission, but then Henry VIII and Catherine encountered further problems. While they had five children, all but one died in infancy, and only the infamous ________ survived.

He decided the solution was to divorce Catherine and marry instead Anne Boelyn, who had already caught Henrys eye. He petitioned Rome to annul his marriage to Catherine. The pope refused to grant the annulment and rather than adhering to the popes decision, he simply had an affair and in 1528 he impregnated his mistress Anne Boelyn.

This is where we meet ____________ _____________, the new Archbishop of York and head of the church in England granted the annulment and agreed to perform the marriage ceremony of Henry and Anne Boelyn.

The next year in 1534, Parliament passed the Act of __________________, a sweeping measure of tremendous consequence which gave the king absolute authority over the English church.

Henry still considered himself a loyal Catholic on matters of doctrine; it was just Romes final authority that he rejected. He continued to attend the Mass, and even earlier he had written a book against the theology of Martin Luther. Parliament passed further measures largely affirming Catholic doctrines. Henrys own marital misery continued, as he married and either divorced or killed four more wives until his own death in 1547.

After Henrys death, his 9-year old son ____________ assumed the crown. Now that the king was gone and his Protestant-educated son had come to the throne, Protestantism could go forth. Though the boy-king seems to have held his faith sincerely, he was also quite young, and two adult advisors known as ____________________ helped implement the shift toward Protestantism.

In 1549 came the publication of the first edition of the Book of ____________ ____________, written by Thomas Cranmer. With this book Cranmer began to move the AnglicanChurch away from Catholic doctrines on communion.

The altar was called the __________, priests were referred to as _________________, and Christians were told in communion to feed on [Christ] in thy heart with faith by thanksgiving in contrast to the Roman view of transubstantiation, where the elements literally become the body and blood of Christ

The next year, Cranmer authored the 42 Articles, which would eventually, with some revisions, become the 39 Articles, the foundational confession for the ________________ Church.

The six years of Edwards reign represent a time of tremendous flourishing for English Protestantism.

In 1553, 16-year old Edward died with no heir to his throne. According to the English historian and theologian J.C. Ryle, the young kings dying prayer was O Lord God, defend this realm from papistry, and maintain Thy true religion.

No doubt Edward knew that his half-sister Mary, was next in line for the throne. This prospect horrified English Protestants. The Catholic Queen Mary took the throne determined to restore Catholicism as the religion of the land by any means necessary, and she soon embarked on a rampage that earned her the dubious nickname ___________ ________.

In November of 1554, Reginald Pole arrived in England as the new papal representative. Pole freed England of division and welcomed her back into the embrace of Rome. Many Protestants, fearing retaliation for their refusal to submit to the Pope, fled to the Continent. Philippians 4:11-13

Mary began her infamous burnings early in 1555, targeting faithful Protestants who would not recant. In all, some ______ people were executed at the Queens direction. Most of the martyrs were common people farmers, blacksmiths, and merchants. Some eminent church leaders went to the stake as well.

This is where we meet Bishops Nicholas ___________ and Hugh _____________.

They soon incurred the wrath of Mary, who sentenced them to be burned together at the stake in Oxford on October 16, 1555.

While imprisoned and pondering their awaiting fate, Latimer sent a moving letter to his friend Ridley: There is no remedybut patience. Better it is to suffer what cruelty they will put upon us, than to incur Gods high indignation. Wherefore be of good cheer in the Lord, with due consideration what he requireth of you, and what he doth promise you. Our common enemy shall do no more than God will permit him. God is faithful, which will not suffer us to be tempted above our strength

They kept their resolve until the very end. As the executioner tied Latimer and Ridley to the stake and brought the torch near, Latimer turned to his friend and uttered his last: Be of good comfort, Master Ridley, and play the man; we shall this day, by Gods grace, light such a candle in England as I trust shall never be put out

Not content to merely imprison or even martyr Cranmer, the Queen sought to make an example of this prominent leader by forcing him to recant his Protestant convictions. Under extreme duress and for uncertain reasons, Cranmer finally signed a recantation, which Marys realm gleefully published and circulated throughout England, and caused great distress to many Protestants. This hardly spared the poor Bishops life, because he still received a death sentence.

Before his execution, which took place at St. Marys Church in Oxford, Cranmer was called on to speak. After confessing his own sins and weaknesses, he repented of his recantation: [My words] were written contrary to the truth which I thought in my heart, and written for fear of death, to save my life if it might beAnd forasmuch as I have written many things contrary to what I believe in my heart, my hand shall first be punished; for if I may come to the fire it shall first be burned. As for the Pope, I refuse him, for Christs enemy and antichrist, with all his false doctrine

After only 5 years on the throne, a childless and unhappy Mary died in 1558.

In the wings waited Queen _________________, second daughter of Henry VIII and first of Anne Boelyn, and half-sister of Mary. The Emperor Charles V on the continent had repeatedly urged Mary to have Elizabeth killed and thus removed as heir to the throne, but even Bloody Mary had not gone that far

Queen, Elizabeth moved immediately to reverse the policies of her sister.

The new Queen hesitated to take her Protestantism very far, however. Her main priority was restoring and maintaining national unity, and she sought to create a theologically broad and inclusive national church, at least by the standards of the day. Her policies, known as the Elizabethan Settlement, sought to chart a via media, or middle way between doctrinal questions, an ethos that characterizes much of Anglicanism to this day. Some scholars have described the church she encouraged as Protestant in doctrine, Catholic in ritual, as it still included candles, priestly robes, kneeling during communion, etc.

We can only understand and appreciate this from an eternal perspective.

Another martyr of the English Reformation put it best. While John Hooper was being led to the stake, an old friend approached him and begged him to recant his faith and thus spare his own life. The upset friend reminded Hooper that life was sweet, and death was bitter.

The courageous Hooper held firm, responding to his friend that eternal life was more sweet, and eternal death was more bitter.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/pULIOPyn/Church_History--The_English_Re.html

The Puritans of the 17^th Century

The Puritans were a group of English people, many of them members of the clergy but many laypeople, who from roughly 1550 to 1662, were intent on purifying the Church of England and calling it to a more Biblical structure and vision. A good number of them eventually migrated to the New World and helped found what would become our own nation.

At the root of Puritanism is the ____________________. And at the core of the Reformation was one simple idea: How are we made right before God? Romans 3:24-28

What the Puritans rediscovered was that the church was an assembly of Gods people, who are regenerated and bound together by His Spirit and sustained by His Word.

The Puritan Movement also defined the role of the ____________. Rather than simply someone who performed the mass, and perhaps read a pre-printed sermon, he was to be a preacher and a shepherd of Gods flock.

The Puritan movement began during the reign of Queen Elizabeth. It was in the Elizabethan period that there was much action, some advocating a ___________________ form of government, some a _____________________ form. In this time, many of our modern denominations are taking shape intellectually. Its where you first hear of Baptists.

Queen Elizabeth died in 1603 and the Puritans were really excited. They were so delighted that when Elizabeth died and James was riding south, they met him at the Scottish border. They had a whole delegation with signatures of hundreds of ministers asking him to do various things, like a new translation of the Bible, from which we got the King James version. But one of their other requests was that he would eliminate the episcopacy, to which James gave a terse and famous reply. No _____________, no ________.

As king in Scotland he had to be submitted to the session of a local church, and that infuriated him. So James comes down, he rules. Hes James Stuart, so this is called the ____________ period. He rules from 1603-1625. He was a Calvinist in his soteriology, so in that sense he was friendly to the Puritans, friendlier than Elizabeth had been.

He died and his son Charles I became king. He wanted things to be more tolerant, so he started favoring the __________________. Arminianism was seen to be heresy under James and Elizabeth.

Its in this period that you see the rise of separatism and congregationalism.

____________________ being the idea that we need to separate from this corrupt church and go start our own.

_______________________ being a kind of church government where you dont have a group of pastors meeting to tell you what to do, or a bishop, let alone the Bishop of Rome, but where you each in your own congregation have to figure it out for yourself.

As Charles began to extinguish the Puritans one prominent pastor began to standout: ________ ____________. Young men training at Cambridge would be sent up to Boston to learn how to be a minister from Cotton.

In 1649, under General Oliver Cromwell, after two years of negotiations and scattered battles, they cut off Charles Is head.

Oliver Cromwell ruled until 1658 and died. He was succeeded by one of his sons, _____________, who quickly lost control of things.

When Charles II came back, Parliament was extremely harsh, passing laws that said that every minister must agree to the Book of Common Prayer, every word in it, or you must resign your pulpit by St. Bartholomews Day 1662. They were forbidden to be within five miles of anywhere theyd pastored, they couldnt be around the people who knew them.

But overnight, the Great Ejection created three denominations what are called the three old denominations ________________, _________________________, and __________________.

This began the _________ _________________, the settlement of the New World.

John Winthrop, a hardy leader of one of the earliest groups of Puritans, preached a landmark sermon to his people while they sailed on board their ship, the _____________, to America.

It was in 1620 that the Pilgrims aboard the _________________ had landed at Plymouth, Massachusetts and settled there. The Pilgrims were not Puritans; they were ________________ who had broken completely away from the Church of England.

The Separatists, or Independents, were English Protestants who occupied the extreme wing of Puritanism. The Separatists referred to themselves as the Saints, they believed that they had been _____________ by God for salvation (Reformed/Calvinistic) and feared spiritual contamination if they worshiped with those outside of their congregations, often referred to as the Strangers

In 1636, a group of Massachusetts Bay colonists led by Thomas Hooker founded Hartford and Connecticut.

Two years later, in 1638, another band led by John Davenport moved even farther south to found New Haven, Connecticut.

At first, this vision of the covenant people of God, setting up a city on a hill, was pursued with vigor and faithfulness. But as one generation succeeded the next, as prosperity replaced adversity, and as the practice of infant baptism, which incorporated the children of believers into the community on the basis of their parents faith, worked itself out, compromise with the world infected this grand experiment.

An example of this liberalizing tendency can be seen in Americas first universities. In 1636, the American Puritans founded _____________, in order to educate their ministers and provide for the next generation of churches and believers.

By 1701, Harvard had drifted so far from its puritan foundation that a group of Puritans in Connecticut got together to found ________, as a conservative and orthodox alternative

By the 1700s Puritanism had all but died, as a movement of distinctly evangelical piety, it lived on, and continues to live on, through their writings and their theology.

PURITAN WRITINGS

When the Puritans picked up a subject and wrote about it, you will feel after about a couple a pages that, Wow, he must be about finished with this idea. And then they begin again, but looking at the same subject from just a slightly different perspective. And they do this again and again.

Reading the Puritans is a very ___________________ thing.

One of the most famous Puritan books is a story: Pilgrims Progress. It was written by ________ ___________, who went to neither Cambridge nor Oxford. He was a Baptist; he was also a tinker; he repaired pots. He wrote his great works in prison.

PURITAN SPIRITUALITY AND THEOLOGY

J.I. Packer has suggested several areas where the Puritans can instruct Christians today, and these reasons are grounded in Puritan theology.

First, he points to the integration of their daily lives, in which everything they thought, said, and did was seen as in a sense sacred, and to be done to the Glory of God.

Second, he highlights the quality of their spiritual experience. Puritans meditated constantly on Scripture and on the Lord, and engaged in intense self-examination in light of these truths.

Third, their passion for effective actionThey were men of action in the pure Reformed mold crusading activists without a jot of self-reliance; workers for God who depended utterly on God to work in and through them, and who always gave God the praise for anything they did that in retrospect seemed to them to have been right.

Fourth, he admires their program for family stability, pointing to the love and commitment they emphasized between husband and wife, the passion and devotion to the spiritual nurture of their children.

Fifth, the Puritan sense of human worth, of humanitys dignity from creation in the image of God.

And sixth, their ideal of church renewal, in which they sought Gods reforming and reviving work through the local church.

Puritans are often associated with the _____________________ of God. Theyre quite certain about who God is. But even those opposed to them believed that. You have these dueling battles between Presbyterian Puritans and the Archbishop of Canterbury, both of whom believe in double predestination theyre both as Calvinistic as you can get theyre simply disagreeing over church government. Its not until the next century that you see the beginning of _____________________, that says were not quite as bad as the reformers are saying we are, that we can cooperate with the grace of God.

One of the great things to find in the Puritans was the warm way they encompassed the Christian life, but very thoughtfully. Very often people think of the head and heart as being very separate; and it sometimes is, but if the head and heart have fed each other in their entire devotion to God, they would be model citizens.

Thats what you see in the Puritans. The Puritans seem to have been a race of such people.

Puritans were also doctors of the soul in the matter of assurance. They were good at raising the question, Are you really a Christian? That had never been asked a hundred years earlier; if you were baptized, you were Christian.

