Fight the Good Fight of Faith
“Fight the good fight of faith” - 1 Timothy 6.12
Below is a short article regarding our Baptist Heritage. Keep in mind, true Baptists are not Protestants, we never came out of the Roman Catholic Church in “protest”… we were never in the Roman Catholic Church!
During the early days of the Reformation, there arose some notable Protestant theologians such as Calvin, Luther and Zwingli. It is sometimes suggested by modern Protestants that the Anabaptists of the same period were too stupid to produce any “theologians”. Actually, it wasn't due to ignorance or illiteracy, but to other reasons, that no famous theologians arose during that period.
First was the fact that the Anabaptists were Biblicists - meaning that the need for a man-made doctrinal platform wasn't important. The second reason was that during the Reformation, our Baptist brethren were under attack from two directions - they died early in life in a cross fire between the Protestants and the Catholics. The Anabaptist ranks were filled with intelligent, scholarly Bible students who could have easily produced great books of Systematic Theology.
For example there was Claus Felbinger, a locksmith by trade. In 1560 he and missionary Hans Leytner were arrested near Neumarkt in Bavaria. Both were tortured unmercifully on the rack as the jailer tried to learn the names of other Anabaptists. Daily, for two months priests, monks, and theologians questioned every aspect of their faith, and at every point the two brethren admirably defended the truth. During that time Felbinger wrote out many of the things which he believed, and if they had been submitted for publication would have formed a wonderful theology.
After suffering torture for months and still refusing to recant or to expose their friends, Felbinger and Leytner were beheaded for their faith in July of 1560.
The reasons that we can't find extensive Baptist theologies from the days of the Reformation, were that they weren't needed by people who possessed the Bible, the authorities of the day refused their publication, and the great pastors and theologians of that day didn't live long enough to serve the Lord in that way.
~ David Oldfield