According to Frank M.
Masters, “The occasion of Alexander Campbell’s first visit to Kentucky was
to engage in the proposed debate with Rev.
W. L. McCalla.” William Latta McCalla (1788-1859)
was a leading Presbyterian preacher, and the debate took place October 15-21,
1823 in Washington,
Mason County, Kentucky.[i]
Many Baptist preachers supported Campbell in this
debate, and in the aftermath many viewed him as a champion of Baptist faith.
Campbell chose Jeremiah
Vardeman – a very well-known and popular preacher – as his moderator.
According to Masters, Jacob Creath (who
was enveloped by the Restoration),[ii] Walter
Warder, and William
Vaughan (who became chief opponents of Campbell) “were known to have been
present.” “The debate, being so popular among the Baptists, prepared the way
for the rapid spread of Alexander Campbell’s views throughout the state. The
conditions were favorable for such a man as he, to gain a good following among
the Baptists.”
The Campbell Restoration movement fueled
controversy over the Bible. That controversy led to Baptist statements in favor
of the King James Bible in the late 1820s and early 1830s. Henry K. Shaw’s
reference to John Randolph (1773–1833), himself a Virginia planter and an
Episcopalian, gives voice to the sentiments of many Baptists of that day.
According to Shaw:
Among the orthodox, the King James text was
thought to be the only true word of God. Therefore, they were suspicious of
Campbell’s new publication.[iii]
There are cases on record of ministers who had to stand trial before
ecclesiastical bodies for reading Campbell’s translation or quoting from it in
their pulpits. In this connection, the case of John Randolph, the Virginia
statesman, is most interesting. Both Campbell and Randolph were elected
delegates to the Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1829. Randolph
represented the Virginia aristocrats on the Atlantic seaboard, and Campbell
represented the common people in the western part of the state. Campbell put up
a strong fight for free public schools and libraries – a position which
Randolph opposed…Campbell’s stubborn opposition to the aristocrats, who were
accustomed to having their own way, so provoked the wrath of Randolph that he
once stood up in convention and pointing his finger at Campbell, declared,
“That man is never satisfied. God Almighty could
not satisfy him with the Bible which He gave and Mr. Campbell went and wrote a
Bible of his own.”[iv]
According to Spencer, “Campbellism took root
early, in North District Association.”[v] Alexander
Campbell visited the Mount Sterling Church “as early as 1824, and preached
three sermons there.” ‘Raccoon’ John
Smith “was speedily converted to his views.” Smith’s conversion and adoption of views inconsistent with the Baptist
faith led to problems in the North District Association.[vi] At
its meeting in 1827 the Lulbegrud church sent up several charges aimed at the
practices of John Smith. The accusations included:
“1. That, while it is the custom of Baptists to
use as the word of God King James translation, he had on two or three occasions
in public, and often privately in his family, read from Alexander Campbell’s
translation…”[vii]
As in the North District Association, the
Reformation doctrine of Alexander Campbell and Raccoon John Smith caused
problems in the Green River Association of United Baptists. Alonzo Willard
Fortune quotes from the Minutes of the 29th Session of Green River Association,
1828 (pp. 4-5):
“The query from Mount Zion Church, to wit, ‘What
ought to be done with a preacher in our union that publicly declares that our
translation of the Bible is a very imperfect Book, and that there is human
agency in the conversion of a sinner, and that man has got physical power to do
all that the Lord requires of man,’ was taken up.”[viii]
According to Fortune, the committee advised
caution and charity. Ironically, the Mount Zion Church may have been too
cautious and charitable! When the Green River Association took action against
the Reformers in 1832, “It was ordered that the Mount Zion church should be
dropped...”[ix]
About this time, a writer identified only as
“Titus” reported to Campbell’s Christian Baptist periodical on a sermon by George Waller.[x]
“It is
presumption, it is wicked, for an
individual, and he a mere smatterer,
to take the work of a translation out of the hands of king James’ translators,
men so renowned for their learning and piety, who were so providentially
protected, and who lived so much nearer the age of the apostles, that they
must, consequently, have been much better acquainted with the original language
than any man can be in the present age.”[xi]
When the Barren River Association of Baptists
organized in 1830, they included as their first Article of Faith:
“We believe the scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments as translated by the authority of King James, to be the words of
God, and is the only rule of faith and practice.”[xii]
Considering the time frame, it is likely that the
felt-need for mentioning the King James Bible specifically was the raging
Campbell controversy.
A Baptist remnant of the North District
Association – which was destroyed by the followers of Campbell – met at
Howard’s Upper Creek, Clark County, Kentucky, on the 4th Saturday in July 1831.
The committee on “Baptist Customs and Usages” reported on “Constituting
Churches,” “Subjects of Baptism,” “Words of Baptism,” “Mode of Baptism,” “Manner
of Eating the Lord’s Supper,” and then concluded with this statement on the
Bible:
“That translation of the Scriptures called King James’s is the version that the
five names of Baptists treated of in this report receive, refer to, and confide
in as authentic. The principles of government are exhibited in the proceedings
of the council at Lulbegrud [the church where they met for a special meeting in
April 1830, rlv].”[xiii]
The old veteran, John
Taylor (1752-1835),
broached the subject in 1830 in A History
of Clear Creek Church: and Campbellism Exposed (Frankfort: KY, Printed by
A. G. Hodges).[xiv] Perhaps slightly
tongue-in-cheek, he proposed a debate between Alexander Campbell and Daniel
Parker.
