Expert: Pastor Don Carpenter - 5/4/2007

Question
I first learned of the Seventh Day Baptist about 10 years ago. I grew up in the Baptist church (Missionary) and heard of and visited several kinds of Baptist churches from freewill to primitive, but had never heard of Seventh Day Baptists until researching different sabbath keeping groups. When I first came across the name, I thought it was one small independent church but to my surprise it was a small denomination with roots in United States as early as the 1600s and even before then in Europe as an independent group of believers that followed the Waldenses. I would constantly mention and inquire about them to other Sunday keeping Baptist pastors who said they had also never heard of them, not even the Baptist Conference in Augusta Ga. They seemed to be surprised at their existence and well established history. But, I surprisingly found a link to a letter written by the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference to Sunday Keeping Baptists in 1843, titled "An Address to the Baptist Denomination of the United States On the Observance of the Sabbath From the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference." You can read it if you go to their home page and select Beliefs/History and then Historical Resources, and finally Letter to the Baptists. With their books, articles, magazines, quarterlies, publishing houses and two or three colleges they began, Alfred University in NY and Salem in W. Va and one other, I'm surprised that more Baptist clergy aren't familiar with them. Although still small, there are still active congregations as old as 350 years old in the US alone. Do you know of them and why are they not that well known among their Sunday keeping brethren? According to their website, with the exception of worshipping on the Sabbath, they share the same beliefs as Sunday Baptists. If you've ever heard of them, do you know about any history or interaction they've had with Sunday Baptist brethren over the years and why not more cooperation being that with the exception of the Biblical Sabbath observance, they have more doctrine in common with traditional Baptists than do the primitive Baptists?


Answer
Dear Sky,

I am sorry for my tardy response.  I am afraid that I do not know much about Seventh Day Baptists.  I did know one pastor of a Seventh Day Baptist Church out in Washington State.  That area was almost 50% SDA.  These folks would cause many who were not solid on their knowledge about the Sabbath to waver.  This pastor was a convert to the 7th day concept because of the SDA influence, but he did not buy into the whole Ellen WHite package.  That is all I know about these folks.  

I can say that I am absolutely sure that the Sabbath was  nailed to the cross, and I do not keep Sunday or any other day.

Colossians 2:14-16
14 Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; 15 And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.  
16 Let no man therefore judge you in meat, or in drink, or in respect of an holyday, or of the new moon, or of the sabbath days:   
The King James Version, (Cambridge: Cambridge) 1769.

I hope that this helps you.

In Christ
Pastor Don