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Jeremiah Jeter On Alien Immersion

Discussion in 'Baptist History' started by Mark Osgatharp, Jan 2, 2006.

  1. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Jeremiah Jeter was a well known Virginia Baptist of the 19th century. In his autobiography he gives an account of his attempt, as a young man, to challenge the then prevalant view among Baptists that alien immersions were invalid. In later years he was an antagonist of the Campbellites as well as the Landmarkers.

    The above mentioned incident took place at the 1824 session of the Portsmouth association in Virginia. In that year J.M. Pendleton turned 13 years old, A.C. Dayton turned 11 years old and J.R. Graves 4 years old. Jeter relates the following (I have added paragraph divisions for easier reading):

    The testimony of Jeremiah Jeter, though himself an opponent of Landmarkism, stands as historical evidence of the prevalance of landmark principles among Portsmouth Baptists before the rise of the now historic Landmark movement.

    Mark Osgatharp
     
  2. Erasmus

    Erasmus New Member

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    Congratulations
     
  3. Rhetorician

    Rhetorician Administrator
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    Erasmus,

    Dr. Early, for what do you congratulate MO?

    I am confused, but then again that is not hard for me!

    sdg!

    rd
     
  4. Erasmus

    Erasmus New Member

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    He has been trying so hard to show landmarkism was prevelant before Graves and he found it. Call me Joe.
     
  5. Erasmus

    Erasmus New Member

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    Actually, there are several.
     
  6. rlvaughn

    rlvaughn Well-Known Member
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    While searching for info on feet washing in the Elkhorn Association (org. 1785, KY), I ran across this reference:

    From A History of Kentucky Baptists, Volume II, John Henderson Spencer, 1886

    http://www.geocities.com/baptist_documents/elkhorn.hist.html
     
  7. Mark Osgatharp

    Mark Osgatharp New Member

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    Brother Vaughn,

    Have you seen the little book titled "History of Alien Immersion and Valid Baptism" by J.H. Grime of middle Tennessee? It documents the fact that the early American Baptist associations almost uniformly decided against non-Baptist immersions when the questioned was raised. That remained the case well into the 19th century and among many associations even to the end of that century.

    I have never seen any attempt on the part of the restorationist historians to disprove Grime's work, and yet they still claim that Landmarkism was a new twist in Baptist ecclesiology.

    For the record, I consider the alien immersion issue to be one of the most important aspects of what it means to be a Landmark Baptist; because to accept alien immersion is to essentially deny the authority and perpetuity of the church.

    Theoretically, a man could believe that there is such a thing as the universal church and still hold to the perpetuity and authority of the local church (this was apparently the position of J.M. Pendleton). However, a man could deny the existence of a universal church and still assert the authority of any man to take the work of the ministry on himself, without regard to the local church (I met one man who held just exactly that view). Such an one, to my way of thinking, is more problematic to Landmarkism than the former.

    Mark Osgatharp
     
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