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as “salvations” and counts them on its reports and even on its membership roles.
Baptist Forefathers Required an Experience of Regeneration
It was the common lot of the early Baptist churches in North America to take salvation seriously and to require evidence thereof from those who were baptized. Pastor David Benedict published his General History of the Baptist Denomination in America in 1813. He labored eight years on this monumental work, during the process of which he traveled nearly 7,000 miles through the southern and northern states and into Canada, gathering information on the churches. Most of these journeys were alone, on horse back, and in wilderness regions of the country.
His history frequently mentions the caution with which the Baptist churches received members. They had a custom called “hearing the experience,” which preceded baptism. The following, for example, is a description of a revival that took place in 1807 in Argyle, Nova Scotia:
“Many were wounded to their hearts, and made to groan under the weight of their sins. The last Sabbath in March, twenty came forward and were baptized. I must conclude with adding, that one hundred and twenty have been baptized. There were five baptisms in the winter season. Twenty-four have TOLD THEIR EXPERIENCES, who are not yet baptized, and a number of others are under hopeful impressions. The work is still going on in this place, and spreading rapidly in different parts of the province” (Benedict, A General History of the Baptist Denomination, vol. I, chapter 8).
We see many important differences between the method of evangelism practiced by these Baptist forefathers and that practiced by many independent Baptists today. First, they
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