Expert: Dr. Tim Gladu - 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
Sky,

I have never heard of the Seventh day Baptist. I try really hard not to get wrapped up about different religions and even other Baptist. I chose this because I try really hard to remember what Jesus taught. He taught us that we need to be concerned with the relationship we have with Him and our fellow man. I understand the importance to know what you believe and also agree it is part of us we can not get away from. I have done vast research about the largest cults. I study these because then I can better witness to them if I am confronted and have to explain the error of their thinking. I do not check into other Christian faiths because then like you said their doctrine is so close to our own that it is just splitting hairs. I would like to see all Baptists drop their extra names and all be just Baptist. If we were all to do that we could be such a great force for Christ that we would be unstoppable. I am not trying to prevent you from doing research, but I just have never heard of these Baptists. I have to also make it clear that we are hear to spread the Gospel of Christ and anything that takes away from that is not worth our short time we have to share the Gospel with the lost.

God bless