Baadhi ya maandishi haya bado hayajatafsiriwa kwa Kiswahili; sehemu hizo zinaonyeshwa kwa Kiingereza.

Kusoma mitazamo tofauti ya kiteolojia. Masomo ya kihistoria yanaeleza mitazamo ya waandishi wake, ikiwemo mapokeo ya Kiarminiani na ya Kireformed au ya Kikalvini. Kujumuishwa hakufanyi msimamo wa mwandishi kuwa fundisho thabiti la CTS. Soma pamoja na Maandiko na nyenzo zilizopangwa. Jibu lenye hoja kutoka mtazamo mwingine wa kiinjili linapaswa kupimwa kwa hoja zake, si kuadhibiwa kwa sababu tu linatofautiana na mwandishi. Ikiwa alama ya kompyuta inakataa jibu kama hilo, omba CTS ilipitie.

Masomo Yaliyopangwa ya Uzamili (yote matano)

Wanafunzi wa M.Div. na Th.M. husoma masomo yote matano yaliyopangwa na kufanya mtihani wake tofauti baada ya kuanzishwa. Ukurasa wa mtihani unaeleza kanuni ya sasa; ukamilishaji halali wa awali unabaki halali.

Heshima ya Hiari (chagua matatu)

Heshima ni ya hiari kwa kila programu. Wanafunzi wa Cheti na wa Shahada ya Mshiriki wanaweza kusoma masomo matatu ya heshima bila mtihani wa masomo ya lazima. Heshima haichukui nafasi ya mtihani wowote wa Uzamili.

The Master's textbook test: read A History of the Baptists (selections) — Thomas Armitage, then take its test: twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once. Correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. It is separate from the reading test on the five digests below: passing one does not pass the other. On the M.Div. and Th.M. tracks both tests are being introduced; each test's page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take them, and a pass is kept in your record.

The Master's reading test: separate from the honors invitation below. Honors asks you to read any three of these digests; the Master's test covers all five. It has twenty fill-in-the-blank questions, four from each reading, drawn from forty; eighteen right passes. Each answer is marked right or wrong at once; correct answers and explanations are available after the attempt passes. You may try again after a short wait. The test is being introduced: its page says whether it is in force yet. Until then any student may take it, and a pass is kept in your record.

Chaguo la heshima: Kamilisha masomo matatu yoyote kati ya matano yaliyo hapa chini. Masomo haya yanaongeza kozi na hayachukui nafasi ya sehemu zake wala mitihani yake.

Kwenye tovuti hii: Kila moja ya masomo matano ni muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala, ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana hapa kwenye tovuti — kila mmoja unafunguka moja kwa moja kutoka ukurasa huu, bila kupakua chochote. Kila kadi inataja kitabu ambacho muhtasari wake umetokana nacho.

Yaliyochaguliwa: 0 kati ya 3

Somo la 1 · Visible Succession

A Spring in the Sea

A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Introductory Chapter, “Have We a Visible Succession of Baptist Churches down from the Apostles?”

Armitage, a New York Baptist pastor, asks whether true churches must trace an unbroken visible line to the apostles. Like a fresh spring rising in the sea off Cuba, he answers, purity can flow without visible succession. This digest sets his view beside the Landmark succession view and the English Separatist evidence of 1609, 1612 and 1644, with charity toward both.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Muhtasari wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — muhtasari asilia ulioandikwa na CTS, unaopatikana kwa Kiingereza, Kihispania na Kifaransa, unaosomeka bila mtandao. Huu ni muhtasari wa CTS, si maandishi kamili ya chanzo asilia.

Chemchemi Baharini: Armitage Kuhusu Urithi UnaoonekanaA Spring in the Sea: Armitage on Visible Succession

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — jinsi mchungaji Mbaptisti wa karne ya kumi na tisa alivyojibu swali, “Je, makanisa ya Kibaptisti yanaweza kufuatilia mstari usiokatika hadi kwa mitume?”, na kwa nini swali hilo bado lina maana katika makanisa yetuA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — how a nineteenth-century Baptist pastor answered the question “Can Baptist churches trace an unbroken line back to the apostles?”, and why the question still matters in our churches

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Sura ya Utangulizi, “Je, Tunao Urithi Unaoonekana wa Makanisa ya Kibaptisti Tangu Mitume?” Kitabu asilia kiko katika umma (public domain); nukuu fupi zifuatazo zimetoka humo, kwa tahajia ya kisasa.A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Introductory Chapter, “Have We a Visible Succession of Baptist Churches down from the Apostles?” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it, in modern spelling.

A History of the Baptists, Sura ya UtanguliziA History of the Baptists, Introductory Chapter
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18871887
Thomas ArmitageThomas Armitage

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Kozi hii imeandikwa kutoka ndani ya familia ya Kibaptisti, na inaheshimu kila tawi la familia hiyo. Baadhi ya wanafunzi wetu wanatoka katika makanisa ya Wabaptisti wa Kimisionari (Missionary Baptist) na ya Landmark yanayofundisha urithi usiokatika wa makanisa ya kweli tangu wakati wa Kristo. Wengine walifundishwa kwamba Wabaptisti walianza miongoni mwa Wanaojitenga wa Kiingereza mwanzoni mwa miaka ya 1600. Armitage, mchungaji Mbaptisti, anachukua njia ya tatu kati ya hizo mbili. Msome kwa uangalifu na kwa upendo, na jaribu kila dai, lake na letu, kwa Maandiko na kwa ushahidi. A word before you read. This course is written from inside the Baptist family, and it honors every branch of that family. Some of our students come from Missionary Baptist and Landmark churches that teach an unbroken succession of true churches from the time of Christ. Others were taught that Baptists began among English Separatists in the early 1600s. Armitage, a Baptist pastor, takes a third road between them. Read him carefully and charitably, and test every claim, including his and ours, by Scripture and by the evidence.

1.Mchungaji Aliyeandika Historia1.The Pastor Who Wrote the History

Thomas Armitage alizaliwa Pontefract, Yorkshire, Uingereza, mwaka 1819. Alianza kama mhubiri Mmethodisti, akavuka hadi Marekani mwaka 1838, na mwaka 1848 akawa Mbaptisti kwa usadikisho, baada ya kujifunza kwa muda mrefu juu ya ubatizo katika Agano Jipya. Mwaka huohuo akawa mchungaji wa kanisa huko New York ambalo lilikua na kuwa Kanisa la Kibaptisti la Fifth Avenue, na alilihudumia kwa takriban miaka arobaini. Alisaidia kuanzisha Umoja wa Biblia wa Marekani (American Bible Union) mwaka 1850, uliofanya kazi kwa ajili ya tafsiri ya uaminifu ya Maandiko kwa Kiingereza. Historia yake kubwa ilipotokea mwaka 1887, alikuwa mmoja wa wahubiri Wabaptisti wanaojulikana zaidi Amerika. Alikufa mwaka 1896. Armitage aliandika kama mchungaji, si kama profesa wa chuo kikuu. Aliwapenda watu wake, aliandika kwa joto na wakati mwingine kwa hasira, na alitaka Wabaptisti wajue kwamba imani zao hazikuwa uvumbuzi mpya bali ni kurudisha kweli ya Agano Jipya. Kusudi hilo linaunda sura hii ya ufunguzi.Thomas Armitage was born in Pontefract, Yorkshire, England, in 1819. He began as a Methodist preacher, crossed to the United States in 1838, and in 1848 became a Baptist by conviction, after long study of baptism in the New Testament. That same year he became pastor of the church in New York that grew into the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church, and he served it for about forty years. He helped to found the American Bible Union in 1850, which worked for a faithful English translation of the Scriptures. When his large history appeared in 1887, he was one of the best-known Baptist preachers in America. He died in 1896. Armitage wrote as a pastor, not as a university professor. He loved his people, he wrote warmly and sometimes angrily, and he wanted Baptists to know that their convictions were not new inventions but the recovery of New Testament truth. That aim shapes this opening chapter.

2.Chemchemi ya Maji Safi Katikati ya Bahari2.A Spring of Fresh Water in the Open Sea

Armitage anaanza kwa picha ambayo itawavutia wanafunzi wetu wa Kuba. Kando ya pwani ya kusini ya Kuba, katika Ghuba ya Jagua (anaandika “Xagua”), chemchemi ya maji safi hububujika kutoka sakafu ya bahari na kusukuma kando maji ya chumvi yanayoizunguka, hivi kwamba mabaharia wangeweza kuteka maji ya kunywa katikati ya bahari kuu. Mahali pengine, anabainisha, chemchemi tamu hutiririka chini ya bahari na hazifiki kamwe juu ya uso. Kutokana na hili anatoa hoja yake kuu. Kunaweza kuwa na mtiririko unaoonekana bila usafi, na “kunaweza kuwa na usafi endelevu bila mtiririko wa urithi unaoonekana.” Uhai wa kanisa la Kristo, anahoji, hautegemei mstari wa makanisa tunaoweza kuufuatilia kwenye ramani. Unategemea uaminifu kwa Agano Jipya. Kanisa linalosimama leo juu ya kweli ya kitume ni la kitume, “bila uhusiano na kanisa jingine lolote la zamani au la sasa.”Armitage opens with a picture that will interest our Cuban students. Off the southern coast of Cuba, in the Bay of Jagua (he spells it “Xagua”), a spring of fresh water rises from the sea floor and pushes aside the salt water around it, so that sailors could draw drinking water in the middle of the ocean. Elsewhere, he notes, fresh springs flow along the bottom of the sea and never reach the surface at all. From this he draws his thesis. There may be a visible flow without purity, and “there may be continuous purity without a flow of visible succession.” The life of Christ’s church, he argues, does not depend on a line of churches we can trace on a map. It depends on faithfulness to the New Testament. A church that stands on apostolic truth today is apostolic, “without relation to any other church past or present.”

3.Kwa Nini Urithi Una Maana kwa Wabaptisti Wengi Hivyo3.Why Succession Matters to So Many Baptists

Lazima kwanza tuuelewe mtazamo ambao Armitage anauhoji, na kuuelewa kwa heshima. Katikati ya karne ya kumi na tisa, James R. Graves wa Tennessee, pamoja na James M. Pendleton na Amos C. Dayton, waliongoza harakati inayojulikana kama Landmarkism (Ualama wa Mipaka). Jina lake linatoka Mithali 22:28, “Usiondoe mpaka wa zamani” (kwa Kiingereza, landmark). Kijitabu cha Pendleton An Old Landmark Re-set (1854) kilihoji kwamba ni makanisa tu yanayoshikilia ubatizo wa waumini kwa kuzamishwa na utawala wa kikusanyiko ndiyo makanisa ya kweli. Graves pia alichapisha tena historia ya G. H. Orchard ya “Wabaptisti wa nje,” iliyofuatilia makutaniko waaminifu kupitia makundi kama Wanovatian, Wapaulikian, Waalbigensia na Wawaldensia. Mwaka 1931 kitabu kidogo cha J. M. Carroll The Trail of Blood kilipeleka maelezo haya kwa maelfu ya makanisa. Leo Chama cha Kibaptisti cha Marekani (American Baptist Association), Chama cha Kibaptisti cha Kimisionari cha Amerika (Baptist Missionary Association of America), na makanisa mengi ya Wabaptisti wa Kimisionari yanashikilia namna fulani ya urithi wa makanisa. Wasiwasi wao wa kina zaidi si majivuno ya ukale. Ni imani katika ahadi ya Kristo katika Mathayo 16:18 kwamba “malango ya kuzimu hayatalishinda” kanisa lake. Kama Kristo alishika neno lake, wanahoji, makanisa yake ya kweli lazima yalikuwepo katika kila karne. Usadikisho huo unastahili heshima, na kila Mbaptisti anashiriki imani iliyo nyuma yake.We must first understand the view Armitage questions, and understand it with respect. In the middle of the nineteenth century, James R. Graves of Tennessee, with James M. Pendleton and Amos C. Dayton, led the movement known as Landmarkism. Its name comes from Proverbs 22:28, “Remove not the ancient landmark.” Pendleton’s booklet An Old Landmark Re-set (1854) argued that only churches holding believer’s baptism by immersion and congregational government are true churches. Graves also republished G. H. Orchard’s history of “foreign Baptists,” which traced faithful congregations through groups such as the Novatians, Paulicians, Albigenses and Waldenses. In 1931 J. M. Carroll’s small book The Trail of Blood carried this account to many thousands of churches. Today the American Baptist Association and the Baptist Missionary Association of America, and many Missionary Baptist churches, hold some form of church succession. Their deepest concern is not pride in age. It is faith in Christ’s promise in Matthew 16:18 that “the gates of hell shall not prevail” against His church. If Christ kept His word, they reason, His true churches must have existed in every century. That conviction deserves honor, and every Baptist shares the faith behind it.

4.Hoja Nne za Armitage4.Armitage’s Four Arguments

Armitage anashiriki imani hiyo lakini anafikia hitimisho tofauti. Anatoa sababu nne. Kwanza, Kristo hakuwahi kulifanya kanisa moja kuwa “mama” wa jingine kama sharti la kuwa halali. Katika Agano Jipya, waumini, na wakati mwingine Wakristo wa kawaida ambao hawakuwa mitume, walipanda makanisa mapya wakiwa na Injili tu mikononi mwao. Watu huzaliwa na Mungu, si na kanisa. Pili, Kristo aliahidi kwamba kanisa lake halitaangamia kamwe, lakini hakuahidi kwamba litaonekana daima. Kama yule mwanamke wa Ufunuo 12, mara nyingi limefichwa nyikani, kisha likajitokeza tena “katika uamsho wa kweli za zamani miongoni mwa watu wapya.” Tatu, Kristo hakuahidi kulinda kanisa lolote bila kosa. Kudai mstari safi usiokatika ni kudai aina ya kutokosea, ambalo ndilo dai ambalo Wabaptisti wanalikataa kwa Roma. Nne, historia imesukumwa mbele zaidi na wanaume na wanawake mmoja mmoja waliosimama kwa ajili ya kweli, mara nyingi peke yao, kuliko na mashirika yaliyopangwa. Kwa sababu hizi zote Armitage anasema kwamba “mafundisho safi, kama yanavyopatikana bila uharibifu katika neno la Mungu, ndiyo mstari pekee usiokatika wa urithi.” Anamnukuu Mbaptisti Mwingereza Robert Robinson, aliyeuita urithi usiokatika “chambo cha kudanganya, mtego uliotegwa na hila ya hoja za uongo.” Hata anamnukuu Ambrose: wale wasio na imani ya Petro si warithi wa Petro.Armitage shares the faith but draws a different conclusion. He gives four reasons. First, Christ never made one church the “mother” of another as a condition of being valid. In the New Testament, believers, and sometimes ordinary Christians who were not apostles, planted new churches with only the gospel in their hands. People are born of God, not of a church. Second, Christ promised that His church would never perish, but He never promised that it would always be visible. Like the woman in Revelation 12, she has often been hidden in the wilderness, and then has come forth again “in the revival of old truths amongst a new people.” Third, Christ never promised to keep any church free from error. To claim an unbroken pure line is to claim a kind of infallibility, which is the very claim Baptists reject in Rome. Fourth, history has been carried forward far more by individual men and women who stood for truth, often alone, than by organized bodies. For all these reasons Armitage says that “pure doctrine, as it is found uncorrupted in the word of God, is the only unbroken line of succession.” He quotes the English Baptist Robert Robinson, who called uninterrupted succession “a specious lure, a snare set by sophistry.” He even quotes Ambrose: those who lack the faith of Peter are not Peter’s successors.

