The Story of John Smyth: How Congregationalist Polity Led to Believer’s Baptism
“Reading James R. Coggins well-researched monograph, John Smyth’s Congregation: English Separatism, Mennonite Influence, and the Elect Nation …provides a window through which to understand the origins of English Baptists out of the Puritan Separatist movement of the early seventeenth century.” - London Lyceum
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Hmmm…according to A. C. Underwood in his A History of the English Baptists (pp 37-38), in early 1609 Smyth became convinced that infant baptism was invalid, that church membership required believer’s baptism, and that his former baptism was, therefore, invalid. Consequently, the only Biblical solution was to dissolve his current church and start over completely, this time basing its formation on NT principles. With no duly baptized elder available, Smyth decided to baptize himself, then his colleague Thomas Helwys, and then the remainder of his new congregation, effectively beginning the first Baptist church with membership based on the professed faith of baptized believers.
This accounting by Underwood of the history of Smyth’s church doesn’t line up all that well with the congregation taking the lead in adopting believer’s baptism. I suppose James Coggins could have done better research than Underwood, but it seems like somebody is wrong here.
Discussion