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 PrintableVersion The BaptistsVolume Three, The Modern EraTaking the plungeTHE BAPTISTS This third volume completes Tom Nettles’ magisterial history of the Baptists. He keeps in focus the issue of Baptist identity. In other words how would we describe Baptists? What do Baptists believe? What are the distinctive features? And how do they do church? Volume three begins with the battle of the Downgrade: Spurgeon versus John Clifford, whom Nettles nicknames ‘the irrepressible liberal’. The story then turns to describe A.H. Strong and E.Y. Mullins, who were weak in their resistance to modernism and outright Baptist modernists Shailer Mathews, William Newton Clarke and Harry Emerson Fosdick. The role of the fundamentalists of the early 20th century is described, with special attention given to the extraordinarily fiery and controversial John Franklyn Norris (1877-1952). The recently published book, Catch the Vision by John J. Murray (Evangelical Press, 180 pages), is commended to readers as a lucid account of the modernist movement and the doldrums of the period from about 1900 to 1950, followed by the recovery of the Reformed faith in the 1960s. Southern Baptists’ battlesDuring that period 1900-1950, and beyond, right up to the present day, the battle has raged within the Southern Baptist Convention, which is by far the largest Baptist constituency in the history of the church and in the world today. The basic subjects contested are the historicity of Adam and Eve, the reliability of the historical events recorded in the Bible, the reality of eternal punishment and the inerrancy of Scripture. In the very forefront of this battle are leaders Paige Patterson and R. Albert Mohler, Jr. As we would expect, Tom Nettles, who is senior professor of church history at Southern Seminary, Louisville, Kentucky, has an intimate knowledge of this struggle. He unfolds the drama of reformation at Southern Seminary, the oldest, most prestigious Southern Baptist seminary. With 4,300 students, it is now the largest seminary in the USA. Spurgeon’s protestJohn Clifford (1836-1923) was a man of extraordinary energy and administrative efficiency. He had great vision for unity and progress and became nationally famous. His portrait hangs in the National Gallery. Dr. Clifford became vice-president of the Baptist Union in 1887, and president in 1888: and for various reasons had frequently to take the president’s place during the year of his vice-presidency. This dynamic, complex figure was, therefore, leader of the Baptist body during the eventful Downgrade controversial years. He brought to the BU discussions the widest tolerance of the views against which Spurgeon protested. They were to him no more than the necessary ‘adjustment of theological belief’. His ideas of doctrinal soundness were so flexible and so optimistic that at the very moment when modernism was daily increasing its hold on the Baptist ministry he declared that in his opinion it was ‘sounder than it had been for the last 20 or 30 years’. Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834-1892) was England’s best-known preacher for most of the second half of the 19th century. Of all Baptists, Charles Haddon Spurgeon is the best known. According to Nettles, he ‘surpasses all other ministers of the gospel in the rare combination of biblical clarity, theological coherence, rhetorical zest, perspicuity of diction, universality of appeal and urgency of application’. By many Spurgeon is esteemed as the ‘tallest and broadest oak in the forest of time’. Yet in the Downgrade Spurgeon was defeated. Nettles describes the role of the fundamentalist leader John Franklyn Norris (1877-1952), whose success in the ministry was phenomenal. Only 13 attended his first service in Fort Worth, but within a year there were 400 members! By his second anniversary, a new church building had been erected and the membership was 1,000! J.F. Norris was labelled as ‘the most belligerent fundamentalist now abroad in the land’. Calvinism the testConsiderable detail is given to E.Y. Mullins (1860-1928), who was president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1899 to 1928. Mullins disliked the aggressive style of Norris, ‘who wanted to put the screws on everybody’. In fact Mullins so loosened the screws that through his term of presidency at Southern the theological engine fell to pieces. Mullins was weak in theology. Calvinism is a reliable litmus test. Here we see that Mullins hesitated to identify himself with either Calvinism or Arminianism as a system, preferring to ‘adhere more closely than either to the Scriptures, while retaining the truth in both systems’. But he was Arminian, believing that ‘God’s sovereignty must act in subserviency to man’s freedom’. Among those described in detail is A.H. Strong (1836-1921) of New York State. A.H. Strong is an example of a seminarian who started off with clear convictions but who grew weary of controversy and no longer contended for the truth as Jude exhorts us to do (Jude 3). Nettles narrates the rise of R. Albert Mohler Jr who was born in 1959 and who in 1993 (aged 34) was called to be president of Southern Seminary, Louisville. Mohler has followed in the steps of James Pettigru Boyce, who, with J.A. Broadus, founded Southern Seminary. Mohler determined to recover confessional fidelity in the seminary. When applied, this discipline led to a string of resignations from modernist tutors. Two streamsFrom the beginning, Baptist identity falls either into the Arminianism of the General Baptists or the Calvinism of the Particular Baptists. These two streams have continued since the Baptists emerged as an entity in England in the 17th century. The Arminian stream has been much more susceptible to decline into liberalism. There is much for all Christians to learn from Tom Nettles three-volume description of Baptist history, especially in what to avoid and in what to embrace for the future. For a much more detailed review see http://www.reformation-today.org in issue 226 — a review which includes the choice of 20 Baptist leaders and a description of the kind of worship service they would organise. Erroll Hulse,
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