Why Baptist History?

Over the years, many people have asked the question, "What is the purpose of knowing Baptist history?" The purpose is the same for a Baptist to know Baptist history as it is for an American to know American history. When we know and understand our heritage, it alters our decisions and how we choose to live the way we do. One of the reasons America has strayed so far from God is because we have forgotten the basis upon which this country was built, the very same basis that the first settlers came here for: to worship God according to our own conscience.

This is the same reason we must know about our own heritage as Baptists. Without knowing our heritage, we become ignorant of who we are, and ungrateful for what we have today. Ignorance of our past brings complacency. As Baptists, we have a bloody past, where many people have been tortured, killed, and mutilated for their faith. That is the heritage we are a part of. Knowing our past ought to give us a passion for Christ that we have not had before.

If we know our history, It will bring more converts. People respect others with knowledge, but if someone where to base their confidence in your faith based upon the degree you know your own history, would they get saved? We need to know our heritage.

Consider what God said in His Scriptures about knowing history:

Deuteronomy 32:7 - Remember the days of old, consider the years of many generations: ask thy father, and he will shew thee; thy elders, and they will tell thee.

Job 8:8 - For enquire, I pray thee, of the former age, and prepare thyself to the search of their fathers:

Psalms 102:18 - This shall be written for the generation to come: and the people which shall be created shall praise the LORD.

Hebrews 10:32 - But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions;