Baptist developments in the Nordic Countries during the twentieth century: in the Nordic Countries, Baptists have had an uphill struggle against the dominant Lutheranism.

The Nordic Countries included in this article are Denmark, Sweden, Finland, and Norway. A fifth Nordic country, Iceland, is not included.

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway are also designated the Scandinavian countries, located around the waters of Skagerrak and Kattegat, and with centuries of common political history, cultural similarities--as well as certain differences--and languages which are close enough to be understood in all three countries. They are kingdoms with a parliamentary political system.

Finland has common borders with Russia, Norway and Sweden. Much of its history is linked to Sweden as well as to its eastern neighbor, less to Norway. Finland is a republic. The country has two official languages, Swedish and Finnish, which belong to two different linguistic families and can not be mutually understood.

In all of the countries there have been Lutheran state churches since the Reformation. In Finland, they have also an orthodox state church. The reason for this is that in certain eastern regions of the country the population is predominantly Greek Orthodox.

The state church system implies close connections between the established church and the political system at all levels, from parliament and national government to the local municipality. This has been the context within which Baptist work in the Nordic countries has had to work, both the local churches and the denominations. The article will not attempt to cover all of the Baptist developments in the last century. It will concentrate on two major aspects: the struggle for religious liberty and civil rights and the development in theological thinking and church practice, represented in the understanding of baptism in relation to membership in Baptist churches.

Baptist Beginnings in the Nordic Countries

Baptists came first to Denmark. In Copenhagen, a group of people, led by Peder Chr. Monster, had in the 1830s started to question the Lutheran practice of infant baptism. Based on the study of the New Testament, they reached a believer's baptism position. To this group, Julius Kobner from Hamburg came in the spring of 1839. He was a former Danish Jew who had embraced Christianity and become a Baptist. On October 31, 1839, he and J. G. Oncken baptized eleven persons, and two days later the first Baptist church in Denmark was organized. The Baptist movement grew steadily, and in 1900, there were around 3,900 Baptists in Denmark.

The next Nordic country to have a Baptist church was Sweden. A former Swedish sailor, Frederik Olaus Nilsson, and a Danish Baptist preacher, A. P. Forster, were instrumental in organizing the first church in 1848, after a baptismal service in the waters of Skagerrak at Vallersvik. Swedish Baptists in the nineteenth century were the fastest growing of the Nordic Baptist groups, numbering around forty thousand in 1900.

In the fall of 1856, the first Baptist baptism in Finland took place on the little island of Foglo at the Aland Islands; a Baptist church was organized in connection with that baptism. This happened among the Swedish-speaking population. (1) The Baptist witness spread to the mainland of Finland, and from 1870, Swedish-speaking churches were organized in several places. The first Finnish-speaking church came in 1870. At the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of Baptists in Finland was around 1,800.

A young Norwegian student in Copenhagen, Enoch Richard Haftorsen Svee, was among the eleven persons who started the first Baptist church in Denmark. With support from American Baptists through J. G. Oncken, Svee returned to Norway in 1842 to start Baptist work. However, he died the following year, and the attempts came to nothing.

A new beginning was made in 1857. The former Danish sailor Frederick Ludwig Rymker came from Denmark, also supported by American Baptists, but the growth was modest. In 1860, the first Baptist church in Norway was organized by Rymker. The baptism took place on Christmas Day 1858 in a river. During the next forty years, the work expanded to the whole of Norway, but most of the churches were small. When the twentieth century dawned, there were approximately 2,700 Baptists in Norway.

The Struggle for Religious Liberty and Civil Rights

The presence of state churches in the Nordic countries had precarious consequences and placed formidable obstacles in the way of Baptist expansion. Not only was there in the population a general skepticism toward "new religions" or "sects"; ministers and bishops of the Lutheran establishment spoke and wrote against the Baptists. These leaders also tried to prevent them from preaching the gospel and organizing churches.

