Baptist History in Recent Years

The 18th and 19th Centuries brought a number of difficulties and challenges to the Christian faith. Both the Enlightenment and Darwinism respectively offered criticism to the doctrine of God, and yet when one reads of the recent church history the church can take great joy in God's work to preserve the faith. The 20th Century in particular bears the marks of hard labor done by such men as Al Mohler and Paige Patterson. J. Gresham Machen certainly paved the way in his landmark work Christianity and Liberalism, as well did E.Y. Mullins, B.B. Warfield and others who were including in the work of the Fundamentalists. But for Baptists in particular it was the work of Patterson, in sounding the alarm against liberalism in the SBC, and Mohler, in reforming Southern Seminary, that is most important. Think of where we'd be if such godly men had not been raised up to defend the faith! God preserves His church now just as he has throughout all of history. While much has been written on the early church and even on the church during the 18th and 19th Centuries, it seems that a great deal of scholarship and historical documentation could be used to publish works on the great reformations in Baptist life in the last several decades. There are, I am sure, still many Baptists who don't know these facts and whether you are a Southern Baptist or not, these victories stand as victories for all Baptists and as such all should know about them.