5.Kile Ushahidi Unachoonyesha5.What the Evidence Shows

Wanahistoria wengi wa leo, Wabaptisti na wasio Wabaptisti, wanaona mwanzo wa wazi zaidi wa kihistoria wa makanisa ya kisasa ya Kibaptisti miongoni mwa Wanaojitenga wa Kiingereza, Wapuritani walioacha matumaini ya kulitengeneza Kanisa la Uingereza na kuunda makutaniko yao wenyewe. Mwaka 1609, huko Amsterdam, mchungaji aliyehamishwa John Smyth na mwanasheria Thomas Helwys waliongoza kusanyiko lao kukataa ubatizo wa watoto wachanga na kuwabatiza waumini kwa kukiri imani. Mwaka 1612 Helwys alirudi London na kukusanya Spitalfields kanisa la kwanza la Kibaptisti katika ardhi ya Uingereza. Hawa walikuwa Wabaptisti wa Jumla (General Baptists), walioshikilia kwamba Kristo alikufa kwa ajili ya wote. Mkondo wa pili, Wabaptisti Maalumu (Particular Baptists), walioshikilia mtazamo wa Kikalvini juu ya neema, ulitokana na kanisa la Wanaojitenga la Henry Jacob, John Lathrop na Henry Jessey huko London katika miaka ya 1630. Kufikia 1641 walikuwa wakifanya ubatizo kwa kuzamishwa, na mwaka 1644 makanisa saba ya London yalitoa Maungamo ya Kwanza ya London (First London Confession), yanayoeleza ubatizo kama “kuchovya au kuzamisha mwili mzima chini ya maji.” William Whitsitt, rais wa Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Kibaptisti ya Kusini, alipowasilisha ushahidi huu wa Kiingereza mwaka 1896, kelele ilikuwa kubwa kiasi kwamba alijiuzulu mwaka 1899. Nyaraka zenyewe hazina mabishano makubwa. Kinachojadiliwa ni maana yake kwa utambulisho wa Kibaptisti. Wanahistoria pia wanabainisha kwamba makundi mengi ya zama za kati katika orodha za urithi, kama Wapaulikian na Waalbigensia, yalishikilia imani ambazo hakuna Mbaptisti angezikubali, na kwamba Wawaldensia kwa kawaida walibatiza watoto wachanga. Armitage mwenyewe anakubali: makundi haya “yalishikilia kanuni moja au zaidi bainifu za Kibaptisti,” lakini hakuna hata moja lililokuwa la Kibaptisti kikamilifu.Most historians today, Baptist and non-Baptist, find the clearest historical beginning of the modern Baptist churches among English Separatists, Puritans who gave up hope of reforming the Church of England and formed their own congregations. In 1609, in Amsterdam, the exiled pastor John Smyth and the lawyer Thomas Helwys led their congregation to reject infant baptism and to baptize believers on profession of faith. In 1612 Helwys returned to London and gathered at Spitalfields the first Baptist church on English soil. These were the General Baptists, who held that Christ died for all. A second stream, the Particular Baptists, who held Calvinist views of grace, grew out of the Separatist church of Henry Jacob, John Lathrop and Henry Jessey in London in the 1630s. By 1641 they were practicing baptism by immersion, and in 1644 seven London churches issued the First London Confession, which describes baptism as “dipping or plunging the whole body under water.” When William Whitsitt, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, presented this English evidence in 1896, the outcry was so great that he resigned in 1899. The documents themselves are not in serious dispute. What is debated is what they mean for Baptist identity. Historians also note that many of the medieval groups in the succession lists, such as the Paulicians and Albigenses, held beliefs no Baptist would accept, and that the Waldenses mostly baptized infants. Armitage himself agrees: these groups “held one or more distinctive Baptist principles,” but none was thoroughly Baptist.

6.Njia Tatu za Kusimulia Hadithi6.Three Ways to Tell the Story

Wanafunzi watakutana na maelezo makuu matatu ya mwanzo wa Wabaptisti. Mtazamo wa urithi (successionist), unaoshikiliwa na Landmark na Wabaptisti wengi wa Kimisionari, unafundisha mstari endelevu wa makanisa ya kweli tangu Kristo, wakati mwingine ukifupishwa kama “Yerusalemu, Yordani, Yohana.” Mtazamo wa ujamaa na Waanabaptisti unawaona Wabaptisti kama jamaa wa karibu wa kiroho wa Waanabaptisti wa karne ya kumi na sita, ambao nao pia waliwabatiza waumini, bila kudai mstari wa moja kwa moja. Mtazamo wa Wanaojitenga wa Kiingereza unaweka tarehe ya harakati ya Kibaptisti iliyopangwa kuwa 1609 na 1612. Msimamo wa Armitage mwenyewe ni kivuli cha nne: urithi wa kanuni badala ya makutaniko. Anasisitiza kwamba “ukale wa kanuni” ni “jambo tofauti kabisa na ukale wa mashirika.” Kwa maana hiyo Wabaptisti ni wa kale kama Agano Jipya, hata kama makanisa yao ya sasa si hivyo. Angalia kwamba maoni yote manne yanakubaliana juu ya kile kilicho muhimu zaidi. Kanisa limejengwa juu ya Kristo, linaundwa na waumini waliozaliwa upya, na ubatizo wake na utaratibu wake lazima vifuate Maandiko. Mchungaji Mbaptisti wa Kimisionari na mwanahistoria Mbaptisti anayesoma kumbukumbu za Kiingereza wanaweza kusimama pamoja juu ya msingi huo.Students will meet three main accounts of Baptist beginnings. The successionist view, held by Landmark and many Missionary Baptists, teaches a continuous line of true churches since Christ, sometimes summed up as “Jerusalem, Jordan, John.” The Anabaptist kinship view sees Baptists as close spiritual relatives of the sixteenth-century Anabaptists, who also baptized believers, without claiming a direct line. The English Separatist view dates the organized Baptist movement from 1609 and 1612. Armitage’s own position is a fourth shade: a succession of principles rather than of congregations. He insists that “the antiquity of principles” is “quite another thing from the antiquity of organizations.” In that sense Baptists are as old as the New Testament, even if their present churches are not. Notice that all four views agree on what matters most. The church is built on Christ, it is made up of born-again believers, and its baptism and order must follow Scripture. A Missionary Baptist pastor and a Baptist historian who reads the English records can stand together on that ground.

7.Kile Mchungaji Mbaptisti Anachochukua Kutoka Humo7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It

Armitage anawaomba Wabaptisti wawe waaminifu zaidi ya yote. “Swali la uaminifu wa kweli,” anaandika, lina “uzito mkubwa zaidi katika historia ya Kibaptisti kuliko lile la ukale.” Pia anaonya kwamba “hakuna ukale unaoweza kutakasa” kosa “kuwa kweli.” Mchungaji anaweza kuchukua mafunzo matatu kutoka kwa sura hii. Kwanza, mamlaka yetu ni Biblia, si umri wa kanisa letu. Jirani Mkatoliki huko Jalisco anaposema, “Kanisa langu ni la zamani zaidi,” Mbaptisti hahitaji mti wa ukoo wa kushindana. Anahitaji Biblia iliyo wazi na kusanyiko linaloishi kile linachofundisha. Pili, tunaweza kushikilia imani zetu juu ya urithi kwa uthabiti na bado kusema kwa wema juu ya ndugu wanaosoma historia kwa njia tofauti. Armitage alitofautiana na wanahistoria wengi wa Kibaptisti, hata hivyo aliusifu “utauwa wao usio na hila.” Tatu, historia ya Kibaptisti ni hadithi ya waumini wa kawaida waliomtii Kristo kwa gharama kubwa. Makanisa yetu huko Meksiko, Kuba, Brazili, Nigeria na kwingineko yanahusika katika hadithi hiyo iwe mtu anaweza kufuatilia mstari wetu au la. Armitage anamaliza kwa usadikisho huu: haki ya Wabaptisti kuwepo inatokana na umoja wao na kweli aliyoitoa Kristo katika karne ya kwanza.Armitage asks Baptists to be honest above everything. “The question of veracity,” he writes, is of “vastly more moment in Baptist history than that of antiquity.” He also warns that “no antiquity can sanctify” error “into truth.” A pastor can take three lessons from this chapter. First, our authority is the Bible, not the age of our church. When a Catholic neighbor in Jalisco says, “My church is older,” a Baptist does not need a rival family tree. He needs an open Bible and a congregation that lives what it teaches. Second, we may hold our convictions about succession firmly and still speak kindly of brothers who read the history differently. Armitage disagreed with many Baptist historians, yet he praised their “piety without guile.” Third, Baptist history is the story of ordinary believers who obeyed Christ at great cost. Our churches in Mexico, Cuba, Brazil, Nigeria and beyond belong to that story whether or not anyone can trace our line. Armitage closes with this conviction: the right of Baptists to exist comes from their oneness with the truth Christ gave in the first century.

8.Kuuchukua Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Kanisa lako la nyumbani lilikufundisha nini kuhusu Wabaptisti walikotoka, na somo hili limethibitisha au kupinga hilo vipi? Ungemweleza vipi Mathayo 16:18 kwa mshiriki anayeogopa kwamba, bila urithi unaoonekana, makanisa ya Kibaptisti si makanisa ya kweli? Kwa njia gani kusanyiko lako linaonyesha “urithi” wake kwa uaminifu kwa Agano Jipya? Na unawezaje kusema juu ya mitazamo ya historia ya Wabaptisti wengine kwa upendo uleule unaotumaini watakuonyesha? For reflection. What did your home church teach you about where Baptists came from, and how has this reading confirmed or challenged it? How would you explain Matthew 16:18 to a member who fears that, without a visible succession, Baptist churches are not true churches? In what ways does your congregation show its “succession” by faithfulness to the New Testament? And how can you speak of other Baptists’ views of history with the same charity you hope they will show you?

Chagua

Somo la 2 · The Reformation and Münster

Peasants, Prophets and Peacemakers

A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), ch. IV, “The Reformation — Peasants’ War — Mühlhausen and Münster”

Armitage defends the peaceful believers who baptized on confession of faith against blame for the Peasants’ War and the violent kingdom at Münster. The digest tells the story of the Twelve Articles, Müntzer, the Swiss Brethren and the Schleitheim Confession, Münster’s fall and Menno Simons, and weighs Armitage’s fiery counterattack fairly, keeping what holds up and setting aside what does not.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Wakulima, Manabii na Wapatanishi: Armitage Kuhusu MünsterPeasants, Prophets and Peacemakers: Armitage on Münster

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — jinsi Armitage alivyoyatetea makanisa ya amani yaliyobatiza ya Matengenezo ya Kanisa dhidi ya lawama za Vita vya Wakulima na msiba wa Münster, na jinsi wanahistoria wanavyohukumu utetezi wake leoA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — how Armitage defended the peaceful baptizing churches of the Reformation from blame for the Peasants’ War and the tragedy of Münster, and how historians judge his defense today

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), sura ya IV, “Matengenezo ya Kanisa — Vita vya Wakulima — Mühlhausen na Münster.” Kitabu asilia kiko katika umma; nukuu fupi zifuatazo zimetoka humo, kwa tahajia ya kisasa.A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), chapter IV, “The Reformation — Peasants’ War — Mühlhausen and Münster.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it, in modern spelling.

A History of the Baptists, sura ya IVA History of the Baptists, ch. IV
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18871887
Thomas ArmitageThomas Armitage

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Kwa miaka mia tatu wapinzani walitumia neno moja, “Münster,” kuwatisha watu waepuke Wabaptisti. Armitage aliandika sura hii kulisafisha jina la waumini wa amani waliobatiza kwa kukiri imani. Jambo analolitetea ni la haki, na mengi ya historia yake yamesimama. Lakini sauti yake ni ya moto, na katika shambulio lake la kujibu dhidi ya Luther na Roma anarudia mashtaka fulani ambayo wanahistoria hawayakubali tena. CTS inafupisha mashtaka hayo kwa ufupi na haiyarudii. Soma kwa ajili ya kweli anayoitetea na ujifunze kutokana na jinsi anavyoitetea. A word before you read. For three hundred years opponents used one word, “Münster,” to frighten people away from Baptists. Armitage wrote this chapter to clear the name of the peaceful believers who baptized on confession of faith. His cause is just, and much of his history has held up. But his tone is hot, and in his counterattack on Luther and Rome he repeats some charges that historians no longer accept. CTS summarizes those charges briefly and does not repeat them. Read for the truth he defends and learn from the way he defends it.

