Blessed Are The Poor In Spirit (Smoot)

 

“Blessed are the poor in spirit; for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” – Matthew v. 3.

The Departure of the Unclean Spirit (Smoot)

“When the unclean spirit is gone out of a man, he walketh through dry places, seeking rest, and findeth none. Then he saith, I will return into my house from whence I came out; and when he is come, he findeth it empty, swept, and garnished.

THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES CONTINUES! (SANTAMARIA)

 It our pleasure to inform all of you that Beebe's paper still lives!  Founded in 1832, it has been in continual circulation until now!

The subscription price is $15.00 per year.  It comes out monthly.  We encourage all to subscribe!

Here is the address:

Tom R. Horton

Circulation Manager and Treasurer

1429 Howlett Street

Hillsville, Virginia 24343

Tel. 276-747-4251

GOSPEL TRUTH OUR UNFAILING DEFENSE (Smoot)

“Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable.” – Hebrews xi, 12.

The Gospel Ministry (Smoot)

“No man taketh this honor unto himself, but he that is called of God, as was Aaron.” Hebrews 5:4.

GOD IS LIGHT (Smoot)

“O send out Thy light and Thy Truth: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles.” – Psalm xliii, 3.

Has No Pleasure in the Death of the Dying (Smoot)

God

Dear Brother Smoot: Will you please give your views on Ezekiel xviii, 32, and oblige an inquirer after Truth. May the Lord bless you in your labors, is the prayer of your unworthy brother,
James V. Wright.

WHO ARE MEANS BAPTISTS? (Smoot)

In using the term “Means”, we have reference to its modern usage among Baptists, having direct bearing upon human effort to assist the eternal God either to devise or execute (sometimes both) His eternal purposes of love and mercy toward His chosen children.

WE HAVE NO ABIDING CITY (Smoot)

There are few more solemn reminders of the fast-passing nature of all that is mortal than the swiftly recurring anniversaries that mark the close and opening of each fleeting year of our earthly pilgrimage.

THIS GOD IS OUR GOD FOREVER (Smoot)

“For this God is our God forever and ever; He will be our guide even unto death.” – Psalm xlviii, 14.

SUNADAY SCHOOLS: NURSERIES OF THE CHURCH (Santamaria)

SUNDAY SCHOOLS THE NURSERIES OF THE CHURCH

Contents

• FOREWORD
• Sunday Schools
• The Old School/Primitive Baptist critique (the Absoluter wing, historically)
• So… are Sunday Schools “good” or “bad”?
• Outsourcing discipleship:
• Moralism/decisionism drift:
• Age segregation:
• NURSERIES OF THE CHURCH
• Older Christian usage: “nursery” = a seedbed for future church life (often clergy-training).
• Puritan / early-modern household theology: the family as the church’s nursery.
• 19th-century Sunday School movement: the phrase becomes a rallying cry.
• Who used “nurseries of the church” in the Sunday-school world?
• John Angell James (England),3 very early and very explicit (1816/1817).
• Early movement rhetoric also used “nursery” language even when it didn’t say “of the church.”
• The American religious press used the exact wording by the 1830s.
• Later 19th-century Sunday-school “how-to” literature repeats it as a stock slogan.
• The American Sunday School is basically the church’s “learning hour.”
• What happens inside a Sunday School depends on the tradition, but the usual DNA looks like this:
• Structure: superintendent, opening exercises, then classes (often age-graded).
• Curriculum: Bible stories → doctrine/catechism → “life application,” sometimes synced across many churches (“uniform lessons”).
• Social function: it’s not just teaching; it’s membership training, culture-passing, and (in many settings) an outreach funnel.
• The Old School/Primitive Baptist critique (the Absoluter wing, historically)
• The Black Rock Address (1832)
• More on the Black Address & Sunday Schools
• Outsourcing discipleship:
• Moralism/decisionism drift:
• Age segregation:
• Institution creep,

FOREWORD

COMFORT IN AFFLICTION (Smoot)

During the past few months, I have met with several cases of deep affliction among our brethren, which have awakened within me a desire to write a few thoughts to the poor and afflicted in Zion.

