The Christ's Assembly
The Christ's Assembly Worldwide, or The Christ's Assembly for short, is an independent and historic Baptist congregation known for inter-denominational unity. They continue on today with the traditions of the original General Baptists, upholding the original 1660 General Baptist Confession, as can be seen.
Contents
Original Baptist
From ChristsAssembly.com:
We at the Christ's Assembly call ourselves "Original Baptist". The term Baptist or Anabaptist was used to identify all dissidents who broke away from the state religion churches of England and Europe. Many suffered under pain of death for not converting to the state run church or even for having Bibles. You could go to jail for missing a church service on Sunday. All the dissident congregations, whether Congregationalists, Mennonites, Seventh Day Baptists or other Pilgrims have been called "Baptist or Anabaptist". History traces these as all being descendant of the Waldensians and Culdees.
History
In the 16th and 17th centuries, the General Baptists were feared because they took the bible literally,[1] so the 1660 Confession was put together to set the record straight, that they do not want to overthrow the government. The confession was specially delivered to King Charles II on July 26, 1660. Famous martyrs are recorded to have attended the Knott's earliest church in the early 1500s, the Eythorne Baptist Church. This is well recorded throughout the centuries of persecutions;[citation needed] such members that were martyred included Joan Bocher, who was burned at the stake on 2 May 1550.
Unity with other denominations is demonstrated in the history and practices of this independent assembly, which is the reason they're labeled "independent" as they claim to be an inter-denominational Fellowship open to all Christians worldwide. Since the Christ's Assembly is independent, elders have worked in unity with many denominations, including Methodists, Lutherans, Presbyterians, Seventh Day Baptists, and Pentecostals. This is outlined in their doctrinal beliefs that they work with all Historic Denominations because each were founded on Christian doctrine.
Statement of beliefs
"Among all the basic mainstream truths of Christianity, we also keep the 7th Day Sabbath, declare the primitive way in keeping all of His commandments, as well as using the Hebrew Calendar (as the 1660 General Baptist Confession states "the first month of the year called March", and gives an outline as above). The most widely used prayer book in Christianity called "the Book of Common Prayer", originally from the early 17th century, also tells us how to calculate the Hebrew calendar and has many Israelite festival services and songs. We are primarily composed of Seventh Day Baptists."[2]
The original creeds of the church go back to the Apostles Creed of 200AD, the persecuted Waldensians Creeds of Early Medieval Europe, and the major body of believers in every Western European Country[3] before their governments saw these literal bible believers as too powerful and outlawed them.[4] The Pope had even declared a crusade against the Sabbath keeping, bible believing Waldensians.
Historic traditions of unity
It was around 1650 that Knott, along with Jeffery brought the general Baptist church to Monmouth County New Jersey, forming the Shrewsbury Seventh Day Baptist church .[5] His son Peter Knott was recorded as an elder in both the Shrewsbury Presbyterian and Seventh Day Baptist churches evidencing the inter-denominational nature of the church.[6]
A few generations later this Seventh Day Baptist family moved to Ohio where a great many more of their churches were founded. Many of their relatives are recorded by the Worldwide Church of God as important Seventh Day Baptist Ministers paving the way for forming their church. In this and many related splinter groups there are over 200,000 members. The Christ's Assembly, being independent and holding all historic doctrines, states that it has and represents many millions of believers.
See also
References
- ↑ English Baptist General Confessions
- ↑ International Website of The Christ's Assembly Worldwide (TCAWW) Culdee, 7th Day Baptist, Feast and Sabbath Keeping Congregationalists
- ↑ When and How Was the Sabbath Changed from Saturday to Sunday? - September 2000
- ↑ Facts Of Faith Table of Contents
- ↑ Wall Township Official Website "In a northwestern location, a group of Seven Day Baptists settled on Hurley's Corner (near Highway 34 and West Hurley Pond Road) about 1728 under the guidance of Peter Knott." and "..the Seventh Day Baptists had erected a house of worship on a lot of land near Hurley's Corners, which was taken up by Peter Knott as early as 1720." (Source: History of Monmouth County, New Jersey 1664-1920, p. 485.)
- ↑ Historic Unity In The Christ's Assembly
- "The Baptists In All Ages" by J. S. Newman Chapter XV
- "A Sketch of the Rise and Progress of the Ancient Order of the General or Six Principle Baptists" by Richard Knight, 1827 Providence, Rhode-Island
- "General Baptist History, From Restoration to Revolution", Chapter 2
- "Seventh Day Baptists in Europe and America" volume 1 Rev. J. Lee Gamble and Charles H. Greene. (1910)
- History section of Eythorne Baptist Church's website
- "Memorials of Baptist Martyrs" by J. Newton Brown (1854)
- "Bye-Paths in Baptist History", by Rev. Joseph Jackson Goadby, Chapter 2 (London 1871)
- Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (DNB): articles on Joan Bocher and Esther Copley
- Throughout the World An Eye Witness Chapter from "When and How Was The Sabbath Changed..." by Ralph Larson
- Sabbath Reform In Scandinavia, Chapter 18 from "Facts of Faith", by Christian Edwardson
Further reading
- A.C.Miller, Eythorne: the story of a village Baptist church (London: Baptist Union 1924)
- F.J. Landes, Silent Men, Ch. Peter Knott and Descendants (1957)
- F. Randolph, A History of Seventh Day Baptists in West Virginia: Including the Woodbridgetown and Salemville Corliss Churches in Pennsylvania and the Shrewsbury Church in New Jersey (1905)