State religion was supported by economic privileges and guarded by legislation. Much of this legislation made religious dissent unlawful and thus criminal. (2) It also prohibited Baptists and other Free-Church people from holding several civil positions, and in the beginning from taking part in politics and other areas of public life. In 1856, a local postmaster, Jacob Gldersen, had to resign from his position when he became a member of the Covenant Free Church in Skien, and the Parliament reduced his pension. Lieutenant Colonel Adam Reuz Holter also had to resign when he became a Baptist in 1871. (3)

When we move to the twentieth century, in all the countries there was legislation which directly regulated the Free Churches and their relationship to the state and public life. Norway had passed its Dissenter Law in 1845, and revised it in 1891. Finland had passed its Dissenter Law in 1889. In 1849, Denmark approved a new Constitution which made certain provisions for religious dissenters and their right to worship. (4) In 1860, Sweden got its first Religious Liberty Bill, replaced by a new one in 1873.

These laws provided benefits to the Baptists by giving them certain rights and protecting them against arbitrary treatment by civil servants and state church officials. However, many were dissatisfied with the laws. Demands for revisions came after a short time, but little was achieved in the nineteenth century.

The struggle for religious liberty in the twentieth century had some common traits in all the Nordic countries. One common goal of Nordic Baptists involved securing tax legislation that freed Baptists from paying taxes to support the state church. Similarly, they opposed different kinds of compulsory work in service to a local Lutheran parish. (5) Lack of religious liberty and equal rights for Free Church members was demonstrated throughout more than half of the century with regard to holding positions in public life.

In Norway, the Constitution of 1814 required all civil servants to belong to the state church. After a new law concerning the confessional position of civil servants was passed in 1880, the confessional requirements were abolished in one area after another. In 1919, the obligation for all members of the government to belong to the state church was dropped. But still the Constitution of Norway says that "more than half of the members of the government must belong to the official religion of the state." (6) The law concerning the confessional position of civil servants was not repealed until 1971. The situation has been more or less the same in the other Nordic countries.

Confessional demands as a consequence of the state church system were especially evident with regard to Baptists as teachers of religion in public primary and secondary schools. In all the countries, instruction in religion, i.e., Christendom according to the Lutheran confession, was obligatory. Such instruction was regarded as the baptismal instruction on behalf of the state churches.

In Norway, according to the Law on Primary Schools in Rural Areas of 1889, Article 26, all teachers had to be members of the state church. Due to this, some young Baptists converted to Lutheranism to be able to fulfill their desire to become teachers. There were also cases in which teachers were discharged because they had left the state church for religious reasons. (7) The law was changed in 1915, after which time Free Church members on certain conditions could become teachers, but not in religion. (8) The Primary School Law of 1969 made it possible for Free Church members to teach religion, but according to the Lutheran confession. Prior to 1969, Baptists who graduated from teacher's colleges had a statement written on their diploma that they did not belong to the state church, had not received instruction in religion at the college, and were not qualified to hold positions that involved teaching of religion. The regulations of the 1969 legislation are still in force in Norway.

In Denmark, it was not formally required for teachers to be members of the state church. However, in practice, it was impossible for Baptists to become teachers. A new law of 1937 upheld the binding to the Lutheran states church, and graduates of teacher's colleges had the following written into their diploma: "Is not a member of the People's Church, and can therefore not have a teaching position in primary school which involves religious instruction." (9) This discrimination lasted until 1975, at which time a new law on public schools cut of the legal binding to the state church. The religious instruction in schools became non-confessional. (10)

In Sweden, the Religious Liberty bills of 1860 and 1873 denied "dissenters" the right to teach religion in public schools. In 1923 and 1925, Swedish Free Churches appealed to the government to abolish this regulation but without results. (11)