CONCERNING THIS SECT, WE KNOW THAT EVERYWHERE IT IS SPOKEN AGAINST.” (Smoot)

“But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect, we know that everywhere it is spoken against.” – Acts 28:22.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CHRIST’S CHURCH (Smoot)

Written by: Elder William M. Smoot, Dec. 1908

Very Dear Brethren in the Lord: – One year ago, in the Circular Letter which we addressed to you, we called attention to the organic life and character of the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ; in our present Circular, we desire to call attention to the government of that Church. As a testimony for our guidance, we direct attention to the Scripture recorded in Matthew v, 19: “Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the Kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the Kingdom of heaven.”

FELT MANIFOLD TEMPTATIONS

I have felt, of late, a desire to write again a communication for the SIGNS again, but have felt my own inability to write in comparison with the many able communications contained from time to time in its columns.

NICENE CREED AND OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS (Santamaria)

OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS & THE NICENE CREED

FOREWORD

ELECTION, ETERNAL LIFE IN CHRIST, UNION WITH CHRIST, ABSOLUTE PREDESTINATION OF ALL THINGS, A NEW BIRTH. AND BODILY RESURRECTION OF THE DEAD (Smoot)

A little over fourteen years have passed since I was enabled by grace to find a home in the Gospel church and among the people of the Most High God.

ETERNAL VITAL UNION AMONG OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS (Santamaria)

ETERNAL VITAL UNION AMONG OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS

Contents

1. Where Beebe responds to Dudley

2. What Dudley had challenged

3. Beebe’s main line of response

a) He asserts a “higher relationship” than mere creatureliness

b) He doubles down on eternal spiritual seed in Christ

c) He hammers Dudley with seven rhetorical questions

Does the church have “real and vital” existence in Christ or not?– If no, then there is no true “vital union” at all; if yes, we’re already halfway to EVU. ( old-baptist-test.blogspot.com)

BEEBE’S 1879 ARTICLE

E.S.DUDLEYS’ LETTER TO BEEBE IN THE SIGNS

LETTER FROM ELDER TROTT TO BRETHREN AT FORT MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA. (2ND)

THOMAS HILL’S[[ENDNOTE:4]] LETTER TO BEEBE3RD)

THOMAS HILL.

VIRTUAL UNION VS. ACTUAL UNION. (BEEBE)

ETERNAL VITAL UNION

ETERNAL LIFE. (TROTT)

UNION OF CHRIST WITH THE CHURCH.

THE CHILDREN OF THE FLESH, THESE ARE NOT THE CHILDREN OF GOD (SMOOT)

THE CHILDREN PARTAKE OF FLESH AND BLOOD (Smoot)

1891 – CIRCULAR LETTER ON THE DIVINE ORDER OF GOSPEL SALVATION (SMOOT)

SOLOMON ANTITYPICAL OF CHRIST (SMOOT)

ETERNAL VITAL UNION AND HIS CHURCH 1849 (T.P. DUDLEY)

ETERNAL VITAL IUNION AND HIS CHURCH 1847 (T.P. DUDLEY)

IMAGE OF GOD 1871 (T.P. DUDLEY)

1. Elder William Conrad (Kentucky)

2. Elder John M. Watson (Tennessee) – Old Baptist Test

THE NEW BIRTH, UNION WITH CHRIST, ETC.

S E C T I O N X I .

ARGUMENT CONTINUED.

S E C T I O N X I I .

ARGUMENT CONTINUED.

S E C T I O N X I I I .

RECAPITULATION.

3. Ketocton Association & the “Old Virginia” line

Elder John Clark (Virginia) – Exposure of Heresies & Zion’s Advocate

( we have not been able to obtain a digital copy of this book the only information is quotes from Elder Trott from his articles)

SEPARATION OF KETOCKTON AND OLD VIRGINIA ASSOCIATIONS

C A L M R E P L Y

TO A

COMMUNICATION OF ELD. JOHN CLARK

APRIL 30, 1853,

WITH THAT COMMUNICATION INSERTED.

BY. S. TROTT

PREFACE

S.TROTT

A CALM REPLY TO A COMMUNICATION OF ELD. JOHN CLARK.

