Friday Mar 29, 2024

Old Regular Baptist Churches

The Old Regular Baptist Churches are a created and joined together from the central part of Appalachia, which extends from southwestern Pennsylvania through West Virginia parts of Kentucky and Tennessee to northwestern Georgia and includes the southern Appalachian Mountains. The principles of the church developed during the 19th century. The first association began in 1825 in different counties of Kentucky. The counties of Harlan, Pike, Floyd and Perry in Kentucky began the organization of this denomination. A group of individual churches united from these counties to form one body.

The Old Regular Baptist Churches form local associations where they have fellowship with one another. Preachers are called by God, untrained as well as being unpaid. They preach improvisational. It is not uncommon for the preaching to be done by chanting the sermons. It is also not uncommon for shouting to occur at the Old Regular Baptist Church meetings.

The Old Regular Baptist Churches communicate with each other once a year by publishing each of the association minutes including records of the obituaries of church members, a listing of ordained ministers, the churches addresses and any important information the churches want to share with each other.

The Old Regular Baptist Churches practice lined-out, non-instrumental congregational singing of hymns. The lined-out style of singing is an ancient method of singing religious music which involves a leader chanting each line of text and then the congregation singing in unison without hymnals or psalters. The American colonists brought this form of music from the British churches around the 1700’s. This is the only singing that is used in their churches.

Their once-a-month meeting is a custom among the Old Regular Baptist Church. The date for this meeting varies from church to church so members from other churches can visit each other. Every Sunday it would be possible to visit other Old Regular Baptist Churches in any given church.

Most congregational meetings begin with singing songs. It is a friendly and orderly service with lots of shaking of hands in greetings. The Old Regular Baptist Churches demand reverence and expect humbleness. Songs are chosen on the spot as the Spirit moves. Prayers are offered to those in need and prayers to emphasize the honor man owes to God. The introduction or opening will set the atmosphere for the meeting to provoke thought, and promote spirituality; however, it is not to be a formal sermon.

The Old Regular Baptist believe prayer is a powerful tool to reach the Lord. It is believed to be sincere desire of the heart to express that desire from the heart without any embarrassment. That means the pray part of the meeting can be loud because it is done by the Spirit.

The Old Regular Baptist Churches deliver extemporaneous sermons by several ministers. These impromptu sermons are performed without any preparation and will last anywhere from ten minutes to thirty minutes. The sermons have their own messages. They are always powerful, compelled by love, and orderly. There are no note-reading but, rather, is delivered by the minister as God moves him in demonstration of the moving Spirit and the power of God. The last minister giving his sermon will then extend an invitation for membership in the church. Membership is decided upon the persons experience and baptism. Those desiring membership are encouraged to come forward and tell how conviction and repentance led them to be born again. While the invitation is given a song is lined and sung by the congregation. The service is closed by prayer. The monthly meetings are usually over before noon.

History

The history of the Old Regular Baptist is similar to all Regular Baptist churches. They merged with the Separate Baptist in the beginning of the 19th century. The name was changed to the United Baptists. The name of Regular Baptist remained with a number of the Baptist groups especially the Primitive Baptist Churches who rejected the modern methods which would include missionaries. Most of the Old Regular Baptist can be traced back to the New Salem Association of the United Baptist who originated in eastern Kentucky in 1825. The name was changed to the Regular United in 1854 then to the Regular Primitive in 1870, after that in 1892 the name was changed to the Old Regular Baptist.

Belief

The Old Regular Baptist believes the Old and New Testament Scriptures are the true written words of god and were given by inspiration of God and there is an adequacy in them contained for the instruction and the rule of faith and practice.

The Old Regular Baptist believes there is one true and living God and there are three that bear record in Heaven, the father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. They believe these three are but one in substance, equal in power and glory and should not be divided and impossible to change in principle and practice.

The Old Regular Baptist believe in the election by grace. They believe the conversion experience may be a long process and starts with the awakening to the concept of sin and continues through a period of conviction and troubles of the soul, then comes the repentance and the belief.

The Old Regular Baptist believes in the doctrine of original sin, and that man sinned since the fall of Adam, that men are by nature of the children of wrath. They believe they are not able to recover themselves out of the state of sin. They believe the Savior is absolutely needed to help man out of the state of sin.

The Old Regular Baptist believes sinners are justified in the sight of God only by the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ.

The Old Regular Baptist believe there are three ordinances Baptism, the Lord’s Supper and feet washing. They believe Baptism should be done by immersion in running water in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. They believe only true believers are the appropriate people and they do not admit anyone else except true believers.

The Old Regular Baptist believes in the ordinance of washing of one another’s feet as it is commanded of Christ to His disciples. They believe this should be practiced by the followers of Christ.

The Old Regular Baptist believe in the perseverance of the Saints; that it is by grace through faith they are born again and adopted into the family of Heaven. They believe the Saints will become equal heirs with Jesus Christ in glory, and that Jesus Christ will raise them up at the last day.

The Old Regular Baptist believes in the resurrection of the dead and general judgment when all will be judged according to their deeds done while in the body. They believe the punishment of the wicked will be everlasting and the joys of the righteous will be eternal after death.

Cite Article Source

MLA Style Citation:

Holstein, Joanne “Old Regular Baptist Churches:.” Becker Bible Studies Library Jan 2006.<https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2783,>.

APA Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2006, January) “Old Regular Baptist Churches:.” Becker Bible Studies Library. Retrieved from https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2783,.

Chicago Style Citation:
Holstein, Joanne (2006) “Old Regular Baptist Churches:.” Becker Bible Studies Library (January), https://guidedbiblestudies.com/?p=2783, (accessed).

joanneholstein

Joanne Holstein is a Becker Bible Studies Teacher and Author of Guided Bible Studies for Hungry Christians. She is a graduate of Psychology/Christian and Bible Counseling with Liberty University. She is well-known as a counselor to Christian faithful who are struggling with tremendous burden in these difficult times. She is a leading authority on historical development of Christian churches and the practices and beliefs of world religions and cults.
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