What happened on this day in history?
On June 24, 1535, the Anabaptist commune of Münster was captured and its leaders tortured and killed. The commune was made up of radical Anabaptists who, through violence, took control of Münster in 1534 in an attempt to set up a theocracy. The self-appointed leaders of this group of Anabaptists based their authority and their many immoral actions on prophecies from God.
Nearly a hundred years later, a group of Baptists attempted to distinguish themselves by referring to themselves as Particular Baptists. Today they are called Reformed Baptists. Sound familiar? They held to believer’s baptism but they also held to “particular atonement,” the doctrine that recognizes the exactness and the efficacy of Christ’s work on the cross. Christ died for those who were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world (Eph. 1:4). Thus, Christ’s atonement is efficacious, it produces regeneration in ALL of the elect, but only in the elect. It is therefore a particular or limited atonement.
The Particular Baptists were frequently misidentified as Anabaptists of the Münster sort because of the name association. Thus, a God-ordained need arose to communicate the distinction of beliefs not only to its own members but to the members of the communities where they lived. The Particular Baptist initially published their confession of faith in 1644 and republished a second more thorough and refined version in 1689.
Today, because of some radical-minded self-professing Christians, we too must engage our community to ensure that the true gospel of Jesus Christ goes forth, unpolluted by error. Ours is a task of clarity and accuracy of the truth, always motivated by love for the lost, even the radically lost.
Matthew 28:19-20 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”