During most of the second half of the twentieth century, the discussion about religion in public schools turned more on the content of the curricula. Should the teaching be confessional (i.e., Lutheran) or non-confessional? Should it be limited to the Christian religion, or be, as has actually become the practice, instruction in world religions and humanistic ethics? Due to immigration and influx of refugees from Africa, Asia, and southeastern Europe, society in the Nordic countries has rapidly become more and more pluralistic, not only as to ethnic groups and their culture in general, but especially as to their religious convictions. Legislation in all the countries has been changed to take care of the new situation. (12)

The most fundamental issue in regard to religious liberty and civil rights has, however, been the state church system in the Nordic countries. Baptists have had their work and history influenced, and to some extent determined, by this system. And they fought this system all through the twentieth century.

The constitutions of the countries provided for and guaranteed the Lutheran confessional state churches. In fact, these churches had no formal status of their own; they were the state organized for religious purposes. (13) The state churches have been the most influential institutions in society for social integration, possibly more influential than even the public schools. Every citizen is defined and determined by her or his relation to the state church.

In Sweden, the first Free Church Council (Methodists, Mission Covenant Church, and Baptists), held in 1905, discussed religious liberty and separation of church and state. At all the following six councils up to 1939, these were the most burning issues. (14) Resolutions were passed by the councils as well as the three member denominations in their annual conferences, asking Parliament and Government to correct obvious violations of religious liberty and civil rights, and to prepare for separation of church and state. Some changes came, and in 1951, a major event occurred. Sweden got a new Religious Liberty Bill. It was in effect from January 1, 1952. From then on, it was possible for Swedish citizens to leave the state church without becoming members of another religious community. Methodist and Baptist leaders especially encouraged their membership to use this freedom, but as late as the beginning of the 1990s, more than 70 percent of free church members in Sweden also belonged to the state church. (15)

In 1951, and the following years, a certain shift occurred in the attitude to the state church system among Swedish Baptist leaders. The internationally-known and prominent Baptist pastor and member of the Swedish Parliament, Joel Sorenson, wrote in 1969: "It must be observed that from the point of view of religious liberty, it is not necessary to demand separation of church and state. Even in a state church country religious liberty can be upheld." (16) Also men like Bert Franzen and Bo Swedberg exhibited a less uncompromising attitude on the relationship between church and state than had Baptist leaders a generation earlier. (17)

After 1983, when political and church pressure for separation of church and state in Sweden came to a halt, the tone was sharpened among Free Church leaders, Baptists included. Again, the state church system was seen as detrimental to religious liberty and equal civil rights.

The development in Sweden took on new momentum in the last decade of the twentieth century, and by January 1, 2000, the state church was history. New legislation covers the relationship with the state, and the traditional Free Churches will have to adapt to a new situation, one which they have worked and waited for during 150 years.

In Denmark, the Lutheran state church still exists. There is no indication that an immediate separation can be expected. Danish Baptists have throughout all their history worked and argued for the disestablishment of the Lutheran confessional state church and abolition of religious discrimination. But even after the middle of the century, they were often labeled as a "sect."

In 1915, the Danish Constitution was revised. That revision meant more democracy and less discrimination over against certain groups. However, religious dissenters did not harvest much progress as to their public status.

In 1930, Johannes Norgaard listed several areas in which discrimination took place, among them the official recognition by the state of the Baptist Union, the right for Baptist pastors to administer legally binding marriage ceremonies, and the right for Baptists to become teachers in the public primary schools. (18) In 1952, state recognition was achieved, and in 1966, a new law concerning teachers' colleges opened for all students to take exams in religion and teach the subject. The Baptist struggle for separation of church and state and free and equal exercise of religion is still going on in Denmark, in spite of the improvements that came in the twentieth century.

