Theological influences affecting Baptist development in the Northwest.

"Baptist peculiarities must be vindicated in Oregon. Our Pedo-baptist and Campbellite neighbors are mooting the subject of baptism, and especially communion. May we have grace to present these subjects as gospel truths in the love of the gospel of the Blessed Savior." (1)--Ezra Fisher to Rev. Hill, 20 October 1847.

"Outside our own and Landmark fellowships, Baptist churches of the Northwest might to a limited degree be called Community Baptist Churches. They invariably practice the receiving of alien immersion and open communion." (2)--R. E. Milam to SBC, 1948

Baptists arrived late in the religious settlement of the Oregon Territory. They arrived from all regions of the United States, with a heavy proportion coming from the South. Wagons ferried their world possessions, but settlers also harbored regional Baptist baggage--doctrinal nuances, regional alliances, personal biases, and the vain presumption that the totality of Baptist life was reflected in their personal experiences. Tension, conflict, and division accelerated as Baptist numbers grew. Creating a unified Baptist witness proved a difficult proposition.

Strong theological convictions, such as those expressed in the opening quotations from nineteenth-century American Baptist Home Mission Society (ABHMS) missionary Ezra Fisher, a New Englander, and R. E. Milam, the Texas-educated, twentieth-century architect of the Northwest Baptist Convention (NWBC), ensured a constant climate of theological debate. The ideological fault lines often were drawn along North-South regional identities. In the midst of the Northwest's Baptist theological rumble, a passion for evangelism and New Testament ecclesiological purity laid the foundation for the NWBC.

Early Theological Identity

From the 1844 establishment of the West Union Baptist church forward, Baptist churches in the Pacific Northwest were typically strict in discipline and exclusive in cooperation. Interdenominational cooperation was left to individual churches or ministers, and such cooperative activities centered on temperance campaigns, moral reform, or union meetings. These activities, at best, were superficial. Baptist life at the associational level remained exclusive, refraining from interdenominational cooperation. (3)

The earliest missionaries, sent by the ABHMS, arrived in 1845, one year after the West Union Church was organized in the home of Deacon David Lennox. Baptists from the North and South populated the early churches in Oregon. The Willamette Baptist Association, constituted in 1848 by five churches, reserved the right to exclude any church "unsound in the faith or disorderly in practice." (4) Churches in the association commonly practiced close communion, but varied in acceptance of alien immersion. Churches dominated by southerners rejected non-Baptist immersions, reflecting the tension in the mid-South between Baptists and Campbellites. Soteriology reflected the influence of early nineteenth-century frontier revivalism, a blending of Calvinism and Arminians with enough Calvinism to believe a person needed to be saved and enough Arminianism to believe a person could be saved. The Willamette Association soon found the growing national debate over slavery disrupting its fellowship, and it faced challenges from Old School/Primitive Baptists. (5)

Old School/Antimission Tensions

Primitive Baptist families arrived in the Willamette Valley in 1846; ten Primitive Baptists formed the Siloam Baptist Church (originally the Hillsborough Church) in February 1847. Messengers from the Siloam Church attended the organizational meeting of the Willamette Association but declined to join. The presence of the Siloam Baptist church, however, precipitated a lengthy, heated associational debate over cooperation with mission societies. A compromise placing cooperation in the hands of member churches was not enough to entice Old School Baptists to join the Willamette Association. By 1849, three Primitive Baptist churches constituted the Siloam Association. The withdrawal of Old School Baptists allowed missionary Baptist associations to pursue cooperative ventures. (6)

Siloam Association's churches reflected a strict Calvinistic theology and rejected the use of "means" to effect conversion, including Sunday Schools. Seminaries and trained ministers were eschewed. Churches of the Siloam Association zealously protected local church autonomy, a factor contributing to their intense rejection of Baptist societies. Associational meetings focused on preaching, admitting new congregations, receiving and sending correspondence from churches and associations, and approving the association's circular letter, which was usually instructional, addressing a theological position of concern or warning readers against unbiblical innovations. (7)

Old School sympathies did occasionally arise within missionary associations. At the 1852 Willamette Association annual meeting, messengers from the LaCreole church successfully blocked all resolutions recommending societal cooperation, including missionary, Bible, tract, and publication. The LaCreole church did not attend the next year's meeting in protest of Willamette's decision to promote Sunday Schools and to cooperate with the ABHMS and American Baptist Publication Society (ABPS). (8)

