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"The
Trail of Blood . . ." Following the Christians Down
Through the Centuries . . . by J. M. Carroll For the chart Click Here THIS
LITTLE BOOK is sent forth for the purpose of making known the little-known history of those FAITHFUL
WITNESSES of the Lord Jesus, who, as members of the CHURCH JESUS BUILT,
"Overcame Satan by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their
testimony: and they loved not their lives unto death," Rev. 12:11. I'd
appreciate hearing from you--and may I ask your help in getting these
messages to our young people and others. Tell them about the wonderful facts
of history brought out in this book. Urge them to order it. It would be most
helpful to study it as classes in the BTU, WMU, and other organizations. Available
as a printed booklet from: Bryan Station Baptist Church Electronic
version produced with the assistance of Lucien LeSage, Permission
granted to Copyright
1931, INTRODUCTION I Dr. J. M.
Carroll, the author of this book, was born in the state of Years ago
he came to our church and brought the messages found in this book. It was
then I became greatly interested in Brother Carroll's studies. I, too, had
made a special research in Church History, as to which is the oldest Church
and most like the churches of the New Testament. Dr. J. W.
Porter attended the lectures. He was so impressed he told Brother Carroll if
he would write the messages he would publish them in a book. Dr. Carroll
wrote the lectures and gave Dr. Porter the right to publish them along with
the chart which illustrates the history so vividly. However,
Dr. Carroll died before the book came off the press, but Dr. Porter placed
them before the public and the whole edition was soon sold. Now, by the grace
of God, we are able to present this 66th edition of 20,000. I want to ask all
who read and study these pages to join me in prayer and work that an
ever-increasing number shall go forth. "To
make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery which from the
beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Christ
Jesus; to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in Heavenly
places might be known by the Church, the manifold wisdom of God ... unto Him
be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without
end, Amen." (Eph. 3:9-10, 21) II It was
wonderful to hear Dr. Carroll tell how he became interested in the history of
the different denominations--ESPECIALLY THEIR ORIGIN. He wrote the book after
he was 70 years old, but he said, "I was converted unto God when I was
just a boy. I saw the many denominations and wondered which was the church
the Lord Jesus founded." Even in
his youth he felt that in the study of the Scriptures and history, he could
find the church which was the oldest and most like the churches described in
the New Testament. This
research for the truth led him into many places and enabled him to gather one
of the greatest libraries on church history. This library was given at his
death to the Southwestern Baptist Seminary, He found
much church history--most of it seemed to be about the Catholics and Protestants.
The history of Baptists, he discovered, was written in blood. They were the
hated people of the Dark Ages. Their preachers and people were put into
prison and untold numbers were put to death. The world has never seen
anything to compare with the suffering, the persecutions, heaped upon
Baptists by the Catholic Hierarchy during the Dark Ages. The Pope was the
world's dictator. This is why the Ana-Baptists, before the Reformation,
called the Pope The Anti-Christ. Their
history is written in the legal documents and papers of those ages. It is
through these records that the "TRAIL OF BLOOD" winds its way as
you find such statements-- "At "In
the year of our Lord 1539 two Ana-Baptists were burned beyond Southwark, and
a little before them 5 Dutch Ana-Baptists were burned in Smithfield,"
(Fuller, Church History.) "In
1160 a company of Paulicians (Baptists) entered The old
Chronicler Stowe, A.D. 1533, relates: "The
25th of May--in Froude,
the English historian, says of these Ana-Baptist martyrs-- "The
details are all gone, their names are gone. Scarcely the facts seem worth
mentioning. For them no Likewise,
in writings of their enemies as well as friends, Dr. Carroll found, their
history and that their trail through the ages was indeed bloody: Cardinal Hosius (Catholic, 1524),
President of the Council of "Were
it not that the baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the
knife during the past twelve hundred years, they would swarm in greater
number than all the Reformers." (Hosius, Letters, Apud Opera, pp. 112, 113.) The
"twelve hundred years" were the years preceding the Reformation in
which Sir Isaac Newton: "The
Baptists are the only body of known Christians that have never symbolized
with Mosheim (Lutheran): "Before
the rise of Luther and Calvin, there lay secreted in almost all the countries
of "It
must have already occurred to our readers that the Baptists are the same sect
of Christians that were formerly described as Ana-Baptists. Indeed this seems
to have been their leading principle from the time of Tertullian to the
present time." Tertullian
was born just fifty years after the death of the Apostle John. III Baptists
do not believe in Apostolic Succession. The Apostolic office ceased with the
death of the Apostles. It is to His churches that He promised a continual
existence from the time He organized the first one during His earthly
ministry until He comes again. He promised-- "I will build my church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) Then, when
He gave the great Commission, which tells what His churches are to do, He
promised-- "I will be with you alway,
even unto the end of the age." (Matt. 28:20) This
Commission--this work--was not given to the Apostles as individuals, but to
them and the others present in their church capacity. The Apostles and the
others who heard Him give this Commission were soon dead--BUT, His Church has
lived on through the ages, making disciples (getting folks saved), baptizing
them, and teaching the truth--the doctrines--He committed to the This
history shows how the Lord's promise to His churches has been fulfilled. Dr.