Finland has two state churches, the Lutheran and the Orthodox. The interaction between the Baptists and the Orthodox is rather limited. Baptists and Lutherans have much more contact. In Finland, the local state church congregation has the right to tax all citizens living in the parish. In some parishes, agreements have been reached to exempt Baptists from this support of the state church. In most parishes, Baptists pay this local tax. (19)

In 1922, a new Religious Liberty law came, requiring local congregations to register and meet certain formal obligations to the government. Although this decidedly was a step forward with regard to religious liberty and equal civil rights, most of the Swedish-speaking Baptist congregations as well as the Union decided not to register. (20) There was for a long time a widespread concern that registration would imply undue state control and interference. In recent years, this attitude has changed. The Finnish-speaking Union and its congregations decided in 1922 to register according to the new law. (21) With regard to Baptists becoming teachers in public schools and confessional religious instruction, the situation in Finland has been much the same as in the other Nordic countries.

Finally, a mention should be made of what in the Nordic countries has been coined "economic religious liberty." This is a model, with some variations, for Free Churches, in our case Baptists, to relate to both national and local civil authorities in economic matters.

The background is the system under which full economic support is guaranteed to the state churches, coming from public funds and paid for over the tax bill. All citizens are in principle included in the system. Baptists during the twentieth century tried to have the worst consequences of this system remedied. When individual tax exemption for gifts to churches and their work was not possible, Baptists in the Nordic countries accepted, although with some reluctance in the beginning, the offer from the sate to receive public money for their work, as a compensation. In Norway, this is a per capita sum comparable to what the state church costs the state and local municipality. It is refunded to the local churches from the local municipality and to the Baptist Union from the state. Included in the system is money allocated for schools run by the Baptist unions. (22) Certain differences exist between the countries as to the design of this arrangement. The principles, however, are the same.

With some hesitation, Nordic Baptists have accepted this system as a way to get hold of money that rightly belonged to the church members and thus to the churches. If the Baptist church members--on top of financing the state church over their tax bill--should fully finance their own churches and denomination, this would represent heavy burdens. It is also regarded as a gross injustice against the Free Churches and their members due to the state church system. The hope is that with the disestablishment of the state churches, it will be possible to have legislation which in an adequate way meets the demands for equal fights of the churches in these matters also.

Baptism and Church Membership

The original Baptist position on ecclesiology in the Nordic countries, can be described by "closed communion" and "closed membership," even if there were some exceptions. (23) During the third decade of the twentieth century, a change of position on communion took place in Sweden and Denmark, and in the fifties and sixties in Norway and Finland. Today, closed communion is practiced only by the Finnish-speaking Baptists in Finland, but it is not found in the other Baptist churches in the Nordic countries. Among Danish Baptists, the children of church members have received communion since the 1980s. (24) In Sweden, the Baptist Union response to the Lima document (BEM) recommended children's communion together with their parents. There was, however, a significant reservation. David Lagergren, the Union's general secretary, could not support this recommendation. (25) In Finland and Norway, children are accepted at the communion able in some churches, although this is not a widespread practice, and no theological and ecclesiological study of such a practice has taken place. The communion question is mentioned here, because in the debate about criteria for membership, open communion has been used as an argument for open membership.

This section will not delineate the debate and development in each country separately. Instead, it will present different types of membership and the criteria for them.

Believer's baptism a prerequisite for membership.--This is the classic position among Nordic Baptists. In the nineteenth century, it was not questioned at all, even though close connections existed between British and Scandinavian Baptists in this period. It is still by far the 'dominant position, especially in Finland and Norway. It defines the Baptists confessionally, and it is an ecumenical reality one must take account of.

Associate membership.--Associate membership is known and practiced by Baptists all over the world. In the area we are dealing with here, it came first to Sweden in the fifties and sixties and to Norway in 1983 when North Sea Baptist Church became a member church of the Baptist Union. (26) This church had in its constitution provisions for associate membership. The church was accepted by the Norwegian Baptist Union without any discussion or questions in spite of the membership criteria. (27) The question came up, however, in 1986, when another church asked the Baptist Union Executive Committee for guidance as to associate membership. This resulted in a short but sharp public debate. (28) So far, only a couple of churches have been opened for this practice. Little resistance exists against it.

