Baptist Church Perpetuity

by W.A. Jarrel, William Wallace Everts Jr. (Introduction)

Baptist Church Perpetuity (Baptist History) [Dec 28, 2000] Jarrel, W. A. and ...

516 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2000

Reviews

[Victor Gamma · Rating 1 out of 5]

Until it is possible to document exactly what churches have believed and practiced throughout the Church Age, the question of Baptist origins will continue to cause gut-wrenching debate. Despite this fact, in a tradition hailing back to William Kiffin (1645), many Baptists have confidently asserted perpetuity. Although the resemblance of many antique and Medieval sects to Baptist belief and practice in some respects adds color to this view, solid documentary substantiation has been frustratingly elusive. In this 1894 book, Mr. Jarrell attempts to demonstrate that the Baptist Church has existed throughout the Church Age. The work covers church history from the Apostolic Age to the present by using historical and Biblical references. Mr. Jarrell relies on scriptural arguments as well as historical ones. The gentle reader who seeks an objective scholarly approach will be immediately traumatized by Mr. Jarrell's partisan opening salvoes fired not against historical inaccuracy but what he sees as a caving in of many seminaries to the "Romish Church." The book largely consists of quotes from various authorities supporting his position. Sources who oppose his beliefs such as Photius, are not quoted directly.

[Stephanie Zapata · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was very helpful for the believer to understand how the church has continued in existence since it was first established by Jesus Christ. Personally, I didn’t feel that it was a difficult read, just very repetitive.

[Nathan Wilder · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is out of reach for most modern readers. The writing style is not engaging or interesting. The author clearly has a presupposition he is trying to prove from history. Many of the groups used in the book as supports for the origin of the Baptist denominations were not actually linked in any way to any Baptist denominations, and these groups often believed doctrines that no baptists today believe. For example the Cathars (dualists), Montanists (ancient charismatics), and others were cited as originating Baptist churches, while they believed doctrine totally contrary to baptist churches.

Two Great Weaknesses:
Weakness#1: This author quotes in up to four languages, putting it out of reach for most readers.
Weakness#2: Lying: This book lists Sir Isaac Newton as a notable source for a quote that is completely fabricated:

“The modern Baptists formerly called Anabaptists are the only people that never symbolized with the papacy.”
-Baptist Church Perpetuity, W. A. Jarrell, Chapter 22, page 313, approximately 1894 (note that Jarrell wrote this book at the age of 45).
From this simple path, we can see that Walker is likely misquoting Jarrell, unless there is some other reference for this quote. Jarrell’s footnote attributes the quote to “Life of Whiston”. This source is fully titled, Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Mr. William Whiston Containing Memoirs of Several of His Friends Also. This book contains no such reference to the term “Anabaptists”. This book contains no quotation of Isaac Newton that even closely resembles the words recorded by Jarrell and subsequently by Walker. Without reading every word of 458 pages of Whiston, computer searches for keywords and reading several pages front two and back two, I have returned no results of any sentiment of the sort. It is possible Mr. Whiston believed this statement, and may have intimated the sentiment in some of his writing at length on historic Christianity, but in no way did he quote this exact statement. If Isaac Newton ever said this, Jarrell lied about where he found it, or I’m not smart enough to find it.
https://archive.org/details/memoirsof...
http://historicalbaptist.com/wp-conte...
The error again is quoted here:
“The Baptists are the only body of Christians that has not symbolized with the Church of Rome.” -Sir Isaac Newton in The Baptist Challenge May 1978 issue, article “The Origins of Baptists” by George B Taylor. This article quotes the reference from Appleton’s American Cyclopedia, but no issue is given, and this publication ran many issues, so it will be quite some time to track down the exact source of the probable error. It is not likely that this 20th Century source has better access than the 19th century sources to an accurate original document reconciling the quote. An online copy of the source document has been obtained, and no such quote resembling that which is commonly recited can be found or nearly attributed to Sir Isaac Newton. If Sir Isaac Newton said it, when and where did he say it, and how did individuals born 100 years after his death come to know about it?
https://archive.org/details/americanb...
It is not necessarily a lie to say that Sir Isaac Newton said it, because oral tradition is a means of transferring information, maybe he did. What is a lie, is to say that you found a quote in a book that obviously does not contain anything of the sort. If this is the case, the author of this book is deliberately misleading the reader to believe that they have a physical source for an actual quote of a respected individual, when in reality, no such quote can ever be proven to have existed. When it comes to spiritual matters, the side that is comfortable with lying is the side that is wrong.