Jarrel - Baptist Church Perpetuity - Landmark Baptist

CHAPTER 4. — CHURCH PERPETUITY ADMITS OF
VARIATIONS AND IRREGULARITIES IN BAPTIST
FAITH AND PRACTICE.
Thomas Armitage, D.D., in a letter to the author, wrote December 31, 1886:
“No person living would be more thankful to you than myself if you will
show by unquestionable facts that since the Holy Spirit established the church
at Jerusalem, there has never been a time when that church did not repeat
itself in living and organic bodies of Christians who followed all its principles
and practices without addition or diminution. From early in the third century
to about the twelfth, there was scarcely a denomination of Christians in any
land, so far as we can now trace them by actual faith and practice, in all points
great and small, who would be held in full fellowship with the regular Baptist
churches of to-day, if they were living to-day.”
Prof. B.O. True, D.D., who occupies the chair of Church History in a leading
Theological Seminary, recently wrote the author:
“Do we mean, then, by Baptist churches merely those which hold scriptural
views on the subjects and acts of baptism or those who conform in all
essential matters of conduct, doctrine and polity to the will of Jesus Christ? I
certainly do not say that these were not Baptists (speaking of those claimed
for Baptists in past ages) and possibly Baptist churches.”
These statements, made by Dr. Armitage, contain the explanation for some
Baptists arraying themselves among the opponents of Church Perpetuity.
If Prof. True’s testing the churches, claimed in the succession line, by their
agreement “in all essential matters of conduct, doctrine and polity,” be the true
test, Baptists may agree that there is the Church Perpetuity.
Hence Prof. True’s statement of those claimed in the Perpetuity line: “I
certainly do not say that these were not Baptists and possibly Bapfist
churches.” (My italics.) But, by Dr. Armitage’s test, that those bodies claimed
as Baptists, were “In all points, great and small,” “without addition or
diminution,” exactly what Baptist churches now are and what they now hold
“in full fellowship,” many Baptist churches of the present as well as the past
could not be fellowshipped as Baptists by our best churches. For many of
them, to some extent, are Arminian; or feet washers; or have scarcely any
church discipline; or disregard the Lord’s day and command by meeting for
worship “only once a month;” or contribute nothing or near nothing to their
pastors, and nothing or near nothing to missions and education; and, in many
cases, rarely look into their Bibles. The truth is, the good brethren who doubt