In Denmark, associate membership was discussed from 1953. The union eventually developed a set of rules for this membership, which was recommended to the churches as guidelines. (29) In Finland, associate membership is accepted, but not widely practiced.

Open membership.--Open membership is membership in a Baptist church without any kind of baptism, based only on the individual's profession of faith or on recommendation from a pedobaptist church but without accepting that baptism as valid. This position was almost unthinkable among the Nordic Baptists until around 1960.

In the late 1960s, two Baptist churches in Sweden, Farsta and Vgsterhs, introduced open membership, without any discussion in the union prior to this. The Baptist Union in 1968 appointed a committee to study the theological and practical consequences. The discussion at the annual conference in 1969 was heated and dramatic. It was concluded with a decision which was a rather contradictory compromise, but maybe at the same time reflecting Baptist churchmanship at its best. The decision was "not to recommend open membership, but neither to exclude from the Union those churches which had introduced this membership, or in the future would feel it necessary to do so." This was a watershed decision. In the years that followed, more and more churches adopted the open membership policy. Torsten Bergsten described it like this:

   By this decision believer's baptism ceased to be the necessary condition
   for membership in a church belonging to the Swedish Baptist Union. This is
   the most thoroughgoing structural change the Union has done in all its
   history. (30)

In Denmark, beginning in 1966, open membership was discussed in several churches. In 1970, the Fredskirken (Peace Church) congregation decided with a majority of one vote to introduce open membership. But because the church was split right in the middle, the decision was not implemented at that time. Later, some other churches also have started to practice open membership. (31)

In Finland, one open-membership church existed by 1995. (32) In 1997-98, the Swedish-speaking Baptist church in Helsingfors also voted to practice open membership. (33)

In Norway, a debate about open membership did not come until 1987. The question has been studied and debated in pastors' conferences several times since, as well as in Norwegian Baptist publications. The faculty of the theological seminary was in 1999 asked by the Union Executive Committee to study the theological and practical aspects of the different types of criteria for church membership. A comprehensive document was to ready by January 2001. In 1996, one church changed its bylaws and accepted open membership. It was put under severe pressure from the Baptist Union and has so far not practiced open membership. Some other churches have discussed the matter, and it will come up for debate in the annual conference in 2001. No doubt, the widened ecumenical contacts on the local and national level and the development in Sweden and Denmark will have some significance for what will happen in Norway.

Baptists in the Nordic countries have taken part in and been influenced by the theological reflection on the biblical content and meaning of baptism, which started shortly after the Second World War. Baptist theologians like George R. Beasley-Murray, Johannes Schneider, Nils J. Engelsen, and Gunter Wagner made a fundamental impression on younger theologians and pastors all over Europe, and so also in the Nordic countries. What we all learned was that according to the New Testament, baptism must be understood as an integral part of the individual salvation experience. This being so, open membership, which disregards baptism altogether in relation both to salvation and church membership, seems a rather problematic position. Therefore, some have sought for another solution. This leads to the next method of establishing membership in a Baptist church.

Transferred membership.--Transferred membership is acceptance of members who come not only from churches that practice believer's baptism but also from pedobaptist churches. This implies a recognition of infant baptism as valid. Believers who have been sprinkled as infants and are in good standing in their congregation will be received in a Baptist church by. transfer of letter.

In 1983, Billy Taranger of Norway suggested such a procedure. It was, however, the Danish Baptist theologian Bent Hylleberg, then pastoring the Aarhus Baptist Church, who in 1984 coined the label "transferred membership" and put it into practice in his church. Hence, it has in the Nordic countries become known as the "Aarhus model." At their synod in 1984, the Danish Baptists refused to discuss this innovation, and it has never since been on the agenda. Several Danish Baptist churches have, however, adopted transferred membership as a way by which believers who are not able to give up or abandon their infant baptism, can be invited to have full formal membership. (34) According to Bent Hylleberg, this is fully possible within the bylaws from 1980 of the Baptist Union.

