Selected Editorials from "The Primitive Baptist," by Elder C. H. Cayce, Vol. 1, 1896-1910, pp. 155,156.
February 5, 1907.
(The first part of this article will be omitted as it deals with a different subject. The entire article is available upon request.)
"After bearing with, though all the while contending against, these departures from primitive practice and teaching (by the advocates of the modern mission system), as well as gross departures from the Scriptures and the simplicity of the gospel, a number of brethren met at Black Rock, Maryland, on September 28, 1832, and made formal declaration of non-fellowship against these departures. In their address they say: "We will now call your attention to the subject of missions. Previous to stating our objections to the mission plans, we will meet some of the false charges brought against us relative to this subject, by a simple and unequivocal declaration, that we do regard as of the first importance the command given of Christ, primarily to His apostles, and through them to His ninisters in every age, to 'Go into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature,' and do feel an earnest desire to be found acting in obedience thereunto, as the providence of God directs our way, and opens a door of utterance for us." This expression from these brethren is unmmistakable evidence that the commission was a "bone of contention." They differed from the Missionaries on this point. We have already seen that the mission idea was a new thing, and a departure; and we will state this as a true principle, that the whole mission scheme, as well as salaried system for the ministry, is based on the idea that the commission was given to the church, and that the obligation of the commission rests on the church. If you remove the idea from the minds of men that the commission is binding on the church, you would have removed the foundation from under the whole mission theory and the fabric would crumble and fall, having no foundation upon which to stand. Those brethren at Black Rock did not believe the commission was given to the church, but to the apostles and ministry, for they said so. Fuller, Carey, Judson, Rice and others had invented new schemes and theories, based upon their view that the commission was given to the church and that the church should convert the world to Christ, and introduced those measures into the Baptist Church. These brethren at Black Rock held the original view, that the commission was given primarily to the apostles and through them to the ministry in every age. This was Gill's view. He says:
"Go ye into all the world:" not only into Judea, and through all the cities of it, where they had before been confined; not only into the Roman empire, which is sometimes so called, because a great part of the whole universe, to all the nations of the world under heaven; and it is to be observed, that this command is not enjoined upon every apostle separately, as if each of them was to go into all the world, and travel over every part; but that one was to go one way, and another another way; every one had his line, or that part of the world marked out for him, whither he was to steer his course, and where he was to fulfill and finish his ministry; and besides, this commission not only included the apostles, but reaches to all the ministers of the gospel in suceeding ages to the end of the world; and since this, one part of the world which was not known, is now discovered; and the order includes that, as well as the then known parts of the world; and the gospel accordingly has been sent into it."
This shows that Gill held that the commission was to the apostles and ministry and not to the church.
But someone might ask, "Did not the brethren at Black Rock believe that it was the duty of the church to send the ministry?" Yes, they believed it this way, that it was the duty of the church to ordain or set apart to the work those the Lord called. They did not hold that a church in Tennessee or Kentucky should support a man while he was preaching in the "regions beyond," or in Burmah or China. They held that it was the Scriptural plan for those to contribute their carnal things to aid the minister among whom he labored, and this is the way they give us to understand it was done before the mission scheme was invented. See their address.
Now, in this latter day some others have arisen among the Old School Baptists holding that the commission was given to the church, among them Todd, Strickland, Hackleman, R. S. and J. V. Kirkland, and others. Where will you now find the four first named? Among the New School Baptists.
Permission is given to freely copy and distribute the above article, which is in the public domain.
This page maintained by: Robert Webb -
(bwebb9@juno.com)