My Old Home Church
My Old Home Church, by C. C. McLaurin, was published by the Institute Press, Ltd, of Edmonton, Alberta, back in 1937.
As far as this writer knows, Institute Press no longer exists, but the book’s value has continued down to today. It’s no longer in print, and is difficult, if not impossible to find on the Internet. That’s sad, especially considering the good testimony and sound ideas the book records.
Thanks to a fellow pastor, I now have a copy that I can share for download, here.
C. C. McLaurin was a Baptist pastor and the superintendent of home missions in Alberta, around turn of the 20th century.
While today there are many differences between various Baptist churches, it is important for Baptists in Canada to know something of the history of Baptist in Canada, which perhaps will give us a better understanding of who we are and how Baptist churches came to be established and even to flourish in this country.
As Independent Fundamental Baptists, we are not part of any denomination or conference. We believe that the original Baptist church was not called a Baptist church and was established by Jesus Christ, Himself. He was clearly against denominations! (But that is not what this article is about!)
The fact that all Baptists of any time and place ought to remember is that we are not Protestants, and we did not give ourselves the name, Baptist. In fact, even the name, Christian, was given by others, according to the Bible, first at Antioch. Before that we were simply referred to as disciples or followers of Christ. However, we have taken that name and happily used it for nearly 2000 years.
Similarly, we Christians were first called Anabaptists by the early Roman Catholic church. When the apostate church began such practices as baptizing infants and older people alike to magically turn them into “Christians,” the true Christians of the day continued to baptize only those who were truly saved through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
More and more often, these new converts had been previously “baptized” by the RCC, even though they were not truly converted. When they later submitted to Biblical baptism after putting their faith in Jesus Christ, the Roman Catholics called us ANA or RE-baptizers. As time moved on through the centuries, most of us eventually dropped the ANA to become, simply, Baptists.
The statement by the Roman Catholic Church, which persecuted Baptists often horribly down through the centuries, that we are Protestants, is a lie. True Christians, called Baptists by the RCC, themselves, have existed in an unbroken chain throughout the entire Church Age.
This, then, ought to move us to understand who we are and how we came to be where we are, and how Baptists historically plant local churches wherever communities of people exist.
Please enjoy and may God bless you as you do His will.