S. TROTT. FOOTNOTE:

APPENDIX

S. TROTT.

5. Elder Lemuel Potter[[ENDNOTE:7]]

TWO SEED DOCTRINE

6. Elder Joel Hume[[ENDNOTE:8]] (Kentucky)

7. Sylvester Hassell & the Kehukee/Gospel Messenger circle

8. Elder T. E. Sikes[[ENDNOTE:9]] (The Pilgrim’s Banner)

9. Other names on the anti-EVU side

Big picture

ETERNAL VITAL UNION AMONG OLD SCHOOL BAPTISTS

FOREWORD

Power of God in Salvation (Elder Mikal Smith)

Dearest Brethren,

Praise be to God, who is not hindered by man’s work or lack of work, for the gospel—and the salvation it proclaims—

TRY HARD CHRISTIANITY (Santamaria)

THE TRY-HARD CHRISTIANITY

By Guillermo Santamaria

“Trying hard to be holy” – the strain of effort-based Christianity.

Contents

• Foreword
• Absoluter Position among Old School Baptists
• New School Missionary Baptist Position
• “Growth in Grace” in the Mind of Beebe and Trott
• Key Terms Often Used to Defend Progressive Sanctification
• Striving, Pursuing, Chasing After, and Other Exhortations
• How This Relates to Those Who Think an Effort Must Be Made Toward Holiness

FOREWORD

THE FALSE MYSTERY IN THE LORD'S SUPPER OFTEN PRESENTED (Santamaria)

THE FALSE MYSTERY IN THE LORD’S SUPPER OFTEN PRESENTED

By Guillermo Santamaria

FOREWORD

TUB PREACHERS AND THEIR KIN (Santamaria)

TUB PREACHERS AND THEIR KIN

FOREWORD

RELIGIOUS THEATER: ANCIENT AND MODERN (Santamaria)

RELIGIOUS THEATER: ITS ANCIENT AND MODERN VERSIONS

FOREWORD

Mixed up Version of a Mixed up Doctrine - Two Seed - (Crowley)

FOREWORD

The Two Seed theology attributed to Elder Daniel Parker went through a number of changes in subsequent years. Elder G.W. Mathes of Cole County, Ill., starting in the late 1860s, popularized a revised version of Two-Seedism, which concentrated on eliminating the idea of unconditional election and eternal punishment while not asserting free will or conditional salvation. In Florida and South Georgia, this doctrine was popularized by Elder Isaac S. Coon of Lowndes County. Coon’s Synopsis and Mathes’s Discourse are very complete examples of the unusual hermeneutics and conclusions of what might be called “Neo-Two Seedism.” Although the Two Seeders ceased to be a functioning organization in Georgia and Florida after 1935, aspects of their belief quietly survived among local Primitive Baptists.

 

Dr. J. Crowley

Circular Letter Of Virginia Annual Meeting: “Salvation of Sinners” (Smoot)

Drafted by William Middleton Smoot, August 1890,

The Sectarian, Vol. 1, Issue 2.

The Children of the flesh, these are Not the Children of God (Smoot)

“They which are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted for the seed.” – Romans ix, 8.

THE CHILDREN OF HEAVEN SEEK A BETTER COUNTRY (Smoot)

“And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. But now they desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for He hath prepared for them a city.” – Hebrews xi, 15,16.

THE CHILDREN PARTAKE OF FLESH AND BLOOD (Smoot)

Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; Hebrews ii, 14.

THE NON-LOCAL CHURCH MINDSET (Santamaria)

The Non-Local Church Mindset

Contents

• FOREWORD
• INTRODUCTION
• WHAT WERE THE BAPTISTS LIKE BEFORE THE GREAT AWAKENING?
• THE MINDSET
• NAMES AND ORGANIZATIONS

FOREWORD

THE NECESSITY OF THE LOCAL CHURCH (Santamaria)

 

The Necessity of the Local Church

Start with this: the New Testament doesn’t even know the category “Christian, but not joined to a local church.” That’s already a big theological clue.

We’ll look at this in two parts:

• What the New Testament actually shows and requires
• How you might talk to that Christian

1. What the New Testament actually shows

a) Believers are added to concrete churches

After Pentecost:

“Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.” (Acts 2:41)
“And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.” (Acts 2:47)

Added to what? Not to a mystical database in heaven, but to the visible Jerusalem congregation. There is a discernible “them” you can be added to.