1.Jina Lililotumiwa Kama Silaha1.A Name Used as a Weapon

Katika karne ya kumi na sita neno “Anabaptist” lilimaanisha “abatizaji-tena.” Lilikuwa jina la kisheria, na chini ya sheria ya zamani ya Kirumi dhidi ya kubatiza tena lingeweza kubeba hukumu ya kifo. Watawala Wakatoliki na Waprotestanti kwa pamoja waliitumia kwa karibu yeyote aliyekataa ubatizo wa watoto wachanga, na wakati mwingine, Armitage anabainisha, kwa Mprotestanti yeyote waliyetaka kumkandamiza. Baada ya 1535 neno hilo liliunganishwa milele na ufalme wa vurugu wa Münster. Wabaptisti wa Kiingereza walipotokea karne moja baadaye, maadui wao waliwaita pia Waanabaptisti, na maungamo mengi ya Kibaptisti, ikiwemo Maungamo ya London ya 1644, yalianza kwa kukataa jina hilo kama lisilo la haki. Lengo la Armitage katika sura hii ni kuwatenga “Wabaptisti waaminifu,” kama anavyowaita waumini wa amani, na “wazimu” wa Münster. Anatumia wanahistoria wa zamani wa Kiholanzi, waliowaita ndugu wa amani “Wabaptisti” na wanamapinduzi “Waanabaptisti.” Wanahistoria wa kisasa hutumia “Waanabaptisti” kwa wote wawili, lakini wanakubaliana na hoja yake kuu: harakati haikuwa kitu kimoja, na sehemu kubwa yake ilikuwa ya amani.In the sixteenth century the word “Anabaptist” meant “re-baptizer.” It was a legal label, and under the old Roman law against rebaptism it could carry a death sentence. Catholic and Protestant rulers alike used it for almost anyone who rejected infant baptism, and sometimes, Armitage notes, for any Protestant they wished to suppress. After 1535 the word was tied forever to the violent kingdom at Münster. When English Baptists appeared a century later, their enemies called them Anabaptists too, and many Baptist confessions, including the London Confession of 1644, opened by rejecting the label as unjust. Armitage’s goal in this chapter is to separate the “honest Baptists,” as he calls the peaceful believers, from the “madmen” of Münster. He uses the older Dutch historians, who called the peaceful brethren “Baptists” and the revolutionaries “Anabaptists.” Modern historians use “Anabaptist” for both, but they agree with his main point: the movement was not one thing, and most of it was peaceful.

2.Vita vya Wakulima, 1524–15252.The Peasants’ War, 1524–1525

Armitage anaanza na maasi makuu ya wakulima wa Kijerumani. Yuko sahihi kwamba vita hivi vilihusu hasa mkate, ardhi na haki, si ubatizo. Wakulima walifungwa kwenye ardhi ya mabwana wao, walitozwa kodi nzito, na walikatazwa kuvua samaki au kuwinda. Mnamo Machi 1525 Vifungu vyao Kumi na Viwili viliomba haki ya kuchagua wachungaji wao wenyewe, zaka za haki, kukomeshwa kwa utumwa wa ardhi, na mahakama za haki, kila dai likiungwa mkono na Maandiko. Armitage ananukuu ombi lao: “Kristo alitununua na kutukomboa kwa damu yake ya thamani, mchungaji pamoja na mkuu zaidi.” Maasi yalienea kutoka Rhine hadi Bohemia. Ngome na monasteri ziliteketea, na wakuu waliwaponda wakulima bila huruma. Armitage anatoa idadi ya karibu 160,000 waliokufa; makadirio ya kisasa mara nyingi ni karibu 100,000. Luther kwanza aliwakemea wakuu, kisha, maasi yalipokuwa ya vurugu, aliwahimiza kuwapiga waasi chini. Armitage anasisitiza kwamba “ni upuuzi mtupu” kuwaita wakulima hawa Waanabaptisti. Walikuwa Wakatoliki na Walutheri, na mabwana wao wengi walikuwa maaskofu.Armitage begins with the great rising of the German peasants. He is right that this war was mainly about bread, land and justice, not about baptism. Peasants were bound to their lords’ land, taxed heavily, and forbidden to fish or hunt. In March 1525 their Twelve Articles asked for the right to choose their own pastors, for fair tithes, for an end to serfdom, and for just courts, each demand backed by Scripture. Armitage quotes their plea: “Christ bought and redeemed us by his precious blood, the shepherd as well as the noblest.” The rising spread from the Rhine to Bohemia. Castles and monasteries burned, and the princes crushed the peasants without mercy. Armitage gives a figure near 160,000 dead; modern estimates are often near 100,000. Luther first rebuked the princes, then, when the revolt grew violent, urged them to strike the rebels down. Armitage insists that “it is simply absurd” to call these peasants Anabaptists. They were Catholics and Lutherans, and many of their lords were bishops.

3.Thomas Müntzer3.Thomas Müntzer

Kiongozi pekee wa kidini anayelaumiwa mara nyingi kwa vita ni Thomas Müntzer, aliyekuwa kasisi msomi aliyehubiri kwamba Mungu hivi karibuni angewaangamiza wasiomcha kwa mikono ya wateule. Aliongoza wakulima huko Mühlhausen na alikamatwa na kuuawa baada ya kushindwa huko Frankenhausen mwezi Mei 1525. Armitage anasema Müntzer hakuwa “kwa matumizi yoyote sahihi ya neno hilo” Mwanabaptisti, na kwamba wanahistoria walikuwa wameonyesha kuwa alikuwa dhidi ya Wabaptisti katika mambo makuu. Utafiti wa kisasa kwa kiasi kikubwa unakubaliana: Müntzer alikosoa ubatizo wa watoto wachanga lakini hakuwahi kufanya ubatizo wa waumini. Wanahistoria wanaongeza tahadhari moja. Viongozi wachache wa baadaye wa Waanabaptisti, kama Hans Hut, walikuwa wafuasi wa Müntzer, kwa hiyo mawazo yake ya mwisho wa dunia yalifika sehemu ya harakati. Armitage pia ana haki ya kutosha kusema kwamba hata Müntzer hapaswi “kuchafuliwa kuanzia kichwani hadi miguuni.”The one religious leader often blamed for the war is Thomas Müntzer, a learned former priest who preached that God would soon destroy the ungodly by the hands of the elect. He led peasants at Mühlhausen and was captured and executed after the defeat at Frankenhausen in May 1525. Armitage says Müntzer was not “in any proper use of the term” an Anabaptist, and that historians had shown he was opposed to the Baptists in the main points. Modern study largely agrees: Müntzer criticized infant baptism but never practiced believer’s baptism. Historians do add one caution. A few later Anabaptist leaders, such as Hans Hut, had been Müntzer’s followers, so his apocalyptic ideas did reach part of the movement. Armitage is also fair enough to say that even Müntzer should not be “blackened from head to foot.”

4.Ndugu wa Amani4.The Peaceful Brethren

Harakati ya kubatiza ilianza kimya kimya huko Zurich. Tarehe 21 Januari 1525, Conrad Grebel alimbatiza George Blaurock nyumbani, kisha Blaurock akabatiza wengine. Ndugu hawa wa Uswisi (Swiss Brethren) walikuwa wanafunzi wa mwanamatengenezo Ulrich Zwingli, lakini walihitimisha kwamba kanisa lazima liwe ushirika uliokusanywa wa waumini. Mnamo Februari 1527, wakikutana huko Schleitheim, walikubaliana juu ya vifungu saba, vilivyoandikwa hasa na mtawa wa zamani Michael Sattler. Maungamo ya Schleitheim yalifundisha ubatizo wa waumini, nidhamu ya kanisa, Meza ya Bwana kwa waliobatizwa, kujitenga na ulimwengu, wachungaji wanaochaguliwa na kanisa, kukataa upanga, na kukataa viapo. Sattler alichomwa moto huko Rottenburg Mei ile, na Felix Manz alizamishwa majini huko Zurich Januari 1527. Armitage anaonyesha kwamba huko Uswisi ndugu waliwaunga mkono wakulima kimaadili lakini “waliacha upanga ndani ya ala kwa ajili ya dhamiri.” Balthasar Hubmaier huko Waldshut ni kisa kigumu zaidi. Tofauti na Ndugu wa Uswisi, aliamini kwamba Mkristo angeweza kuhudumu kama hakimu, na wanahistoria bado wanajadili alivyofungamana kwa karibu na jambo la wakulima. Alichomwa moto huko Vienna mwaka 1528. Kauli mbiu yake, “kweli haifi,” imependwa na Wabaptisti tangu hapo.The baptizing movement began quietly in Zurich. On 21 January 1525, Conrad Grebel baptized George Blaurock in a home, and Blaurock then baptized others. These Swiss Brethren had been students of the reformer Ulrich Zwingli, but they concluded that the church must be a gathered fellowship of believers. In February 1527, meeting at Schleitheim, they agreed on seven articles, written mainly by the former monk Michael Sattler. The Schleitheim Confession taught believer’s baptism, church discipline, the Lord’s Supper for the baptized, separation from the world, pastors chosen by the church, refusal of the sword, and refusal of oaths. Sattler was burned at Rottenburg that May, and Felix Manz was drowned in Zurich in January 1527. Armitage shows that in Switzerland the brethren supported the peasants morally but “left the sword sheathed for conscience’ sake.” Balthasar Hubmaier at Waldshut is a harder case. Unlike the Swiss Brethren, he believed a Christian could serve as a magistrate, and historians still debate how closely he was tied to the peasant cause. He was burned in Vienna in 1528. His motto, “truth is immortal,” has been loved by Baptists ever since.

5.Msiba wa Münster, 1534–15355.The Tragedy of Münster, 1534–1535

Münster ulikuwa mji wa kaskazini-magharibi mwa Ujerumani ambapo mhubiri Mlutheri Bernhard Rothmann alikuwa amepata uungwaji mkono mpana. Mwaka 1534 wafuasi wenye msimamo mkali wa mwenye maono Melchior Hoffman walichukua udhibiti wa mji. Chini ya mwokaji wa Kiholanzi Jan Matthys, na baada ya kifo chake chini ya fundi cherehani Jan van Leiden (John wa Leiden), waliwafukuza wale waliokataa kubatizwa tena, wakashikilia mali zote kwa pamoja, na kutangaza “Yerusalemu Mpya.” Jan alijifanya mfalme na akaanzisha mitala. Jeshi la askofu liliuzingira mji, na mnamo Juni 1535 ulianguka. Viongozi waliteswa na kuuawa, na miili yao ilitundikwa katika vizimba vya chuma kwenye mnara wa Kanisa la St. Lambert, ambako vizimba hivyo bado vinaning’inia. Kwa karne nyingi baadaye, muumini yeyote aliyekataa ubatizo wa watoto wachanga angeweza kushutumiwa kwa kupanga Münster nyingine. Waanabaptisti wengi walikataa Münster tangu mwanzo. Menno Simons, kasisi wa Kiholanzi, aliandika dhidi ya makosa yake, aliliacha Kanisa Katoliki mwaka 1536, na akakusanya waumini wa amani waliotawanyika, ambao walikuja kuitwa Wamennonite.Münster was a city in northwestern Germany where the Lutheran preacher Bernhard Rothmann had won wide support. In 1534 radical followers of the visionary Melchior Hoffman took control of the city. Under the Dutch baker Jan Matthys, and after his death under the tailor Jan van Leiden (John of Leiden), they expelled those who would not be rebaptized, held all goods in common, and declared a “New Jerusalem.” Jan made himself king and introduced polygamy. The bishop’s army besieged the city, and in June 1535 it fell. The leaders were tortured and executed, and their bodies were hung in iron cages on the tower of St. Lambert’s Church, where the cages still hang. For centuries afterward, any believer who refused infant baptism could be accused of planning another Münster. Most Anabaptists rejected Münster from the start. Menno Simons, a Dutch priest, wrote against its errors, left the Catholic Church in 1536, and gathered the scattered peaceful believers who came to be called Mennonites.

6.Shambulio la Kujibu la Armitage6.Armitage’s Counterattack

Katika nusu ya pili ya sura Armitage anageukia kushambulia. Anahoji kwamba viongozi wa Münster walijifunza vurugu yao kutoka kwa walimu waliofundisha kwamba ni wajibu mtakatifu kuwachoma wazushi, na kwamba makosa yao kuhusu ndoa yalilingana na ushauri wa siri wa Luther wa 1539 uliomruhusu Philip wa Hesse kuoa mke wa pili, na kwa upotovu wa mapapa fulani wa zama za kati. Baadhi ya haya ni ya haki. Ushauri wa ndoa ya wake wawili kwa Philip ni jambo lililo kwenye kumbukumbu, na Armitage anaweka tofauti halisi: uhalifu wa Münster ulifanywa katika wazimu, ilhali makanisa ya Dola yaliweka mateso ndani ya sheria “katika ukuu ule baridi” wa kutunga sheria. Lakini baadhi ya nukuu zake zimechukuliwa nje ya muktadha au haziwezi kuthibitishwa, na dai lake kwamba Wabaptisti wa amani wa Kiholanzi walitokana na Wawaldensia wa zama za kati halijathibitishwa. Mwanahistoria Mkristo hapaswi kujibu kashfa kwa kashfa. Sehemu bora ya sura ni ushahidi wazi anaokusanya kutoka kwa wapinzani wenyewe. Wolfgang Capito wa Strasbourg alikiri utauwa wa ndugu. Mwanahistoria wa kanisa Philip Schaff aliiita “dhuluma kubwa kuliko zote” kuwalaumu Waanabaptisti kama hivyo kwa Münster.In the second half of the chapter Armitage turns to attack. He argues that the Münster leaders learned their violence from teachers who taught that it was a holy duty to burn heretics, and that their errors about marriage were matched by Luther’s secret advice of 1539 allowing Philip of Hesse to take a second wife, and by the corruption of some medieval popes. Some of this is fair. The bigamy advice to Philip is a matter of record, and Armitage draws a real distinction: Münster’s crimes were done in a frenzy, while the state churches put persecution into law “in that icy sublimity” of legislation. But some of his quotations are taken out of context or cannot be confirmed, and his claim that the peaceful Dutch Baptists descended from the medieval Waldenses has not been proven. A Christian historian must not answer slander with slander. The best part of the chapter is the plain evidence he gathers from opponents themselves. Wolfgang Capito of Strasbourg admitted the godliness of the brethren. The church historian Philip Schaff called it “the greatest injustice” to blame Anabaptists as such for Münster.