Old School Baptists considered themselves the remnant church, the only true expression of New Testament Christianity. Ever critical of Missionary Baptists, Primitive Baptists closed communion to Missionary Baptists and refused to accept baptisms from Missionary Baptist churches. The 1872 Siloam Association declared: "God has forbidden that we should receive their works, for their leaders have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the error of Balaam and the great body of them are about as unsound in doctrine as any other Arminian denomination in our knowledge; there are doubtless children of God among them, and we say to them in the language of the Apocalyptical writer, 'Come out of her my people.'" (9) Societal trends passed by the Old School Baptists, and the group struggled to survive in the Pacific Northwest. The Siloam Association disbanded in 1929.

Landmarkism

Troubled and divided by North/South tensions during the Civil War years, Baptists in Oregon came together in 1868 to form the Baptist General Association of Oregon (BGAO). The convention entered into a cooperative agreement with the ABHMS in 1870, engaged the services of a general missionary to establish new churches, expanded in 1871 to include the Washington Territory, and died in 1874. Why? Landmarkism was on the advance in the Pacific Northwest. Landmark-fostered dissension grew in the 1870s and 1880s as immigration out of the Reconstruction South to the Pacific Northwest delivered increasing numbers of pro-Landmark Baptists--farmers, ranchers, and timber workers. Strong opposition to missionary cooperation emerged early in the BGAO, especially in the Corvallis Association. A national depression only made the Landmark recalcitrance worse. An absence of funds for the BGAO in 1872 and 1873 meant no missionary appointments. The BGAO had tried to conciliate growing Landmark sentiment by eliminating most of the organization's financial requirements for membership. Debates raging at the associational level over alien immersion, open communion, and conventionism engulfed the organization. (10)

J. R. Graves, J. M. Pendleton, and A. C. Dayton were familiar names in the Pacific Northwest; their books and articles were read, circulated, and debated. Graves's Tennessee Baptist and D. B. Ray's Baptist Battle Flag and Church Historian enjoyed a wide readership, laying a firm Landmark foundation among southerners in the Northwest. (11) Landmark extremes in the Pacific Northwest ranged from moderate, pro-cooperation "Convention Landmarkism" to rabid, schismatic Landmarkism. (12) Later permutations of Landmarkism--Gospel Missionism and Bogardism--found a welcome audience in the Northwest. Landmark ideology made it increasingly difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a unified Baptist work, though Baptists in the Northwest tried. Landmark agitation came in stages, progressing toward the eventual rise of rival conventions. Alien immersion and denominational structure provided the flash points.

Alien immersion, a long-debated topic in the Pacific Northwest, emerged as the first point of Landmark concern, with a number of churches and associations recording their opposition to it in the 1870s. (13) With no standard practice relative to acceptance/rejection of alien immersion, Baptists simply followed practices common back home. Acceptance of alien immersion was commonplace in the North; rejection of alien immersion was the norm in the South.

The Willamette Association was predominantly anti-Landmark, populated by a high percentage of settlers from the North. Acceptance of nonBaptist immersion was the norm. In 1856, the West Union Baptist Church received a Methodist immersion. West Union unanimously voted in 1873 to inform the Clackamas Church that acceptance of non-Baptist immersions was customary. First Baptist Church, Portland, received immersions from Disciples of Christ, and in 1873, accepted an immersion performed by the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. Uneasiness over the open stance surfaced at the 1871 Willamette annum meeting when a resolution denouncing alien immersion was introduced. Extended discussion ensued, but the resolution was tabled with no action taken. The Willamette Association remained decidedly anti-Landmark. (14)

In 1870, the Corvallis Baptist Association called upon its churches to examine carefully scripture on the issue of Mien immersion. Six years later messengers affirmed: "That we believe it is inconsistent with the teachings of God's Word to receive alien immersion." (15) There were dissenters. First Baptist Church, Eugene admitted a woman in 1877 based upon her immersion by the United Brethren Church.

