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63-514: In the 1850s, conservative Baptist preachers spoke out against the tide of progressive, liberal theology and the practice of some Baptist churches in accepting pedobaptism and pulpit affiliation with other denominations. Missionary T.P. Crawford wrote the booklet Churches to the Front , a call for Baptists to return to scriptural church practices of mission work. J.R. Graves , a prominent Southern Baptist theologian, began writing articles on "returning to

126-552: A Baptist press in Louisville , Kentucky, Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith , a biographical anthology of important Baptist figures. Bogard was an unyielding critic of ecumenism within the religious community, unwilling to compromise for the sake of unity what he considered unchanging tenets of the faith. In his debate with Church of Christ theologian Joseph Sale Warlick, from John 10:27-30, Bogard argued that

189-627: A Christian who falls into sinful behavior still retains eternal security because of the sacrificial death of Jesus Christ on the cross and subsequent Resurrection , which are greater than an individual's imperfection. Bogard's critics countered that his view of eternal security conflicts with Ezekiel 33:13: "if he trust to his righteousness, and commit iniquity, none of his righteous deeds shall be remembered; but in his iniquity that he hath committed, therein shall he die." This verse addresses placing trust in one's individual righteousness instead of sole faith in redemption from Christ. Bogard maintained that

252-800: A Jewish missionary to the Jews in Urmia, Persia (present-day Iran); S.M. Jureidini serving in Beirut, Syria; Jennie Edwards serving in Cuba; M.M. Munger, missionary to Mexico, and the following missionaries to the country of China: M.F. Crawford, W.D. King, T.J. League, Charles Tedder, Blanch Rose Walker, D.W. Herring, Alice Herring, L.M. Dawes, J.V. Dawes, G.P. Bostick, T.L. Blalock and Wade Bostick. Po-Chow, An Hwei, Taian Fu and Chining Chow were also supported as national missionaries in China. According to reported statistics,

315-403: A collection to buy Bogard a headstone, for he left no funds for that purpose. In 2006, Luther D. Perdue extracted a large collection of Bogard sermons and lessons between 1915 and 1937. In addition to Pillars of Orthodoxy, or Defenders of the Faith , Bogard wrote the following books: Bogard was honored by Ripley's Believe It or Not! for having preached for "sixty-one years without missing

378-513: A denomination or congregation that is not of like faith and practice. These Baptist distinctives became a test of fellowship not only between Baptists and other denominations, but also among the Baptist ranks. Landmark Missionary Baptists began to see that the ever growing bureaucracy of the mission board system was extra-biblical in its practice and, like the ancient Roman hierarchy of centuries past, began to exert authority over local churches. At

441-699: A growing rift among the churches concerning church representation by proxy messenger, among other issues, resulted in hundreds of messengers walking out. Those messengers met together in Little Rock, Arkansas and formed the North American Baptist Association, now known as the Baptist Missionary Association of America . By 1968, The BMAA reported 3,000 preachers, 1,550 churches with a combined membership of approximately 200,000. According to their website,

504-803: A major party despite U.S. Senator Joseph T. Robinson of Arkansas being tapped as Smith's vice-presidential running mate. Even before the term civil rights was widely used, Bogard believed that Al Smith as president would work for equality of African Americans in the still racially segregated American South . Though successful in Arkansas, the Smith-Robinson ticket was defeated by the Republican Hoover - Curtis slate. In 1931, Bogard resigned as editor of The Baptist and Commoner . Three years later he launched another denominational newspaper, The Orthodox Baptist Searchlight . Through

567-543: A proponent of the Landmark Baptist movement , which emphasizes a literal interpretation of chapter and verse. Bogard defended Landmarkism in his scholarly writings and in 237 debates between 1908 and 1948, in which he was engaged during his ministerial career. Bogard has been described by his biographer as "the personification of polemics, engaging the political, cultural, and religious issues of his day." In his 1934 debate with Aimee Semple McPherson , founder of

630-458: A second time in 1856, to Louisa Jane Snider, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. George Snider of Jackson, Tennessee . They had five children. Louisa Jane Graves and Graves’s mother Lois died in 1867 during a yellow fever epidemic in Memphis, Tennessee (where they had relocated circa 1866). In 1869, Graves married Georgianna Snider, Louisa’s sister. They had three children. Georgianna died in 1932. Most of