The transferred membership model has been accepted by Swedish Baptists and is practiced in some churches. In Norway, some Baptist leaders, especially theologians, have advocated the Aarhus model, but it has not been on the agenda of the Baptist Union and has not been implemented by any church yet. The situation among Finnish Baptist is much the same. The "higher" the theology of baptism is, the more attractive is this alternative criterion for membership, compared to open membership. The most serious objection is that this approach recognizes infant baptism as valid, and thus represents a definite deviation from the classic Baptist interpretation of Scripture and theological position.

On the other hand, it should be noted that those who are in favor of transferred membership in our definition here regard this as a measure to be used in few and special cases. They also strongly affirm that Baptists themselves can and must only teach and practice believer's baptism.

Ecumenical congregations.--By "ecumenical congregations" is meant local churches with members originally coming from two or more denominations, and which most often hold membership in more than one denomination. Both Denmark and Norway have advocates for this position. Several major arguments are given for such a church model. First is the ecumenical spirit which is more and more evident between denominations and their local churches. We "grow together," it is maintained, and the ecumenical congregations are the foretaste for the unity of all God's people in one place.

A second argument is quite different in outlook and perspective: Many places have small congregations of different denominations. They all struggle to maintain their places of worship, they do not have enough qualified leadership, and they are separately not able to make much impact in the community. But--the argument goes--if they lay aside their dogmatic differences, they will together be able to preach the good news and help people become saved. And this is, after all, the most important.

The Nordic country that has become the "homeland" of this type of membership arrangement is Sweden. Swedish Baptists have gone further in this direction than any other denomination. In 1997, more than 40 present of the total membership of the Baptist Union of Sweden belonged to ecumenical churches. (35) The most usual combination is congregations of the Baptist Union and the Mission Covenant Church (MCC). The MCC practices both believer's and infant baptism, regarding baptism as a private matter for the individual to decide on.

The first Swedish Baptist involvement with this type of church came in 1969. (36) In 1972, the Baptist Union changed its bylaws to give room for this type of congregation. T. Bergsten commented: "By this change of bylaws it was made even more clear that the Baptist Union was no longer a Baptist denomination in the traditional meaning." (37) One aspect of this development is that there is a fluctuation of members between the evangelical denominations. Thus, Orebro First Baptist Church, a traditional Baptist congregation, can be mentioned. In 1995, 179 of its 494 members had come from nine different denominations, several of these denominations practicing only infant baptism. (38)

The most interesting example of this type of church and membership related to Baptists is the Valsatra Free Church Congregation located in one of the suburbs of Uppsla, Sweden. The church originated from a work the First Baptist Church of Uppsla had had for years in the area. It was organized in 1978, after which it applied for membership in five denominations, reflecting the background out Of which the members came. One, The Free Baptist Union, turned down the request. By 1982, the other four had accepted it, and in 1992 the Orebro Baptist Union also affirmed a request for membership. (39) From the start the church has practiced both believer's and infant baptism. This is written into the bylaws. They hold a "high" baptismal theology, and open membership is regarded only as a permitted exception. Somewhat peculiar in this connection is that rebaptism of members baptized in infancy can be accepted in special cases. (40)

One problem which the ecumenical congregations pose is the breakdown of dogmatic identity, evident in the second generation of members. The first generation brings the original identity with it. The second generation, mainly the children and young people growing up in the church, is confused and tend to have a weakened interest in doctrinal questions. They are neither Lutheran, Methodist, nor Baptist, but what are they? Being just "Christian" tends to represent a minimum of doctrinal conviction also in matters common to all confessions. (41) Those who keep the identity of their parents find it difficult to function together in different activities in the church and in regard to the denominations with which the church is affiliated. (42) Even with this and other problems, this way of defining church membership and understanding baptism seems attractive to many Nordic Baptists. One may wonder if a distinctive Baptist identity and witness can be upheld on the basis of this model. But again, is that necessary in order to win people to Christ, serve the needy, and remedy injustice in the world?