And immediately you get:

• They continued steadfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, breaking of bread, and prayers (Acts 2:42).
• Their life is ordered as a body: they’re together, sharing, identified as a community (Acts 4:32).

In the rest of Acts, believers are not just “Christians at large,” but attached to specific churches:

• The church at Jerusalem (Acts 8:1)
• The church at Antioch (Acts 13:1)
• The churches of Galatia, Macedonia, Achaia, etc.

Letters are written to assemblies in particular places, and those assemblies have boundaries.

b) Church discipline makes no sense without membership

Try to do Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5 without a real, defined local body.

Matthew 18:15–17:

• If a brother will not hear the two or three witnesses, you “tell it unto the church.”
• If he will not hear “the church,” he is to be unto you as a heathen man and a publican.

That presupposes:

• A particular congregation that can hear and act
• A knowable line between “inside” and “outside”

1 Corinthians 5:12–13:
“What have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.”

You cannot have “within” and “without” without a recognized “us.”

If a Christian says, “I’m not really in any church,” then:

• No church has standing to discipline them
• No church can restore them
• They escape the very structure Christ gave for correction and care

That’s not “extra spiritual”; that’s structurally disobedient.

c) Shepherds and flock imply a defined relationship

Hebrews 13:17:
“Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account…”

Two questions for the “I don’t do local church” Christian:

• Which specific men are watching for your soul as those who will give account?
• To which specific shepherds are you obeying and submitting?

If the answer is “no one in particular,” then this verse is functionally void.

Likewise:

• 1 Thessalonians 5:12–13 – “Know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you.”
• 1 Peter 5:2–3 – Elders are to “feed the flock of God which is among you… being ensamples to the flock.”

Elders are set “in every church” (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5). No elders without churches, no churches without flocks, no flocks without actual “among you.”

To reject committed belonging is, in practice, to reject Christ’s appointed structure for shepherding.

d) The body language is local, not just universal

Yes, there is the “one body” in the universal sense (Ephesians 4:4). But when Paul works out the practical life of the body, he’s talking about concrete congregations.

Read 1 Corinthians 12–14:

• The body analogy (“the eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee”) is written to a single local church (1 Corinthians 1:2; 11:18; 14:23).
• The gifts are for their gathered worship: “when ye come together in the church, every one of you hath a psalm, hath a doctrine…” (1 Corinthians 14:26).

If someone says, “I’m part of the body of Christ, I just don’t belong to any local church,” they are affirming the metaphor and denying its actual New Testament form.

e) The Lord’s Supper assumes a gathered church

1 Corinthians 11:18, 20, 33:

• “When ye come together in the church…”
• “When ye come together therefore into one place…”
• “Wherefore, my brethren, when ye come together to eat, tarry one for another.”

The Supper is not “me and Jesus at home when I feel led.” It’s an ordinance given to an assembled church, which again presupposes:

• An identifiable “we”
• Mutual responsibility (“tarry one for another”)
• An ordered pattern of gathering

The person who refuses any binding commitment to a local church is voluntarily excluding themselves from the normal New Testament pattern of Word, ordinances, and discipline.

f) The church is a household, not a meetup

1 Timothy 3:15:
“…the house of God, which is the church of the living God, the pillar and ground of the truth.”

A household is not a loose network of unrelated people who occasionally bump into each other. It has:

• Structure
• Order
• Recognized members
• Discipline

The Pastoral Epistles are basically a manual for how that household is to be ordered: bishops, deacons, widows enrolled, accusations handled, etc. That’s not “vibes-based Christianity”; that’s institutional, visible, communal life.

2. How you might respond in conversation

In responding to someone who rejects local church membership, you want to keep three things together: sympathy, Scripture, and specific questions.

a) Acknowledge the real issues

Many “unchurched Christians” are reacting to:

• Abuse of authority
• Hypocrisy and worldliness
• Shallow, program-driven churches

You can say frankly: “Yes, the New Testament churches themselves were often a mess (Corinth, Galatia, the seven churches in Revelation), and Christ still calls them churches, rebukes them, and walks among them. The answer to bad churches in Scripture is never ‘no church,’ but ‘repent, reform, or join one that’s striving to walk in order.’”