Carroll shows that churches have been found in every age which have taught
the doctrines He committed unto them. Dr. Carroll calls these doctrines the
"marks" of New Testament Churches. "MARKS OF THE NEW 1. Its
Head and Founder--CHRIST. He is the law-giver; the Church is only the
executive. (Matt. 16:18; Col. 1:18) 2. Its
only rule of faith and practice--THE BIBLE. (II Tim. 3:15-17) 3. Its
name--"CHURCH," "CHURCHES." (Matt. 16:18; Rev. 22:16) 4. Its
polity--CONGREGATIONAL--all members equal. (Matt. 20:24-28; Matt. 23:5-12) 5. Its
members--only saved people. (Eph. 2:21; I Peter 2:5) 6. Its
ordinances--BELIEVERS' BAPTISM, FOLLOWED BY THE LORD'S SUPPER. (Matt.
28:19-20) 7. Its
officers--PASTORS AND DEACONS. (I Tim. 3:1-16) 8. Its
work--getting folks saved, baptizing them (with a baptism that meets all the
requirements of God's Word), teaching them ("to observe all things
whatsoever I have commanded you"). (Matt. 28:16-20) 9. Its
financial plan--"Even so (TITHES and OFFERINGS) hath the Lord ordained
that they which preach the gospel should live of the gospel," (I Cor.
9:14) 10. Its
weapons of warfare--spiritual, not carnal. (II Cor. 10:4; Eph. 6:10-20) 11. Its
independence--separation of Church and State. (Matt. 22:21) IV In any
town there are many different churches--all claiming to be the true church.
Dr. Carroll did as you can do now--take the marks, or teachings, of the
different churches and find the ones which have these marks, or doctrines.
The ones which have these marks, or doctrines, taught in God's Word, are the
true churches. This, Dr.
Carroll has done, to the churches of all ages. He found many had departed
from "these marks, or doctrines." Other churches, however, he found
had been true to these marks" in every day and age since Jesus said, "I will build my church and
the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." (Matt. 16:18) "I will be with you alway,
even unto the end of the age." (Matt. 28:21) “THE TRAIL OF BLOOD" Or to
express it differently, but still expressively--"A history of the
Doctrines as taught by Christ, and His Apostles and those who have been loyal
to them." FIRST LECTURE "Remember the days of old.
Consider the years of many generations; Ask thy father and he will show thee.
Thy elders and they will tell thee." (Deut. 32:7) 1. What we
know today as "Christianity" or the Christian Religion, began with
Christ, A.D. 25-30 in the days and within the bounds of the 2. This
Empire at that period embraced nearly all of the then known inhabited world.
Tiberius Caesar was its Emperor. 3. In its
religion, the 4. The
Jewish people, at that period, no longer a separate nation, were scattered
throughout the 5. The
religion of Christ being a religion not of this world, its founder gave it no
earthly head and no temporal power. It sought no establishment, no state or
governmental support. It sought no dethronement of Caesar. Said its author,
"Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar's and to God the things
that are God's." (Matt, 22:19-22; Mark 12:17; Luke 20:20). Being a
spiritual religion it was a rival of no earthly government. Its adherents,
however, were taught to respect all civil law and government. ( 6. I want
now to call your attention to some of the landmarks, or ear-marks of this
religion--the Christian Religion. If you and I are to trace it down through
20 long centuries, and especially down through 1,200 years of midnight
darkness, darkened by rivers and seas of martyr blood, then we will need to
know well these marks. They will be many times terribly disfigured. But there
will always be some indelible mark. But let us carefully and prayerfully
beware. We will encounter many shams and make-believes. If possible, the very
elect will be betrayed and deceived. We want, if possible, to trace it down
through credible history, but more especially through the unerring,
infallible, words and marks of Divine truth. Some Unerring, Infallible Marks If in
going down through the centuries we run upon a group or groups of people
bearing not these distinguishing marks and teaching other things for
fundamental doctrines, let us beware. 1. Christ,
the author of this religion, organized His followers or disciples into a Church. And the disciples were to
organize other churches as this religion spread and other disciples were
"made." (Ray, Bapt,
Succession, Revised Edition, 1st Chap.) 2. This
organization or church, according to the Scriptures and according to the
practice of the Apostles and early churches, was given two kinds of officers
and only two--pastors and deacons. The pastor was called "Bishop."