7.Kutoka kwa Waanabaptisti hadi kwa Wabaptisti7.From Anabaptists to Baptists

Wabaptisti wanahusiana vipi na waumini hawa? Mwaka 1609 kusanyiko la John Smyth huko Amsterdam lilikutana katika nyumba ya kuokea mikate iliyomilikiwa na Mmennonite, na Smyth baadaye alitaka kujiunga na Wamennonite wa Waterlander. Thomas Helwys alikataa na kuongoza kikundi kilichokuwa kanisa la kwanza la Kibaptisti la Kiingereza mwaka 1612. Kwa hiyo Wabaptisti si Wamennonite, lakini ni binamu wa karibu, wakishiriki ubatizo wa waumini, kanisa la waliozaliwa upya, na uhuru wa dhamiri. Leo familia ya Waanabaptisti wa amani inajumuisha Wamennonite, Waamish na Wahutteri, na makanisa yake makubwa zaidi sasa yako Afrika, Ethiopia na Kongo. Mchungaji Mbaptisti anachukua nini kutoka kwa sura hii? Kwanza, hatia kwa kuhusishwa ni dhambi dhidi ya amri ya tisa. Wainjilisti katika Amerika ya Kilatini mara nyingi wameitwa “dhehebu” hatari, na katika sehemu za kusini mwa Meksiko familia zimefukuzwa kutoka vijiji vyao kwa sababu ya imani yao. Hatupaswi kamwe kuwatendea wengine kama tulivyotendewa. Pili, Wabaptisti wanatofautiana miongoni mwao kuhusu vita na viapo, lakini Ndugu wa Uswisi wanatukumbusha kwamba ufalme wa Kristo hauendelei kwa upanga. Tatu, tunapowatetea watu wetu, lazima tuseme kweli hata juu ya wapinzani wetu.How are Baptists related to these believers? In 1609 John Smyth’s congregation in Amsterdam met in a bakehouse owned by a Mennonite, and Smyth later sought to join the Waterlander Mennonites. Thomas Helwys refused and led the group that became the first English Baptist church in 1612. So Baptists are not Mennonites, but they are close cousins, sharing believer’s baptism, a church of the regenerate, and liberty of conscience. Today the peaceful Anabaptist family includes Mennonites, Amish and Hutterites, and its largest churches are now in Africa, in Ethiopia and Congo. What does a Baptist pastor take from this chapter? First, guilt by association is a sin against the ninth commandment. Evangelicals in Latin America have often been called a dangerous “sect,” and in parts of southern Mexico families have been driven from their villages for their faith. We should never treat others as we have been treated. Second, Baptists differ among themselves about war and oaths, but the Swiss Brethren remind us that Christ’s kingdom does not advance by the sword. Third, when we defend our people, we must tell the truth even about our opponents.

8.Kuuchukua Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Je, wewe au kanisa lako mmewahi kuhukumiwa kwa mifano mibaya zaidi ya kundi mliloshirikishwa nalo? Ulihisije, na ulijibuje? Wapi unajaribiwa kuwaeleza Wakristo wengine, au dini nyingine, kwa wanachama wao mbaya zaidi? Ndugu wa Schleitheim walichagua mateso badala ya upanga. Ingekuwaje kwa kusanyiko lako kujibu uadui kwa uvumilivu huohuo? Na unawezaje kutetea ukweli kuhusu historia ya Wabaptisti bila uchungu kwa wale waliowakosea wazee wetu? For reflection. Have you or your church ever been judged by the worst examples of a group you were linked with? How did it feel, and how did you answer? Where are you tempted to describe other Christians, or other religions, by their worst members? The Schleitheim brethren chose suffering rather than the sword. What would it look like for your congregation to answer hostility with that same patience? And how can you defend the truth about Baptist history without bitterness toward those who wronged our forebears?

Chagua

Somo la 3 · John Bunyan

The Tinker in the Den

A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), British Baptists, ch. IV, “John Bunyan”

The tinker of Elstow spent twelve years in Bedford jail for preaching, while his wife pleaded before the judges and his blind daughter brought him food. Armitage tells the story tenderly, then argues like a lawyer from old parish registers that Bunyan never returned to infant baptism. The digest adds the Clarendon Code, Kiffin, Keach and the 1644 and 1689 confessions.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Mfua Bati Gerezani: Armitage Kuhusu John BunyanThe Tinker in the Den: Armitage on John Bunyan

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — maisha, miaka ya gerezani na ushuhuda wa kudumu wa John Bunyan, na hoja ya uangalifu ya Armitage kwamba mwandishi wa The Pilgrim’s Progress (Safari ya Msafiri) hakuwahi kurudi nyuma kutoka kwa imani zake kuhusu ubatizoA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — the life, prison years and lasting witness of John Bunyan, and Armitage’s careful argument that the author of The Pilgrim’s Progress never went back on his convictions about baptism

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Wabaptisti wa Uingereza, sura ya IV, “John Bunyan,” hadi sehemu ya “Uhusiano wa Bunyan na Wabaptisti.” Kitabu asilia kiko katika umma; nukuu fupi zifuatazo zimetoka humo, kwa tahajia ya kisasa.A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), British Baptists, chapter IV, “John Bunyan,” to the section “Bunyan’s Relations to the Baptists.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it, in modern spelling.

A History of the Baptists, Wabaptisti wa Uingereza, sura ya IVA History of the Baptists, British Baptists, ch. IV
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18871887
Thomas ArmitageThomas Armitage

Neno kabla ya kusoma. John Bunyan anapendwa na Wakristo wa kila mapokeo, na Wabaptisti na Wakongregationali wote wanamdai. Armitage anaandika kama Mbaptisti anayetaka kuonyesha kwamba Bunyan kweli alisimama pamoja na Wabaptisti. Sehemu ya kwanza ya somo inasimulia hadithi ya Bunyan kwa upole mkubwa. Sehemu ya pili ni utafiti mrefu, wa kimwanasheria, wa daftari za zamani za parokia. Usikose subira nayo. Inafundisha jinsi mwanahistoria anavyopima ushahidi, na inaonyesha jinsi kumbukumbu moja katika daftari inavyoweza kuwa na uzito mkubwa. A word before you read. John Bunyan is loved by Christians of every tradition, and both Baptists and Congregationalists claim him. Armitage writes as a Baptist who wants to show that Bunyan truly stood with the Baptists. The first part of the reading tells Bunyan’s story with great tenderness. The second part is a long, lawyer-like study of old parish registers. Do not lose patience with it. It teaches how a historian weighs evidence, and it shows how much a single entry in a record book can matter.

1.Mfua Bati wa Elstow1.The Tinker of Elstow

Bunyan alizaliwa mwaka 1628 huko Elstow, karibu na Bedford, mwana wa mfua bati, mtu aliyetengeneza sufuria na vyungu. Alikuwa na elimu kidogo tu. Armitage anamwelezea kama mvulana mwenye “moyo wa joto, mwepesi, wa furaha,” aliyependa kuapa na michezo, ingawa kwa neno lake mwenyewe hakuwahi kuwa mlevi. Akiwa kijana alihudumu katika jeshi la Bunge wakati wa Vita vya Wenyewe kwa Wenyewe vya Uingereza. Baada ya ndoa yake mke wake kijana alileta vitabu viwili vya Kipuritani nyumbani, na Bunyan akaanza mapambano marefu na yenye maumivu kwa ajili ya hakika ya wokovu, ambayo baadaye aliyaeleza katika Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). Kupitia ushauri wa John Gifford, mchungaji wa kusanyiko linalojitegemea huko Bedford, alipata amani katika Kristo, akajiunga na kanisa hilo katika miaka ya 1650, na punde akaanza kuhubiri. Armitage anabainisha kwamba Kiingereza cha Bunyan, kilichoundwa karibu kabisa na Biblia ya Kiingereza, kinamweka bega kwa bega na Shakespeare na Biblia yenyewe kama mlinzi wa lugha.Bunyan was born in 1628 at Elstow, near Bedford, the son of a tinker, a man who mended pots and pans. He had only a little schooling. Armitage describes him as a boy with a “warm, light, frolicsome heart,” given to swearing and games, though by his own word never a drunkard. As a teenager he served in Parliament’s army during the English Civil War. After his marriage his young wife brought two Puritan books into the home, and Bunyan began a long and painful struggle for assurance of salvation, which he later described in Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners (1666). Through the counsel of John Gifford, pastor of an independent congregation in Bedford, he found peace in Christ, joined that church in the 1650s, and soon began to preach. Armitage notes that Bunyan’s English, shaped almost entirely by the English Bible, puts him beside Shakespeare and the Bible itself as a guardian of the language.

2.Miaka Kumi na Miwili Katika Gereza la Bedford2.Twelve Years in Bedford Jail

Mfalme Charles II aliporudi kwenye kiti cha enzi mwaka 1660, alikuwa ameahidi uhuru kwa dhamiri nyeti, lakini Bunge hivi karibuni lilipitisha sheria kali dhidi ya ibada yote nje ya Kanisa la Uingereza. Bunyan alikamatwa mnamo Novemba 1660 kwa kuhubiri kwenye mkutano katika nyumba ya shamba. Armitage ananukuu hati ya mashtaka: alikuwa “amejizuia kwa kishetani na kwa madhara kutoka kuja kanisani.” Bunyan alikataa kuahidi kuacha kuhubiri, na alibaki katika gereza la kaunti, kukiwa na mapumziko mafupi, hadi 1672. Mke wake wa pili, Elizabeth, alikwenda mbele ya mahakimu mwaka 1661 kumsihi. Aliwaambia mume wake “hathubutu kuacha kuhubiri maadamu anaweza kusema.” Hakimu alipoita mafundisho yake mafundisho ya shetani, alijibu kwamba “hahubiri kitu ila neno la Mungu.” Bunyan mwenyewe aliandika kwamba kuachana na familia yake ilikuwa kama “kuvuliwa nyama yangu kutoka mifupani,” hasa kuachana na binti yake kipofu Mary. Ili kuwalisha, alitengeneza kamba ndefu za viatu zenye ncha za chuma ndani ya seli yake. Pia alihubiri kwa wafungwa wenzake na kuandika vitabu vingi. Aliachiliwa mwaka 1672 chini ya Tamko la Msamaha la Mfalme (Declaration of Indulgence), akawa mchungaji wa kanisa la Bedford, na kuhubiri kote Uingereza hadi kifo chake London mwaka 1688.When King Charles II returned to the throne in 1660, he had promised liberty to tender consciences, but Parliament soon passed harsh laws against all worship outside the Church of England. Bunyan was arrested in November 1660 for preaching to a meeting in a farmhouse. Armitage quotes the indictment: he had “devilishly and perniciously abstained from coming to church.” Bunyan refused to promise to stop preaching, and he stayed in the county jail, with short breaks, until 1672. His second wife, Elizabeth, went before the judges in 1661 to plead for him. She told them her husband “dare not leave off preaching so long as he could speak.” When a judge called his teaching the doctrine of the devil, she answered that he “preacheth nothing but the word of God.” Bunyan himself wrote that parting from his family was like “the pulling off my flesh from my bones,” above all from his blind daughter Mary. To feed them he made long tagged laces in his cell. He also preached to fellow prisoners and wrote many books. He was released in 1672 under the King’s Declaration of Indulgence, became pastor of the Bedford church, and preached across England until his death in London in 1688.

3.Kitabu Kilichozunguka Ulimwengu3.The Book That Went Round the World

The Pilgrim’s Progress, kilichochapishwa kwanza mwaka 1678, kinasimulia juu ya Mkristo, anayeondoka Mji wa Uharibifu akiwa na mzigo mgongoni mwake, anaingia kwenye Lango Dogo, anapoteza mzigo wake msalabani, na kupita Kinamasi cha Kukata Tamaa na Soko la Ubatili hadi Mji wa Mbinguni. Armitage anafurahi kwamba, baada ya Biblia, hakuna kitabu kilichotafsiriwa katika lugha nyingi hivyo. Anawaonyesha wasomaji katika mitaa ya London, Burma, Afrika, Yerusalemu na India. Leo kinasomwa kwa Kihispania kama El progreso del peregrino na kwa Kifaransa kama Le Voyage du pèlerin, na kimetafsiriwa katika zaidi ya lugha mia mbili, nyingi kati ya hizo Afrika. Armitage pia anabainisha kwamba mfua bati aliyeota ndoto, aliyewahi kufungwa kwa kukataa kuhudhuria kanisa la parokia, alikuja kuheshimiwa miongoni mwa watu wakuu wa Uingereza katika Majumba ya Bunge.The Pilgrim’s Progress, first published in 1678, tells of Christian, who leaves the City of Destruction with a burden on his back, enters at the Wicket Gate, loses his burden at the cross, and passes through the Slough of Despond and Vanity Fair to the Celestial City. Armitage rejoices that, after the Bible, no book had been translated into so many languages. He pictures readers in London streets, in Burma, in Africa, in Jerusalem and in India. Today it is read in Spanish as El progreso del peregrino and in French as Le Voyage du pèlerin, and it has been translated into more than two hundred languages, many of them in Africa. Armitage also notes that the dreaming tinker, once jailed for refusing to attend the parish church, came to be honored among England’s great men in the Houses of Parliament.

