Protestant denominations are those which have separated from the Roman Catholic Church. Some did so directly in the Reformation of the 1500's. Others have done so indirectly, by separating from other Protestants.
 
 

Baptists are not Protestants! Their beginning pre-dates the Protestant Reformation and also the Roman Catholic Church, and is traced all the way back to Christ and His apostles.
 
 

The Roman Catholic Church came into being at about the beginning of the Dark Ages – and these two events are inseparably linked! The spiritual heirs of the apostles denounced the Roman Church as Anti-Christ and a manifestation of the "Babylonian whore" of Revelation 17. They therefore did not submit to the authority of Rome's pontiff, nor recognize its baptism as Scriptural baptism. Consequently, they baptized all who converted from Romanism to the true faith. The Roman Church responded to these heirs of the apostles by calling their baptism re-baptism, and by contemptuously branding them as Anabaptists, or Re-baptizers. Rome furthermore mercilessly persecuted them and even waged crusades against them. Many thousands — if not millions — of these Anabaptists were martyred by Roman Catholic authorities.
 
 

Foremost among these ancient heirs of the apostles were the Waldensians. Their history is at great length chronicled in The History of the Evangelical Churches of the Valleys of Piemont (the source for the quotations in this message, in their original spelling, punctuation, and italics), written by Samuel Morland in 1658 following the Bloody Massacre of 1655. This massacre of Waldensians by Roman Catholics in the Piedmont region of Italy is one of the most horrendous events in Church History.
 
 

The doctrine of the Waldensians regarding the salvation of sinners was what we today call Calvinism. For example:
 
 

1) The Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1120 – 400 years before the Protestant Reformation — expresses their belief "That Christ ... died for the salvation of all those that believe ...." (p.33). This is the doctrine of Limited Atonement and/or Particular Redemption, the third of Calvinism's five points, and that which is denied most vehemently by Arminianism. Arminians posit instead their doctrine of Universal Atonement: that Christ died for the salvation of all mankind, both those who believe and those who do not.
 
 

2) The Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1508 was published nine years before the Protestant Reformation was commenced, and amplified in 1535. It also manifests the Waldensians' belief in what is today called Calvinism.
 
 

Its fourth and seventh articles express the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity: "... there is nothing in man whereby one may help another before God, seeing all are equally void of the righteousness of God, and obnoxious to his wrath by sin" (p.46); "... there is no man that can indeed perform the works commanded by God" (p.49).
 
 

Its sixth article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Irresistible Grace and the bestowal of faith by the Holy Spirit: "... no man can have this Faith by any power, will and pleasure of his own: it is indeed the gift of God, who when, and where it pleaseth him, worketh it in man by his Spirit" (p.48).
 
 

3) The Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1532 was published four years before John Calvin first expressed his theological views in his Institutes of the Christian Religion. It also manifests the Waldensians' belief in what is today called Calvinism, and their denial of the doctrine of Romanism and Arminianism.
 
 

Its fourth article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity: "Whoever upholds Free-will denieth absolutely Predestination, and the Grace of God" (p.40).
 
 

Its second article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election: "All those that have been, and shall be saved, have been elected of God, before the Foundation of the World" (p.40).
 
 

Its third article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Irresistible Grace: "It is impossible that those that are appointed to salvation, should not be saved" (p.40).
 
 

4) A Declaration of the Waldenses of 1603 was published 39 years after the death of John Calvin and 15 years before the Synod of Dort formulated the Five Points of Calvinism. The Waldensians herein unequivocally declared that the Reformed faith, Calvinism, was identical with the doctrine of salvation they had received from the apostles:
 
 

"We declare, that being very confident and certain, that the Doctrine and Religion taught and followed by the Reformed Churches of France, Switzerland, Germany, England, Scotland, Geneve, Denmark, Swedeland, Holland, and other Kingdoms, Nations, and Dominions, of which we hitherto have made open profession ..., is the onely true Doctrine and Religion ordained and approved of God, which alone can render us acceptable to God, and bring us to salvation, we are resolved to stand to it to the hazzard of our Lives, Honours, and Estates, and to continue in it the remnant of our Days .... And in the mean while in the midst of our calamities and exile we request the Reformed Churches to hold and acknowledg us, as true Members of theirs, being ready to sign with our own Bloud (if God calleth us to it) the Confession of Faith by them made and published, which we acknowledg every way agreeing with the Doctrine taught and registred by the holy Apostles, and therefore truly Apostolical, promising to live and die in it ...." (p.42).
 