In southern Oregon, the Rogue River Baptist Association was primarily Landmark in faith and practice. One Rogue River affiliated church, upon completion of its meetinghouse, stipulated that should the church ever be used for a non-Landmark congregation, the building was to be sold and the proceeds delivered to the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). Baptist life east of the Cascades was strongly Landmark, where the Mt. Pleasant Association passed resolutions opposing alien immersion in 1872 and 1876. (16)

The Central Baptist Association, mixed on alien immersion in its beginnings, displayed growing influence of southerners and Landmarkism. Churches changed constitutions and amended confessional statements to denounce alien immersion. In 1870, the Yamhill church voted to no longer accept non-Baptist baptisms and to exclude all those not properly immersed "by regular Baptist ministers." (17) An 1871 resolution adopted by the Central Association affirmed: "That we consider it inconsistent for Baptists to receive, as valid, any of the ordinances of Christ's Church when administered by other religious organizations. But nothing in this resolution shall be construed so as to cast any reflection on any Church for previous action, or in any way to affect the standing of any member thereof." (18) The resolution carried enough import to serve as the basis for Central to deny affiliation to the Spring Valley Church in 1873. Attempts to move to a more aggressive Landmark stance stalled in 1875 due to external reaction to a terse resolution recommending that the association's churches denounce all practices of non-Baptist organizations as "invalid and void." (19)

C. H. Mattoon contended that, by the 1880s, rejection of alien immersion became the dominant practice among Oregon Baptists. Alien immersion, however, did not immediately break the bonds of Baptist cooperation in the Northwest. (20)

In 1877, Landmark Baptists joined in a renewed attempt at regional organization and formed the Baptist Convention of the North Pacific Coast (BCNPC). (21) The new venture initially enjoyed a "missionary revival." Its boundaries grew to include Oregon, Washington, Northern Idaho, and British Columbia. Developing convention structure, programs, and cooperative agreements with the ABHMS spelled trouble as a more virulent stream of Landmarkism was developing in the Northwest. Landmark Baptists rejected the anti-missionary stance and strict Calvinism of Old School Baptists, but they feared the potential loss of local church autonomy to state and national mission agencies. LaCreole Church adopted a "Principles of Union" in 1881, which called for home mission work under the supervision of the local church. Other churches soon joined the LaCreole plan including Dallas, Oak Creek, and Antioch; churches withheld funds from the BCNPC to protest cooperation with societies. Landmark Baptists vehemently attacked J. C. Baker, ABHMS supervisor of missions for the Pacific Coast, calling for an end of societal support. Landmark agitation led to the 1886 dissolution of the BCNPC in favor of more independent, regional organizations. (22)

Moderate Landmarkers continued attempts at cooperative ministry, affiliating with the Oregon Baptist State Convention (OBSC), formed in 1886 after the BCNPC's breakup. (23) Landmark cooperation, however, was short-lived. Leadership of the OBSC was vested in men from the state's most prominent churches, predominantly affiliated with the Willamette Association. These men arrived in the 1870s and 1880s from the North and East; they were well educated and not sympathetic to Landmark ecclesiology. The OBSC's constitution was amended in 1888 to create a Board of Managers and an Executive Committee. The two groups worked in tandem to identify mission fields, appoint personnel, designate salaries, and appropriate expenditures for the convention. Missionary strategy of the OBSC leadership and Landmark constituents conflicted. The OBSC focused on the urban setting, while Landmark Baptists looked to support rural areas. The OBSC's request that associations group smaller, rural churches together under a circuit minister to provide more consistent preaching outraged Landmark Baptists, who saw the move as an assault on local autonomy. Unable to gain greater local control of missionary funds, Landmark churches went on the offensive. The OBSC and ABHMS were charged with rejecting aid requests from "Regular" or "Strict" churches, in favor of "alien" churches, that is, those who accepted alien immersion. S. E. Milam, father of NWBC leader R. E. Milam, alleged that he was denied ABHMS money over his strong opposition to alien immersion. (24) OBSC leaders denied all charges.

The Baptist Sentinel, established in 1888, provided Northwest Landmarkers the means to voice their allegations and to rally the Landmark troops. (25) Much ink was spilled on the abuses of the OBSC, the evils of alien immersion, and the dangers of open communion. Associations divided over the issues of alien immersion, missionary boards, and local church autonomy. (26) In the midst of this conflict, two Landmark associations called for the formation of a rival state convention with the express purpose of cooperating with the SBC.

