I read and believed that book as a Baptist. It got me thinking in ways that lead me eventually to the Catholic faith. Let me explain. This theory requires that there be a continuous line of “baptistic” believers from the Apostles unto this day. That is an important foundational principle that most Evangelicals and most Baptists lack. It is a remnant theory, but it is better than the typical Protestant who ignores the necessity of a continuous presence of the kingdom of heaven on earth.
Praise them for their principle. Question the facts. As I recollect they endorse just about every nut group that would oppose the Catholic Church. Novatians, Paulinists, Albigenses, Waldenses. In reality, Baptists are ordinarily closer to Catholics than some of these groups they endorse. Eventually, they have to say that the Catholic Church has misrepresented what these groups really believed. They have to take it on faith that the Albigenses, like Baptists, believed in marriage since every historical indication gives evidence that they thought that matter was evil and that human reproduction compounded the evil.
In my opinion, if you ever discuss it, you should be sure to give your approval to the principle…it is a Catholic one. Talk about how it is impossible that Christ’s visible presence should have vanished for even a short period. They just need to reevaluate the facts of the matter.
Regards,
Rory
PS: I studied at a Baptist Bible College before becoming a pastor, which I did for about seven years. While I was at school there were rumblings because the teacher of church history was accused of teaching too much about monks, and cardinals, and bishops. The students were wanting “Trails of Blood”…fundamental, Bible-believing, blood-bought, soul winning Baptists…even if they were called by a different name. The President of the College got up one Sunday night at church and talked about the matter. He assured us that the next semester things would be different. There would be a much stronger emphasis on people who believed like us.
I was pretty enthused when I scheduled to take that class the next semester. My enthusiasm waned though as it just seemed kind of dry with lists of names and people who didn’t seem peculiarly Baptist. The teacher wasn’t explaining how Ignatius of Antioch was a congregationalist, or how John Chrysostom taught that the Lord’s Supper was all symbolism, or how Augustine preached believer’s baptism. That is what we wanted and we weren’t getting it. I don’t remember what he did teach. I know what he didn’t teach. He didn’t teach Trails of Blood and a continuous line of Baptists like us going back through the centuries.
At one point about half way through the course, one of the more outspoken students simply spoke up in the middle of class and challenged our professor of history. “I thought we were going to be learning about people like us, ‘our bunch’, this semester.” The poor teacher, frustrated, beleaguered, threw up his hands, “I can’t”, he said, “It isn’t there.”