4.Wabaptisti Katika Uingereza ya Urejesho4.Baptists in Restoration England

Mateso ya Bunyan ni sehemu ya hadithi kubwa zaidi. Kati ya 1661 na 1665 Bunge lilipitisha sheria zinazoitwa mara nyingi Kanuni za Clarendon: Sheria ya Umoja ya 1662 (Act of Uniformity) iliifanya Kitabu cha Sala kuwa namna pekee halali ya ibada, Sheria ya Mikutano ya 1664 (Conventicle Act) iliadhibu mikutano isiyo na leseni, na Sheria ya Maili Tano ya 1665 (Five Mile Act) iliwazuia wahudumu wasiokubaliana na Kanisa rasmi kuwa karibu na miji. Wabaptisti walipata faini, kifungo na kupoteza mali. Mfanyabiashara Mbaptisti Maalumu William Kiffin alitumia utajiri wake kuwasaidia, na Benjamin Keach aliwekwa kwenye mnyororo wa hadhara (pillory) mwaka 1664 kwa kuandika katekisimu ya watoto. Wabaptisti Maalumu hawa walikuwa tayari wamechapisha Maungamo ya Kwanza ya London ya 1644. Mwaka 1677 waliandaa kimya kimya maungamo ya pili, yaliyotegemea kwa karibu Maungamo ya Westminster, na baada ya Sheria ya Uvumilivu ya 1689 (Act of Toleration) waliyakubali waziwazi. Maungamo ya Pili ya London ya 1689, yaliyokubaliwa baadaye Amerika kama Maungamo ya Philadelphia ya 1742, bado yanatumiwa na makanisa mengi ya Kibaptisti. Bunyan alikufa Agosti 1688, miezi michache tu kabla ya mabadiliko ya watawala yaliyofanya uvumilivu huo uwezekane. Armitage anabainisha kwamba alikufa wakati Uingereza ilikuwa karibu kuwa taifa “ambamo Wabaptisti wangeweza kupumua kwa uhuru.”Bunyan’s sufferings belong to a larger story. Between 1661 and 1665 Parliament passed the laws often called the Clarendon Code: the Act of Uniformity of 1662 made the Prayer Book the only lawful form of worship, the Conventicle Act of 1664 punished unlicensed meetings, and the Five Mile Act of 1665 kept dissenting ministers away from towns. Baptists suffered fines, prison and the loss of goods. The Particular Baptist merchant William Kiffin used his wealth to help them, and Benjamin Keach was put in the pillory in 1664 for writing a catechism for children. These Particular Baptists had already published the First London Confession of 1644. In 1677 they quietly prepared a second confession, closely based on the Westminster Confession, and after the Act of Toleration of 1689 they adopted it openly. The Second London Confession of 1689, later adopted in America as the Philadelphia Confession of 1742, is still used by many Baptist churches. Bunyan died in August 1688, only months before the change of rulers that made such toleration possible. Armitage notes he died just as England was about to become a nation “in which Baptists could breathe freely.”

5.Je, Bunyan Alikuwa Mbaptisti?5.Was Bunyan a Baptist?

Bunyan huenda alibatizwa kama muumini, kwa mapokeo katika Mto Ouse, na alijisema kuwa anaitwa kwa jina la “Mwanabaptisti.” Hata hivyo kanisa lake huko Bedford lilipokea washiriki bila kujali kama walikuwa wamebatizwa kama waumini au la. Mwaka 1672 na 1673 alibishana na Wabaptisti wa London, akiwemo William Kiffin, katika vitabu kama Differences in Judgment about Water Baptism No Bar to Communion (1673). Bunyan alitetea ushirika wazi: imani katika Kristo, si ubatizo, ndio mlango wa kuingia kwenye Meza ya Bwana. Kiffin na Wabaptisti Maalumu wengi walishikilia ushirika funge. Armitage anaonyesha kwamba Bunyan bado alichukulia ubatizo wa watoto wachanga kuwa udhaifu. Kiffin alipomshtaki kwa kuwaruhusu washiriki katika “dhambi ya ubatizo wa watoto wachanga,” Bunyan alijibu, “Hatuwaruhusu kwayo,” bali tunaustahimili “udhaifu wa walio dhaifu.” Wabaptisti wa leo bado wanajadili swali hili. Makanisa mengi yanatumia ushirika funge au karibu-funge, na mengi yanamfuata Bunyan katika kuwakaribisha waumini wote kwenye Meza huku wakibatiza waumini tu.Bunyan was probably baptized as a believer, by tradition in the River Ouse, and he spoke of himself as going under the name of “Anabaptist.” Yet his church at Bedford received members whether or not they had been baptized as believers. In 1672 and 1673 he debated the London Baptists, including William Kiffin, in books such as Differences in Judgment about Water Baptism No Bar to Communion (1673). Bunyan argued for open communion: faith in Christ, not baptism, is the door to the Lord’s Table. Kiffin and most Particular Baptists held closed communion. Armitage shows that Bunyan still regarded infant baptism as a weakness. When Kiffin accused him of indulging members in “the sin of infant baptism,” Bunyan answered, “We indulge them not,” but bear with “the infirmities of the weak.” Baptists today still discuss this question. Many churches practice closed or close communion, and many follow Bunyan in welcoming all believers to the Table while baptizing only believers.

6.Kisa cha Daftari la Parokia6.The Case of the Parish Register

Sehemu kubwa ya somo hili ni jibu la Armitage kwa dai lililotolewa na mwandishi wa wasifu wa Bunyan, John Brown, mhudumu wa kanisa la Bedford. Brown alipata kwamba binti wa kwanza wa Bunyan, Mary, aliandikwa kama aliyebatizwa huko Elstow mwaka 1650, na kwamba Joseph, mwana wa John Bunyan, alibatizwa (christened) katika kanisa la St. Cuthbert huko Bedford mwaka 1672. Je, Bunyan, aliyetoka tu gerezani, alimbeba mwanawe kwenye kanisa la parokia alilolikataa kwa miaka kumi na miwili? Armitage anafanya kazi kama mwanasheria. Anaonyesha kwamba daftari la 1654 linaandika kuzaliwa tu kwa binti ya Bunyan Elizabeth. Anaeleza kwamba Sheria ya Bunge ya Agosti 1653 ilikuwa imeyaondoa madaftari kutoka kwa makasisi na kuyakabidhi kwa “Msajili wa Parokia” wa kiraia aliyechaguliwa, aliyeandika kuzaliwa, si ubatizo. Kwa hiyo kumbukumbu ya 1654, anahoji, ilikuwa upinzani wa kimya wa Bunyan dhidi ya ubatizo wa watoto wachanga. Kisha anahoji kwamba Joseph wa 1672 huenda alikuwa mjukuu wa Bunyan, mwana wa John Bunyan mdogo. Anaonyesha kwamba kanisa la Bedford, kwa msaada wa Bunyan, lilikuwa limewatenga wanachama wawili kwa kufuata Kanisa la Uingereza. Waandishi wa wasifu wa kisasa wamegawanyika. Wengi wanachukulia kumbukumbu ya 1672 kuwa ya mwana wa Bunyan mwenyewe, labda aliyebatizwa kwa ombi la mke wake, wakati wengine wanakubali mashaka ya Armitage. Swali haliwezi kutatuliwa bila nyaraka mpya. Armitage mwenyewe anatukumbusha kwamba “kwa kukosekana kwa nyaraka tunabaki na uwezekano wa kudhani.”Most of this reading is Armitage’s answer to a claim made by Bunyan’s biographer John Brown, minister of the Bedford church. Brown found that Bunyan’s first daughter, Mary, was entered as baptized at Elstow in 1650, and that a Joseph, son of John Bunyan, was christened at St. Cuthbert’s church in Bedford in 1672. Did Bunyan, just out of prison, carry his son to the parish church he had refused for twelve years? Armitage works like a lawyer. He shows that the register of 1654 records only the birth of Bunyan’s daughter Elizabeth. He explains that an Act of Parliament in August 1653 had taken the registers away from the clergy and given them to an elected civil “Parish Register,” who recorded births, not baptisms. So the 1654 entry, he argues, was Bunyan’s quiet protest against infant baptism. He then argues that the Joseph of 1672 was probably Bunyan’s grandson, the son of John Bunyan junior. He points out that the Bedford church, with Bunyan’s support, had just excluded two members for conforming to the Church of England. Modern biographers are divided. Many take the 1672 entry as Bunyan’s own son, perhaps baptized at his wife’s wish, while others accept Armitage’s doubts. The question cannot be settled without new documents. Armitage himself reminds us that “in the absence of documents we are left to conjectural probability.”

7.Kile Mchungaji Mbaptisti Anachochukua Kutoka Humo7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It

Bunyan anawafundisha wachungaji kuendelea kuhubiri sheria inapokataza, kwa upole na bila uchungu. Mlinzi wake wa gereza alimwamini sana hivi kwamba wakati mwingine alimruhusu kulitembelea kanisa lake. Anatufundisha kwamba familia hulipa gharama ya uaminifu wa mchungaji, na kwamba lazima tuijali kwa upole. Mjadala wake na Kiffin unaonyesha kwamba Wabaptisti wanaweza kutofautiana vikali juu ya Meza ya Bwana na bado kuheshimiana. Na utafiti wa Armitage wa madaftari unaonyesha kwa nini usajili wa kiraia wa kuzaliwa, ndoa na mazishi ulikuwa na maana kubwa hivyo kwa wasiokubaliana na Kanisa rasmi. Katika nchi nyingi za Amerika ya Kilatini, Wabaptisti na wainjilisti wengine vivyo hivyo walipokea madaftari ya kiraia na makaburi ya umma, kwa sababu yaliwaokoa kutegemea kanisa la Dola kuthibitisha kuzaliwa kwa watoto wao au kuzika wafu wao. Hatimaye, Armitage anatoa kielelezo cha matumizi makini ya ushahidi, hata kama hitimisho lake linabaki lisilo hakika.Bunyan teaches pastors to keep preaching when the law forbids it, with gentleness and without bitterness. His jailer trusted him so much that he sometimes let him visit his church. He teaches us that a family pays the price of a pastor’s faithfulness, and that we must care for them with tenderness. His debate with Kiffin shows that Baptists can disagree sharply about the Lord’s Table and still honor one another. And Armitage’s study of the registers shows why civil registration of births, marriages and burials mattered so much to dissenters. In many Latin American countries, Baptists and other evangelicals likewise welcomed civil registers and public cemeteries, because they freed them from depending on a state church to prove their children’s birth or to bury their dead. Finally, Armitage models careful use of evidence, even if his conclusions remain uncertain.

8.Kuuchukua Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Bunyan alisema lazima ‘ahatarishe yote kwa Mungu,’ ingawa kuiacha familia yake kulikuwa kunagusa ‘moyoni.’ Uaminifu kwa Kristo umekugharimu nini wewe au viongozi unaowajua? Unaijali vipi familia ya mchungaji nyakati za shinikizo? Msimamo wako uko wapi juu ya ushirika wazi na funge, na je, unaweza kueleza mtazamo mwingine kwa haki? Na ushahidi kuhusu swali la historia ya kanisa unapokuwa hauna hakika, unashikilia vipi hitimisho lako kwa usadikisho na unyenyekevu vyote kwa pamoja? For reflection. Bunyan said he must “venture all with God,” even though leaving his family went “to the quick.” What has faithfulness to Christ cost you or the leaders you know? How do you care for a pastor’s family in times of pressure? Where do you stand on open and closed communion, and can you explain the other view fairly? And when the evidence about a question in church history is uncertain, how do you hold your conclusion with both conviction and humility?

Chagua

Somo la 4 · Rhode Island

A Shelter for Conscience

A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), American Baptists, ch. III, “Settlement of Rhode Island”

Banished from Massachusetts in 1635, Roger Williams founded Providence as “a shelter for persons distressed for conscience,” where the majority ruled “only in civil things.” Armitage praises his peacemaking with the Narragansett, his debate with John Cotton and the liberty Rhode Island gave Jews and Catholics. The digest adds the first Baptist church of 1639, John Clarke and a fuller, honest picture.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Kimbilio kwa Dhamiri: Armitage Kuhusu Rhode IslandA Shelter for Conscience: Armitage on Rhode Island

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — uhamisho wa Roger Williams, kuanzishwa kwa Providence, na koloni lililokuwa la kwanza kujenga serikali juu ya uhuru kamili wa dhamiri kwa Wakristo, Wayahudi na wengine woteA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — Roger Williams’s exile, the founding of Providence, and the colony that first built a government on full liberty of conscience for Christians, Jews and all others

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Wabaptisti wa Marekani, sura ya III, “Kuanzishwa kwa Rhode Island.” Kitabu asilia kiko katika umma; nukuu fupi zifuatazo zimetoka humo, kwa tahajia ya kisasa.A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), American Baptists, chapter III, “Settlement of Rhode Island.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it, in modern spelling.

A History of the Baptists, Wabaptisti wa Marekani, sura ya IIIA History of the Baptists, American Baptists, ch. III
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18871887
Thomas ArmitageThomas Armitage

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Armitage anamstaajabia Roger Williams bila kikomo, na mengi ya staha hiyo yanastahili. Williams aliupa ulimwengu serikali yake ya kwanza iliyojengwa juu ya uhuru wa dhamiri (soul liberty). Lakini Williams alikuwa Mbaptisti kwa miezi michache tu, na alikuwa mtu mgumu kueleweka. Soma sifa za Armitage kando ya picha kamili zaidi, na angalia jinsi anavyotenganisha kwa uangalifu aina mbili za uhuru: uhuru wa kidini, ambao Rhode Island iliwapa wote, na haki za kiraia kama kupiga kura, ambazo ilizitoa polepole zaidi. A word before you read. Armitage admires Roger Williams without limit, and much of that admiration is deserved. Williams gave the world its first government founded on soul liberty. But Williams was a Baptist for only a few months, and he was a complicated man. Read Armitage’s praise alongside the fuller picture, and notice how carefully he separates two kinds of liberty: religious freedom, which Rhode Island gave to all, and civil rights such as voting, which it granted more slowly.

1.Alifukuzwa Kutoka Massachusetts1.Banished from Massachusetts

Roger Williams, aliyezaliwa London karibu mwaka 1603, alikuwa mhudumu aliyesoma Cambridge, aliyekuja Massachusetts mwaka 1631. Punde aliwasumbua viongozi wake. Alifundisha kwamba hati ya mfalme haikuweza kutoa ardhi iliyomilikiwa na watu wa asili, kwamba mahakimu hawapaswi kuadhibu makosa dhidi ya meza ya kwanza ya Amri Kumi, na kwamba makanisa yanapaswa kujitenga kabisa na Kanisa la Uingereza. Mnamo Oktoba 1635 Mahakama Kuu ilimfukuza. Mnamo Januari 1636, akionywa kwamba angesafirishwa kurudi Uingereza, alikimbia kusini kupitia theluji. Armitage anasema watu wa Salem walilia, “kwa maana walivutiwa sana na hisia ya utauwa wake.” Waandishi wengine walikuwa wamesema Williams alifukuzwa kwa makosa ya kiraia tu. Armitage anajibu kwamba serikali aliyoiunda Williams baadaye inathibitisha kile kilichokuwa muhimu zaidi kwake: uhuru wa dhamiri. Leo wanahistoria wanakubaliana kwamba mitazamo yake ya kidini na ya kisiasa ilikuwa imefungamana kwa karibu, na yote mawili yalihusika.Roger Williams, born in London around 1603, was a Cambridge-educated minister who came to Massachusetts in 1631. He soon troubled its leaders. He taught that the king’s charter could not give away land that belonged to the Native peoples, that magistrates should not punish offenses against the first table of the Ten Commandments, and that the churches should separate completely from the Church of England. In October 1635 the General Court banished him. In January 1636, warned that he would be shipped back to England, he fled south through the snow. Armitage says the people of Salem wept, “for they were much taken with the apprehension of his godliness.” Some writers had said Williams was exiled only for civil offenses. Armitage answers that the government Williams created afterward proves what mattered most to him: liberty of conscience. Today historians agree that his religious and political views were tightly bound together, and both played a part.