The Middle Oregon Baptist Association (MOA) and Grande Ronde Baptist Association, both decidedly Landmark, led in the organization of the East Oregon Baptist Convention (EOBC) in 1892. (27) Formed in protest of alleged OBSC and ABMHS abuses of New Testament faith and practice, the EOBC drew the ire of the OBSC. OBSC officials rejected allegations of unfair distribution of funds and argued that alien immersion alone was not worth dividing Baptist work. (28) OBSC leadership failed to realize the importance of proper baptism to Landmarkers, as baptism was a microcosm of Landmark ecclesiology. Landmarkers viewed Mien immersion as the gateway to heterodoxy. Landmark Baptists further angered Northwest Baptists in 1893 by adopting the name Baptist Convention of the Northwest Pacific Coast (BCNPC), ironically the very name of the convention killed by strict Landmarkers seven years earlier. In 1894, the Regular Missionary Baptist Association of Eastern Washington joined the BCNPC, and the Western Association of Missionary Baptists eventually joined in the efforts for SBC affiliation. (29)

The BCNPC reflected a moderate Landmarkism: vigilant in opposing alien immersion, open communion, and recognition of a universal church. Believing Northern Baptists to be apostate, the BCNPC rejected cooperation with the ABHMS and sought affiliation with the SBC in 1893. The SBC promptly referred the BCNPC's request for affiliation to a study committee. (30) Messengers at the 1894 SBC concurred with the committee's report that it would be "inexpedient to accede to" the BCNPC's request. (31) Distance alone made SBC affiliation doubtful. OBSC protests and warnings that the BCNPC was a divisive group undoubtedly solidified the committee's recommendation. BCNPC leadership accused Northern Baptist leadership of pressuring the SBC to reject the Oregon group. The SBC deference to the impending 1894 Fortress Monroe Conference, however, was what sealed the BCNPC's fate. (32)

Despite the 1894 defeat, the BCNPC still viewed itself as Southern Baptist, recommending SBC literature, promoting the Foreign Mission Board and the Home Mission Board, and encouraging continued giving to SBC causes. Further attempts at gaining SBC recognition were rebuffed in 1897 and 1898. (33) The BCNPC, still holding to its dream of SBC affiliation, recommended support of the HMB in 1899, but its pro-SBC base was dwindling as the same convention recommended use of both SBC and ABPS material for the first time. (34) The BCNPC disbanded in 1900, unable to maintain support once it was clear SBC affiliation would not be forthcoming. (35)

The collapse of the BCNPC brought about a temporary reconciliation of most Oregon Baptists, as the MOA, Grande Ronde, and even the previously independent Eastern Baptist Association of California and Oregon (EBA) cooperated with the OBSC. The reunion proved short-lived as the MOA and EBA withdrew by 1907, succumbing to the influences of Gospel Missions. The MOA and EBA remained the vanguard of Landmark identity in the Pacific Northwest into the 1930s, establishing ties with the China Direct Mission and Ben Bogard's Baptist General Association, later renamed the American Baptist Association (ABA). Both the MOA and EBA severed ABA ties in the early 1930s, but each retained their Gospel Missions ties through the China Direct Mission. (36)

Moderate Landmarkers who stayed with the OBSC saw greater potential for the new century through cooperation with the state convention and its national partners. Growing cities needed churches, the task ahead needed financial support, and the OBSC could provide the necessary resources. Landmark sympathies gradually dissipated among the churches and associations remaining with the OBSC. C. H. Fredenberg, a leading pastor in the MOA and an ardent Landmarker, lamented the loss of the Northwest to unsound Baptists. He charged: "The Landmarkers built up the work all over the State except Willamette Association, and the Aliens corrupted and took it over." Strict Landmarkers like Fredenberg assumed a martyr's mentality, accusing their former brothers and sisters of being "Alien-loving 'Landmarkers'" allied with the world, the flesh, and the devil minimizing, criticizing, compromising, and sacrificing the truth "either for peace, popularity or pecuniary considerations." (37)

Cessation of the Landmark debate did not guarantee peace and tranquility. The OBSC encountered its own theological upheaval as the modernist/fundamentalist debate rocked Northern Baptist life. OBSC life in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s reflected the ebb and flow of national debate within the Northern Baptist Convention (NBC). Most Oregon fundamentalists stayed within Northern Baptist life until the 1949 Conservative Baptist pullout, when approximately 60 percent of OBSC churches left for the Conservative Baptist Association of Oregon (CBAO). The Conservative Baptist movement played well in the formerly Landmark regions of the state, in the smaller towns and rural areas and among the blue-collar strata of OBSC constituents.