693-619: A total attendance of 100,000 members (Melton). The current numbers represent a remnant of only seven percent of the peak of the association. In 2017, the ABA had 44 interstate missionaries, 36 foreign missionaries, 71 national missionaries, and 10 missionary helpers. In addition, there are many other missionaries sent out by local ABA churches who do not report statistics through the associational mission office. In 1950, The American Baptist Association annual meeting convened in Lakeland, FL . That year,

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756-496: A way to earn money for college. Graves retired in 1871. Though raised in a Congregationalist family, Graves joined a Baptist church at age 15. Contemporary fellow ministers in the Southern Baptist Convention praised his preaching abilities. Thomas Treadwell Eaton wrote, "We have seen him hold a congregation packed uncomfortably, for three hours and a half without any sign of weariness on their part. This

819-639: Is a worldwide group of independent Baptist churches voluntarily associating in their efforts to fulfill the Great Commission. Its organization is designed to be minimal to ensure the complete independence and equal representation of every church in the association." Churches of the American Baptist Association practice a congregational form of church government, with each local church body autonomous and independent of any other ecclesiastical authority. A key doctrinal position of

882-490: Is closely linked with church discipline as found in 1 Corinthians 5:11. The American Baptist Association does not ordain women. There are several seminaries, Bible institutes and colleges associated with the American Baptist Association. Many of these schools are recognized by the American Baptist Association's accrediting body, the American Baptist Association of Theological Schools, (ABATS). James Robinson Graves James Robinson Graves (April 10, 1820 – June 26, 1893)

945-607: Is that original church. In 1901, Bogard became the editor and half-owner of the Arkansas Baptist newspaper. Three years later, he secured editorial control of the publication. In 1905, he left the Southern Baptist Convention to become for nineteen years, as it developed, an Independent Baptist . Nearly two decades later, he worked to establish the ABA, or the Missionary Baptist denomination, which dispatches missionaries not through an associational body like

1008-491: Is this: When Jesus refers to the 'nations' (ethnos), He is not speaking of countries whose borders change with the fickleness of the next war, but rather he is referring to groupings of people which the nation is not determined by political boundaries, but by the language and culture. Jesus says, 'GO to all of them...barring none!'" The American Baptist Association hold no official authority over any associating churches. According to their website, "The American Baptist Association

1071-563: The American Baptist Association . In 1928, Bogard successfully pushed for an Arkansas state law which banned the teaching of the theory of evolution in public schools ; the law was overturned by the United States Supreme Court in 1968, seventeen years after Bogard's death. He was a chief proponent of the Landmark Baptist movement , which attributes an unbroken continuity and legitimacy to

1134-538: The Arkansas Baptist to create The Baptist and Commoner. In 1920, he assumed his final pastorate at Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock, where he remained until retirement in 1947. At the time, no Missionary Baptist pastor earned more than the $ 100 gross monthly salary paid to Bogard by Antioch Church. During the 1920s, Bogard joined the Ku Klux Klan , which targeted in that phase of its existence foreigners and Roman Catholics . Bogard claimed that

1197-649: The Foreign Mission Board . Then, in 1892, T.P. Crawford, a Baptist missionary to China penned the book, Churches to the Front, in which he criticized the board system as an encroachment upon the authority of the local church's commission to carry out mission work. The Gospel Mission movement, which held the board system accountable to Biblical principles, was a significant catalyst in the split between Landmark churches and Convention churches. The term Landmarkism has its roots in Proverbs 22:28, "Remove not

1260-688: The International Church of the Foursquare Gospel , he proclaimed, " Miracles and divine healing, as taught and manifested in the Word of God, ceased with the closing of the apostolic age" in the year A.D. 70, after which overt miracles were no longer performed on earth. Pentecostals and other charismatic denominations maintain that miracles continue until the Second Coming of Jesus Christ . In 1900, Bogard published through

