The General Baptist Confession of 1660<\/b><\/p>\n
On July 26,1660, the General Baptists in England presented their \u201cStandard or Brief Confession of Faith\u201d to King Charles II. The statement had been drafted by the General Baptist leaders in March of that year and was designed to clearly outline the movement\u2019s distinctive doctrines, particularly general atonement and believer\u2019s baptism. By this time, the mode of baptism was immersion. Though revised often, the basics of this simple confession served the General Baptists in England and America for the next century and a half.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cAn Abstract of the Former Articles of Faith Confessed by the Original Baptist Church Holding the Doctrine of General Provision with Proper Code of Discipline\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1812, Jesse Heath and James Roach were commissioned to revise and reprint the \u201cformer Confession of Faith\u201d (of 1660). At this time, the name “Free Will Baptist” had apparently not become official for these remnants of the\u00a0old General Baptist movement, but it soon would be. Eight of the articles in the \u201cAbstract\u201d were identical to those in the \u201cStandard or Brief Confession of 1660,\u201d and the others were nearly so.<\/p>\n
The only surprise was in the statement on the question of perseverance. The \u201cStandard\u201d had clearly taught the possibility of apostasy but the newer \u201cAbstract\u201d defended perseverance. This article however, was deleted in the 1835 revision and the denomination returned to the traditional understanding of this dogma that now separates Free Will Baptists from others who preach general atonement.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cTreatise on the Faith and Practice of the Free Will Baptists\u201d<\/b><\/p>\n
In 1832, the Holland Purchase Yearly Meeting asked the General Conference of the Free Will Baptists in New England to publish an official description of the denomination\u2019s doctrine and polity. In response, the General Conference appointed John Buzzell, Samuel Burbank, Hosea Quinby and Samuel Beede as a writing committee and assigned them the task of preparing a \u201ctreatise\u201d or confession of faith.<\/p>\n
The treatise was to show leading points of doctrine and practice and give scriptural support for each element of concern. The first draft was reviewed and revised by the 1833 General Conference and finally was published in 1834. The document would continue to characterize the denomination until it merged with the Northern Baptists in 1911. It also would serve as a model for the doctrinal statements published by other Free Will Baptist groups prior to the founding of the National Association of Free Will Baptists in 1935.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
About the Writer:<\/strong> William F. Davidson was\u00a0professor of Church History at Columbia International University, in Columbia, South Carolina. Dr. Davidson is an alumnus of Peabody College, Welch College, Columbia Bible College, Northern Baptist Seminary, and New Orleans Baptist Seminary. The Ayden, North Carolina, native also served as pastor of Free Will Baptist churches in Kentucky and Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The General Baptist Confession of 1660 On July 26,1660, the General Baptists in England presented their \u201cStandard or Brief Confession of Faith\u201d to King Charles II. The statement had been drafted by the General Baptist leaders in March of that year and was designed to clearly outline the movement\u2019s distinctive doctrines, particularly general atonement and believer\u2019s baptism. By this time, the mode of baptism was immersion. Though revised often, the basics of this simple confession served the General Baptists in England and America for the next century and a half.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=389"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":966,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/389\/revisions\/966"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fwbhistory.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}