Isaac Backus and the Early Baptists

With the dawning of the 18^th Century, the future for Baptists in Colonial America seemed bleak. Baptists of all varieties, with less than half being Regular Baptists, were comprised of 24 churches consisting of 839 members. They had no organized association and sponsored no missions or evangelism societies. Prior to 1740 they were marked by “spiritual lethargy” and “dullness of spirit,” but by the time the century reached its twilight, Baptists were comprised of 979 churches consisting of 67,490 members. There was “new vitality and vigor,” 10 associations had been formed, religious liberty had been achieved, a Baptist college was formed (Brown), an evangelical Calvinistic theology had been embraced, and the Philadelphia Confession of Faith was adopted. The numerical, organizational and spiritual amelioration of Baptists was a direct result of the First Great Awakening. Leon McBeth declares this revival was the “Matterhorn” for Baptists, and that “nothing else comes close in its impact upon the future shape of the denomination.”

The “leading figure in raising again the Baptist banner and in redefining the nature of the Baptist movement in eighteenth-century New England,” according to Stanley Grenz, is Isaac Backus. Backus was converted in the midst of revival, on August 24, 1741. Five years later he was called into ministry, spent a year on the itinerant circuit, and was then called to serve as the pastor of a Separate Congregational church in Titicut, Massachusetts. A theological controversy arose in Titicut over the issue of believer’s baptism. Backus spent two years wrestling with the issue, concluding finally that the Scriptures do not teach paedobaptism. He abandoned paedobaptism in favor of the biblical teaching in 1751 and was himself baptized by immersion. For the next five years he sought to maintain unity between the immersed and the non-immersed members, but the division proved too great. Backus dissolved the church, formed a Baptist congregation in adjacent Middleboro, and spent the rest of his life serving the congregation there. He also labored as an evangelist. William Brackney notes that when the First Great Awakening began, it “released the initial impulse for itinerant evangelism among the Baptists. Isaac Backus . . . averaged over 1,200 miles of itinerant evangelism a year throughout New England.”

In the realm of theology, Backus was not innovative. He accepted the Calvinistic theology of Jonathan Edwards which was part and parcel of the Awakening itself. His literary career started in 1754, shortly after becoming a Baptist. Over the next 52 years, he published an ecclesiastical history of New England, 37 tracts and pamphlets, and various newspaper articles. The tracts and pamphlets consisted mostly of sermons and theological treatises. The most notable works related to the doctrines of grace are: True Faith will Produce Good Works, a refutation of the teachings of Robert Sandeman, a hyper-Calvinist Antinomian; The Doctrine of Sovereign Grace Opened and Vindicated, and The Sovereign Decrees of God, both defenses of the doctrines of grace. Particular Election and Final Perseverance Vindicated is a polemic against Wesleyan Arminianism, which was beginning to encroach upon the Colonies towards the end of the century. Backus was concerned both with defending the doctrines of grace and maintaining an evangelistic outlook. This is true even within the pages of his ecclesiastical history, where he asserts:

The strongest hold that the devil has in this world is to persuade men, that a being governed in his choice by motives without himself, is inconsistent with the liberty of moral agents; and to persuade him at the same time that necessity obliges God to pardon and save them, whenever they shall become sincere penitents. Thus they assume a sovereignty to themselves, which they deny their Maker; and treat him as a servant, to whom they may say, Go thy way for this time, and when I have a convenient season, I will call for thee; making his choice dependent upon theirs.

Upholding his belief in the sovereignty of God in salvation, he does not fail also to uphold his belief in human responsibility, including evangelism and missions. Backus claims God’s ordering of things is perfect and immutable, and that the Lord has appointed the means, the end, and the means in order to the end. The “means of grace” appointed by God are “calculated in infinite wisdom to open the eyes of men, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God.”

In the matter of Separates becoming Baptists, McBeth states those in New England “can almost be traced entirely” to the Baptist church in Middleboro where Backus was the pastor. The noted historian speculates “perhaps half of the New Light Congregationalists became Baptists.” In the earlier phase of the Awakening the prospect of Congregationalists and Baptists worshiping in the same houses of worship was viable. The two “were remarkably similar in all doctrines except baptism” (McBeth). The Separates who became Baptists surrendered paedobaptism, but retained their thoroughly Calvinistic soteriology. While many joined the Separate Baptist ranks through this proselytizing process, the group also experienced tremendous growth because they practiced a fervent evangelism bringing rapid increase. In 1750, Separate Baptists totaled 434 members in 17 congregations. Just two decades later there were 92 congregations consisting of 5,093 members.