Conclusion

Several other aspects of Baptist life in the Nordic countries in the twentieth century could have been discussed. What has been presented demonstrates the complexity of the conditions under which Baptists have worked and developed, as well as the diverse solutions which have been sought. One conclusion to be drawn is that there is not one authoritative way of being Baptist. Humility towards each other will be a much needed qualify as Baptists seek to work together and reach out with the gospel in the new millennium.

(1.) David Eden, Svenska Baptisternas i Finland historia 1856-1931 (Wasa, A.-B. Frams Trykkeri och Bokbinderi, 1931), 29-33.

(2.) The Methodist historian, Arne Hassing, accurately described the situation: "Legally the free church Christians were second class citizens. It should be noted that they were not defined as `religious dissenters', but simply `dissenters'; people who in the definition of the the state itself set themselves apart from the official state religion." Per Overland, ed., Norske Frikirker (Trondheim: Tapir Forlag, 1981), 78.

(3.) Peder A. Eidberg, Det folk som kalles baptister (The People Called Baptists) Th.D diss., University of Oslo 1998, 230-31,233.

(4.) "The Constitution secured religious liberty, but not equal rights," wrote Bent Hylleberg. Additional legislation followed. In 1857, compulsory infant baptism for all newborn children was abandoned by law. B. Hylleberg and B. M. Jorgensen, ed., Et kirkesamfund bliver til (Kobenhavn: Foltvedts Forlag, 1989), 41. See also Peter Lodberg, "Freedom of Religion and the Lutheran Church in Denmark," Studia Theologica 1 (2000): 43-54.

(5.) See Alfons Sundqvist, Ett sekel under Cuds nad. Purmo baptistforsamling hundra ar (Vasa: Purmo Baptistforsamlings Forlag, 1974), 28-29; Torsten Bergsten, Frikyrkor i samverkan (Orebro/Stockholm: Libris Verbum, 1995), 18; Peder A. Eidberg, "Norwegian Free Churches and Religious Liberty: A History," Journal o Church and State (Autumn 1995), 881-82.

(6.) For more details on Norway, see ibid., 869-84.

(7.) Daniel Braendeland, Norges Dissenterting gjennem 30 ar (Oslo: 1935), 64; Eidberg, "Free Churches," 874-75.

(8.) Ibid., 874.

(9.) Hylleberg and Jorgensen, Et kirkesamfund, 309.

(10.) Ibid., 338.

(11.) Bergsten, Frikyrkor, 46.

(12.) In Norway, the former course in primary school in the Christian religion in 1994 was replaced by a new course in Christianity, Religion, and Ethics, which attempted to satisfy adherents of all different religious persuasions as well as non-religious world views.

(13.) The church historian, and for many years active socialist politician, Professor Berge Furre in Norway wrote in 1994: "The Constitution of 1814 knew of no Church, not to speak of local congregations. It knew only of a state with a religion, the Evangelical-Lutheran...." In "Fra 1814 til Gudmund Hernes. Politikk, kyrkje og kyrkjepolitikk," Norsk Teologtsk Tidsskrift 1/1994 (Oslo: Universitetsforlaget, 1994): 3-4.

(14.) At the council meeting in 1923, the prominent Baptist leader Nils Johan Nordstrom gave a lecture making the four following points regarding state and church: (1) Only the believers' church position represent biblical ecclesiology; (2) The state church system is in conflict with the principle of religious liberty; (3) Churches must be free and independent of the state; (4) The state-church system is a hindrance as the church seeks to fulfill its mission to the world. Bergsten, Frikyrkor, 42-43.

(15.) Ibid., 215, with reference to Irvin Palm, "Frikyrkofolket och ecumeniken," in Tro och Tanke 5 (1993): 60.