So we don’t defend dysfunction. We defend Christ’s order.

b) Clarify what “membership” actually means

You can say something like:

“Forget the word ‘membership’ for a second. The New Testament picture is simply this: believers in a place gather regularly, under recognized shepherds, share the ordinances, bear one another’s burdens, and exercise discipline. The modern word ‘membership’ is just our way of saying: I am part of this flock, under these elders, with these brothers and sisters, to whom I’m accountable and among whom I serve.”

Then ask:

• “Is there any church on earth of which that is true of you?”
• “Who could rightly admonish you and, if necessary, carry a matter to ‘the church’ in your case?”

If the answer is “no one,” that’s not normal by New Testament standards.

c) Use Scripture to frame the problem

You might walk them (briefly) through:

• Acts 2:41–47 – people saved, baptized, and added; continuing steadfastly in doctrine, fellowship, ordinances.
• 1 Corinthians 5 – inside/outside, discipline.
• Hebrews 13:17 – obey those who watch for your souls.
• 1 Corinthians 12–14 – body life and gathered worship.
• 1 Timothy 3:15 – church as household and pillar of truth.

Then say something like:

“I’m not asking whether you’re a Christian. I’m asking whether your current pattern of life exists anywhere in the New Testament. The apostles do not imagine believers floating unattached. The normal path of obedience to Christ includes being joined to a concrete assembly.”

d) Address the “Jesus and me is enough” line

You can answer gently:

“Union with Christ is absolutely enough for salvation. But the same Christ who saves you also commands how His saved people are to walk. The Shepherd who carries the lamb on His shoulders also places that lamb in a flock. To refuse the flock while claiming to follow the Shepherd is a contradiction the New Testament never blesses.”

Or shorter:

“Yes, Christ is enough. But Christ is not a bachelor. He has a bride, and she has congregations.”

e) Not law-keeping, but obedience of faith

Finally, make clear you’re not saying, “Join a church to be saved.”

You’re saying more like:

“Because Christ has saved you, He calls you into the life of His body. That means a real church, with real people, real mess, real love, real discipline. The New Testament pattern of discipleship is not: ‘just you and your Bible in perpetual independence,’ but ‘you and your Bible in the household of God.’”

Then you can invite them, not to a vague ideal, but to seek out a biblicically ordered congregation and actually bind themselves to it.

Bottom line

The New Testament doesn’t give you a sentence that says, “Thou shalt sign a membership roll,” but it gives you something much weightier: a whole structure of life that only makes sense if Christians are formally, mutually bound to actual local churches. The “free-agent Christian” is not a deeper, purer New Testament model; it’s a modern invention that lives largely outside the apostolic pattern.

WITHOUT CHRIST ALL IS DARKNESS: STUDIES IN SOLA SCRIPTURA (Santamaria)

WITHOUT CHRIST ALL IS DARKNESS – STUDIES IN SOLA SCRIPTURA

Contents

• Foreword
• What Is the Definition of Sola Scriptura?
• What Is the History of the Term Sola Scriptura?
• Who Was the First Person to Use This Term?
• Is There an Inherent Tension Between Sola Scriptura and Inner Spiritual Communication?
• Luther on Sola Scriptura and the Inward Working of the Holy Spirit
• What Is the Old School Baptist View?
• How Does Sola Scriptura Apply to Those Who Do Not Have the Scriptures?
• How Does Sola Scriptura Relate to the False Doctrine of Gospel Regeneration?
• If You Need the Spirit to Interpret the Bible, How Do You Know the Right Interpretation?

FOREWORD

ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN (Santamaria)

ALL THINGS TO ALL MEN

Contents

• Foreword
• Interpretation
• Examples of Paul Becoming All Things To All Men
• The Context
• Philosophical and Religious Backgrounds of Corinth
• What Was Involved with the Sacred Prostitutes?
• Jewish Philosophy
• Examples of Financial Gaps
• Examples of Wealthy Corinthians
• Were There Any Examples of the Poor in Corinth?
• The Challenge of Evangelism and Fellowship
• Practical Examples of “Becoming All Things”
• Gospel Motivation
• Endnotes / Sources

FOREWORD