The Puritans said that you could be baptized and be a hypocrite. Its nothing ________________. You have to look in your own heart to see signs of grace revealed, to use some of their own language.

They posed the question: How can you tell if Gods Holy Spirit is actually at work in your life?

The Puritans were masters at this. They preached very severely, and they preached very tenderly.

The Puritans were not perfect, by any means, and they would be the first to tell you that; but with all their faults, they were good models for us in their zeal for Scripture, their understanding of the Gospel, and their commitment to thoroughly reforming their own lives and the life of the church, all to the Glory of God.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/wdqzEm06/Church_History--The_Puritans_o.html

Jonathan Edwards, George Whitefield and Revivalism

The first English settlers founding new colonies in Virginia were motivated not by godliness but by _____________ almost all of them were Anglican, and they were more interested in planting tobacco farms than in planting churches

Two separate and quite distinct communities began to emerge in the new world during the 17^th century the Godly Puritans of Massachusetts and Connecticut, and the greedy Anglicans of Virginia.

One great cornerstone of Puritan America was _________________. Because of their great significance they gave to the Word of God, the Puritans had one of the highest literacy rates of any society on earth, then or now.

Harvard College was founded in 1636. Some decades after Harvards founding, many Puritan leaders began to fear that Harvard was drifting into theological liberalism, and a new college was needed. In response to Harvards near apostasy, some Connecticut Puritan leaders came together in 1701 to found ______ College.

_______________ ______________

In ______, Edwards entered Yale College, and graduated at the top of his class four years later. He stayed for his masters degree, and eventually returned for another year as a tutor.

His student years at Yale were very fruitful intellectually and spiritually, as he immersed himself in studying Christian theology and Scripture, the ancient classics of Latin and Greek, and the new Enlightenment science and philosophy of figures such as Sir Isaac Newton and John Locke.

_________________________ science began to overthrow religion and traditional authority in favor of the development of free speech and thought. Enlightenment science said that knowledge came from experience not form God or faith.

During his 18^th year, he finally had a breakthrough, when God impressed upon him emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually the assurance that Edwards could have of salvation, and Gods perfect sovereignty in it. 1 Timothy 1:17

In 1726, Edwards was invited by the church at Northampton to be the associate pastor to the aging senior pastor and Edwards grandfather Solomon Stoddard.

Outside Boston, the church at Northampton was the most prestigious in New England. Edwards served under his grandfather for three years until Stoddard died in 1729, when the young Edwards assumed the pastorate.

Edwards immersed himself in his pastoral duties. He would rise regularly at __ or __ in the morning, and spend ___ hours a day in his study reading, writing numerous letters and essays, and above all, preparing his sermons, for he regarded the preaching of the Word as his most important duty to his congregation. Acts 6:2-4; Acts 20:28; 1 Peter 5:2

By 1731, he began to notice glitterings of spiritual interest, which by 1734 grew into a roaring fire of _____________.

Edwards wrote a letter to a friend describing the revival: a great and earnest concern about the great things of religion and the eternal world became universal in all parts of the town, and among persons of all degrees and all ages; the noise amongst the dry bones waxed louder and louder. All other talk about spiritual and eternal things was soon thrown by; all the conversation in all companies and upon all occasions, was upon these things only, unless so much as was necessary for people, carrying on their ordinary secular business. Other discourse than of the things of religion would scarcely be tolerated in any company. The minds of people were wonderfully taken off from the world; it was treated amongst us as a thing of very little consequence.

The spiritually enlightened person does not merely rationally believe that God is glorious, but he has a sense of the gloriousness of God in his heart.

In June, 1735, Joseph Hawley, Edwards uncle and a prominent town member, became so distressed by his own sin and driven to despair with doubts about his salvation that he cut his own throat and died. Edwards was stunned and troubled and struggled to comprehend what he described as this awful ____________________.

Though Edwards and his friend, the English evangelist George Whitefield, endure as the most famous of the Great Awakening preachers, they stood in the company of many others. The ______________ brothers Gilbert, John, and William and Samuel Davies were Presbyterian ministers.

Many of the Awakening preachers sought to bring their audiences to an inescapable ___________________ of their own sin by describing in vivid detail the terrors of ______.

Nathan Cole, a Connecticut farmer, wrote that after one revival, hell fire was almost always on my mind: and I have hundreds of times put my finger into my pipe when I have been smoking to feel how fire felt: and to see how my Body could bear to lye in Hell fire for ever and ever.

The revivals had certain things in common: itinerant preachers, rather simple messages based on the basic Gospel, appeals to human emotion as well as reason. Most importantly, substantial evidence exists that the revivals often brought strong increases in membership in local churches surely one of the most important signs of true revival.

In New England, however, the revivals broke apart the general dominance of the Congregational denomination, churches and pastors differed sharply over whether these passionate mass gatherings were good or bad things. This discord created room for new denominations such as ________________, who in turn began to blossom in the New England church life.

___________ ____________________, the young Anglican evangelist, had been stirring vast multitudes in England to repent of their sins and trust in Christ alone for their salvation.

He preached from a portable, folding stand that he would set up wherever he preached. Literally thousands of people at a time would flock to Whitefields sermons on some occasions, as many as twenty or even thirty thousand people at once gathered to hear him.

Whitefield first came to the New World in ______ to found an orphanage in Georgia, a ministry that he supported to great fruitfulness throughout his life. He returned to America the next year and began a wildly successful preaching tour from Philadelphia down through the southern colonies.

Whitefields journey to Northampton and throughout New England in 1740 and 1741 marked the height of the Great Awakening revivals.

Wherever he preached, thousands gathered eagerly to hear the message, and great numbers responded with deep emotion.

Convicted of their sin, they would wail and cry out to God for salvation. Many turned to Christ, and church memberships ______________ in towns swept by the revival. The aforementioned Connecticut farmer, Nathan Cole, recorded his impressions of hearing Whitefield preach in 1740he looked as if he was Clothed with authority from the Great God; and a sweet sollome solemnity sat upon his brow. And my hearing him preach, gave me a heart wound; By Gods blessing: my old Foundation was broken up, and I saw that my righteousness would not save me; then I was convinced of the doctrine of Election.

As Whitefields fame grew, he attracted the attention of another eminent American, _______________ _______________. The two began corresponding, and soon developed a deep and abiding friendship that would last until Whitefields death in 1770. Each saw in the other a genius and advancement ahead of their times.

In many places throughout New England, the revivals burned out of control. Screaming, laughing, trances, visions, and convulsions were fairly common, and some ministers deliberately manipulated these responses.