Both pastor and deacons to be selected by the church and to be servants of
the church. 3. The
churches in their government and discipline to be entirely separate and
independent of each other, Jerusalem to have no authority over Antioch--nor
Antioch over Ephesus; nor Ephesus over Corinth, and so forth. And their
government to be congregational, democratic. A government of the people, by
the people, and for the people. 4. To the church
were given two ordinances and only two, Baptism and the Lord's Supper. These
to be perpetual and memorial. 5. Only
the "saved" were to be
received as members of the church (Acts 2:47). These saved ones to be saved
by grace alone without any works of the law (Eph, 2:5, 8, 9). These saved
ones and they only, to be immersed in the name of the Father, Son and Holy
Spirit (Matt. 28:19). And only those thus received and baptized, to partake
of the Lord's Supper, and the supper to be celebrated only by the church, in
church capacity. 6. The
inspired scriptures, and they only, in fact, the New Testament and that only,
to be the rule and guide of faith and life, not only for the church as an
organization, but for each individual member of that organization. 7. Christ Jesus, the founder of this
organization and the savior of its members, to be their only priest and king,
their only Lord and Lawgiver, and the only head of the churches. The churches
to be executive only in carrying out their Lord's will and completed laws,
never legislative, to amend or abrogate old laws or to make new ones. 8. This
religion of Christ to be individual, personal, and purely voluntary or
through persuasion. No physical or governmental compulsion. A matter of
distinct individual and personal choice. "Choose you" is the
scriptural injunction. It could be neither accepted nor rejected nor lived by
proxy nor under compulsion. 9. Mark
well! That neither Christ nor His apostles, ever gave to His followers, what
is know today as a denominational name, such as "Catholic,"
"Lutheran," "Presbyterian," "Episcopal," and so
forth--unless the name given by Christ to John was intended for such,
"The Baptist," "John the Baptist" (Matt. 11:11 and 10 or
12 other times.) Christ called the individual follower "disciple."
Two or more were called "disciples." The organization of disciples,
whether at 10. I
venture to give one more distinguishing mark. We will call it--Complete
separation of Church and State. No combination, no mixture of this spiritual
religion with a temporal power. "Religious Liberty," for everybody.
And now,
before proceeding with the history itself, let me call your attention to-- I believe,
if you will study carefully this chart, you will better understand the
history, and it will greatly aid your memory in retaining what you hear and
see. Remember
this chart
is supposed to cover a period of two thousand years of religious history. Notice at
both top and bottom of the chart some figures, the same figures at both
top and bottom - 100, 200, 300, and so on to 2,000. They
represent the twenty centuries of time--the vertical lines separating the
different centuries. Now notice
on the chart,
near the bottom; other straight lines, this line running left to right, the
long way of the chart. The lines
are about the same distance apart as the vertical lines. But you can't see
them all the way. They are covered by a very dark spot, representing in
history what is known as the "dark ages." It will be explained
later. Between the two lowest lines are the names of countries . . . Now notice
again, near the bottom of the chart, other lines a little higher. They,
too, covered in part by the "dark ages," they also are full of
names, but not names of countries. They are all "nick-names." Names
given to those people by their enemies. "Christians"--that is the
first: "The disciples were called Christians first at But look
again at the chart. See the red circles. They are
scattered nearly all over the chart. They represent churches. Single
individual churches in Asia, in Africa, in You will
note some circles that are solidly black. They represent churches also. But
erring churches. Churches that had gone wrong in life or doctrine. There were
numbers of these even before the death of Peter, Paul and John. Having now
about concluded with a general introduction and some very necessary and even
vital preliminaries, I come to the regular history-- FIRST PERIOD A.D. 30-500 1. Under
the strange but wonderful impulse and leadership of John the Baptist, the
eloquent man from the wilderness, and under the loving touch and
miracle-working power of the Christ Himself, and the marvelous preaching of
the 12 Apostles and their immediate successors, the Christian religion spread
mightily during the first 500-year period. However, it left a terribly bloody
trail behind it. Judaism and Paganism bitterly contested every forward
movement. John the Baptist was the first of the great leaders to give up his
life. His head was taken off. Soon after him went the Savior Himself, the
founder of this Christian religion. He died on the Cross, the cruel death of
the Cross. 2.