 

The Waldensians therefore praised God for having "enjoyed to this day the free exercise of the Reformed Religion" (p.41).
 
 

5) The Waldensian Confession of Faith of 1655 even more emphatically manifests their Calvinism.
 
 

Its ninth article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Total Depravity: "That man by his transgression ... is thereby ... under the Jurisdiction of him who has the power of Death, that is, the Devil; in so much that our free will is become a Servant and a Slave to Sin; and thus all men (both Jews and Gentiles) are by nature the Children of wrath, being all dead in their trespasses and sins, and consequently incapable of the least good motion, or inclination to any thing which concerns their salvation; yea incapable to think one good thought without Gods special grace, all their Imaginations being wholly evil, and that continually" (pp.63f).
 
 

Its eleventh article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Unconditional Election: "That God, saves from that corruption and condemnation those whom he has chosen from the foundation of the world, not for any disposition, faith or holiness that he foresaw in them, but of his meer mercy in Jesus Christ his Son; passing by all the rest, according to the irreprehensible Reason of his free will and Justice" (p.64).
 
 

Its fourteenth article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Limited Atonement: "That God so loved the world, that is to say, those whom he has chosen out of the world, that he gave his own Son to save us by his most perfect obedience, (especially that obedience which he expressed in his Suffering the cursed Death of the Cross) and also by his Victory over the Devil, Sin, and Death" (p.65).
 
 

Its eighteenth article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Irresistible Grace: "That ... faith is the gracious and efficacious work of the Holy Spirit which enlightens our Souls, and perswades them to lean and rest upon the mercy of God, and so thereby to apply unto themselves the merits of Jesus Christ" (p.65).
 
 

Its twenty-third article expresses the Waldensians' belief in the Calvinist doctrine of the Preservation and Perseverance of the Saints: "That those, who are already in the possession of eternal life by their faith and good works, ought to be considered as Saints, and as glorified persons ...." (p.66).
 
 

This lesson teaches us that the doctrine which we today call Calvinism was embraced by the Waldensians long before the time of its namesake, John Calvin. And these forefathers of today's Baptists declared that this doctrine was embraced by them ever since it was delivered to them by the apostles.
 
 

Calvinism is therefore the gospel! And faithful Baptists have ever embraced and preached it! Do you?

The term Anabaptists was applied to both orthodox and heretical rebaptizers. The most notorious of the
heretical were the Munsterites. The most exemplary of the orthodox were the Waldensians, from whom
today's Baptists descended.

Waldensians trace their history all the way back to the apostles of Jesus Christ. They therefore existed as
true churches of Christ centuries prior to the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, and for 1500 years
prior to the Reformation. Their doctrine of salvation was what we today Calvinism (see the preceding
message, #166).

During and after the Reformation, many Christians throughout Europe and Britain embraced the doctrine
of the Waldensians regarding believers' baptism. They also were known as Anabaptists. Eventually, the
prefix ana was dropped from their name, and hence the name Baptists.

Britain's Baptists have a rich Calvinist heritage. The most notable group of them were the English
Particular Baptists, so-named because of their emphasis on the doctrine of Particular Redemption, the
third point of Calvinism (also known as Limited Atonement). This term distinguishes them from the
General Baptists, so-named because they embraced the Arminian doctrine of Universal (or General)
Atonement.

The General Baptists trace their beginning in England to the church founded in London about 1611 by
Thomas Helwys, who had returned thereto after suffering severe religious persecution in Amsterdam.
Many of their churches were eventually closed due to declining numbers, and others became Unitarian.
The few General Baptists who remained were revived during the revival of Arminianism under the
ministry of the Methodist John Wesley, and formed the New Connection General Baptists in 1770.

The story of the Particular Baptists is far more glorious. Their first church was established in London in
1638, under the pastorate of John Spilsbery, by two groups who had left an Independent church in 1633
and 1638. They were devoutly Calvinistic.

Seven such churches set forth their beliefs in the London Baptist Confession of 1644, which was
reissued as the First London Confession in 1646. The British Presbyterians adopted in 1647 the
Westminster Confession, which contains what is generally acknowledged as a foremost presentation of
the Scriptural doctrine of salvation. Its articles regarding salvation were included in the confession
adopted by the British Baptists in 1689: the Second London Confession, also known as the Baptist
Confession of Faith of 1689. All these confessions are thoroughly Calvinistic, without a whit of
Arminianism.