Some of the ministers of the more established churches in Boston began sounding off against these excesses and against the revivals in general. Against these attacks, Edwards proved to be the revivals greatest theological defender. He was also their most penetrating critic.

In 1741, he delivered a commencement address at Yale entitled Distinguishing Marks of the Work of the Spirit of God. The sermon was later expanded to his Treatise on Religious Affections.

The next year, Edwards become the pastor of the mission church for the Native American community at Stockbridge, Massachusetts.

In January of 1758, Edwards became president of the College of New Jersey (later to become Princeton University). Always interested in scientific inquiry, Edwards in March of that same year allowed himself to be injected with a new smallpox vaccine. The experiment failed, and Edwards died of smallpox on March 22, 1758.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/dAKA6FhW/Jonathan_Edwards_George_Whitef.html

The Church and the (Changing) World

1750-1850

Picking up from last week, we will begin in America, with what one historian has described as the _____________ _____________: how to live faithfully in the world without becoming corrupted by the world?

A 20^th century scholar of Puritan thought, Perry Miller describes the Puritan legacy, Having failed to rivet the eyes of the world upon their city on a hill, they were left alone with America.

The Founding Fathers drew on three principle sources in conceiving the ideals and institutions of the United States: classical Greco-Roman thought, Enlightenment rationalism, and a ______________ worldview.

____________ _________________ on his confession in the Declaration of Independence that all men are created equal[and] are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights shows the conviction that our rights came ultimately from God, not government or man.

There are several themes here: awareness of _______, dependence on Gods __________________, urging Americans to stay ______________, belief that God had a special relationship with _____________, and even the explicit invocation of ____________.

Prior to the nation's founding, the Continental Congress issued a proclamation "a day of publick humiliation, fasting, and prayer" be observed on July 20, 1775" ____________ ____________________, First President of the United States of America said: The Honorable the Congress having recommended it to the United States to set apart Thursday the 6th of May next to be observed as a day of fasting, humiliation and prayer, to acknowledge the gracious interpositions of Providence; to deprecate [to pray or intreat that a present evil may be removed] deserved punishment for our Sins and Ingratitiude, to unitedly implore the Protection of Heaven; Success to our Arms and the Arms of our Ally: The Commander in Chief enjoins a religious observance of said day and directs the Chaplains to prepare discourses proper for the occasion; strictly forbidding all recreations and unnecessary labor.

The American founders used a natural theology rather than a revealed theology to establish the intellectual foundations of their new land.

_____________ theology refers to those truths about God and man that can be known through human reason and observation, and that do not depend on Gods special revelation in the Bible. Very few of the most prominent of the Founding Fathers Ben Franklin, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, John Adams, Alexander Hamilton were evangelical Christians, and certainly would not have been able to join a conservative church.

America was founded during the ______ of ___________.

Voltaire, Rousseau, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel Kant, and many others tried to develop philosophies of knowing and living that either improved upon or even replaced Christianity. In the process, they hoped to demonstrate that man could perfect himself and his world, without Gods assistance or sometimes even His involvement.

The Enlightenment also laid the foundation for other intellectual challenges to Christianity throughout the 19^th century. By the late 18^th century, some scholars were beginning to doubt the authority or even reliability of the Bible, leading in the 19^th century to the development of ___________ _________________, which sought to treat the Bible as just any other historical text, not inspired by God and in many ways not even true.

In science, _____________ ___________ published Origin of Species in 1859, challenging the belief that God had designed the different forms of life in the world and some even used Darwin to question if God had created the world itself.

In social philosophy, ________ ________ dismissed religion as a mere fiction invented by the upper classes to control and pacify the working class. Marx believed that economic cycles and not God governed history itself

The __________________ __________________ brought dramatic increases in productivity and prosperity but also left many workers poor, destitute, and oppressed, and disrupted natural communities of village and family.

One response to the Enlightenment challenge came from a Danish philosopher __________ __________________. Kierkegaard grew troubled by both the rationalistic philosophy and the stagnant church of his day.

Downplaying both doctrine and morality, he held radical free will and radical faith to be the essence of the Gospel.

Kierkegaard pioneered the development of ________________________, or the emphasis on each individuals own subjective search for meaning.

In the 18^th century, _______ ____________________, a Presbyterian minister who served as President of Princeton University (and the only clergyman to sign the Declaration of Independence), imported from Scotland and helped plant in America the system of philosophy known as Scottish Common Sense Realism.

In the 19^th century, two other theologians at Princeton Seminary eagerly and ably defended historic Christianity from the assault of rationalism.

_________________ ________________, the Seminarys first professor, and then his student _____________ __________, balanced a fervent commitment to the Reformed faith with an active engagement with the intellectual challenges to Christianity. Hodge saw clearly that nothing less than the very supremacy of God was at stake in the competing theologies of the day: From an early period in the history of the Church, there have been two great systems of doctrine in perpetual conflict. The one begins with God, the other with man. The one has for its object the vindication of the Divine supremacy and sovereignty in the salvation of men; the other has for its characteristic aim the assertion of the rights of human natureThe latter is characteristically rational. It seeks to explain everything so as to be intelligible to the speculative understanding. The former is confessedly mysterious. The Apostle pronounces the judgment of God to be unsearchable and his ways past finding out[The whole tendency of the New Testament] is to exalt God and to humble men. It does not make the latter feel that he is the great end of all things, or that he has his destiny in his handsGod [himself is] the end of all his works both in creation and in redemption

From about 1795 into the first decades of the 1800s, a tremendous series of revivals known as the ____________ Great Awakening. The Second Great Awakening is thought by many to have begun under the leadership of Timothy Dwight, grandson of Jonathan Edwards.

Most of the Second Great Awakening took place in the towns, villages, and camps of America, particularly the frontier. Denominational distinctives also began to blur, as Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all joined together to preach huge outdoor revivals.

Cane Ridge, Kentucky provided the site of one such legendary ________ _____________ in 1801, as up to 25,000 people converged in the fields of the town over a period of weeks to hear numerous preachers proclaim the good news.

The theology of the Second Great Awakening differed quite a bit from the First Great Awakening. Whereas the preaching of Edwards and Whitefield in the First had been thoroughly ____________________, focusing on Gods sovereign grace in saving helpless sinners, the revivalists of the Second Awakening emphasized much more human ______ _______, individual decision, and personal experience.