Following their Savior in rapid succession fell many other martyred heroes:
Stephen was stoned, Matthew was slain in Ethiopia, Mark dragged through the
streets until dead, Luke hanged, Peter and Simeon were crucified, Andrew tied
to a cross, James beheaded, Philip crucified and stoned, Bartholomew flayed
alive, Thomas pierced with lances, James, the less, thrown from the temple
and beaten to death, Jude shot to death with arrows, Matthias stoned to death
and Paul beheaded. 3. More
than one hundred years had gone by before all this had happened. This hard
persecution by Judaism and Paganism continued for two more centuries. And yet
mightily spread the Christian religion. It went into all the Roman Empire,
Europe, Asia, Africa, 4. The
first of these changes from New Testament teachings embraced both policy and
doctrine. In the first two centuries the individual churches rapidly
multiplied and some of the earlier ones, such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Ephesus,
Corinth, etc., grew to be very large; Jerusalem, for instance, had many
thousand members (Acts 2:41; 4:4, 5:14), possibly 25,000 or even 50,000 or
more. A close student of the book of Acts and Epistles will see that Paul had
a mighty task even in his day in keeping some of the churches straight. See
Peter's and Paul's prophecies concerning the future (II Pet. 2:12; Acts
20:29-31. See also Rev., second and third chapters). These
great churches necessarily had many preachers or elders (Acts 20:17). Some of
the bishops or pastors began to assume authority not given them in the New
Testament. They began to claim authority over other and smaller churches.
They, with their many elders, began to lord it over God's heritage (III John
9). Here was the beginning of an error which has grown and multiplied into
many other seriously hurtful errors. Here was the beginning of different
orders in the ministry running up finally to what is practiced now by others
as well as Catholics. Here began what resulted in an entire change from the
original democratic policy and government of the early churches. This
irregularity began in a small way, even before the close of the second
century. This was possibly the first serious departure from the New Testament
church order. 5. Another
vital change which seems from history to have had its beginning before the
close of the second century was on the great doctrine of Salvation itself. The Jews as well as the Pagans, had for many
generations, been trained to lay great stress on Ceremonials. They had come to look upon types as anti-types,
shadows as real substances, and ceremonials as real saving agencies. How easy
to come thus to look upon baptism. They reasoned thus: The Bible has much to
say concerning baptism. Much stress is laid upon the ordinance and one's duty
concerning it. Surely it must have something to do with one's salvation. So
that it was in this period that the idea of "Baptismal Regeneration" began to get a fixed hold in
some of the churches. (Shackelford, page 57; Camp p. 47; Benedict, p. 286;
Mosheim, vol. 1, p. 134; Christian, p. 28.) 6. The
next serious error to begin creeping in, and which seems from some historians
(not all) to have begun in this same century and which may be said to have
been an inevitable consequence of the "baptismal regeneration"
idea, was a change in the subjects of
baptism. Since baptism has been declared to be an agency or means to
salvation by some erring churches, then the sooner baptism takes place the
better. Hence arose "infant baptism." Prior to this
"believers" and "believers" only, were regarded as proper
subjects for baptism. "Sprinkling" and "pouring" are not
now referred to. These came in much later. For several centuries, infants,
like others, were immersed. The
Greek Catholics (a very large branch of the Catholic church) up to this day,
have never changed the original form of baptism. They practice infant baptism
but have never done otherwise than immerse the children. (Note--Some of the
church historians put the beginning of infant baptism within this century,
but I shall quote a short paragraph from Robinson's Ecclesiastical Researches.) "During
the first three centuries, congregations all over the East subsisted in
separate independent bodies, unsupported by government and consequently
without any secular power over one another. All this time they were baptized
churches, and though all the fathers of the first four ages, down to Jerome
(A.D. 370), were of Greece, Syria and Africa, and though they give great
numbers of histories of the baptism of adults, yet there is not one of the
baptism of a child till the year 370." (Compendium of Baptist History, Shackelford, p. 43; Vedder, p. 50;
Christian, p, 31; Orchard, p. 50, etc.) 7. Let it be remembered that
changes like these here mentioned were not made in a day, nor even within a
year. They came about slowly and never within all the churches. Some of the
churches vigorously repudiated them. So much so that in A.D. 251, the loyal
churches declared non-fellowship for those churches which accepted and
practiced these errors. And thus came about the first real official
separation among the churches. 8. Thus it
will be noted that during the first three centuries three important and vital
changes from the teachings of Christ and His Apostles had their beginnings.
And one significant event took place, Note this summary and recapitulation: (1) The change from the New Testament idea of bishop and
church government. This change grew rapidly, more pronounced, and complete
and hurtful. (2) The change from the New Testament teachings as to
Regeneration to "baptismal regeneration." (3) The change from "believers' baptism" to
"infant baptism." (This last, however, did not become general nor
even very frequent for more than another century.) 9.
"Baptismal regeneration" and "infant baptism." These two
errors have, according to the testimony of well-established history, caused
the shedding of more Christian blood, as the centuries have gone by, than all
other errors combined, or than possibly have all wars, not connected with
persecution, if you will leave out the recent "World War." Over
50,000,000 Christians died martyr deaths, mainly because of their rejection
of these two errors during the period of the "dark ages" alone--about
twelve or thirteen centuries. 10. Three
significant facts, for a large majority of the many churches, are clearly
shown by history during these first three centuries. (1) The separateness and independence of the Churches. (2) The subordinate character of bishops or pastors. | |