Anabaptists in the First Continental Congress?

[Valerie]

By that he meant Baptists, not Mennonites or Amish Mennonites.

I don’t think so because the Baptists an Anabaptists were already distinct denomination and in his letter to his wife he wrote Anabaptists- distinctly. They were started by different men and had distinct denominational names during Reformation era.

Consider that the other participants in the Congress came from denominations that practiced infant baptism (Anglican/Episcopal, Lutheran, Presbyterian, Dutch Reformed, Irish Protestant, Congregational) or did not practice water baptism at all (Quaker, Unitarian). The only delegate whose denomination practiced adult baptism (which Adams referred to as "Anabaptism") was a Baptist -- and a Seventh Day Baptist at that, really an oddball compared to the rest.

Why would they practice the infant baptism if they read the same Bible you do??

[R7ehr]

This list of names and denominations is missing anyone with the word Episcopalian, which is another word Adams listed as being present. We understand what he meant by that though. Back then it generally meant the Church of England in the the colonies. Today it means the Episcopal Church.

The label "Anabaptist" wasn't so straightforward, with "...many Congregationalists and Anglicans referring to Baptist as Anabaptists...", even though the Baptist (as did the original Anabaptists) generally rejected the label.

[ohio jones]

Why would they practice the infant baptism if they read the same Bible you do??

Even if I'd be using the KJV, it would be the 1769 Oxford edition which would have scarcely made inroads in the Colonies by 1774.

[ohio jones]

Which delegate was that?

Guess we will never know for sure who they were...

Why not? There were 56 delegates to the 1774 Continental Congress, and it's not that difficult to look up their religious affiliations. The "Anabaptist" in question is Samuel Ward of Rhode Island, a Seventh Day Baptist.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Wa ... olitician)

[mike]

This is an interesting rabbit hole.

An interesting clue

Just weeks after the First Continental Congress convened, leading Baptist ministers Isaac Backus and James Manning came to Philadelphia to petition the Massachusetts delegates for religious liberty. John Adams met with them and was not particularly sympathetic to their request.

If there had actually been Baptist delegates in Congress, one might expect Backus to have worked through them. Instead, he appealed directly to John and Samuel Adams, suggesting there were no obvious Baptist representatives in the body.

Bottom line:

The historical consensus is:
-There is no delegate who can confidently be identified as a Baptist in the First Continental Congress.
-John Adams's reference to "some Anabaptists" is almost certainly a loose or inaccurate description, not evidence that known Baptist delegates were present.
-The delegates were overwhelmingly Anglican, Congregationalist, Presbyterian, Quaker, and Dutch Reformed, with Baptists notably underrepresented despite their growing numbers in the colonies.

So why did Adams say 'Anabaptists'?

Historians have proposed several explanations:

-He was using "Anabaptist" loosely.
Eighteenth-century writers often called Baptists "Anabaptists."
This is the most common explanation.

-He was speaking imprecisely.
Adams was writing a private letter to Abigail, not an official roster.
He may simply have been summarizing the kinds of Christians represented rather than identifying the exact denomination of every delegate.

-He may have been referring to religious sympathies rather than formal church membership.
Some delegates supported Baptist causes or had close associations with Baptists, even if they belonged to another church.

[Valerie]

Not real clear. It’s ok.

[Neto]

For the record, English separatists fled to Holland during the life time of Menno Simons. At first they were not allowed to disembark, due to a sickness on the ship. Menno went out to the ship and gave them food and probably water. They were eventually allowed on shore, and although they held the same beliefs as to baptism, most of them could not accept nonresistance, and returned to England later, when conditions there became favorable again. But some stayed, and were absorbed into the Dutch anabaptists. (It is possible that this explains the occurrence of my own surname in England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.)

As for present day Baptists' attitude toward being called anabaptists, I knew a lay pastor in Brazil who told me that they are also descended from anabaptists. (Unfortunately I do not know what branch of Baptists that was, but certainly not GARB or Conservative Baptists, who are very strong Calvinists, probably 5-Point.)

[ken_sylvania]

For the record, English separatists fled to Holland during the life time of Menno Simons. At first they were not allowed to disembark, due to a sickness on the ship. Menno went out to the ship and gave them food and probably water. They were eventually allowed on shore, and although they held the same beliefs as to baptism, most of them could not accept nonresistance, and returned to England later, when conditions there became favorable again. But some stayed, and were absorbed into the Dutch anabaptists. (It is possible that this explains the occurrence of my own surname in England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.)

Are you referring to this incident:

"In the year 1553, a little before midwinter, it came to pass that word came to the brethren [at Wismar] to the effect that a ship load of people had arrived from Denmark, who for the sake of their faith were driven from England, and that they lay a short distance from the shore frozen up in the ice.

"When the brethren heard this, they were moved with Christian mercy toward them, as was proper and reasonable. They counseled together and did what was in their power to help them out of the ice and to make an acceptable way for them to get into the city without any commotion; as they also did, although they knew that to do so might bring to them trouble with the government.

[Marginal note:] "The brethren did not for fear of the cross, omit their service for them.

"They met them with wheat bread and wine, so, if there should be any sick or of delicate health among them, that they might refresh and strengthen them therewith. And after they had escorted them into the city, they brought together twenty-four Thalers out of their poverty and presented them to the leading men among them, that the needy, if there were any such among them, might be served and helped. The money they refused and said, 'We need no money and ask only that work may be secured for some of us.' In this our brethren assisted them as much as they could.

[Neto]

For the record, English separatists fled to Holland during the life time of Menno Simons. At first they were not allowed to disembark, due to a sickness on the ship. Menno went out to the ship and gave them food and probably water. They were eventually allowed on shore, and although they held the same beliefs as to baptism, most of them could not accept nonresistance, and returned to England later, when conditions there became favorable again. But some stayed, and were absorbed into the Dutch anabaptists. (It is possible that this explains the occurrence of my own surname in England, South Africa, New Zealand, and Australia.)

Are you referring to this incident:

"In the year 1553, a little before midwinter, it came to pass that word came to the brethren [at Wismar] to the effect that a ship load of people had arrived from Denmark, who for the sake of their faith were driven from England, and that they lay a short distance from the shore frozen up in the ice.

"When the brethren heard this, they were moved with Christian mercy toward them, as was proper and reasonable. They counseled together and did what was in their power to help them out of the ice and to make an acceptable way for them to get into the city without any commotion; as they also did, although they knew that to do so might bring to them trouble with the government.

[Marginal note:] "The brethren did not for fear of the cross, omit their service for them.

"They met them with wheat bread and wine, so, if there should be any sick or of delicate health among them, that they might refresh and strengthen them therewith. And after they had escorted them into the city, they brought together twenty-four Thalers out of their poverty and presented them to the leading men among them, that the needy, if there were any such among them, might be served and helped. The money they refused and said, 'We need no money and ask only that work may be secured for some of us.' In this our brethren assisted them as much as they could.

It may be. I was writing from memory, and so I may not have gotten all of the facts correct.