1323-476: The Philippine Islands . In 2019, churches from 45 states and 25 countries around the world associated with the American Baptist Association. In the 1960s, the American Baptist Association strongly opposed integration of the races. Described as a hard-core segregationist group, in 1965 church leader James Berry stated "Christian civilization for 1900 years prior to this century held that segregation of

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1386-546: The secularism of the Chicago lawyer but was unable to shake Darrow's confidence in acceptance of the theoretical work of Charles Darwin . Clay Fulks , socialist critic of the conservative order, employed ridicule to deride Bogard: [Bogard] cravenly permitted the Wicked One [Darrow] to come right into the fold among his flock -- and maybe devour some of his little ewe lambs! ... Brother Ben, you cannot hope to escape

1449-458: The 1862 fall of Fort Donelson resulted in a Union victory, Graves relocated to Panola County, Mississippi , as he felt vulnerable because of articles he had published against the North. The company resumed publishing in 1867. In 1868, Graves discontinued the company’s mail-order business, and began training young men as independent dealers to sell Bibles and educational books door-to-door as

1512-432: The 1980s and 1990s these numbers began to drop dramatically, with many churches leaving the association to fellowship with convention churches or independent Baptists. Many other rural churches closed their doors as both population and interest in church declined in the scattered areas where these rural churches existed. By 2009, the American Baptist Association reported that there were 1,700 preachers among 1,600 churches with

1575-404: The 91st Annual Session of the American Baptist Association stood in agreement of this action. This action intended to acknowledge former hurt while indicating that those in attendance did not hold the same convictions or beliefs as earlier segregationists, welcoming the integration of all ethnicities. Dr. Morell stated "Someone has said, perhaps the most striking insight from Scripture that hits home

1638-607: The ABA over racial integration throughout the years to come. Doctor Joe M. Morell served as the President of the 91st Annual Session of the American Baptist Association. During this session on June 21, 2016, Dr. Morell presented the President's Address titled "Reconcile." Following this address, Dr. Morell offered a hand of reconciliation to the McClung Family and Clark family for historic prejudices in acknowledgement as well as remorse for past convictions. The Messenger Body of

1701-639: The American Baptist Association of landmark missionary Baptist churches grew substantially, despite a split with the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas in 1950. In 1935 there were a reported 1,734 preachers, 2,662 churches with a total of 263,484 members. Thirty years later, in 1965 these numbers had grown to 3,150 preachers, 3,227 churches and 726,112 members. The American Baptist Association reached its height of growth in 1980, when they reported an estimated total of 5,700 preachers, 5,000 churches and 1,500,000 total church members. In

1764-468: The American Baptist Association, which Bogard had organized. In 1941, Norris faced a $ 25,000 libel judgment rendered in San Antonio , Texas, payable to another Baptist minister, R. E. White, because of remarks about White in a Detroit , Michigan , denominational paper, The Fundamentalist . The publicity about the suit weakened Norris' hold over his fellow fundamentalists. Bogard taught that since

1827-700: The Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock, Bogard worked to establish the Missionary Baptist Seminary in that city. He became the original dean of the seminary while remaining as the Antioch pastor. Conrad N. Glover (1895–1986) was the first seminary president, with J. Louis Guthrie as vice president. The seminary observed its eightieth anniversary in 2014; it is housed in current facilities at 5224 Stagecoach Road, which opened in 1979. The seminary filled

1890-681: The Baptist churches since Apostolic times. Bogard was the only son of six children born to M. L. and Nancy Bogard in Elizabethtown in central Kentucky . The Bogards were tenant farmers who raised tobacco as their cash crop . In 1873, the Bogards moved to Caseyville in Union County in western Kentucky. There he attended school and the nearby Woodland Baptist Church, still in existence in Morganfield , Kentucky. Young Bogard

1953-466: The Convention to give back the authority to local churches in mission work by rejecting the board system and adopting local church sponsored mission work. At the beginning of the twentieth century, a large portion of Southern Baptists still held to Landmark doctrine such as local church autonomy, rejection of alien baptism, and the practice of restricting the ordinance of communion to the members of

