When Was the Baptist Denomination Founded?

Dear Catholic Exchange:

Tricia Nokes

Dear Tricia,

Peace in Christ!

There are many variations on this theme among Baptists — that St. John the Forerunner was the first Baptist, for example. People who believe in “Baptist Successionism” (be it a “succession” of ministers or doctrine) are commonly called “Landmark Baptists.”

We hope that this letter will serve as a partial response, but we recommend that you check out some other sources too. For example, Ignatius Press recently published Guindon’s The King’s Highway, which relates his spiritual journey from the Jehovah’s Witnesses through the Landmark Baptists and back to the Catholic Church. James E. McGoldrick’s Baptist Successionism: a Crucial Question in Baptist History (Scarecrow Press, 150 pages) is the most thorough refutation of the Baptists’ false historical claim using firsthand historical sources — with the added bonus that the author is himself both a historian and a Baptist. (Because he is a Baptist, he has a personal bias against Catholicism about which readers should be careful; his book is, however, one of the best tools for this subject because he used to be a Landmark Baptist.) McGoldrick thoroughly proves that Baptists have not been around since the first century, but rather that they are Protestants with roots in 17th-century Holland and England. You can order McGoldrick’s book from Cedarville College in Ohio (937-766-2211).

Finally, we recommend first-hand historical documents written by the ancient Christians themselves, like Early Christian Writings (written by the immediate successors of the Apostles in the 1st and 2nd centuries) published by Penguin Books. This book will prove beyond a shadow of a doubt that the immediate successors of the Apostles, who learned the faith from the Apostles themselves, were Catholic.

Some of the more well-known Landmark Baptist propaganda include the tracts, comic books, and books of Jack T. Chick (e.g. the comic book Sabotage?); but most of the propaganda is based on the booklet The Trail of Blood: the History of Baptist Churches from the Time of Christ by J. M. Carroll (first published in 1931). Carroll asserts that Baptists have always existed, but under different names, since the first century. He then claims that the Montanists, Novatians, Cathars, Paulicians, Bogomils, Waldensians, and Anabaptists were nothing more than Baptists by another name. One by one, McGoldrick refutes the idea that any of these historical heretics were Baptists using first- and (non-conflicting) second-hand sources. Montanists, for example, believed that public revelation did not end with the Apostles and, furthermore, that their own revelation was superior. This is not compatible with the Catholic faith that revelation ended with the Apostles, much less the Baptist claim that Scripture is the highest and only authority. Novatians were Catholic in every way but one. They claimed to be the “pure” Catholic Church, but they were actually schismatics who would not accept the validity of sacraments performed by some priests who had committed idolatry and repented. They could not be Baptists, for Baptists have no priests and no sacraments. The list goes on, but none of the groups were Baptist; nor, by the way, was St. Patrick. In the words of McGoldrick:

It is the purpose of this book to show that, although free church groups in ancient and medieval times sometimes promoted doctrines and practices agreeable to modern Baptists, when judged by standards now acknowledged as baptistic, not one of them merits recognition as a Baptist church. Baptists arose in the seventeenth century in Holland and England. They are Protestants, heirs of the Reformers. (McGoldrick, Baptist Successionism, p. 2)

McGoldrick makes an excellent case that none of these historical groups is Baptist and that the Baptists are Protestants, but thus far the case is mostly negative. What is the one Church which Christ founded nearly 2000 years ago? There is a positive case too, that the Church that has been in existence for 2000 years, founded by Jesus Christ, is unquestionably Catholic. The writings of Early Church Fathers demonstrates that the early Church was undeniably Catholic. Many of these men learned Christianity from the Apostles themselves.

Clement of Rome (incidentally, the fourth pope) plainly teaches that the Apostolic succession of bishops and their priests and deacons is God’s will and that Christians should submit to the clergy. Ignatius of Antioch repeatedly discusses the authority of bishops and priests in what he calls “the Catholic Church” or “the Holy Catholic Church.” Submission to bishops and priests, according to Ignatius, gives glory to God, because bishops represent the mind of Christ. He also teaches that the altar of the Eucharist is an altar of sacrifice, and that the Eucharist is the Body and Blood of the Lord (the sacrament’s validity depends on authorization of the bishop). Evarestus calls the Church the “world-wide Catholic Church” and talks about the zealous collecting of relics and honoring the saints of God (which he distinguishes from the adoration due to God). Another epistle of “Barnabas” exhorts Christians to keep the “traditions” of the Apostles.

The Didache (or “Teaching”) says that baptism, which is necessary before communion, may be done either by immersion or pouring. Sins, the apostolically-influenced document says, must be confessed in church before receiving the Eucharist. These beliefs, of course, are not held by the Baptist church. In the words of John Henry Cardinal Newman, who was a convert to Catholicism from the Anglican church:

This one thing at least is certain; whatever history teaches, whatever it omits, whatever it exaggerates or extenuates, whatever it says and unsays, at least the Christianity of history is not Protestantism. If ever there was a safe truth, it is this…. Protestantism as a whole feels it, and has felt it. This is shown in the determination already referred to of dispensing with historical Christianity altogether and [inventing] a Christianity from the Bible alone: men would never have put [history] aside, unless they had despaired of it…. To be deep in history is to cease to be a Protestant. (Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine)

In the variation of Landmark Baptist beliefs which claims John the Forerunner as the founder or first great leader of the Baptist church, a person meets one of the most perplexing assertions of all. Catholics believe, of course, that John was a crucially important prophet, he was a glorious martyr, and that he is unquestionably a saint. But he didn’t found or even lead a church; he was born to lead men to Christ, Who founded the only Church. Not all of John’s followers understood this without substantial apostolic intervention, however. In Acts 19:1-7 we read that twelve of John’s disciples were still around, but they were not yet Christians (for they had not received Christian baptism in the Holy Spirit), did not know the whole gospel, and had not yet become members of the Church founded by Jesus (though they knew Jesus is the Messiah, Acts 18:24-26). In light of this, why would Baptists boast that they are disciples of John rather than members of the one, holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church? Their claim ironically implies that they have not received the whole gospel!

There is simply no historic evidence of Baptists (or people with the same faith as Baptists) existing anywhere prior to the 1600s. There is no documentation by Baptists of their own existence, nor artifacts they left behind; nor is there documentation of their existence by any other group — friend or foe, religious or civil, or otherwise. Is this alleged Baptist church the city set on a hill which cannot be hidden (Mt 5:13-16)? Is this remarkably (even impossibly) well-kept secret really a light shining before all men — the salt of the earth? A group of people whose existence cannot be historically verified in any way is the Church sent out to the world by Jesus? The Catholic Church, on the contrary, can be found in history from the time of Christ onwards — in the Bible, in other writings of the ancient Christians and even their opponents, in many artifacts (e.g. the art of the catacombs, an example of which you can see in hardcover copies of the Catechism facing page 12), etc. For 2000 years the Catholic Church has publicly borne witness to Jesus Christ, the Salvation of God, even in face of the harshest opposition and persecution.

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United in the Faith,

Amy Barragree

Information Specialist

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