Northwest Baptists, Landmarkism, and the SBC

The MOA and the EBA provided the foundation for the birth of the NWBC. MOA and EBA leadership transitioned in the mid-to-late 1930s, as the oldguard, dogmatic, schismatic Landmarkers gave way to a new generation of Convention Landmarkers. This new generation of leadership arrived from Southern Baptist circles, primarily via Texas. Many came from Howard-Payne University and Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary at the urging of R. E. Milam. (38) Milam attended Howard-Payne at the behest of his parents with the admonition to return to the Northwest and to build a Baptist work "doctrinally sound and yet progressive in spirit." (39) The first to arrive via the Milam pipeline was Leonard B. Sigle in 1930, pastor of First Baptist Church, Klamath Falls, Oregon. America's population shuffle in the early twentieth century delivered the Northwest a growing prospective Southern Baptist constituency, straight from the SBC's Landmark belt. The Dust Bowl years drove Baptists west and northwest from Arkansas and Oklahoma, wildcatters arrived to work the newly discovered oil reserves in the Northwest, timber workers from Mississippi sought work in the region, and the wartime industries of the Pacific Northwest drew waves of Americans looking for work.

Sigle began publishing the Pacific Coast Baptist in 1931, once again providing a news outlet for Landmark Baptists in the Northwest. As Sigle was joined by an influx of new pastors with a Convention Landmark mind-set, the MOA and EBA gradually began to move toward greater cooperation. (40) Sigle was joined by increased numbers of recruits from Milam's Texas pipeline. Sentiment for SBC affiliation, however, did not gain momentum until the mid-1940s. Moderate independence and localism still held sway.

The growing desire for a broader cooperative effort in home missions resulted in the 1942 formation of the Interstate Baptist Mission (IBM). (41) By 1945, the IBM reported cooperative churches in Oregon, Washington, and California. Sigle encouraged churches to continue their local, associational affiliations while also partnering with the IBM. (42) The Pacific Coast Baptist served as the IBM's official journal, presenting the case for increased cooperative efforts while holding to a Landmark ecclesiology. (43) The IBM functioned as a "half-way house" between Gospel Missions and Convention Landmarkism.

The IBM moved toward Southern Baptist alignment by 1946; six California churches maintained dual affiliation with the IBM and the SBGCC. (44) The 1944 arrival of Milam as pastor of Antioch Baptist Church, Portland, after twenty-two years of education and ministry in Texas, proved to be the catalyst in propelling the IBM toward the SBC. Milam, with his strong Convention Landmark convictions, was the force behind the IBM's transition to Southern Baptist life. The IBM dissolved in 1947, recognizing that "many of our fellowshipping churches are already affiliated with the Southern Baptist General Convention of California (SBGCC)," and allowing for the formation of the Northwest Baptist Association (NWBA). The IBM bequeathed its missionary work and newspaper, Pacific Coast Baptist, to the NWBA. The NWBA was accepted by the SBGCC as a cooperating constituency in September 1947. (45)

The NWBA's fifteen churches voted to organize the Baptist General Convention of Oregon (later the Baptist General Convention of Oregon-Washington and still later the Northwest Baptist Convention--NWBC) in April 1948. The convention presented a formal request for affiliation at the 1948 SBC annum meeting in Memphis. (46) The petition, as in 1894, was sent by the SBC to a study committee. Penned by Milam, the petition emphasized the convention's doctrinal compatibility with the SBC and the departure of Baptist churches in the Pacific Northwest, especially NBC affiliates, from accepted New Testament faith and practice. Strong objections to NBC practices of alien immersion, open communion, and church union were voiced. The petition was worded so as to imply that a rejection of affiliation meant a rejection of New Testament evangelism. (47) The state convention's request was approved at the 1949 SBC meeting in Oklahoma City, the heart of Convention Landmark territory. (48) Anti-union sentiment was running high in Oklahoma City as E. P. Alldredge waged a personal campaign against perceived church union threats within the SBC. The focus upon church union in Oklahoma City undoubtedly enhanced support for the state convention which had presented unionism as destroying Christian witness and the larger Pacific Northwest Baptist family. (49)

The emerging Conservative Baptist movement, as well as earlier fundamentalist movements, including the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches, was as unacceptable to the NWBC as to the NBC. (50) Each of these groups compromised Convention Landmark convictions at varying levels, rendering them unworthy of cooperation. The SBC was held to be the repository of true New Testament faith and practice, with a progressive program to win the Pacific Northwest and the world. (51)

