Grace Baptist Assembly 2017 Day 3

The assembly finished with Oliver Allmand-Smith speaking on William Gadsby and Mike Judge preaching a closing sermon. Oliver began with five things that stood against Gadsby from early on.

1. He was a sinner. Born in 1773 the ninth of 14, he was the son of a road mender. A life adn soul sort, he was profane in his language and utterly opposed to religion.

2. He was poor. His parents were desperately poor. When he married in 1796 they possessed a chest of drawers and an umbrella. They sold the umbrella for a bed! They were involved in the weaving industry, a cottage industry with such narrow margins that one mistake could wipe out all profit even working all hours.

3. He was poorly educated. He attended the church school in Nuneaton three days a week for a short while. He managed to learn to read but barely. When he began to preach he could hardly read out the Bible passage.

4. He was doctrinally aberrant. Although he lived in the era of Andrew Fuller and the rediscovery of evangelical Calvinism, he rejected those views. He called Fuller a great enemy to the gospel. He did not believe in the free offer of the gospel. He was also antinomian in his view of the Law. Along with this there was a distinctiveness and individuality, an obstinacy, that made him pour scorn on ministerial education and inter-church fellowship. Even at his ordination he behaved in a very anarchist manner.

5. He ministered to deprived and poverty stricken people. He became a minister in Desford when he was 27 before moving to Manchester in 1807, where he ministered for 39 years in the same church. Manchester was the first industrial city and the dirt, poverty, crime and vice was horrendous. Gadsby reached out nevertheless to uneducated and needy people with great success.

Despite all that was against him Gadsby was greatly used by God to be a great blessing to many, many people. At the age of 17 he saw a hanging in Coventry. One man was so emaciated that it was difficult to hang him. it left an impression on Gadsby that led to a deep conviction of sin. Eventually he was converted. He went on to be a powerful and effective preacher not only in Manchester but in many other places too. Not only that but he did a great deal to help the poor also. This included political activity on behalf of the poor.
On his grave are these words

Here rests the body of a sinner base
Who had no hope but electing grace
The love, blood, life and righteousness of God
Was His sweet theme – And this He spread abroad.

1. Be careful what you do with your heroes. If only those who often make Gadsby their hero were more like him in their desire to see souls saved and to bless his people.
2. Do not forget the importance of compassion. May his spirit live in us to the glory of God.

The very last message was given by Mike Judge. Mike was late joining us as his wife has just given birth to their third child, Lorica. Mike spoke very warmly of the Assembly and the influence it has had on him. In his sermon he took us to Acts 10. e went through the story of Cornelius and his conversion - being about both justification by faith and the breaking down of barriers.
Barriers are broken down by proclaiinng Christ in all the earth.
A reminder - all the talks can be heard by going here.

Grace Assembly 09 5

After a morning prayer time and breakfast we assembled for our first session of the day 'Bunyan the Baptist'. The speaker was Oliver Allmand-Smith from Ramsbottom.

After a very brief introduction touching on Bunyan's greatness he referred to the 19th Century book by William Urwick containing the essay suggesting Bunyan was not a Baptist. (Bible Truths and Church Errors). Urwick's evidence is fourfold.
1. His baptism was in infancy and not as an adult. There is no evidence of his being baptised as a believer.
2. All his treatises on the subject against Baptists rather than for.
3. The way he and his church were treated by Baptists show he was not one of them.
4. He had his infant children baptised in the C of E.
This seemingly formidable body of evidence was easily answered. There is no record of Bunyan's baptism but there are almost no records of anyone else in the church being baptised. Bunyan considers infant baptism a sin though one to which he showed great toleration. The Baptist historian Thomas Armitage tackles the question of Bunyan having baptised children and points out that where such records are found they are incorrect and spring from confusion. Bunyan was a Baptist. His anti-Anglican writings show how unlikely it might be for him to have his children baptised in the Church of England. Bunyan's church was very strict with people who had dealings with the Church of England.
Having said this it is clear from Erwick that Bunyan was not in line with the Baptist view that links baptism and church membership. He refuse to believe that baptism was required for church membership. It, indeed, has nothing to do with the church, according to Bunyan. At one point Bunyan refused to release a Mrs Tilney from membership who wanted to join a church that required baptism for membership and even threatened excommunication.
Bunyan clearly saw baptism as a minor issue. Why? It was not out of weakness or any idea that the NT is unclear on baptism or some sort of ecumenism. Three reasons were proposed:
1. Because of his own conversion and spiritual pilgrimage.
2. Because of his determination to fight what he believed to be the battle of his day against dead religion.
3. Because of his determination to be united with all who were also seeking to fight the same battle.
It was his fear that baptism could promote dead religion that really drove him.
This was a most interesting paper not from a simply antiquarian point of view but raised vital issues for us to consider.
Oliver himself closed with three points
1. To exalt the individual's Christian experience over the corporate life of the visible local church is wrong. Bunyan's mistake is being repeated today minus the depth of experience and commitment that marked him.
2. We must follow the biblical pattern that is seen in Scripture where baptism and local church membership are taught and insisted upon.
3. To promote opposition to dead religion and broader unity at the expense of following the patterns laid down in Scripture for unity among God's people we are in error.