The two men most dominate in the Second Awakening, were Methodist Francis ___________ and the Presbyterian-turned-Congregationalist Charles ____________, both believed that humans could choose to either accept or reject Gods offer of grace, and that after conversion, Christians needed to strive for perfection, or an end to willful sin.

Born in England, Francis Asbury, eagerly responded to John Wesleys call for missionaries to the new world, and spent the next 45 years of his life preaching throughout America.

Charles Finney was the most eminent revivalist in America in the first half of the 1800s. Finney linked evangelism with social reform, and either formed or inspired the creation of numerous organizations focused on abolishing slavery, promoting temperance, caring for the poor and mentally handicapped, and promoting education.

Finneys evangelistic methods and theology had some serious problems. Theologically, he had a low view of sin and of the Cross; he believed he could freely choose God wholly on his own, that Christs death on the cross did not pay for sins but rather just demonstrated Gods willingness to forgive, and that humans could achieve moral perfection here on earth.

To these errors in doctrine Finney added some sketchy evangelistic practices, for instance the __________________ and most notably the _____________ __________, a chair or special area near the front of the stage where Finney manipulatively would have certain attendees sit as a demonstration of their intention to convert sometimes making salvation more an act of man than a work of God.

By 1827, the six largest of these organizations were the American Bible Society, the American Sunday School Union, the American Tract Society, the American Home Missionary Society, the American Education Society, and the American Board of Foreign Missions all focused on spreading the Gospel.

A Prayer by Rev. Jacob Duche O Lord our Heavenly Father, high and mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reignest with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments; look down in mercy, we beseech Thee, on these our American States, who have fled to Thee from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection, desiring to be henceforth dependent only on Thee. To Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause; to Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give. Take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care; give them wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerved hands in the day of battle!

Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly; enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst the people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seest expedient for them in this world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.

Amen.

http://www.4shared.com/audio/fJcaUCa9/Baptist_history--1750_-_1850.html

Baptist History and the World Missions Movement

Though we trace our immediate lineage to the English Baptists of the early 1600s, we have a longer family tree. As a matter of fact most Christians in the first two or three centuries of the church seem to have practiced ________________ ____________.

There are at least four different possible origins of the Baptist story but according to historical records only the last two form part of our authentic, organic history.

First we have the ___________________ in Europe during the 16^th century Reformation. Anabaptist means ___-_____________, and was a term of disrespect coined by other Reformers for the radical splinter groups who, besides giving baptism only to believers, sought to form a radically pure church by withdrawing completely from the world, promoting passiveness, not holding any government office, questioning original sin, and striving for moral purity and religious perfection.

Todays descendants of the Anabaptists include the __________________ and the _________.

Second we have the _____________ _______________ of the early 1600s.

This group became known as General Baptists, because they held that Christs death applied generally to all people, that people could freely accept or reject the offer of salvation, and that in turn could lose their salvation as easily as they gained it.

By 1697, the General Baptists could not convince their churches to commit to a plain statement on the Trinity. Some became Unitarians, and others died out altogether.

The third source, and our direct ancestors, are the __________________ ______________, who arose in England some thirty years after the General Baptists, and quite independently of them. So called because they believed in the _________________ and arguably Biblical doctrine that Christs atonement applied particularly to those whom God saved, and thus guaranteed their salvation, the Particular Baptists grew directly out of English Puritanism. John 10:11; John 10:25-29; John 6:64-65; 2 Timothy 2:19; John 17:9

The Particular Baptists seem to have founded their first church in 1638.

In 1644, during the same time that the Westminster divines were meeting to draft their confession, seven Baptist churches met together and issued a strongly ____________________ statement of faith.

Because of the persecution that the ministers faced, the 1677 confession was never signed. In 1689, however, it was re-published and signed by over 100 representatives, and is known today as the Second ___________ ______________ or more simply, the 1689 Confession.

Many of the greatest figures in church history come from this tradition, including John Bunyan, Andrew Fuller, and Charles Spurgeon.

Bunyan was born in 1628 and was converted in 1653. While imprisoned, he wrote many of his greatest writings, including Pilgrims Progress.

In the next century Andrew Fuller emerged as perhaps the greatest theologian from the ranks of English Baptists. During Fullers day, a few churches had begun to adopt what some scholars call _________-________________, characterized by the over-determined beliefs that since God had ordained every last event, people could not be held responsible for their own sin, and preachers had no business proclaiming the Gospel to all hearers, but only to those they determined to be elect.

In the 19^th century Charles Spurgeon, stands out as the greatest preacher of his day, and perhaps any day. He is known as the ___________ of Preachers.

Our fourth beginning of Baptist history, which occurred just one year the founding of the first Particular Baptist church in England; The Baptist of America.

The founding of the first Baptist church in America was by __________ ______________ in Rhode Island in 1639.

Arriving in Boston in 1631, he soon began attracting many followers and attracting the displeasure of the Puritan authorities.

Eventually the Puritan authorities banished Williams from the province. So he headed south in the dead of winter, until he arrived in present-day Rhode Island and founded Providence.

Williams by this time had come to embrace believers baptism, and in March of 1639, a man named _____________ _______________ baptized Williams, who in turn baptized Hollyman and ten others to form the first Baptist church in America.

Despite this unfavorable beginning, Baptists in America soon took more stable root. Particular Baptists emigrating from England continued to add to their ranks. Some other American Puritans, through their own study of the Scriptures, came to baptistic convictions, including the president of Harvard College, __________ _____________, who had to resign his office in 1654 when he went public with his renunciation of infant baptism.

In 1742, the Baptist Association of Philadelphia adopted the 1689 London Confession with only slight revisions.

This ____________________ Confession was published by a local printer named Benjamin Franklin, and was soon embraced by the vast majority of Baptists throughout the colonies. From their earliest American beginnings, most Baptists were both reformed [_______________] and confessional.

With this growth came persecution. In states like Massachusetts and Virginia, which enshrined Congregationalism and Anglicanism as their respective state churches, Baptists were harassed, imprisoned, and sometimes even whipped for refusing to attend the established church or support it with their tax dollars.

Elizabeth Backus was the mother of _________ ____________, a Baptist minister who became one of the most instrumental figures in American history in the struggle for religious liberty.

Backuss counterpart in Virginia was ________ ____________, a fellow Baptist minister and leading religious freedom advocate. Leland taught himself well in theology and philosophy through his own reading, and held that establishments of religion harm both state and church.

Most Baptists continued to hold to _______________ confessional standards, exemplified by the widespread embrace of the 1833 New Hampshire Confession of Faith.

