History: The Heritage of Our Baptist Faith

is any one of them consistently and continually holding the entire body of truth which Baptists believe-the scriptures to teach. In other words. Baptists do not need to defend apostolic succession. We do believe in the succession of apostolic principles and practices. Christian, in his book on Baptist History, (Vol. 1, p. 22) indicates that Baptist history may be described as a river which flows above the ground for many miles and then winds its way through a marsh and perhaps becomes invisible. It eventually comes into a true course again and is identified as the same river. Baptist people trace their principles back to the New Testament. This stream can be identified, not by historically tracing it from church to church through-the years, but by going to the New Testament it­ self, the source of our distinctives. We must always trace our heritage to New Testament precepts and principles because early in the history of the Christian church, degeneracy set it. tin- Biblical doctrines were accepted. This degeneracy came about because of the depravity of the natural heart which always yearns for a salvation by works. A perverted idea of Judaism added to the confusion of doctrine. The prevailing Greek philosophies which crept into the teaching of theology also aided in the departure from the truth. This degeneration became so complete that by the fourth century, the following doctrines within the Roman church were fully developed: the doctrine of the mass; the doctrine of penance; confession and priestly absolution; pergatory; invocation of saints; and the use of images in worship. To accurately trace a visible and historical succession of churches through this maze of doctrinal confusion is not only impossible but unnecessary. As a consequence of degeneration and the development of anti-Biblical practice within the church, persecution developed against those who would oppose these trends. Persecution drove the people who opposed these unbiblical views into hiding, and at the same time destroyed their writings and records, thus making an accurate tracing of the church to apostolic times a difficult, if not an impossible task.