Vigorous opposition to alien immersion and open communion, an accentuated view of the local church's primacy, and passionate evangelism/ church planting characterized the NWBC. The IBM's statement of faith was carried directly into the NWBA and the NWBC without any change, displaying the continued undercurrent of Landmarkism. (52) It was made a condition of fellowship and incorporated by NWBC associations. Some associations, in an effort to safeguard the ordinances and, thereby, the church mandated rejection of alien immersion and open communion. (53)

Milam, the first NWBC executive secretary, vocalized and promoted the NWBC's Landmark sentiments, displaying a heavy Convention Landmark ideology within his letters, speeches, and writings. (54) His ecclesiology represents a blending of Graves and Pendleton. Heavy emphasis was placed upon the primacy of the local, visible church, rejection of alien immersion and open communion, and opposition to church union. He rejected Graves's church/kingdom concept and advocated a modified view of church succession, which allowed for the possible apostasy of all New Testament churches. Such apostasy had not occurred, though there were some close calls, but if the line was broken it could be restored. (55) The possibility of complete apostasy, coupled with a passion for evangelizing the Northwest, motivated Milam's dogged insistence upon maintaining Landmark ecclesiology. Milam's support for SBC affiliation and work in the Pacific Northwest was rooted in the conviction that "Southern Baptists, and they alone, have a sound New Testament ecclesiology." (56)

Baptist churches, according to Milam, stood as the fortress of New Testament truth; if the fortress was dismantled, then the truth was lost. Acceptance of the universal church, pulpit affiliation, union activities, alien immersion, open communion, and abdication of democratic, local church sovereignty were all actions which dismantled the fortress. They were to be shunned. Denominationalism, according to Milam, was rooted in these heresies. (57) These activities, especially church union and alien immersion, made cooperation with the NBC offensive to Milam and to the NWBC. NBC churches, as well as most Canadian Baptist churches, were identified by Milam as little more than community churches. Cooperation with fundamentalist Baptist churches was equally offensive, as these churches dismantled the fortress in part through their abdication of democratic church government, allowing strict pastoral authority, as well as through the allowance of alien immersion, open communion, and limited interdenominational (within fundamentalist circles) activity. (58) Interdenominational cooperation, in the eyes of Milam, was a danger to be avoided, be it cooperation with the Federal Council of Churches (FCC) or the National Association of Evangelicals.

   Whether conservative, liberal or in the center, Baptists here
   are moving, surely if slowly, toward closer ties with other
   denominations and fellowships. Some adhere to the Federal
   Council of Churches, some to the National Association of
   Evangelicals, and some toward other union movements....

   While there are agencies for inter-denominational cooperation
   which do not seek to subvert the faith as to the great primary
   Christian doctrines, yet the program of all such
   interdenominational groups is such that the Baptist
   principles--principles that our fathers thought worth dying
   for--are surely endangered. (59)

Milam kept a vigilant watch for encroaching union activities within the SBC. He became an ally in E. P. Alldredge's efforts to force anti-ecumenical requirements upon the SBC and its churches. He penned an open letter to Virginia Baptists on the evils of the FCC, fearing leadership in Virginia was pro-church union. (60)

Acceptance of alien immersion, according to Milam, would destroy the New Testament church. (61) Acceptance of alien immersion would lead to the recognition of non-Baptist churches as equal to New Testament Baptist churches, robbing "Baptists of any authoritative scriptural agency through which to carry out the Great Commission." (62) Acceptance of alien immersion would sanction open communion, legitimate non-Baptist ministers, pulpit affiliation, church union, universal church conceptions, and modernism. Milam held baptismal theology and practice to be the barometer of health in New Testament churches. (63)

Milam invoked Graves and Pendleton throughout his writings, casting them as moderate, cooperative Landmarkers. (64) He vilified the non-cooperative/schismatic strains of Landmarkism that arose with Hayden and Bogard, citing 1905 as the dividing line between cooperative and non-cooperative Landmarkism. He contended that Landmarkism within the SBC after 1905 reflected of the Graves/Pendleton tradition. This tradition advocated the church as a local, sovereign, democratic, visible body of properly baptized believers, retaining all authority to carry out Christ's commands, and scripturally bound together in cooperation with all New Testament churches. (65)