Some of the greatest champions of the Baptists – and of the Christian church at large — have come
from the ranks of these English Particular Baptists and their peers in other parts of Britain. For example:
John Bunyan (1628-88), the greatest allegorist of the English language and author of Pilgrim's
Progress; Benjamin Keach (1640-1704), introducer of congregational hymn-singing in British churches;
John Gill (1697-1771), unexcelled in his day as being all-three expositor-theologian-apologist, writing
voluminously in all three areas; Andrew Fuller (1754-1815), a founder of the modern foreign-mission
movement; William Carey (1761-1734), the first missionary to the Indian sub-continent; Robert
Haldane (1764-1842), a Scotsman in Geneva and teacher of Merle d'Aubigne (who became a leading
historian of the Protestant church and of the Reformation), Adolphe Monod (who became the foremost
French Protestant preacher of the 1800's), and Cesar Malan (who evangelized throughout western
Europe); Christmas Evans (1766-1838), one of the two greatest preachers of his time, if not of all time,
in Wales; William Gadsby (1773-1844), "The Apostle of the North" who traveled more than 60,000
miles in his preaching tours and delivered between 10-12 thousand sermons; Alexander Carson
(1776-1844), a Greek scholar and perhaps the most eminent of Ireland's Baptists; J.C. Philpot
(1802-69), editor for more than 20 years one of the leading Christian periodicals of Britain, the Gospel
Standard; Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-92), acknowledged as the greatest preacher of the gospel
since Paul the apostle. All these were devout Calvinists.

Europe's Baptists have a rich Calvinist heritage. However, the Baptist legacy in Europe is not nearly
as sterling as in Britain. The most influential Baptist on that continent was probably the Johann
Gerhard Oncken (1800-84) of Germany. This home of the Reformation was, in the 1800's, a hotbed of
infidelity. Oncken gathered the first German Baptist church of the modern era in Hamburg on April 24,
1834. The Englishman C.H. Spurgeon assisted in the inaugural service. Oncken evangelized throughout
The Netherlands, Hungary (and Romania), Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Norway,
Sweden, and Finland. Oncken and his peers were devout Calvinists.

America's Baptists have a rich Calvinist heritage. One of their first was Roger Williams (1604-84),
founder of Rhode Island colony, the first democratic state of modern times. Another of their first was
John Clarke (1609-76), who gathered a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1639. This
church is said by many to be the first Baptist church established in America. From the roots planted by
Williams and Clarke, Baptists spread prolifically throughout New England, and from there throughout the
rest of the American colonies. Williams and Clarke were devout Calvinists.

Colonial Baptists formed associations to aid their fellowship and joint endeavors. The foremost was the
Philadelphia Association. It issued in 1742 the Philadelphia Confession of Faith, which was in essence
a reprinting of the Second London Confession of 1689. This thoroughly Calvinist confession was used
by churches throughout the American colonies.

These American Baptists also produced their own champions, including: Henry Dunster (1609-59), the
first president of Harvard College until he embraced the doctrine of believer's baptism; Isaac Backus
(1724-1806), a leading spokesmen for Baptists and a champion for religious liberty; John Leland
(1754-1841), leader in the abolition of taxes on churches; Adoniram Judson (1788-1850), the first
American missionary to the Indian sub-continent. All these were devout Calvinists.

The Southern Baptist Convention has a rich Calvinist heritage. Although it is in the main Arminian
today, it was thoroughly Calvinist at its inception in 1845. Its Calvinist founders and first shapers include:
its first three presidents, W.B. Johnson, R.B.C. Howell, and Richard Fuller; Basil Manly, Sr., first
president of its Domestic Mission Board; J.P. Boyce, founder of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
in Louisville, Kentucky, and author of the seminary's textbook for theology, An Abstract of Systematic
Theology; B.H. Carroll, founder of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Waco, Texas; John
A. Broadus and Basil Manly, Jr., for whom Broadman Press is named.

How glorious is the Baptist heritage!

But how inglorious is their station in today. Arminianism prevails over Calvinism. Exalting God's
sovereign grace has been replaced by exalting man's supposed free will. Preaching Christ has been
replaced by enlarging churches at any cost. Adherence to the truth has been replaced by compromise for
the sake of unity.

We are witnessing what was also witnessed after the death of the generation of Moses and Joshua:
"When all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did
not know the LORD nor the works which He had done for Israel" (Judges 2:10). Most of today's Baptist
ministers are like the infidel sons of Eli: "Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the
LORD" (1 Samuel 2:12).

Here and there are yet a few Baptists yet proclaiming the glorious gospel of God's free and sovereign
grace in Jesus Christ, that doctrine nowadays known as Calvinism. We need many more!

Let us pray the Lord of the church will raise up many more!