2.“What Cheer?” Kuanzishwa kwa Providence2.“What Cheer?” The Founding of Providence

Kwa majuma kumi na manne Williams alizunguka katika majira ya baridi kali, “bila mkate wala kitanda,” na alihifadhiwa na watu wa Wampanoag na Narragansett, ambao lugha yao alikuwa amejifunza. Massasoit, kiongozi wa Wampanoag, alimpokea kama ndugu. Gavana wa Plymouth alipomwonya kwamba makazi yake ya kwanza yalikuwa ndani ya mpaka wa Plymouth, yeye na wenzake wachache walivuka mto kwa kasia. Wanaume wa Narragansett waliwasalimu kwa maneno ya Kiingereza “What cheer?” Karibu na chemchemi tamu mwezi Juni 1636, Williams alinunua ardhi kutoka kwa viongozi wa Narragansett na kuliita mahali hapo Providence, kwa sababu Mungu alikuwa amemhurumia katika dhiki yake. Alitaka iwe “kimbilio kwa watu wanaosumbuliwa kwa ajili ya dhamiri.” Walowezi wa kwanza waliahidi kutii maamuzi ya wengi “katika mambo ya kiraia tu.” Maneno hayo matatu yanaashiria kuzaliwa kwa wazo jipya katika serikali. Dola ingetawala miili, mali na utaratibu wa umma, lakini kamwe dhamiri.For fourteen weeks Williams wandered in the bitter winter, “without bread or bed,” and was sheltered by the Wampanoag and Narragansett peoples, whose language he had learned. Massasoit, the Wampanoag leader, received him as a brother. When the governor of Plymouth warned him that his first settlement lay inside Plymouth’s boundary, he and a few companions paddled across the river. Narragansett men greeted them with the English words “What cheer?” Near a fresh spring in June 1636, Williams bought land from the Narragansett leaders and named the place Providence, because God had been merciful to him in his distress. He wanted it to be “a shelter for persons distressed for conscience.” The first settlers promised to obey the decisions of the majority “only in civil things.” Those three words mark the birth of a new idea in government. The state would rule bodies, goods and public order, but never the conscience.

3.Williams na Watu wa Asili3.Williams and the Native Peoples

Armitage anasimulia kwa staha jinsi Williams alivyolipa uovu kwa wema. Mwaka 1636, miezi michache tu baada ya uhamisho wake, alisikia kwamba Wapequot walikuwa wakiwahimiza Wanarragansett kujiunga na vita dhidi ya Waingereza. Kwa ombi la Massachusetts, koloni lililomfukuza, alikwenda peke yake kwa mtumbwi kupitia dhoruba na kukaa siku tatu miongoni mwa wajumbe wa Wapequot, akiogopa “visu vyao vya damu” kwenye koo lake. Alivunja muungano huo na akasaidia kufanya muungano kati ya Waingereza, Wanarragansett na Wamohegan. Mwaka 1643 alichapisha A Key into the Language of America, utafiti makini wa lugha na desturi za Wanarragansett uliowachukulia watu wa asili kama wanadamu wenzake. Hadithi kamili ni ya huzuni zaidi kuliko Armitage anavyosimulia. Katika Vita vya Wapequot vya 1637 Waingereza na washirika wao waliharibu mji wa Wapequot, na katika Vita vya Mfalme Philip vya 1675–1676 Providence ilichomwa na Wanarragansett karibu waangamizwe. Williams, aliyekuwa mzee wakati huo, alihudumu kama nahodha wa ulinzi wa mji. Alikuwa mpatanishi, lakini hakuweza kuzuia wimbi la vurugu za kikoloni.Armitage tells with admiration how Williams repaid evil with good. In 1636, only months after his exile, he learned that the Pequot were urging the Narragansett to join a war against the English. At the request of Massachusetts, the colony that had banished him, he went alone by canoe through a storm and spent three days among the Pequot envoys, fearing “their bloody knives” at his throat. He broke up the alliance and helped make a league between the English, the Narragansett and the Mohegan. In 1643 he published A Key into the Language of America, a careful study of Narragansett speech and customs that treated the Native peoples as fellow human beings. The fuller story is sadder than Armitage tells it. In the Pequot War of 1637 the English and their allies destroyed a Pequot town, and in King Philip’s War of 1675–1676 Providence was burned and the Narragansett were nearly destroyed. Williams, then an old man, served as a captain of the town’s defense. He was a peacemaker, but he could not stop the tide of colonial violence.

4.Kanisa la Kwanza la Kibaptisti Amerika4.The First Baptist Church in America

Mnamo Machi 1639, Williams na wengine kumi na mmoja hivi walihitimisha kwamba ubatizo wao wa utotoni haukuwa ubatizo wa kweli. Ezekiel Holliman alimbatiza Williams, kisha Williams akawabatiza wengine. Hivyo ndivyo Kanisa la Kwanza la Kibaptisti huko Providence lilivyoanza, kanisa kongwe zaidi la Kibaptisti Amerika. Miezi michache tu baadaye Williams aliliacha. Alifikia kuamini kwamba hakuna kanisa la kweli wala huduma ya kweli inayoweza kuwepo hadi Mungu atume mitume wapya, na akaishi maisha yake yaliyobaki kama “Mtafutaji” (Seeker), akimpenda Kristo bado na akiwahubiria watu wa asili bado. Armitage anataja kwamba Williams alihama kutoka kwa Waepiskopali hadi kwa Wakongregationali, kutoka kwao hadi kwa Wabaptisti, na kutoka kwao hadi kwa Watafutaji. Wakati huohuo, huko Newport, daktari na mchungaji John Clarke aliongoza kanisa la Kibaptisti lililodumu. Mwaka 1651 Clarke na Obadiah Holmes walikamatwa Massachusetts kwa kufanya ibada nyumbani kwa mtu binafsi, na Holmes alichapwa viboko hadharani Boston. Clarke alisimulia hadithi hiyo katika Ill Newes from New-England (1652) na akakaa miaka kumi na miwili London akifanya kazi kwa ajili ya koloni. Mwaka 1663 alipata hati ya kifalme iliyotangaza kwamba hakuna mtu atakayekuwa “akisumbuliwa, kuadhibiwa, kunyimwa amani, au kuitwa kuhojiwa” kwa tofauti za maoni katika mambo ya dini.In March 1639, Williams and about eleven others concluded that their infant baptism was not true baptism. Ezekiel Holliman baptized Williams, and Williams then baptized the rest. So began the First Baptist Church in Providence, the oldest Baptist church in America. Only months later Williams left it. He came to believe that no true church or ministry could exist until God sent new apostles, and he lived the rest of his life as a “Seeker,” still loving Christ and still preaching to the Native peoples. Armitage mentions that Williams moved from the Episcopalians to the Congregationalists, from them to the Baptists, and from them to the Seekers. Meanwhile, at Newport, the physician and pastor John Clarke led a Baptist church that lasted. In 1651 Clarke and Obadiah Holmes were arrested in Massachusetts for holding worship in a private home, and Holmes was publicly whipped in Boston. Clarke told the story in Ill Newes from New-England (1652) and spent twelve years in London working for the colony. In 1663 he obtained a royal charter which declared that no person should be “molested, punished, disquieted, or called in question” for differences of opinion in matters of religion.

5.Bloody Tenet na Meli5.The Bloody Tenet and the Ship

Huko London mwaka 1644 Williams alichapisha The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. John Cotton wa Boston alijibu mwaka 1647 kwa The Bloudy Tenent Washed, na Williams alijibu mwaka 1652 kwa The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloudy. Cotton alisema hakimu hawezi kuadhibu dhamiri “iliyoelimishwa ipasavyo,” lakini anaweza kuadhibu ile iliyobaki “kipofu kwa makusudi” katika mambo ya msingi. Armitage anaonyesha kwamba hii inafanya mamlaka ya kiraia kuwa hakimu wa ukweli, ambalo ndilo hasa Roma ilidai. Jibu la Williams linajulikana zaidi kutoka kwa barua yake ya 1655 kwa mji wa Providence. Jumuiya ya kitaifa, alisema, ni kama meli inayobeba Wakatoliki, Waprotestanti, Wayahudi na Waislamu pamoja. Uhuru unamaanisha kwamba hakuna “atakayelazimishwa kuja kwenye sala au ibada ya meli,” na hakuna atakayezuiliwa katika yake mwenyewe. Hata hivyo nahodha bado anaongoza meli na kuwaadhibu wale wanaokataa wajibu wao au kuasi. Uhuru wa dhamiri si kutokuwa na sheria. Mwanahistoria George Bancroft alimwita Williams “mtu wa kwanza katika Jumuiya ya Wakristo ya kisasa” kutangaza fundisho hili kwa ukamilifu. Hiyo ni sifa kubwa, lakini Thomas Helwys alikuwa tayari ameomba uhuru kwa Wayahudi na Waislamu huko London mwaka 1612, na Leonard Busher, Mbaptisti, alifanya vivyo hivyo mwaka 1614, kama Armitage mwenyewe anavyotaja.In London in 1644 Williams published The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution for Cause of Conscience. John Cotton of Boston answered in 1647 with The Bloudy Tenent Washed, and Williams replied in 1652 with The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloudy. Cotton said the magistrate could not punish a conscience “rightly informed,” but could punish one that remained “willfully blind” in fundamental matters. Armitage shows that this makes the civil power the judge of truth, which is exactly what Rome had claimed. Williams’s answer is best known from his letter of 1655 to the town of Providence. A commonwealth, he said, is like a ship carrying Catholics, Protestants, Jews and Muslims together. Liberty means that none “be forced to come to the ship’s prayers or worship,” and none be stopped from their own. Yet the captain still commands the ship and punishes those who refuse their duties or mutiny. Liberty of conscience is not lawlessness. The historian George Bancroft called Williams “the first person in modern Christendom” to assert this doctrine in its fullness. That is high praise, but Thomas Helwys had already pleaded for liberty for Jews and Muslims in London in 1612, and Leonard Busher, a Baptist, did the same in 1614, as Armitage himself mentions.

6.Uhuru kwa Wayahudi na Wakatoliki6.Liberty for Jews and Catholics

Mwaka 1647 mkusanyo wa kwanza wa sheria za koloni uliisha kwa maneno ambayo Armitage anapenda kunukuu: “watu wote wanaweza kutembea kama dhamiri zao zinavyowashawishi, kila mmoja kwa jina la Mungu wake.” Chini ya sheria hiyo, kwa mapokeo, familia za Kiyahudi ziliunda kusanyiko huko Newport mwaka 1658, wakati hata Uholanzi iliweka mipaka kwa ibada ya Kiyahudi, na mwaka 1763 waliliweka wakfu sinagogi linalojulikana sasa kama Sinagogi la Touro, sinagogi kongwe zaidi lililosimama Marekani. Mwaka 1638 Providence hata ilimnyang’anya Joshua Verin haki ya kupiga kura, aliyempiga mke wake kwa kuhudhuria ibada, kwa “kuzuia uhuru wa dhamiri.” Armitage pia analitetea koloni dhidi ya mashtaka mawili. Makusanyo yaliyochapishwa ya sheria za koloni katika karne ya kumi na nane yalikuwa na kifungu kinachowazuia Wakatoliki kuwa raia huru, na mwaka 1762 mahakama ilikataa kuwapa uraia wafanyabiashara wawili Wayahudi, Aaron Lopez na Isaac Elizer. Armitage anahoji kwamba kifungu cha Wakatoliki hakikupitishwa wakati wa uhai wa Williams, na kwamba kesi zote mbili zilihusu mapendeleo ya kiraia, si uhuru wa kidini. Yuko sahihi kwa kiasi kikubwa kwamba kifungu hicho hakikuwa kazi ya Williams. Hata hivyo, msomaji mwaminifu anapaswa kukubali kwamba vizazi vya baadaye vya Rhode Island vilikosa kufikia maono ya mwanzilishi wao.In 1647 the colony’s first code of laws ended with words Armitage loves to quote: “all men may walk as their consciences persuade them, every one in the name of his God.” Under that law, by tradition, Jewish families organized a congregation at Newport in 1658, when even Holland limited Jewish worship, and in 1763 they dedicated the synagogue now known as the Touro Synagogue, the oldest standing synagogue in the United States. In 1638 Providence even took away the vote of Joshua Verin, who had beaten his wife for attending worship, for “restraining liberty of conscience.” Armitage also defends the colony against two charges. Printed collections of the colony’s laws in the eighteenth century contained a clause keeping Catholics from being freemen, and in 1762 a court refused to naturalize two Jewish merchants, Aaron Lopez and Isaac Elizer. Armitage argues that the Catholic clause was not passed in Williams’s lifetime, and that both cases concerned civil privileges, not religious freedom. He is largely right that the clause was not Williams’s work. Still, an honest reader should admit that later generations in Rhode Island fell short of their founder’s vision.