“Let this debate begin on Monday morning in long
days, and continue six days. On the seventh, both the men preach to the same
congregation, and neither of them exceed two hours in their address. Let the
only book used in this debate, be the translation of the Bible, made under the
reign of king James. If half the Baptists of the western world, will be drawn
off by Campbell and Parker, the balance will refuse to be hoodwinked by either
of them, and will stick together as united Baptists, in the name of the Lord.”
He further criticized Jacob Creath’s use of
Campbell’s New Testament, as well as emphasized what he thought was Campbell’s
own reason for despising the old Bible.
“This produced a fresh source of contention in the
church. This young brother [Jacob Creath, Jr.], a few years before had preached
in Kentucky with good acceptance among the churches. But now he would read and
preach from the new, or Campbell’s translation of the New Testament, cast
contempt on the Old translation, that the Bible was much corrupted by that
translation.”
“This, I suppose too, is the reason why Campbell
is better pleased with his new translation, for the word repentance is rarely
seen in the whole work. The old translation mingles too much godly sorrow with
gospel religion, for Campbell’s use.”[xv]
Frank
Masters summed up the Campbellite defection (numerically) in this
way:
“The available statistics of the Baptists in
Kentucky in 1829 give thirty-four associations, six hundred fourteen churches,
and 45,442 members; but the report in 1830 showed a loss of forty churches and
5,485 members largely as a result of the division. In 1832, an additional
decrease of 4095 members was reported, which made a total loss of 9580 members
in three years. The total membership in 1832 was 35,862, and in 1835, 39,806,
which showed a gain of only 3,947 members in three years; and still 6,636
members less than reported in 1829.”
In his preface to the history of Clear Creek
Church, John Taylor wrote, “The worst of all heresy, is corrupt views of the
Scriptures, put into practice; and this is more seen in Campbellites, than any
other people with whom we are acquainted.”[xvi]
Perhaps this well sums up the problems Kentucky Baptists had with Campbell and
his followers in the 1820s to 1830s – a poor view of the scriptures, and practice
of the poor views they had. Most historians know well the problem of Campbell’s
view on baptism “as a regenerating ordinance, and by which remission of sin is
obtained” but fewer probably recognize that embedded within the Kentucky
Campbellite struggle over contrary practices were contrary views of the
scriptures themselves.
[ii] I
suppose this to be Jacob Creath, Jr. His uncle, Jacob Creath, Sr., also
embraced the Restoration movement.
[v]
The North District Association organized in August 1801, a friendly division of
large territory of the South Kentucky Association of Separate Baptists.
[viii]
The Disciples in Kentucky, A. W.
Fortune, Lexington, KY: Convention of the Christian Churches in Kentucky, 1932,
p. 82
[x] George
Waller pastored Buck Creek Baptist Church in Shelby County, Kentucky for nearly
fifty years, and is buried in the Buck Creek Baptist Church Cemetery. S.
H. Ford wrote, “As a preacher, George Waller was argumentative,
Calvinistic, and really eloquent. He was, in his day, amongst the most
laborious and influential ministers in the West.”
[xi]
Letter from ‘Titus’ to the Christian Baptist,
Vol. IV, No. 10, May 7, 1827, as quoted in Alexander
Campbell and His New Translation,” by David W. Fletcher, p. 11 (originally
in The Seminary Review 20, No. 2, June
1984: 45-61). Fletcher also relates an account of George’s brother, Edmund
Waller, burning Campbell’s New Testament: “I subscribed for Mr. Campbell’s
Testament, and received it, paid $1.75 for it, kept it five or six months and
compared it carefully with one I have loved ever since I was 13 years old. On
the first reading I condemned it, but let it remain in my house some two or
three months; then tried it again, condemned and burnt it.” (p. 9)
[xii] The
Articles of Faith of the Barren River Association, adopted at her constitution
at the Mount Pleasant Meeting House, Barren County, Ky., Sept. 15, 1830,
recorded in Pioneer Church Records of South Central Kentucky and the Upper
Cumberland of Tennessee 1799-1899, C. P. Cawthorn & N. L. Warnell,
Dayton, OH: Church History Research & Archives, p. 23; See also Minutes of the One Hundred Sixty-Ninth
Annual Session of the Barren River Missionary Baptist Association, August
26, 1999, p. 15. The Bethlehem Anti-Mission Baptist Association in their
Abstract of Principles in 1838 declared “the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments, as translated by King James, to be the Word of God.” Though this is
slightly later, the similarity to Barren River’s article suggests the residual
effects of the Campbell controversy (A History of
Kentucky Baptists, Volume II, J. H. Spencer, 1885, p. 508).
[xiii]
Life of Elder
John Smith: with Some Account of the Rise and Progress of the Current
Reformation, John Augustus Williams, Cincinnati, OH: R. W. Carroll
& Company, 1870, pp. 422-424; without inspecting the original document, it
is hard to understand what is meant by “the five names of Baptists treated of
in this report.” Perhaps it meant something like Regular Baptists, Separate
Baptists, United Baptists, etc., or perhaps there were five churches
represented.
[xiv] Clear
Creek Church was in Woodford County, near Versailles, Kentucky.