Besides trying to maintain doctrinal unity, early 19^th century Baptists also joined in a united effort for world missions. Philadelphia in 1814 witnessed the formation of the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States for Missions, a name soon mercifully shortened to the Triennial Convention, because it met every 3 years.

The international missions movement, led significantly by the _______________, dramatically changed the face of the church, and the world.

On October 5, 1783, the English pastor John Ryland noted in his diary that he had baptized today [a] poor journeyman shoe cobbler. Little did he realize that the man he baptized who would become one of the greatest missionaries the church or world had known; _____________ __________. Known as the Father of Modern Missions

In 1792, he and several colleagues organized the Baptist Missionary Society, and Carey and his family soon sailed to India, never again to return to England.

Following Careys lead, Christians in the United States, England, and other European countries soon formed several other missionary organizations.

The most prominent in America was the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions in 1806.

A student of William Careys, Samuel Mills, took the lead in founding the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions upon which they appointed its first delegation of missionaries in 1812 and sent them to Asia.

Two of those appointed were _______________ ___________ and ____________ ________ (who later founded George Washington University).

A leading missionary historian calls the 19^th century the __________ _____________ for its tremendous church growth.

By 1900, Christianity had ceased to be a religion just of Europe and America.

One measurement of a missions success is how long its work lasts. I want to conclude with the life of David Livingstone, the famous Scotch Presbyterian missionary to Africa.

Arriving in 1841 at the age of 28, Livingstone dedicated the next 32 years of his life to Africa.

His African friends carried his body 1500 miles from the spot where he died to the coast, so that it could be taken by ship back to England for burial in Westminster Abbey.

Except his heart, which they buried under a nearby mvula tree [type of shrub].

The Second London Confession: Chapter 8

Of Christ the Mediator

1. It pleased God, in His eternal purpose, to choose and ordain the Lord Jesus, His only begotten Son, according to the covenant made between them both, to be the mediator between God and man; the prophet, priest, and king; head and saviour of the church, the heir of all things, and judge of the world; unto whom he did from all eternity give a people to be his seed and to be by him in time redeemed, called, justified, sanctified, and glorified.
( Isaiah 42:1; 1 Peter 1:19, 20; Acts 3:22; Hebrews 5:5, 6; Psalms 2:6; Luke 1:33; Ephesians 1:22, 23; Hebrews 1:2; Acts 17:31; Isaiah 53:10; John 17:6; Romans 8:30 )

2. The Son of God, the second person in the Holy Trinity, being very and eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory, of one substance and equal with him who made the world, who upholdeth and governeth all things he hath made, did, when the fullness of time was come, take upon him man's nature, with all the essential properties and common infirmities thereof, yet without sin; being conceived by the Holy Spirit in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the Holy Spirit coming down upon her: and the power of the Most High overshadowing her; and so was made of a woman of the tribe of Judah, of the seed of Abraham and David according to the Scriptures; so that two whole, perfect, and distinct natures were inseparably joined together in one person, without conversion, composition, or confusion; which person is very God and very man, yet one Christ, the only mediator between God and man.
( John 1:14; Galatians 4;4; Romans 8:3; Hebrews 2:14, 16, 17; Hebrews 4:15; Matthew 1:22, 23; Luke 1:27, 31, 35; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5 )

3. The Lord Jesus, in his human nature thus united to the divine, in the person of the Son, was sanctified and anointed with the Holy Spirit above measure, having in Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge; in whom it pleased the Father that all fullness should dwell, to the end that being holy, harmless, undefiled, and full of grace and truth, he might be throughly furnished to execute the office of mediator and surety; which office he took not upon himself, but was thereunto called by his Father; who also put all power and judgement in his hand, and gave him commandment to execute the same.
( Psalms 45:7; Acts 10:38; John 3:34; Colossians 2:3; Colossians 1:19; Hebrews 7:26; John 1:14; Hebrews 7:22; Hebrews 5:5; John 5:22, 27; Matthew 28:18; Acts 2:36 )

4. This office the Lord Jesus did most willingly undertake, which that he might discharge he was made under the law, and did perfectly fulfil it, and underwent the punishment due to us, which we should have borne and suffered, being made sin and a curse for us; enduring most grievous sorrows in his soul, and most painful sufferings in his body; was crucified, and died, and remained in the state of the dead, yet saw no corruption: on the third day he arose from the dead with the same body in which he suffered, with which he also ascended into heaven, and there sitteth at the right hand of his Father making intercession, and shall return to judge men and angels at the end of the world.
( Psalms 40:7, 8; Hebrews 10:5-10; John 10:18; Gal 4:4; Matthew 3:15; Galatians 3:13; Isaiah 53:6; 1 Peter 3:18; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Matthew 26:37, 38; Luke 22:44; Matthew 27:46; Acts 13:37; 1 Corinthians 15:3, 4; John 20:25, 27; Mark 16:19; Acts 1:9-11; Romans 8:34; Hebrews 9:24; Acts 10:42; Romans 14:9, 10; Acts 1:11; 2 Peter 2:4 )

5. The Lord Jesus, by his perfect obedience and sacrifice of himself, which he through the eternal Spirit once offered up unto God, hath fully satisfied the justice of God, procured reconciliation, and purchased an everlasting inheritance in the kingdom of heaven, for all those whom the Father hath given unto Him.
( Hebrews 9:14;Hebrews 10:14; Romans 3:25, 26; John 17:2; Hebrews 9:15 )

6. Although the price of redemption was not actually paid by Christ till after his incarnation, yet the virtue, efficacy, and benefit thereof were communicated to the elect in all ages, successively from the beginning of the world, in and by those promises, types, and sacrifices wherein he was revealed, and signified to be the seed which should bruise the serpent's head; and the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world, being the same yesterday, and to-day and for ever.
( 1 Corinthians 4:10; Hebrews 4:2; 1 Peter 1:10, 11; Revelation 13:8; Hebrews 13:8 )

7. Christ, in the work of mediation, acteth according to both natures, by each nature doing that which is proper to itself; yet by reason of the unity of the person, that which is proper to one nature is sometimes in Scripture, attributed to the person denominated by the other nature.
( John 3:13; Acts 20:28 )