7.Kile Mchungaji Mbaptisti Anachochukua Kutoka Humo7.What a Baptist Pastor Takes from It

Mchungaji Mbaptisti leo anajifunza kutoka kwa Rhode Island kwamba uhuru wa dhamiri ni kwa kila mtu au ni kwa mtu yeyote hata mmoja. Williams alitetea uhuru wa watu ambao imani yao aliiamini kuwa ya uongo, na alifanya hivyo kwa sababu aliamini kwamba Injili lazima ishinde mioyo kwa “upanga wa Roho,” si kwa upanga wa dola. Wachungaji huko Meksiko wanajua somo hili vizuri. Sheria za Marekebisho (Reform) za miaka ya 1850 na 1860 zilitenganisha kanisa na dola na kufungua njia kwa makanisa ya kiinjili, hata hivyo wainjilisti katika baadhi ya mikoa bado wanakabiliwa na shinikizo kutoka kwa majirani zao. Wito wetu ni kutetea haki za wengine, wakiwemo Wakatoliki, Wayahudi na wale wasio na imani, kwa uthabiti kama za kwetu wenyewe. Williams pia anatukumbusha kwamba Wakristo wakuu wana dosari. Alibadilisha makanisa mara kadhaa na angeweza kuwa mkaidi. Hata hivyo wema wake, ujasiri wake na upatanishi wake bado vinang’aa. Armitage anaandika kwamba “alitoa uhuru huo mkubwa kwa wengine wote aliojichukulia mwenyewe.”A Baptist pastor today learns from Rhode Island that soul liberty is for everyone or it is for no one. Williams defended the freedom of people whose faith he believed false, and he did so because he believed the gospel must win hearts by “the sword of the Spirit,” not by the sword of the state. Pastors in Mexico know this lesson well. The Reform laws of the 1850s and 1860s separated church and state and opened the way for evangelical churches, yet evangelicals in some regions still face pressure from their neighbors. Our calling is to defend the rights of others, including Catholics, Jews and those of no faith, as firmly as our own. Williams also reminds us that great Christians are flawed. He changed churches several times and could be stubborn. Yet his kindness, his courage and his peacemaking still shine. Armitage writes that he “gave the same large liberty to all others which he took for himself.”

8.Kuuchukua Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Williams alisema kwamba katika mambo ya imani upanga pekee unapaswa kuwa upanga wa Roho. Wakristo katika nchi yako wanajaribiwa wapi kutumia sheria au shinikizo la kijamii kuendeleza Injili? Ungetetea vipi uhuru wa kundi la kidini ambalo hukubaliani nalo vikali? Williams alilitumikia koloni lililomfukuza. Je, kuna mtu aliyekukosea ambaye unaweza kumtumikia? Na kanisa lako linaweza kujifunza nini kutoka kwa Rhode Island kuhusu kuwa jumuiya ambamo watu wenye imani tofauti wanaishi kwa amani? For reflection. Williams said that in matters of faith the only sword should be the sword of the Spirit. Where are Christians in your country tempted to use law or social pressure to advance the gospel? How would you defend the liberty of a religious group you strongly disagree with? Williams served the colony that banished him. Is there someone who has wronged you whom you could serve? And what can your church learn from Rhode Island about being a community where people with different convictions live in peace?

Chagua

Somo la 5 · Constitutional Liberty

Free Exercise

A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), American Baptists, ch. XII, “The American Baptists and Constitutional Liberty”

Jailed preachers in Virginia, Isaac Backus in New England and John Leland beside Madison helped turn “toleration” into the “free exercise” of religion and the First Amendment. Armitage tells the story with patriotic pride; the digest adds an honest word on Richard Furman and slavery, then follows Baptist liberty into mission through the Triennial Convention, Latin America and Africa.

MUHTASARI WA CTSSoma muhtasari wote — unafunguka hapa hapa

Utekelezaji Huru: Armitage Kuhusu Wabaptisti na Katiba ya MarekaniFree Exercise: Armitage on Baptists and the American Constitution

Somo la Seminari ya Kitheolojia ya Chapala — jinsi wahubiri waliofungwa, waombaji wenye subira na wanasiasa Wabaptisti walivyosaidia kuandika uhuru wa dini katika sheria za Marekani mpya, na jinsi uhuru huo ulivyokuwa mahali pa kuanzia kwa misheni ya ulimwenguA Chapala Theological Seminary reading — how jailed preachers, patient petitioners and Baptist statesmen helped write religious liberty into the laws of the new United States, and how that liberty became a launching place for world mission

Muhtasari wa CTS wa Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), Wabaptisti wa Marekani, sura ya XII, “Wabaptisti wa Marekani na Uhuru wa Kikatiba.” Kitabu asilia kiko katika umma; nukuu fupi zifuatazo zimetoka humo, kwa tahajia ya kisasa.A CTS digest of Thomas Armitage, A History of the Baptists (1887), American Baptists, chapter XII, “The American Baptists and Constitutional Liberty.” The original is in the public domain; the short quotations below are from it, in modern spelling.

A History of the Baptists, Wabaptisti wa Marekani, sura ya XIIA History of the Baptists, American Baptists, ch. XII
Chanzo cha msingiPrimary source
18871887
Thomas ArmitageThomas Armitage

Neno kabla ya kusoma. Sura hii ni Armitage katika kilele cha uzalendo wake. Anataka Wabaptisti wa Marekani wajue kwamba baba zao waliteseka na kufanya kazi kwa ajili ya uhuru ambao Waamerika wote wanaufurahia. Hata hivyo, anakuwa mwangalifu kusema kwamba Wabaptisti hawakuupata peke yao. Wanafunzi walio nje ya Marekani wasome si kama fahari ya taifa bali kama mfano wa kujifunza: jinsi kundi dogo lililoteswa lilivyotumia maombi, subira na urafiki na wanasiasa kubadilisha sheria, kwa manufaa ya kila mtu. A word before you read. This chapter is Armitage at his most patriotic. He wants American Baptists to know that their fathers suffered and labored for the freedom that all Americans enjoy. He is careful, however, to say that Baptists did not win it alone. Students outside the United States should read it not as national pride but as a case study: how a persecuted minority used petitions, patience and friendship with statesmen to change the law, for the good of everyone.

1.“Uhuru kwa Upande Mmoja Kumdhulumu Mwingine”1.“A Liberty for One Party to Oppress Another”

Armitage anaanza kwa sifa kutoka kwa Mkongregationali, Leonard Bacon, aliyekubali kwamba Wabaptisti walikuwa “siku zote mstari wa mbele” katika kutetea uhuru wa dini. Hadi Mapinduzi ya Marekani, Wabaptisti walikuwa na nafasi ndogo ya kulithibitisha. Katika sehemu kubwa ya New England walitozwa kodi kutegemeza makanisa ya Kikongregationali yaliyoanzishwa kisheria, na huko Virginia walifungwa na kanisa rasmi la Kianglikana. Makoloni yalipoinuka dhidi ya Uingereza, Wabaptisti ilibidi waamue kama wapigane kwa ajili ya uhuru ambao huenda usiwajumuishe kamwe. Samuel Jones wa Pennsylvania alisema wazi: ilionekana si busara kutetea uhuru “kama, baada ya yote, ilikuwa uhuru kwa upande mmoja kumdhulumu mwingine.” Rhode Island, koloni lililoanzishwa na Roger Williams, ilikana utii wake kwa Mfalme George III tarehe 4 Mei 1776, miezi miwili kabla ya Tamko la Uhuru, ingawa tayari ilikuwa na hati huru kiasi kwamba ilikuwa na kidogo cha kupata. Armitage anaona katika hili tunda la mafundisho ya Williams: uhuru ulioombwa “kama haki ya kuzaliwa ya wote.”Armitage opens with a tribute from a Congregationalist, Leonard Bacon, who granted that Baptists had been “always foremost” in defending religious liberty. Until the American Revolution, Baptists had little chance to prove it. In much of New England they were taxed to support the established Congregational churches, and in Virginia they were jailed by the Anglican establishment. When the colonies rose against Britain, Baptists had to decide whether to fight for a freedom that might never include them. Samuel Jones of Pennsylvania put it plainly: it seemed unreasonable to defend liberty “if, after all, it was to be a liberty for one party to oppress another.” Rhode Island, the colony Roger Williams founded, renounced its allegiance to King George III on 4 May 1776, two months before the Declaration of Independence, though it already had a charter so free that it had little to gain. Armitage sees in this the fruit of Williams’s teaching: liberty demanded “as the birthright of all.”

2.Wahubiri Waliofungwa wa Virginia2.Virginia’s Jailed Preachers

Huko Virginia, Kanisa la Uingereza lilikuwa limeanzishwa kisheria. Kati ya 1768 na 1774, wahubiri Wabaptisti kadhaa walifungwa kwa kuhubiri bila leseni. Baadhi, kama John Waller na Lewis Craig huko Fredericksburg, walihubiri kwa umati kupitia vyuma vya madirisha ya seli zao. Hata hivyo mwaka 1776, Mkutano wa Virginia ulipojadili uhuru, makanisa ya Kibaptisti yalitoa msaada wao kwa upinzani wa kijeshi. Pia waliomba waruhusiwe “kumwabudu Mungu kwa njia yao wenyewe,” kuwategemeza wahudumu wao tu, na kuoa na kuzika bila kulipa makasisi wa kanisa jingine. Armitage anabainisha kwamba “Wabaptisti hawakuficha kitu”: wangetoa kila kitu kwa uhuru kamili, lakini si kwa pungufu yake. Mnamo Juni 1776 Tamko la Haki la Virginia lilijumuisha kifungu kuhusu dini kilichoandaliwa kwanza na George Mason. Kilizungumza juu ya “uvumilivu.” James Madison kijana aliona hatari katika neno hilo, kwa sababu uvumilivu ni upendeleo ambao dola inautoa na inaweza kuuondoa. Marekebisho yake yalitangaza badala yake kwamba “watu wote wana haki sawa ya utekelezaji huru wa dini.” Mnamo Januari 1786, baada ya uongozi wa Madison na maombi mengi ya Wabaptisti, Virginia ilipitisha Sheria ya Thomas Jefferson ya Uhuru wa Dini, na mwaka 1802 ardhi za zamani za kanisa, glebes, ziliuzwa. Armitage anaongeza kwamba waandishi Wabaptisti “hawajawahi kudai” kuupata peke yao. Wapresbiteri na Waquaker walisimama pamoja nao.In Virginia, the Church of England was established by law. Between 1768 and 1774, dozens of Baptist preachers were jailed for preaching without a license. Some, like John Waller and Lewis Craig at Fredericksburg, preached to crowds through the bars of their cells. Yet in 1776, when Virginia’s convention debated independence, Baptist churches offered their support for military resistance. They also petitioned that they might “worship God in their own way,” support only their own ministers, and be married and buried without paying the clergy of another church. Armitage notes that “the Baptists concealed nothing”: they would give everything for full liberty, but not for less. In June 1776 the Virginia Declaration of Rights included an article on religion first drafted by George Mason. It spoke of “toleration.” The young James Madison saw the danger in that word, because toleration is a favor that the state grants and can take away. His amendment declared instead that “all men are equally entitled to the free exercise of religion.” In January 1786, after Madison’s leadership and many Baptist petitions, Virginia passed Thomas Jefferson’s Statute for Religious Freedom, and in 1802 the old church lands, the glebes, were sold. Armitage adds that Baptist writers “have never claimed” to have won this alone. Presbyterians and Quakers stood with them.

3.Isaac Backus na New England3.Isaac Backus and New England

Katika New England mapambano yalidumu kwa muda mrefu zaidi. Isaac Backus (1724–1806), aliyeongoka katika Mwamko Mkuu (Great Awakening), alikuwa Mbaptisti na alihudumu kwa miaka hamsini kama mchungaji huko Middleborough, Massachusetts. Aliongoza kamati ya malalamiko ya Muungano wa Warren, iliyoundwa mwaka 1767, iliyokusanya hadithi za Wabaptisti ambao ng’ombe zao, zana zao na ardhi zao zilitwaliwa kwa ajili ya kodi za kanisa. Mwaka 1773 alichapisha An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty, na mwaka 1774 yeye na James Manning, rais wa chuo cha Kibaptisti kilichokuja kuwa Chuo Kikuu cha Brown, walikutana na wajumbe wa Massachusetts kwenye Bunge la Bara huko Philadelphia kutetea jambo lao. Katiba ya Massachusetts ya 1780 ilihifadhi kodi za kidini, ingawa Wabaptisti kama Noah Alden walipata nafuu fulani. Katiba ya Marekani ilipoletwa mbele ya Massachusetts mwaka 1788, Manning na Samuel Stillman wa Boston waliifanyia kazi kwa bidii, na ilipita kwa kura 187 dhidi ya 168. Armitage anasema Backus alishiriki mashaka ya Patrick Henry; kumbukumbu zinaonyesha kwamba Backus, mjumbe, mwishowe alipiga kura ya kuidhinisha. Massachusetts haikutenganisha kabisa kanisa na dola hadi 1833.In New England the struggle lasted longer. Isaac Backus (1724–1806), converted in the Great Awakening, became a Baptist and served for fifty years as pastor at Middleborough, Massachusetts. He led the grievance committee of the Warren Association, formed in 1767, which collected the stories of Baptists whose cows, tools and lands had been seized for church taxes. In 1773 he published An Appeal to the Public for Religious Liberty, and in 1774 he and James Manning, president of the Baptist college that became Brown University, met the Massachusetts delegates to the Continental Congress in Philadelphia to plead their case. The Massachusetts constitution of 1780 kept religious taxes, though Baptists such as Noah Alden won some relief. When the United States Constitution came before Massachusetts in 1788, Manning and Samuel Stillman of Boston worked hard for it, and it passed by 187 votes to 168. Armitage says Backus shared Patrick Henry’s doubts; the record shows that Backus, a delegate, voted for ratification in the end. Massachusetts did not fully separate church and state until 1833.