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2016-687: The Missionary Baptist Sunday School Committee, was blamed for a deficit. For a decade Bogard tried to remove Gilbert as the committee chairman. In 1950, Jackson left the Missionary Baptist denomination and started the Baptist Missionary Association of America , formerly the North American Baptist Association . In 1927, the Arkansas State Senate tabled an anti-evolution bill. Bogard led a petition drive to place

2079-701: The Nashville First Baptist Church due to their theological perspectives on their apostolic connection. In the 1830s, J. R. Graves’s older brother, Zuinglius Calvin Graves (1816–1902), moved to Ashtabula, Ohio to teach school. Soon mother Lois, sister Louisa and J. R. had relocated there as well. All three Graves children married while there. In 1845, J. R. Graves married Lucinda Ellen “Lua” Spencer, daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Daniel Spencer. They relocated to Nashville, Tennessee and had four children – none of whom lived to adulthood. Graves married

2142-922: The SBC authorizes but through individual churches. In 1899, Bogard came to Arkansas. For his first four years there, he was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Searcy in White County near the capital city of Little Rock . Between 1903 and 1909, he was the pastor of First Baptist Church in Argenta, now North Little Rock in Pulaski County . Then he preached independently in revivals and crusades in seven states. In 1914, he moved to Texarkana in Miller County , Arkansas, where he founded The Baptist Commoner . In 1917, he merged The Baptist Commoner with

2205-500: The ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set." Many Baptist churches of that day were succumbing to the ecumenical movement of Protestant denominations. During the period of the Second Great Awakening, a revival of unprecedented proportions swept through America, and many unchurched people were saved. This revival swelled the ranks of all denominations, and Baptist preachers saw that the gospel of salvation by grace

2268-399: The ancient landmarks" in his Tennessee newspaper. It was a call for Southern Baptists to return to Biblical ecclesiology. Graves preached that the ancient view of Baptists was that there was not an invisible, universal church of all the saved. Only local churches had authority to baptize, to administer communion, to send missionaries, and to ordain ministers. The Landmark Baptists called for

2331-586: The association now has 1,300 churches with a membership of 230,000. They support 36 American international missionaries, 29 North American church planters, 680 national missionaries, and 200 support workers. Their main offices are in Conway, Arkansas. Several of the churches that split from the American Baptist Association in 1950 joined to create the Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary Baptists Association – commonly referred to as "Faithway Baptists", after

2394-657: The blood of the crucified Christ exonerates the sinner whose salvation is assured at the time of repentance. In 1938, Bogard debated the Church of Christ theologian Nicholas Brodie Hardeman of Henderson , Tennessee , on the nature of the Holy Spirit as the third part of the Trinity and in regard to baptism and falling from grace, the latter which Bogard-style Baptists consider impossible. When Clarence Darrow came to Little Rock to defend Darwinism, Bogard criticized

2457-401: The churches of the American Baptist Association that sets them apart from many other Baptist groups is the practice of closed communion , also known as "Restricted Lord's Supper," in which the ordinance of communion is restricted to members of the local church body observing the ordinance. This practice precludes both non-believers and non-members from partaking in the ordinance. Closed communion

2520-501: The consequences of your pusillanimous negligence by hiding behind the times. ... [God] probably sent the ogre Darrow down to Little Rock just to try your faith. Then you had your opportunity. But instead of rising to it nobly, as Calvin rose to his when God sent Servetus to Geneva , you cowered in the background and failed ignominiously. Now you whine about the times." Though Bogard would presumably have mostly agreed on matters of faith and biblical interpretation with J. Frank Norris ,

2583-568: The controversial Baptist fundamentalist figure from Fort Worth , he claimed that Norris was vain and prone to exaggerate his own ministerial success. Though he accused Norris of failing to preach the fundamentals of the faith, the two in time developed a grudging friendship. Bogard said, "When I get to heaven I expect to find Frank Norris there in spite of that wicked streak that runs through him." Norris accepted and publicly defended dispensational premillennialism , an eschatological perspective with which Bogard disagreed even though it found traction in

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2646-583: The end of the nineteenth century, many of these churches left the convention Baptists and continued to do mission work on a local level, through individual churches and local associations of churches. Pioneers in the Landmark Baptists included the preachers Ben M. Bogard (March 9, 1868 – May 29, 1951) and Doss Nathan Jackson (July 14, 1895 – November 29, 1968). These two men were instrumental in their state associations of Arkansas and Texas , respectively. The Baptist Missionary Association of Texas

