If anyone were to ask what kind of a Baptist I am I would need to answer him, a Missionary Baptist. I was saved in 1927 at an association meeting at Cloverdale, Oregon, when Dr. Ben M. Bogard, of Little Rock, Arkansas, was doing the preaching, he being pastor of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church. That summer I was baptized by my father into the fellowship of Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Caldwell, Idaho. I was licensed by that church in 1932. In June, 1936, I was ordained to the mission work by the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church of Portland, Oregon, Dr. J. T. Moore, pastor, with the ordination taking place at another association meeting at Cloverdale, Oregon.
I like the name, Missionary Baptist, though I recognize that a church does not need to carry that name to be a Missionary Baptist Church. I believe that the use of the name originated in the eastern states many years ago after certain "Baptists" that held to the Five Point Calvinist Doctrines and carried them out to their logical conclusions began to oppose missions, Sunday schools, evangelistic meetings or any kind of preaching of the gospel to others than the "elect." Other Baptists then began calling themselves Missionary Baptists to distinguish them from that anti-missionary sect.
I like the name, Missionary Baptist, because I believe missions to be the main purpose for the existence of true Baptist churches to whom as we believe the Great Commission of our Lord Jesus Christ was given (Matthew 28:18-20). I believe that in His command to go, to make disciples, to baptize those disciples and to teach them to observe all that He had commanded them, everything is covered that a true Baptist Church rightly ought to be doing.
True Missionary Baptists believe that the authority and responsibility for missions is placed upon every true Baptist Church, and that responsibility and burden for the lost should be realized and felt by each church in its entirety, by every member. Therefore missions and winning souls should be the great subject taught in every Missionary Baptist Church.
The power in missions is from Jesus, who said, "All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefor."(Matthew 28:18-19) He said, "For without me ye can do nothing." (John 15:5) In Colossians 2:9-10 Paul says, "For in Him dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead bodily. And ye are complete in Him which is head of all principality and power." I love those words, "YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM." Jesus is all you need, nothing more.
To every true church of Jesus Christ I like to say, "Jesus is all you need. YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM." To the little struggling church I would say, "Jesus is all you need. He has all the power in heaven and earth. YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM." To every child of God I would say, "Jesus is all you need. YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM". To the lonely missionary far from home I would say, "Jesus is all you need. YE ARE COMPLETE IN HIM.'
True Missionary Baptists believe in local church sent missions. Paul and Barnabas were sent out by the local church at Antioch by faith. (Acts 13:1-3) Acts 14:26 says, "from whence they had been recommended to the grace of God for the work which they fulfilled." They had been recommended, not to a board, or to an association, or to a convention but were recommended to look to the GRACE OF GOD for the supply of their needs. In Acts 15:40 we find Paul and Silas going out in the same way, "being recommended by the brethren unto the grace of God."
In 1893 Elder T. L. Blalock, an uncle of mine, having finished three years of study in seminary at Louisville, Kentucky, Sailed for China, sent out by a local church in North Carolina, going simply by faith in an all powerful Master. In those days he met many hardships, but his faith continued strong in his Lord. In China in February, 1895, he was united in marriage to a Miss Emma Humphries, who had come to the mission field from North Carolina the year before, and they began their first mission work in the city of Taier Chuang. It was but a short time after that Elder Blalock took sick with a terrible fever and lay near death for a long time. At last he was carried by three men to a mission hospital where he began to recover.
Elder and Mrs. Blalock then returned to Taian where they had been married and where the older missionaries lived. Arriving there his fever came back on him again. While he lay thus in sickness and pain a letter arrived from North Carolina from the leading church of the association that had taken up his support and the church that had sent him to China. The letter enclosed $300 and a proposition for him to come under the Southern Baptist Board. They said they would support him better that way than they had ever before, but if he did not accept the proposition from the Board they would hereafter send all their support to the Foreign Missions Board. It was an ultimatum.
Elder Blalock wrote the pastor of this church who had previously been his very dear friend, telling him that he had not changed his mind since coming to China, That he still believed in missions direct from the churches under one Lord and Master, Jesus Christ. Now it seemed almost all their support was gone. At the urging of other missionaries he set out for the U. S. to recover his health and visit new churches. Emma, his wife, planned to stay in China, but when a cable gram arrived saying he was ill again in Yokohama, Japan, she hurriedly joined him there. When he was well enough they took passage on a very old ship, the Pathon, which broke down in mid-Pacific. After repairs were made they went on to about 400 miles from Victoria when they broke down again. The engineer found a way for them to move on slowly using a great deal of fuel till they came to a light house and were able to send a message for a tug to tow them into Seattle.
After leaving their ship in Seattle Elder and Mrs. Blalock took a streetcar to go up town, but within a short time the streetcar jumped the track. No one was hurt, but there was so much excitement, and Mrs.Blalock exclaimed to her husband, "It seems we are destined to be killed before we get home. The ship broke down in mid-ocean, and as soon as we get on shore the streetcar jumps the track." A woman standing near by overheard this remark and enquired if they were missionaries. When they told her that they were Baptist missionaries just returned from China she wanted them to meet her pastor.
The lady was a member of the First Baptist Church of Tacoma and a member of the Ladies Mission Circle. That night her pastor and a deacon of the church called on the Blalocks at their hotel. Mrs. Blalock was invited to speak at their Mission Circle, and as a result they were urged to spend the summer in Tacoma where a completely furnished house was supplied for their use, by the church, and all their needs were taken care of. No one knew of their impoverished circumstances, but God gave them just what my uncle needed to recuperate before they traveled on again in the fall.
There are so many coincidences in the life of a faith missionary, where they can plainly see the hand of God in their lives. Elder T. L. Blalock returned to China to labor there for over fifty years, and he always loved to tell others of his experiences in order that they, too, might learn to walk the path of faith in service of our wonderful Master, Jesus Christ.
In 1936 I started out as a faith missionary sent out by a local Missionary Baptist Church in Portland, Oregon, and arrived in China in January, 1937. There I was able to enjoy fellowship with my uncle for a few years in the work. In 1946 Mary and I were married, and when she went to be with the Lord, in 1986, we had been walking together by faith for forty years. In those years I have three times seen sponsoring churches fail us, one joining the Southern Baptist Convention, another the American Baptist Association, and another the Bible Baptist Fellowship. But the Lord has never failed us, and our needs have always been supplied, moreover there continue to be Missionary Baptist Churches that believe in and practice the simple Bible way of missions.
Once a group of faith missionaries were going out to India. They had no home there or anyone to meet them and no one had pledged to send them money. They were just going by faith in Christ. One of that group, a Mrs Norton, later wrote that she was half way across the ocean before she began to worry and wonder where they might go. Then one night she had a dream. She thought she was standing alone on a little plank alone in a vast ocean. She was told to go forward, and as she lifted her foot to take a step a plank appeared before her, another step another plank appeared. "So" she said, "God comforted me, telling me I was to trust Him for one step at a time. I went happily on always finding a plank waiting to be stepped upon when needed." This is walking by faith.
True Baptist missionaries are needed, those who will not fear to go out from a local church, even a small one, knowing that all the power and supply of Christ Jesus is back of them. So do as this old song says.
WILL YOU TAKE A POSITIVE STAND FOR LANDMARK DOCTRINES, HISTORIC BAPTIST INDEPENDENCE AND DIRECT MISSION PRACTICE? THEN SIGN UP FOR A SUBSCRIPTION TO THIS PAPER AND SPREAD THE TRUTH AS IT IS IN THE WORD OF GOD.