4.John Leland, Madison na Marekebisho ya Kwanza4.John Leland, Madison and the First Amendment

John Leland (1754–1841) alihubiri Virginia kuanzia 1776 hadi 1791 na akawa rafiki wa Jefferson na Madison. Katiba ya 1787 ilisema tu kwamba hakuna mtihani wa kidini utakaodaiwa kwa ofisi ya serikali kuu. Mnamo Machi 1788 Kamati Kuu ya Kibaptisti ya Virginia ilikubaliana kwa kauli moja kwamba hili halikuhakikisha uhuru wa dini vya kutosha. Leland alipendekezwa kumpinga Madison kama mjumbe kutoka Kaunti ya Orange. Kwa maelezo ambayo Armitage anarudia, Madison alimweleza Leland maoni yake, na Leland akajiondoa kwa kumpendelea Madison, ingawa wanahistoria wanajadili maelezo hayo. Mwaka 1789 Wabaptisti wa Virginia walimwandikia Rais Washington, aliyeahidi kusaidia kujenga “vizuizi vyenye ufanisi dhidi ya machungu ya dhuluma ya kiroho.” Madison kisha aliliongoza Bunge kupendekeza Tamko la Haki (Bill of Rights). Marekebisho ya Kwanza, yaliyoidhinishwa mwaka 1791, yanaanza: “Bunge halitatunga sheria yoyote kuhusu kuanzisha dini rasmi, wala kukataza utekelezaji wake huru.” Mwaka 1791, katika The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, Leland aliandika kwamba serikali haina uhusiano zaidi na maoni ya kidini “kuliko ilivyo na kanuni za hisabati.” Mwaka huo alirudi Cheshire, Massachusetts, na mwaka 1802 kusanyiko lake lilimtumia Rais Jefferson jibini kubwa, juma lilelile ambalo Jefferson aliwaandikia Wabaptisti wa Danbury kuhusu “ukuta wa kutenganisha” kanisa na dola.John Leland (1754–1841) preached in Virginia from 1776 to 1791 and became a friend of Jefferson and Madison. The Constitution of 1787 said only that no religious test should be required for federal office. In March 1788 the Baptist General Committee of Virginia agreed unanimously that this did not sufficiently secure religious liberty. Leland was nominated to oppose Madison as delegate from Orange County. By the account Armitage repeats, Madison explained his views to Leland, and Leland withdrew in Madison’s favor, though historians debate the details. In 1789 Virginia’s Baptists wrote to President Washington, who promised to help build “effectual barriers against the horrors of spiritual tyranny.” Madison then led Congress to propose the Bill of Rights. The First Amendment, ratified in 1791, begins: “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.” In 1791, in The Rights of Conscience Inalienable, Leland wrote that government has no more to do with religious opinions “than it has with the principles of mathematics.” That year he returned to Cheshire, Massachusetts, and in 1802 his congregation sent President Jefferson a huge cheese, the same week Jefferson wrote to the Baptists of Danbury about a “wall of separation” between church and state.

5.Vermont, South Carolina na Richard Furman5.Vermont, South Carolina and Richard Furman

Armitage pia anawaheshimu wachungaji Wabaptisti waliotumikia katika maisha ya umma. Huko Vermont, Aaron Leland alikuwa Spika wa Baraza na naibu gavana, na Ezra Butler alikuwa gavana kuanzia 1826 hadi 1828; wote wawili walikuwa wahudumu Wabaptisti. Mtu fulani katika bunge la sheria aliposema Ukristo ungeanguka bila msaada wa dola, Aaron Leland aliondoka kiti kujibu kwamba Kristo alilijenga kanisa lake juu ya mwamba. Huko South Carolina Muungano wa Charleston ulikuwa na kamati iliyofanya kazi tangu 1779 kwa usawa wa watu wote wa kidini mbele ya sheria. Kiongozi wake alikuwa Richard Furman (1755–1825), mchungaji huko Charleston kwa miaka thelathini na minane, mzalendo mwenye bei juu ya kichwa chake wakati wa Mapinduzi. Maelezo ya uaminifu lazima yaongeze kile Armitage anachoacha. Furman alimiliki watumwa, na mwaka 1823 aliandika utetezi wa utumwa kutoka katika Maandiko. Watu walewale wa Kibaptisti waliopigania uhuru wa dhamiri hawakupanua uhuru kwa watumwa huko Kusini. Mwaka 1995 Mkutano wa Kibaptisti wa Kusini ulitubu rasmi kwa utetezi wake wa kihistoria wa utumwa. Historia ya Kibaptisti inatuita kusherehekea uaminifu na kuungama kushindwa.Armitage also honors Baptist pastors who served in public life. In Vermont, Aaron Leland was Speaker of the House and lieutenant governor, and Ezra Butler was governor from 1826 to 1828; both were Baptist ministers. When someone in the legislature claimed Christianity would fall without state support, Aaron Leland left the chair to answer that Christ built His church on a rock. In South Carolina the Charleston Association kept a committee working from 1779 for the equality of all religious people before the law. Its leader was Richard Furman (1755–1825), pastor in Charleston for thirty-eight years, a patriot with a price on his head during the Revolution. An honest account must add what Armitage leaves out. Furman owned slaves, and in 1823 he wrote a defense of slavery from Scripture. The same Baptist people who fought for liberty of conscience did not, in the South, extend freedom to the enslaved. In 1995 the Southern Baptist Convention formally repented of its historic defense of slavery. Baptist history calls us to celebrate faithfulness and to confess failure.

6.Kutoka Uhuru hadi Misheni: Mkutano wa Miaka Mitatu6.From Liberty to Mission: The Triennial Convention

Uhuru nyumbani punde ukawa misheni ng’ambo. Huko Uingereza, William Carey alisaidia kuunda Jumuiya ya Kimisionari ya Kibaptisti mwaka 1792 na akasafiri kwenda India. Mwaka 1812 Adoniram na Ann Judson na Luther Rice, waliotumwa Asia kama Wakongregationali, wakawa Wabaptisti baada ya kusoma juu ya ubatizo wakati wa safari. Rice alirudi kuwakusanya Wabaptisti wa Marekani. Mnamo Mei 1814, huko Philadelphia, wajumbe waliunda Mkutano Mkuu wa Kimisionari wa Madhehebu ya Kibaptisti, unaoitwa Mkutano wa Miaka Mitatu (Triennial Convention) kwa sababu ulikutana kila miaka mitatu. Richard Furman alikuwa rais wake wa kwanza. Ulikuwa chombo cha kwanza cha taifa cha Wabaptisti wa Marekani, na Wajudson wakawa wamisionari wake huko Burma. Mwaka 1845 mkutano uligawanyika juu ya kama wamiliki wa watumwa wangeweza kuteuliwa kuwa wamisionari, na Mkutano wa Kibaptisti wa Kusini uliundwa huko Augusta, Georgia. Wabaptisti Weusi pia walibeba Injili. Lott Carey, mtumwa wa zamani kutoka Richmond, alisafiri kwenda Liberia mwaka 1821 na akasaidia kupanda Kanisa la Kibaptisti la Providence huko Monrovia.Freedom at home soon became mission abroad. In England, William Carey helped form the Baptist Missionary Society in 1792 and sailed for India. In 1812 Adoniram and Ann Judson and Luther Rice, sent to Asia as Congregationalists, became Baptists after studying baptism on the voyage. Rice returned to rally American Baptists. In May 1814, in Philadelphia, delegates formed the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination, called the Triennial Convention because it met every three years. Richard Furman was its first president. It was the first national body of American Baptists, and the Judsons became its missionaries in Burma. In 1845 the convention divided over whether slaveholders could be appointed as missionaries, and the Southern Baptist Convention was formed in Augusta, Georgia. Black Baptists also carried the gospel. Lott Carey, a former slave from Richmond, sailed for Liberia in 1821 and helped plant the Providence Baptist Church in Monrovia.

7.Uhuru wa Kibaptisti Amerika ya Kilatini na Afrika7.Baptist Liberty in Latin America and Africa

Kanuni za sura hii zilisafiri pamoja na wamisionari. Huko Meksiko, baada ya sheria za Marekebisho za Benito Juárez kuruhusu uhuru wa ibada mwaka 1860, James Hickey na Thomas Westrup waliunda kanisa la kwanza la Kibaptisti huko Monterrey mwaka 1864. Huko Kuba, Alberto J. Díaz aliongoza kazi ya Kibaptisti huko Havana kuanzia miaka ya 1880. Huko Brazili, Kanisa la Kwanza la Kibaptisti la Salvador, Bahia, liliundwa mwaka 1882, na Mkutano wa Kibaptisti wa Brazili ulifuata mwaka 1907. Huko Ajentina, Mbaptisti Mswisi Pablo Besson alifanya kazi kuanzia 1881 kwa ajili ya usajili wa kiraia, ndoa ya kiraia na uhuru wa dini. Huko Nigeria, Thomas Jefferson Bowen alianza kazi ya Kibaptisti miongoni mwa Wayoruba mwaka 1850, na Mkutano wa Kibaptisti wa Nigeria uliundwa mwaka 1914. Mwaka 1905 Wabaptisti kutoka mataifa mengi waliunda Muungano wa Kibaptisti wa Ulimwengu (Baptist World Alliance), unaoendelea kutetea uhuru wa dini kwa wote. Mchungaji leo anaweza kuchukua mafunzo matatu kutoka kwa sura hii. Fanya kazi kwa subira kwa njia za kisheria. Jenga urafiki na watumishi wa umma wa imani nyingine. Na usitafute kamwe kwa makanisa yetu upendeleo ambao tungewanyima wengine.The principles of this chapter traveled with the missionaries. In Mexico, after Benito Juárez’s Reform laws allowed freedom of worship in 1860, James Hickey and Thomas Westrup organized the first Baptist church in Monterrey in 1864. In Cuba, Alberto J. Díaz led Baptist work in Havana from the 1880s. In Brazil, the First Baptist Church of Salvador, Bahia, was organized in 1882, and the Brazilian Baptist Convention followed in 1907. In Argentina, the Swiss Baptist Pablo Besson worked from 1881 for civil registry, civil marriage and religious liberty. In Nigeria, Thomas Jefferson Bowen began Baptist work among the Yoruba in 1850, and the Nigerian Baptist Convention was formed in 1914. In 1905 Baptists from many nations formed the Baptist World Alliance, which still defends religious freedom for all. A pastor today can take three lessons from this chapter. Work patiently through lawful means. Build friendships with public servants of other faiths. And never seek for our churches a privilege we would deny to others.

8.Kuuchukua Moyoni8.Taking It to Heart

Kwa tafakari. Madison aliona kwamba “uvumilivu” ni zawadi inayoweza kuondolewa, ilhali “utekelezaji huru” ni haki. Tofauti iko wapi katika sheria za nchi yako, na inaathiri vipi kanisa lako? Leland na Backus walifanya kazi kwa miongo bila kuona mafanikio kamili. Ni mapambano gani marefu ambayo Mungu amelipa kusanyiko lako? Richard Furman alipigania uhuru lakini alitetea utumwa. Makanisa yetu leo yanaweza kuwa na madoa gani ya upofu kuhusu haki? Na kanisa lako linawezaje kutumia uhuru wake, kama Mkutano wa Miaka Mitatu ulivyofanya, kwa kueneza Injili? For reflection. Madison saw that “toleration” is a gift that can be withdrawn, while “free exercise” is a right. What is the difference in your country’s laws, and how does it affect your church? Leland and Backus worked for decades without seeing full success. What long struggle has God given your congregation? Richard Furman fought for liberty yet defended slavery. Where might our own churches today have blind spots about justice? And how can your church use its freedom, as the Triennial Convention did, for the spread of the gospel?

Chagua

Andika usomaji wako

Ukishasoma kikamilifu masomo matatu uliyochagua, andika jina lako na uthibitishe hapa chini. Kumbukumbu hii inatunzwa kwa uaminifu wako, kwenye kivinjari hiki; inaonekana kwenye cheti chako kama kwa heshima.

Jina lako

Kwa uaminifu wangu, nimesoma kikamilifu masomo matatu niliyochagua hapo juu.

✓ Imeandikwa — kozi hii inahesabiwa katika maendeleo yako ya Heshima. Kusoma kwa Heshima ↗

Somo la Heshima — limeandikwa

alithibitisha tarehe kuwa amesoma kikamilifu:

Chapala Theological Seminary · Baptist History and Denominational Development · present or print this page as your honors reading record.

Masomo Zaidi: Vitabu Sita vya Uwanja wa Umma

Vitabu hivi sita ni kwa masomo zaidi, kwa mwanafunzi anayetaka kuendelea kusoma. Si sehemu ya masomo ya heshima yaliyo hapo juu: hayo yanabaki kama yalivyo — muhtasari tano za CTS, mitatu yoyote ikisomwa kikamilifu na kuandikwa kwa uaminifu wako. Vyote sita viko katika uwanja wa umma; kila kiungo kinafungua kitabu mtandaoni, na vingi vinapatikana pia katika Internet Archive au Project Gutenberg. Vingi viko kwa Kiingereza: kivinjari cha Chrome kinaweza kutafsiri ukurasa (bonyeza kitufe cha kulia cha kipanya, “Translate to…”; kwenye simu, menyu ya kivinjari).

The Whole History · Armitage

1. A History of the Baptists

Thomas Armitage · New York, 1887

Consult the chapters the textbook leaves out, and the bibliography and index. Armitage’s judgments are his own nineteenth-century interpretation; weigh them against modern scholarship.

Fungua somo ↗

An Earlier Historian · Crosby

2. The History of the English Baptists

Thomas Crosby · 1738–1740

Compare Crosby’s eighteenth-century account of the English Baptists with what Armitage says about Britain.

Fungua somo ↗

The American Setting · Haynes

3. The Baptist Denomination

D. C. Haynes · 1857

Read it for the American denominational setting: how Baptists in the United States described their history, doctrine and institutions in the mid-nineteenth century.

Fungua somo ↗

Church Order, Not History · Hiscox

4. The New Directory for Baptist Churches

Edward T. Hiscox · 1894

Use it to tell Baptist church order apart from Armitage’s historical narrative: Hiscox describes how a Baptist church is governed, not how Baptists came to be.

Fungua somo ↗

Confessional Setting · 1644

5. The London Baptist Confession of Faith (1644)

Particular Baptist churches of London · 1644

Read the confession for the doctrinal setting of the English Baptists of Armitage’s narrative, and check which edition the online text follows.

Fungua somo ↗

Confessional Comparison · 1689

6. The Second London Baptist Confession of Faith (1689)

Particular Baptists · first printed 1677; adopted 1689

Compare it with the 1644 confession and note what changed in the years between; check which edition the online text follows.

Fungua somo ↗

Uthibitisho wa heshima: Kwa kuchagua masomo matatu hapo juu, unathibitisha kwamba umesoma muhtasari hiyo mitatu kikamilifu. Muhtasari hiyo imeandikwa na CTS na inaweza kuwa na dondoo fupi au marekebisho ya kazi zilizo katika uwanja wa umma.