2709-663: The family members are buried in Elmwood Cemetery at Memphis, Tennessee and the Nashville City Cemetery in Nashville, Tennessee. Ben M. Bogard Benjamin Marcus "Ben" Bogard (March 9, 1868 – May 29, 1951) was an American Baptist clergyman , author, editor, educator, radio broadcaster, and champion debater in primarily the U.S. state of Arkansas . In 1924, Bogard participated in founding

2772-499: The issue on the ballot as Initiated Act No. 1 in the general election held on November 6, 1928. In the campaign Bogard unexpectedly found himself defending the right of free speech of Charles Lee Smith , the founder and president of the since defunct American Association for the Advancement of Atheism who opposed the initiated act and had been charged with blasphemy while distributing atheist literature in Little Rock. Bogard

2835-445: The local church. These doctrines were debated and argued between fundamental and progressive Baptists. However, one main point of contention was that of what was termed "Gospel Missions." Gospel Missions referred to the practice of mission work being done directly through the authority of a local church rather than through the authority of a mission board system. In 1859, there was a push in the Southern Baptist Convention to do away with

2898-552: The name of their Sunday school literature ministry. In 2009, the American Baptist Association reported 1,600 congregations and 100,000 members. The largest number of associated churches are in Arkansas , Florida , Louisiana , Oklahoma , Texas and on the west coast, with churches also in most of the United States. The association also has a presence in several countries outside the United States, most notably Mexico and

2961-550: The practices of ecumenism and the board system of missionary work, stating that these practices violated the sovereignty of church authority and Biblical doctrine. Three "Landmarks" were emphasized: 1. Church succession of an unbroken lineage of authority and doctrine from the time of the founding of the first church by Jesus Christ when He called the disciples in Galilee to the present age. 2. The local, visible assembly of saved, baptized believer, covenanted together to carry out

3024-498: The races in social, religious, and marital life is a divine command." Dr. Albert Garner, former president of the association and president of the Florida Baptist Institute and Seminary told president John F. Kennedy that "we have deep moral and religious convictions that integration of the races is morally wrong and should be resisted. However there continued to be disagreement between churches associating within

3087-754: The since disbanded Missionary Baptist College in Sheridan in Grant County in southern Arkansas. Bogard died at his Little Rock home at the age of eighty-three and is interred at Roselawn Memorial Park at 2801 Asher Avenue in Little Rock. He left his estate to Missionary Baptist Seminary and the Bogard Press, named in his honor, operated by the Baptist Bookstore at 4605 North State Line Avenue in Texarkana, Texas. Seminary students took up

3150-399: The theory of evolution had contributed to the moral decline of the United States. In 1926, Bogard joined with Doss Nathan Jackson to write Evolution: Unscientific and Unscriptural , which claims that Darwin's 's theory causes discouraged persons to turn to atheism and Bolshevism . Bogard and Jackson subsequently broke fellowship when Jackson's father-in-law, C. A. Gilbert, the chairman of

3213-423: The time of Jesus on earth there has been a succession of churches teaching the Missionary Baptist view of Scripture even if those churches had been called by other names. Some refer to this teaching as "the faith once delivered unto the saints." Christ spoke of establishing His church and "the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Missionary Baptists, like other denominations too, believe that their denomination

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3276-602: The void left by the closing of the undergraduate institution, Missionary Baptist College, which had operated from 1919 to 1934 in Sheridan. Glover, a Sheridan native, had also been an administrator at Missionary Baptist College. In 1901, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity from the then Southwest Bible College in Bolivar in Polk County in southwestern Missouri . He subsequently received an honorary degree from

3339-601: The widow of Frazier Westley Owen Jr. (1867–1889). Both were twenty-three; she had a three-year-old daughter, Lela Owen, who was born in 1888. The Bogards had a son together, Douglas Bogard. From 1892 to 1898, Bogard was the pastor of several churches in Kentucky and Missouri. In 1895, while a pastor in Fulton in far southwestern Kentucky, Bogard edited for two years The Baptist Flag , the first of several denominational papers in his future. In Fulton, he met John Newton Hall,

