In August 1829, Beaver Association, a
small Baptist fraternity in Pennsylvania, met at Providence meeting house, near
Pittsburg, and, after discussing the subject of Mr. Campbell’s teaching,
resoled to withdraw fellowship from Mahoning Association on account of its
maintaining, or countenancing, the following statement, or creed:
1.
They maintain
that there is no promise of salvation without baptism.
2.
That baptism
should be administered to all who say that Jesus Christ is the son of God,
without examination on any other point.
3.
That there
is no direct operation of the Holy Spirit, on the mind, prior to baptism.
4.
That baptism
produces the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.
5.
That the
Scriptures are the only evidence of interest in Christ.
6.
That obedience
places it in God’s power to elect to salvation.
7.
That no creed is
necessary for the church but the Scriptures as they stand
8.
That all baptized
persons have a right to administer the ordinance of baptism.
This is believed to have been the first
official declaration of nonfellowship for Mr. Campbell and his followers. The
other association corresponding with Mahoning withdrew fellowship from it,
during the same, and the following month. The Appomattox Association in Virginia,
at its meeting, in May, 1830, recorded the following item:
“Whereas, there is satisfactory
evidence, that the writings of Alexander Campbell have exerted what we consider
a mischievous influence upon numbers of churches, fomenting envy, strife and
divisions among those who had before lived in fellowship and peace. Therefore, Resolved,
That this association most cordially approves the course pursued by the Beaver
and her sister associations in withdrawing from Mahoning.”319 (“Beaver Baptist
Association (Pennsylvania) against the Campbellism,” 1829, in H. Leon McBeth, A
Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage [Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press, 1990], 243,
emphasis in bold added)
The
material in bold stood out, as John Thomas, who broke off from the Campbellite
movement in the 1840s, would hammer out those beliefs to the point where the
spirit is not active anymore since the apostolic era (not merely the spiritual
gifts) and, as a result of that, for many Christadelphians, God communicates
through reading the Bible only.
