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The Lord's Baptist Church was organized by Elder Larry Killion from the South Park Missionary Baptist Church on January 26, 1980 in Tacoma, Washington. (see organization minutes of TLBC)
The South Park Missionary Baptist Church was organized by Elder Glen Tweet from the Bryan Station Baptist Church on July 4, 1957 in Seattle, Washington. (see organization minutes of SPMBC)
The Bryan Station Baptist Church, Lexington, Kentucky was organized on April 15, 1786 by Elder Lewis Craig from "Craig's Church" also known as "The Traveling Church" which moved to Kentucky territory from Spotsylvania, Virginia. (see ECHOS FROM GLORY a Concise History Of The Bryan Station Baptist Church p.5)
The Traveling Church was organized as a Baptist Church on November 20, 1767 between the James and the Rappahanack rivers by Elders James Read, Sammuel Harris, and Dutton Lane.(see A History of the Baptists by John T. Christian p. 289 & 290 and History of the Baptists in Virginia by Semple p. 23)
Read, Harris and Lane were from the Dan River Baptist Church (History of the Baptists in Virginia by Semple p.17 & 65) which came from Abbott's Creek Baptist Church Pastored by Daniel Marshall (History of the Baptists in Virginia by Semple p.16) who came from Sandy Creek Baptist Church.
Sandy Creek Baptist Church of Guilford county, North Carolina, was organized with 16 charter members on November 22, 1755 by Elders D. Marshall and Shubal Stearns. (History of the Baptists in Virginia by Semple p. 14)
Sandy Creek came out of the Opeckon Baptist Church in Berkeley county, Virginia (History of the Baptists in Virginia by Semple p. 13). Other spellings for this church are Opequon and Opekon. She was reorganized by certain ministers of the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1751 upon the Calvinistic plan, sifting out the chaff and retaining the supposed good seed according to the record.
From 1751 on, the Opeckon Baptist Church was connected with the Philadelphia Baptist Association of churches and was officially received into the association October 8, 1754.(Minutes of the Philadelphia Baptist Association From 1707 to 1807 p. 71) Elder Abel Morgan was one of the messengers at the annual meeting when Opekon was received into the Association. Morgan came from the Welsh Tract Baptist Church in Newcastle county, Delaware (p.15) which was organized with 16 members at Pembrokeshire, South Wales in June of 1701 and sailed together to Philadelphia arriving September 8, 1701.
The charter members of the Welsh Tract Church, for example Pastor Thomas Griffiths, came from the church at Rhydwilim which was called anabaptist by their enemies but they felt unjustly so because theirs was the only true kind of baptism. (History of the Welsh Baptists by Davis p.72)
The Anabaptist church at Rhydwilim associated with the Particular Baptists of Wales and England and was instrumental in publishing the 1689 London Confession of Faith which was also adopted by the Philadelphia Baptist Association in 1742. (The American Baptist Heritage In Wales by Joshua Thomas p.93 & 94, and History of the Welsh Baptists by Davis p.188)
The first Association meeting of these old and apostolic Baptist ministers to meet after the reformation was in 1653. Though the records are lost, men like Dyfrig, Illtyd, and Dynawt n doubt had their associations long before Austin's slaughter of Welsh Baptists for the cause of Popery in AD600. Before AD600, believer's immersion was the only mode recognized in the British Isles as the baptism of the New Testament. (History of the Welsh Baptists by Davis p.187, 14 and 15)
These great forefathers of the faith have much in common with their brethren in the Valley's of the Piedmont and the very first of them to begin assembling themselves together as churches of the Lord Jesus Christ came to Wales shortly after AD63 as result of the Apostle Paul's ministry in Rome. They were not Protestant rejects of the Roman Catholic Church or the Church of England. (History of the Welsh Baptists by Davis p.7, 6,17,20,21 and Acts 28:17,28-31 and II Tim 4:21)
The Apostle Paul was taught directly by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ and was sent out as a foreign missionary from the church in Antioch Syria. (Acts 13:1-3, Gal 1:15-21, 2Cor 12:1-5) The church in Antioch Syria was constituted by baptized believers out of the church in Jerusalem (Acts 8:1 & 4) and had an authoritative connection to the church in Jerusalem. (Acts 15:1-4, 22-31)
Larry J. Killion
Thus we have seen a link by link connection of New Testament churches in our heritage all the way back to the Apostles and Christ in the New Testament.
The Old Particular Baptists of Wales and England were often scattered by their enemies and reorganized in secret only to flourish again depending on the intensity of their persecution and the out pouring of the Holy Spirit. Their writings and records were always destroyed by their persecutors. Many who were led away by the teaching of infant baptism were brought back to the religion of their forefathers and baptized or dipped in the River Allen only 25 miles distant from Hill Cliffe. (History of the Baptist Church at Hill Cliffe by Kenworthy p.24)
The Hill Cliffe Church, also known as Lollards, is believed to be connected with the ancient Waldensians.
Note:
We earlier posted another church history with a disclaimer that we were not able to validate the references in it. We have now removed it due to the fact that some have chosen to ignore our disclaimer and accuse us as liars for posting bogus historical references.
The fact of the matter is that Christ orgainized His church during His earthly ministry. He gave it and it alone the Great Commission. He empowered it once and for all in New Testament times to do the work of the Great Commission. Members of the very first church in Jerusalem were dispersed to various other places and fitly framed local visible assemblies of scripturally baptized believers in those locations with like faith and order as the church that they came from. This is the New Testament Pattern and it is in harmony with the biblical pattern of "like begets like". It has worked from New Testament times all the way down to today. There is no need for a new formula for church organization.
Some of our earlier churches went into error about AD325. They broke fellowship the pure churches and eventually evolved into the modern day universal heirarchy heresy. No true churches have ever identified with this movement in any way. It was this organization that martyred millions of members of true churches over the centuries for not recognizing their self-claimed authority. See The Trail of Blood. The so-called reformers have the same hatred for true churches and I fear they are attempting to attack them now from within with a new "Pop-up Church" theory that ridicules authoritative connection to a sound church for proper organization. If you come from nothing you have no more authority than the pompus papists. I plead with my beloved Baptist brethren that are leaning this way. Please do not depart from us. Jesus is coming soon! LJK 6-10-07.