8. To all those for whom Christ hath obtained eternal redemption, he doth certainly and effectually apply and communicate the same, making intercession for them; uniting them to himself by his Spirit, revealing unto them, in and by his Word, the mystery of salvation, persuading them to believe and obey, governing their hearts by his Word and Spirit, and overcoming all their enemies by his almighty power and wisdom, in such manner and ways as are most consonant to his wonderful and unsearchable dispensation; and all of free and absolute grace, without any condition foreseen in them to procure it.
( John 6:37; John 10:15, 16; John 17:9; Romans 5:10; John 17:6; Ephesians 1:9; 1 John 5:20; Romans 8:9, 14; Psalms 110:1; 1 Corinthians 15:25, 26; John 3:8; Ephesians 1:8 )

9. This office of mediator between God and man is proper only to Christ, who is the prophet, priest, and king of the church of God; and may not be either in whole, or any part thereof, transferred from him to any other.
( 1 Timothy 2:5 )

10. This number and order of offices is necessary; for in respect of our ignorance, we stand in need of his prophetical office; and in respect of our alienation from God, and imperfection of the best of our services, we need his priestly office to reconcile us and present us acceptable unto God; and in respect to our averseness and utter inability to return to God, and for our rescue and security from our spiritual adversaries, we need his kingly office to convince, subdue, draw, uphold, deliver, and preserve us to his heavenly kingdom.
( John 1:18; Colossians 1:21; Galatians 5:17; John 16:8; Psalms 110:3; Luke 1:74, 75 )

The 2000 Baptist Faith and Message

God the Son

Christ is the eternal Son of God.

In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the virgin Mary.

Jesus perfectly revealed and did the will of God, taking upon Himself human nature with its demands and necessities and identifying Himself completely with mankind yet without sin.

He honored the divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross He made provision for the redemption of men from sin.

He was raised from the dead with a glorified body and appeared to His disciples as the person who was with them before His crucifixion.

He ascended into heaven and is now exalted at the right hand of God where He is the One Mediator, fully God, fully man, in whose Person is effected the reconciliation between God and man.

He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to consummate His redemptive mission. He now dwells in all believers as the living and ever present Lord.

III. Man

Man is the special creation of God, made in His own image. He created them male and female as the crowning work of His creation. The gift of gender is thus part of the goodness of God's creation.

In the beginning man was innocent of sin and was endowed by his Creator with freedom of choice. By his free choice man sinned against God and brought sin into the human race.

Through the temptation of Satan man transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original innocence whereby his posterity inherited a nature and an environment inclined toward sin.

Therefore, as soon as they are capable of moral action, they become transgressors and are under condemnation.

Only the grace of God can bring man into His holy fellowship and enable man to fulfill the creative purpose of God. The sacredness of human personality is evident in that God created man in His own image, and in that Christ died for man; therefore, every person of every race possesses full dignity and is worthy of respect and Christian love

http://www.4shared.com/audio/ZEgE4sbF/Baptist_History_and_the_World_.html

Baptist History

Bartow Baptist Church

In 1925 this church began to move away from its roots by adopting the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message.

For instance the __________________ Call in the 2^nd London Confession: Those whom God hath predestinated unto life, He is pleased in His appointed, and accepted time, effectually to call, by His Word and Spirit, out of that state of sin and death in which they are by nature, to grace and salvation by Jesus Christ; enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the things of God; taking away their heart of stone, and giving unto them a heart of flesh; renewing their wills, and by His almighty power determining them to that which is good, and effectually drawing them to Jesus Christ; yet so as they come most freely, being made willing by His grace. Romans 8:30; Romans 11:7; Ephesians 1:10, 11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13, 14; Ephesians 2:1-6; Acts 26:18; Ezekiel 36:26; Deuteronomy 30:6; Ezekiel 36:27; Ephesians 1:19; Psalm 110:3

This effectual call is of God's free and special grace alone, not from anything at all foreseen in man, nor from any power or agency in the creature, being dead in sins and trespasses, until being quickened and renewed by the Holy Spirit; he is thereby enabled to answer this call, and to embrace the grace offered and conveyed in it, and that by no less power than that which raised up Christ from the dead.
2 Timothy 1:9; Ephesians 2:8; 1 Corinthians 2:14; Ephesians 2:5; John 5:25; Ephesians 1:19, 20

Others not elected, although they may be called by the ministry of the Word, and may have some common operations of the Spirit, yet not being effectually drawn by the Father, they neither will nor can truly come to Christ, and therefore cannot be saved. Matthew 22:14; Matthew 13:20, 21; Hebrews 6:4, 5; John 6:44, 45, 65; 1 John 2:24, 25; Acts 4:12; John 4:22; John 17:3

Bartow Baptist Church was established in a small wooden building on the west side of Williamson Swamp Creek on January 15, ______.

On that day a Decorum, Church Covenant and Articles of Faith were adopted.

The first pastor, elected on the day of organization, was ________________ of Bethany.

In July of 1887 under the guidance of Pastor T. J. Holmes from Sun Hill, they decided to _______________ a meeting the following September; commencing Friday before the regular Sunday, meeting, and to have dinner on the grounds Saturday and Sunday. This meeting continued into the next week culminating in the baptism of fifteen converts. These ceremonies took place in Williamson Swamp Creek.

The year 1887 is noteworthy also for the fact that Sunday School called ______________ ____________ was begun.

Missions were an important part of the work. No funds were given for the work until 1884, when five dollars was allocated for State and the same amount for Home Missions. The term Ladies ____________________ Society was first mentioned in February, 1888.

By a vote of eight for and two against it was decided at a church conference on June 3, 1889 to build a new church in North Bartow. Mr. J. R. O. Smith had become a member by this time and served on the building committee along with W. H. H. Stewart. J. S. Josey and A. L. Archer. They were instructed to select a location for the church and proceed to build and work began on July 29^th.

On August 25^th they reported that the building was framed, window and door frames in place, and waiting for material to proceed. That year the value of the church property advanced from $1000 to $1500.

In November 1896 the first musical instrument was purchased and paid for. It was an organ and Mr. J. R. O. Smith was invited to play.

Ministers serving Bartow Baptist Church during this early period of its history included: James M. Cross, James M. Donaldson, T. J. Homes, B. A. Salter, W. H. Horton, T. J. Beck, Aquilla Chamlee and A. R. Rountree.

From 1900 through 1925 the following served as pastors: M. R. Little, J. Gordon Gunter.

The need and desire for more up to date building with Sunday School rooms led to the erection of the present brick church building in _______.

In May of 1928 the dedication of the new church was held and Dr. Aquila Chamlee gave the dedication sermon and William Marshall gave the dedication prayer. The pastor at this time was J. E. Harrison.