Milam and the NWBC characterized the Pacific Northwest's churches and most Canadian Baptist churches as little more than community churches, unable to reach the unchurched masses. (66) The SBC was portrayed as the citadel against the evils of modernism, Protestantism, and ecumenism. (67) Milam held the SBC to be the paragon of New Testament cooperation: "In 1845 our fathers conceived and put into operation a denomination that is outlined in the pages of the New Testament. Under this plan, which is not human but Divine, Christ's authorized local, sovereign, New Testament Churches compose the City Dell of all democratic authority and direction. The local church is supreme to, and in command of, all other kingdom agencies." (68) The NWBC embodied the ideals of Milam, a collection of churches sound in New Testament faith and progressive in missionary spirit. These ideals propelled the NWBC into Canada; the New Testament church would not be restrained by comity agreements and geographic territories.

Contemporary Issues in the NWBC

Landmark sympathies began to waver in the 1970s, but not without some resistance. The NWBC changed its statement of faith in 1978, after failing to receive enough votes to alter the statement of faith in 1977. (69) The original statement dated back to the Landmark Interstate Baptist Mission. It was replaced by the Baptist Faith & Message (1963), which included an affirmation of a universal church.

In the 1970s, some NWBC churches accepted Mien immersions, evidence that the grip of Landmarkism was loosening. While most associations retained statements against alien immersion, those churches and pastors most public about acceptance of alien immersion attracted protests, as in the case of First Baptist, Bothell. In 1976, the church was denied affiliation in the newly formed Puget Sound Association, and its messengers were denied seats at the NWBC. (70) The exclusion of Bothell ignited a six-year debate on alien immersion within Puget Sound Association. (71) In 1982, the Puget Sound Association removed from its constitution:

   Messengers will be seated from those churches that subscribe
   to the Constitution and By-Laws of this Association, provided
   that no messenger shall be seated from any church whose policy
   is to receive persons with alien immersion and practices what
   is commonly called "open communion...." Alien Immersion is any
   immersion other than immersion of a believer by a recognized
   regular Baptist Church, and under its authority.... Open
   Communion is inviting members of churches, other than recognized
   regular Baptist Churches, to join them in observance of
   the Lord's Supper.

The new statement read: "Churches shall be regularly constituted, autonomous bodies organized on generally accepted principles common to Southern Baptists with the understanding that these Churches accept only New Testament Baptism and practice only New Testament observance of the Lord's Supper." Following the 1982 changes, Bothell applied for and gained admission to the association.

The NWBC tried to keep the charismatic movement at bay in the 1960s and 1970s. The NWBC withdrew fellowship from Calvary Baptist, Eastside, Oregon, in 1979 due to "deviation from accepted Baptist practice," that is, questionable baptismal practices and alleged advocacy of Charismatic views on the Holy Spirit. (72) At the same meeting, Seattle's Woodland Baptist was granted affiliation after a decade-long absence for charismatic practices. Today, several churches in the NWBC employ worship styles that would have been considered dangerous precursors to charismatic activity.

A cursory survey of Websites maintained by churches affiliated with the NWBC reveals a high degree of openness to interdenominational activity, albeit within a conservative evangelical arena. Focus on the Family, Promise Keepers, and Renovare are but a few of the cross-denominational movements resourced by churches in the Northwest. Several churches make no mention of Baptist identity, projecting a generic, conservative evangelical persona. Pragmatic evangelism appears to carry greater weight than denominational identity. (73) Modern communication technologies allow Baptists to interact with Christians of a variety of viewpoints be it through books/magazines, television or radio, contemporary Christian music, videos, e-mail lists, Websites, or internet chat rooms. As a result, Baptists in the Northwest, like Baptists in other parts of the country, reflect the neodenominational flux present within American society.

Conclusion

A passion for progressive evangelism and concern for New Testament ecclesiological purity precipitated decades of theological conflict in the Northwest, laying the foundation for the NWBC. Landmark ideology characterized NWBC leadership for much of the convention's history. R. E. Milam's vision of building a Baptist work "doctrinally sound and, yet, progressive in spirit" has been taken up by successive generations of Northwest Baptists, but with a different theological emphasis. The current generation has embraced Milam's desire for progressive ministry in an effort to reach the Northwest's vast unchurched population. Contemporary Northwest Baptists, however, no longer share a uniform acceptance of Milam's equation of Landmark ecclesiology with assurance of doctrinal purity. Much like the early Baptist pioneers who settled the Oregon Territory, contemporary Baptists in the Pacific Northwest continue to harbor their own Baptist baggage--now more generically evangelical than Landmark Baptist.

