The birth, death and resurrection of the Irish baptist churches 1

“When I think what vast numbers are hasting the downward road; how few walk the narrow way; and, comparatively speaking, what little success attends our preaching, and what little ground Christ gets in the world, my heart fails and is discouraged,” Andrew Fuller admitted in a letter to a friend in 1788. But, he remembered, “Christ has much more yet to do in the world; and, numerous as his enemies yet are, and few his friends, his heart does not fail him; nor shall it, till he has spread salvation throughout the earth.”

Fuller’s expectation of greater things was certainly an extraordinary act of faith. In 1788, the overwhelming majority of the global population had never heard the name of Jesus Christ. And, as we all know, Fuller and his friends set out to address their need. We have all heard the extraordinary story of how their confidence in the progress of the gospel developed into the Baptist Missionary Society. But we are much less familiar with their efforts for the gospel closer to home – and particularly in their important contribution to the revival of the Irish Baptist witness.

The Irish Baptist movement began in the 1650s, when invading Cromwellian soldiers formed congregations in major garrison towns. These early churches depended for their membership upon the military, and declined rapidly after the end of the puritan revolution (1660). By 1725, there existed only 5 churches with settled ministers, alongside a handful of congregations struggling to survive. None of the churches were large, other than the principal congregation in Dublin, which had over 150 members. Two other churches existed in Dublin, neither of which had joined the recently established Association. One of these congregations, led by Oswald Edwards, whose preaching was tinged with Arminianism, Socinianism and “foul language,” would attempt to raise finance for a church building project by entering a lottery.

By the mid-eighteenth century, the principal Dublin church had come to exercise enormous influence on the national movement. Its large congregation provided preachers for some of the struggling country congregations, and it hosted the meetings of the Association every second year. These Association meetings were not well supported. Churches often failed to send representatives to the meetings, and the church in Cork generally failed to attend the meetings in Dublin. In 1762, when the Association meeting rotated to Cork, none of the other churches sent a messenger. The Irish churches clearly found it difficult to express their commitment to each other. They were also failing to gain new members. By the end of the eighteenth century, it had become clear that most children born into Irish Baptist families were leaving the movement. The Irish Baptist movement was almost extinct.

It was at this point that something remarkable happened. [Continued here]