Dec 26, 2019
Council on History
Rev. Nicholas J. Kersten
Director of Education
This issue of the Recorder represents the first in the new decade. From the historical perspective, these sorts of changes represent ripe opportunities for consideration, as obvious signs of the changes of times and seasons (see Genesis 1:14). Beyond these biblical injunctions, our Conference’s vision map makes a point to note the importance of our heritage. For this reason, some perspective is necessary as we consider an important upcoming anniversary in SDB history.
Fifty years ago, America entered a new decade following a successful landing of astronauts on the moon in 1969 and a decade of conflict, marked by the high-profile assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
One hundred years ago, America entered the “Roaring Twenties,” with financial prosperity leading to cultural changes in technology and the arts, including electrification in cities and the proliferation of the automobile.
One hundred and fifty years ago, America was emerging from the Civil War, a nation still divided over the Reconstruction of the southern states as Ulysses S. Grant tried to move the nation forward. The first transcontinental railroad was completed in 1869 as coast-to-coast transportation became possible without a long boat trip.
Two hundred years ago, America was establishing itself as a nation following the completion of the War of 1812, and expanding westward, avoiding controversy over the issue of slavery through “the Missouri Compromise” in 1820 to open settlement in the Northwest (now the upper Midwest) and Missouri Territories, and admitting Maine and Missouri to the United States.
Two hundred and fifty years ago, America was a British territory sailing into stormy waters. On March 3, 1770, British soldiers fired into a mob of colonists, killing several of them in an event that would come to be known as the Boston Massacre, later immortalized in a famous engraving by local silversmith Paul Revere which would become one of the sparks of the American revolution.
Nearly one hundred years before all these occurrences—almost as far away from the Boston Massacre as we currently are from “the Roaring Twenties”—is the founding of the first Seventh Day
Baptist church in America at Newport, Rhode Island, late in 1671. In 2021, we will celebrate as a Conference the founding of the first church in North America!
The Council on History is busily preparing a variety of remembrances and events which we hope will aid us in remembering this important event, as all Seventh Day Baptist churches owe some sort of debt to the Newport church, if “only” in terms of theological and historical roots.
Those members who ultimately became the Seventh Day Baptist church in Newport were engaged in their lives in 1670, walking into a new decade unaware of what God would do among them. They were months away from separating from their previous church (most of them were members at John Clarke’s First Baptist Church in Newport), but still working in community with them, however strained the relationships were starting to become.
As you start this new decade, what has God appointed for you and your church? What new callings and ministries will God give you? What new people will God bring into your life who need your care and faithful witness to Jesus Christ? May God lead you with faith and confidence into this time!