(1.) Ezra Fisher to Rev. Hill, October 20, 1847, in Sarah Fisher Henderson, Nellie Edith Latourette, and Kenneth Scott Latourette, eds., Correspondence of the Reverend Ezra Fisher: Pioneer Missionary of the American Baptist Home Mission Society in Indiana, Illinois, Iowa and Oregon (n.p.: 1919), 210.

(2.) R. E. Milam, "Application for Membership in the Southern Baptist Convention by the Baptist General Convention of Oregon," Milam Papers, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

(3.) Clifford R. Miller, Baptists and the Oregon Frontier (Portland, OR: Oregon Baptist Convention, 1967), 43-44.

(4.) Minutes, Willamette Baptist Association, 1948; Miller, Baptists and the Oregon Frontier, 44-45.

(5.) See Albert W. Wardin, Jr., Baptists in Oregon (Nashville, TN: Curley Printing Company, 1969), 70-76, for an extended discussion of North/South tensions over slavery present in the Pacific Northwest.

(6.) Minutes, Siloam Baptist Association, 1855. "The scriptures no where authorize the church to choose her own candidates for the ministry, much less to send them to a theological school to qualify them for the gospel ministry." See also Miller, Baptists and the Oregon Frontier, 132-34, and Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 131-35.

(7.) Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 123-40.

(8.) Miller, Baptists and the Oregon Frontier, 49-50.

(9.) Minutes, Siloam Baptist Association, 1872.

(10.) Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 111-18.

(11.) Ibid. See also C. H. Mattoon, Baptist Annals of Oregon, 1844 to 1900, vol. I (McMinnville, OR: Press of the Telephone Register Publishing Company, 1905), 100-02, 170-71, 180-82.

(12.) See Stephen M. Stookey, "The Impact of Landmarkism upon Southern Baptist Western Geographical Expansion" (Ph.D. dissertation, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, 1994), 63-94, for a discussion of the nuances within Landmark theology and a explanation of the 'Cooperative' or 'Convention Landmarkism' versus 'Schismatic Landmarkism' Convention Landmarkism reflects the post-Civil War J. R. Graves commitment to Landmark ecclesiology within a cooperative, convention program.

(13.) Minutes, Central Baptist Association, 1871. Messengers approved the following resolution: "That we consider it inconsistent for Baptists to receive, as valid, any of the ordinances of Christ's Church when administered by other religious organizations. But nothing in this resolution shall be construed so as to cast any reflection on any Church for previous action, or in any way to affect the standing of any member thereof." As cited in Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 115. Emphasis added.

(14.) Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 114-15.

(15.) Corvallis Baptist Association, Minutes, 1876, as cited in Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 117.

(16.) Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 116-17.

(17.) Ibid., 115.

(18.) Central Baptist Association, Minutes, 1871, as cited in Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 115.

(19.) Wardin, Baptists in Oregon, 116, 117.

(20.) Mattoon, Baptist Annals of Oregon, 1844 to 1900, 1:421-22; C. H. Mattoon, Baptist Annals of Oregon, 1886 to 1910, vol. II (McMinnville, OR: Pacific Baptist Press, 1913), 242, states the rejection of alien immersion "was the settled policy of the associations, and with rare exceptions of the churches also. True, from oversight, or from the absence of leading objectors, or perhaps from other causes, some members got in on 'alien immersion" This was usually 'winked at.' One church would not meddle with another." Mattoon was among the early pioneer Baptist ministers in the Northwest, and served as the chronicler of early Pacific Northwest Baptist work. J. C. Baker, Baptist History of the North Pacific Coast (Philadelphia: American Baptist Publication Society, 1912), 445, described Mattoon as "a veritable disciple" of Landmark ecclesiology.

(21.) After the Baptist Convention of the North Pacific Coast dissolved in 1886, Landmark Baptists organized their own rival convention, East Oregon Baptist Convention, in 1892. The East Oregon Baptist Convention was renamed The Baptist Convention of the North Pacific Coast in 1893. In an attempt to

Stephen M. Stookey is resident fellow in church history at B. H. Carroll Theological Institute, Arlington, Texas.