3402-556: The work of the Lord is the only type of church. There is no universal body of believers, and scriptural authority is only given to local bodies, each congregation being recognized as the body of Christ. 3. Baptism, administered by scriptural authority (a local church) to a scriptural candidate (a person professing faith in Christ) by a scriptural mode (immersion in water). This ruled out pedobaptism, sprinkling, and any baptism administered by

3465-558: Was ordained as a Baptist minister. After Georgetown, he pursued further studies at Bethel College in Russellville , also formerly known as Russellville Male Academy. Located in Logan County in south Kentucky, the institution closed in 1964. Though he was called "Dr. Bogard", the title was ceremonial. In 1891, Bogard married Lynn Oneida Meacham Owen (1868–1952), a native of Christian County in southwestern Kentucky, and

3528-591: Was also a frequent participant in religious camp meetings . In the spring of 1913, Caseyville was destroyed by an Ohio River flood and not rebuilt. During a church service in February 1885, the teenaged Bogard was baptized in an icy pond, a signal of his faith in Jesus Christ . In 1887 and 1888, he attended Georgetown College in Georgetown , Scott County , north of Lexington , Kentucky. In 1887, he

3591-671: Was an American Baptist preacher, publisher, evangelist, debater, author, and editor. He is most noted as the original founder of what is now the Southwestern family of companies . Graves was born in Chester, Vermont , the son of Z. C. Graves, and died in Memphis, Tennessee . His remains are interred in Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis. In 1855, Graves established Southwestern Publishing House in Nashville, Tennessee . The company's name

3654-497: Was begun in 1900 as a way for sound, Landmark Baptist churches to conduct mission work on a state level away from what was seen as the corruption of the convention board system. This was followed by a departure of the Baptist churches in Arkansas from the convention and founding of the Arkansas Baptist State Association in 1902. In the year 1905, a nationwide association of Landmark Missionary Baptists

3717-526: Was being preached in churches who had previously taught that works and sacraments were required to enter heaven. Some Baptist pastors opened their doors to these people, accepting baptism from Protestant churches. Some even accepted those who had been baptized as infants. This open-door policy of ecumenicity continued to permeate the Baptist ranks. Methodists, Church of Christ, and preachers from many other denominations were preaching in Baptist pulpits. Landmark Baptist preachers began earnestly speaking out against

3780-674: Was chosen because, at that time, Nashville was in the southwestern part of the United States. Southwestern originally published The Tennessee Baptist , a Southern Baptist newspaper, and religious booklets which were sold by mail for 20¢ and 30¢ each. Prior to the Civil War , most Bibles were printed in the North, rather than the Confederacy . Graves acquired stereotype plates from the North and began printing Bibles for sale in August 1861. He also produced and sold educational books. After

3843-399: Was convinced that his conservative ideas would prove superior to those of Smith in an honest forum. Arkansas voters defied their state senators and passed the anti-evolution act by a two-to-one margin and also supported the Democratic presidential nominee Al Smith , the governor of New York , though Bogard had been among the southern clergy who opposed this first ever Catholic nominee of

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3906-474: Was formed. It was called the General Association of Baptist Churches. In 1924, the Baptist Missionary Association of Texas joined this association, and the named was changed to the American Baptist Association. The first interstate missionaries of the General Association (later the ABA) were sent out in 1905. They were J.A. Scarboro, ministering in Summit, GA, and C.R. Powell who was a missionary in Jacksonville, TX. The first foreign missionaries were I.N. Yohannon,

3969-540: Was not done once or twice, but scores of times." Denominational leader James Bruton Gambrell described one of Graves' sermons at a small church in Mississippi as "The Greatest Sermon I Ever Heard." Scholars have recognized Graves as an early and chief promulgator of the Landmark movement . The subject's Nashville publishing house, Graves, Marks, & Co, which later became South-Western Publishing, published all of fellow 'Landmarker' Amos Cooper Dayton 's books. Both were expelled as 'schismatics' between 1858 and 1859 from

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