From 1928, T. M. Callaway, W. M. Marshall, Ray Matthews, C. E. Henderson, Reginald Wall were pastors serving Bartow Baptist.

In 1949 the church purchased the home of Mrs. C. H. Bryant for the __________________.

In 1953 Bartow Baptist Church voted to become a full time church under the direction of Howard Scarboro, who became pastor that year.

In 1954 we had a young and dedicated pastor, Kermis Frost, who liked nothing so well as to head up a building program. The church had no sanitary facilities or kitchen. To provide these accommodations, as well as a nursery and additional Sunday School rooms, a building program was completed.

John R. Joiner was pastor from 1958 to 1963, followed by Williams McGraw for one year and then James C. Mooney from 1965 through 1967. Robert C. Wells came in November 1967 as the pastor and during his ministry a need was met by building a new brick pastorium.

Following was Bill Maddry and Herbert Elrod who remained as the pastor until 1978. Durwood Broughton assumed the pastorate in 1978 and left Bartow Baptist Church to become a foreign missionary.

The church was without a pastor for much of 1980, but due to the dedication of its members, the church accomplished much during this period. They were blessed by the ministry of several interim pastors. The members also completed a renovation of the church including new carpet, choir chairs, kitchen cabinets and painting.

In the fall of 1890, Jesse Oliver came as pastor and remained until 1987. Again the church was left with no leadership for several months. Jon Richards came as pastor in September 1989. Under his leadership, the Homecoming and _________ ________________ ______ was observed on June 23, 1991. She was a faithful worker in the Bartow Baptist Church as long as she was physically able. As of June 23, 1991 the church membership was 119.

Jon Richards served as pastor until December 1992.

In March of 1993, S.W. Middleton was called to serve the church as pastor. He served until January 2000. He retired due to the serious illness of his wife, Ann.

Once again, the church was without a pastor for almost a year. Under Gods direction, we were faithfully served by an interim pastor, Lanny Canuette from January through October 2000 when Jerry Eiland was called to pastor the church.

Ray Walls followed as an interim pastor until present day pastor, Paul E. Harris was called to serve in March 2008.

The current membership is somewhere in the neighborhood of 50-60.

Church Covenant

Having been called as we humbly trust from natures darkness, into the marvelous light and liberty of the Gospel, and having been baptized upon profession of faith in Christ Jesus, and believing it would be to the honor and glory of God, as well as for the spiritual welfare of each of us individually, we enter into this solemn covenant one with the other before God who sees and knows the intents of our hearts. That we will and humbly do form ourselves into a church of Christ according to the example furnished us in the Holy Scriptures, that we will individually and as an organized body, by Gods assisting us, living according to all the precepts of the New Testament as far as in our power lies. We do solemnly bind ourselves to administer all the affairs of this church in accordance with the spirit of Gods Holy Word. And we do specially pray the direction of the Great Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that others may know the doctrines herein set forth, and declare the following as embracing the leading articles of faith:

Article 1: We believe there is one God and Jehovah is His name.

Article 2: We believe that in the unity of the Godhead there are three persons: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Article3: We believe man to have been created holy, but by voluntary transgression feel from his high estate and that the whole human family is totally depraved and corrupt.

Article 4: We believe in a free salvation by the atonement of Jesus Christ, that by faith in Him by repentance for sins, we shall not only be saved from eternal death, brought upon us by sin, but that we shall be elected to life eternal; that this life eternal is given solely upon the merits of the atonement of Jesus, and not because there are any good works or righteousness in us.

Article 5: We believe in the election of a portion of the human family to grace and happiness; that those thus elected will be effectually called by God; will be regenerated by the influence of the Holy Spirit in the way of holiness; will be reclaimed if at any time going from the right way; will be eventually sanctified and rendered fit to dwell with God.

Article 6: We believe in the general resurrection of the dead, and that the righteous will rise to a life of glory and happiness, and that with God in Heaven they shall live forever; and that those who die impenitent, having lived to years of discretion, shall be driven away into everlasting punishment.

Article 7: We believe in the immersion of believers in Christ, and that this is a prerequisite to church membership.

Article 8: We believe that these, and these only, who have thus entered the church shall participate in the Lords Supper.

Article 9: We believe the OLD and the NEW Testaments to have been written by men inspired by God and that they furnish us an all-sufficient rule of Faith and Practice.

These articles were adopted at the Founding Ceremonies on the 16^th day of January, 1881.

Abstract of Principles (1858)

Election: Election is God's eternal choice of some persons unto everlasting life-not because of foreseen merit in them, but of His mere mercy in Christ-in consequence of which choice they are called, justified and glorified. (Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:4-11; 2 Thessalonians 2:13; 2 Timothy 2:10; 1 Peter 1:1-2)

The Fall of Man: God originally created Man in His own image, and free from sin; but, through the temptation of satan, he transgressed the command of God, and fell from his original holiness and righteousness; whereby his posterity inherit a nature corrupt and wholly opposed to God and His law, are under condemnation, and as soon as they are capable of moral action, become actual transgressors. (Genesis 2:7, 15-25; James 3:9)

Regeneration: Regeneration is a change of heart, wrought by the Holy Spirit, who quickeneth the dead in trespasses and sins enlightening their minds spiritually and savingly to understand the Word of God, and renewing their whole nature, so that they love and practice holiness. It is a work of God's free and special grace alone. (John 3:3-7; Titus 3:5; John 5:24; Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 3:16)

Repentance: Repentance is an evangelical grace granted by God, wherein a person being by the Holy Spirit, made sensible of the manifold evil of his sin, humbleth himself for it, with godly sorrow, detestation of it, and self-abhorrence, with a purpose and endeavor to walk before God so as to please Him in all things. (Acts 11:18; 2 Timothy 2:25)

Faith: Saving faith is the belief, on God's authority, of whatsoever is revealed in His Word concerning Christ; accepting and resting upon Him alone for justification and eternal life. It is wrought in the heart as the free gift of God, and is accompanied by all other saving graces, and leads to a life of holiness. (Romans 12:3; Ephesians 2:8; 1 Corinthians 12:9; Hebrews 12:2)

Justification: Justification is God's gracious and full acquittal of sinners, who believe in Christ, from all sin, through the satisfaction that Christ has made; not for anything wrought in them or done by them; but on account of the obedience and satisfaction of Christ, they receiving and resting on Him and His righteousness by faith. (Romans 8:33; Luke 13:3; Romans 3:20; Colossians 2:14)

http://www.4shared.com/audio/1dYIDzsi/Bartow_Baptist_History.html