We finished off last night with Simon Calvert from the Christian Institute. Then this morning we began with a prayer meeting before breakfast.
The first main session was a biographical paper from Stephen Rees on Obadiah Holmes (1607-1682). Stephen told us that he was born in Reddish, now part of Stockport and so a local hero for him. He was brought up by godly parents and under conviction married and emigrated to Massachusetts in 1638 where he was eventually converted. In 1648 he became a Baptist, which was the beginning of his earthly problems as he and his fellows were persecuted by the state and forced into exile in Rhode Island.
In 1651 Holmes and two others (Clarke and Crandall) travelled to Lynn to a Baptist, where they baptised and preached. Arrested, they were forced to go to the evening service, where they kept their hats on to make a point. The next day they were found guilty and as they were already exiled it was decided (illegally) that they should be fined and if they did not pay they would be whipped. Holmes is the one who ended up being whipped - 90 lashes.
Time failed to tell of his faith and acts subsequently. He was an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln.
One of the consequences of the stand Holmes and the others took led to Henry Dunster, the Principal of Harvard, to become a Baptist. The Baptist stand caused a rethinking of the role of the state in this area. Two years before Holmes death a Baptist church was gathering in Boston without persecution. Eventually the Baptist idea was written into the American constitution.
You can find biographical material on Holmes here and here. Edwin Gaustad's biography with extensive quotations from Holmes can be accessed here. Stephen quoted especially from pages 74-76.
It was good to be reminded of the stand that our forefathers made in this area, obeying God rather than men. What a wonderful story.
The first main session was a biographical paper from Stephen Rees on Obadiah Holmes (1607-1682). Stephen told us that he was born in Reddish, now part of Stockport and so a local hero for him. He was brought up by godly parents and under conviction married and emigrated to Massachusetts in 1638 where he was eventually converted. In 1648 he became a Baptist, which was the beginning of his earthly problems as he and his fellows were persecuted by the state and forced into exile in Rhode Island.
In 1651 Holmes and two others (Clarke and Crandall) travelled to Lynn to a Baptist, where they baptised and preached. Arrested, they were forced to go to the evening service, where they kept their hats on to make a point. The next day they were found guilty and as they were already exiled it was decided (illegally) that they should be fined and if they did not pay they would be whipped. Holmes is the one who ended up being whipped - 90 lashes.
Time failed to tell of his faith and acts subsequently. He was an ancestor of Abraham Lincoln.
One of the consequences of the stand Holmes and the others took led to Henry Dunster, the Principal of Harvard, to become a Baptist. The Baptist stand caused a rethinking of the role of the state in this area. Two years before Holmes death a Baptist church was gathering in Boston without persecution. Eventually the Baptist idea was written into the American constitution.
You can find biographical material on Holmes here and here. Edwin Gaustad's biography with extensive quotations from Holmes can be accessed here. Stephen quoted especially from pages 74-76.
It was good to be reminded of the stand that our forefathers made in this area, obeying God rather than men. What a wonderful story.
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