(16.) Joel Sorenson, "Stat och kyrka-hvad skall handa?" in Tro och Liv (Stockholm 1969), 19 (Cited after Bergsten, Frikyrkor, 227). An even more radical utterance by Sorenson, worth being cited, is: "If one believes the old slogan `a free church in a free state' to mean an uncompromising separation of church and state, one is basically mistaken. The question goes deeper: Is such a separation desirable? Hardly. Fellowship and cooperation are better models than tension and radical separation." Ibid., 17 ff. (Cited after Bergsten, Frikyrkor, 228-29).

(17.) Ibid., 229-30.

(18.) Hylleberg and Jorgensen, Et kirkesamfund, 308.

(19.) Alfons Sundqvist, Ett sekel, 39.

(20.) Ibid., 50; Erik Ruden, Baptismen i Europa (Stockholm: Westerbergs Forlag, 1964), 100.

(21.) Ibid., 100-01.

(22.) This means that my own seminary p.t. receives close to 40 percent of its annual budget from public funds.

(23.) In 1875, Bergen. Baptist Church in Norway was denied membership in the Southern District Association because it practiced open communion, while the association stood for closed communion. Eidberg, Det folk, 154. Also in Sweden there were early defenders of open communion, see Torsten Bergsten in Berit Aqvist, ed., Tro-Frihet-Gemenskap (1998), 228-29.

(24.) Bent Hylleberg in David Lagergren, ed., Samfund i forandring (Stockholm: Tro och Liv, 1997), 70-71. The book contains papers read at a Nordic Baptist history conference in Stockholm in 1995.

(25.) Lennart Johnsson, Baptist Reconsideration of Baptism (Ph.D. diss., Uppsala University, prepub. ed. Uppsala University, 1999), 226-27.

(26.) This church consists mainly of personnel working in the oil industry, Americans, and other nationalities who come for a limited period to Stavanger. Several denominations are represented in the membership. The church is also a member of the SBC-related European Baptist Convention.

(27.) In a lecture at the pastor's conference in 1982, Billy Taranger discussed baptism in relation to church membership, without mentioning associate membership. Norwegian Baptists seemed unaware of this form of membership.

(28.) E A. Eidberg, "Menighet og dap i en okumenisk tid," Baptist 2 (1994): 20-21.

(29.) Ibid., 16-17.

(30.) B.Aqvist, ed., Tro-Frihet-Gemenskap (1998), 230. Bergsten himself is very much in favor of this development.

(31.) Gunnar Kvist in Hylleberg and Jorgensen, ed., Et kirkesamfund, 340; Hylleberg in Lagergren, ed., Samfund, 72-73.

(32.) Mai-Britt Vehkaoja and Albert W. Wardin Jr., "Finland," A. W. Wardin Jr., ed. Baptists Around the World (Nashville Tenn.: Broadman and Holman, 1995), 241-43.

(33.) Jan Edstrom and Sam Petterson, "Mot en oppnare baptism," Missionsstandaret 2 (1998): 4.

(34.) Hylleberg in Lagergren (ed.), Samfund, 72-73.

(35.) T. Bergsten in Aqvist, ed., Tro-Frihet-Gemenskap, 231.

(36.) The new ecumenical congregation was a union of a Baptist and a MCC congregation, and it applied for membership both in the BU and the MCC, ibid., 230.

(37.) Ibid., 231.

(38.) Ibid., 232.

(39.) T. Bergsten, "The Ecumenical Congregation--a Sign of Unity," in Lennart Molin (ed.), Levande (Stockholm: Verbum Forlag, 1996), 44-45.

(40.) Ibid., 52.

(41.) This is discussed by Lennart Johnsson in his 1999 dissertation, 378-79 where he cites different sources to this effect.

(42.) Ibid., 379.

Peder A. Eidberg teaches at the Norwegian Baptist Seminary, Stabekk, Norway.