The Baptist Story: Sermons on the Trail of Blood

By A. A. Davis and M J Lee

The Baptist Story is a story of struggle and triumph, victory and heartbreak. There have always existed, although sometimes in the most remote regions, those who sought to maintain pure New Testament practice in the face of all adversity. These believers were a simple people who led a simple life, and who sought to adhere to the simple, primitive practices of the New Testament. For their adherence to the simple truths of God’s precious Word, these Godly saints suffered banishment, imprisonment, persecution, some even suffering death by fire and sword. Their persecutions were sanctioned by the pagan religious establishments of that day. But these saints endured because “they loved not their lives unto the death.” They counted the truth of God’s Word more precious than family, friends, and their very lives.

This excellent work, which is a series of sermons based upon The Trail of Blood by the revered J. M. Carroll, presents in a simple, enlightening, and easy to read fashion, the story of these precious souls who lived pure lives and died for the simple truths which are often taken advantage of today.

Baptists of today need to become more aware of the struggles borne by their forefathers and the premium price paid for the maintenance of New Testament truth. Just as we owe the military soldiers a debt for the sacrifices they have made for the cause of personal freedom, so we owe an even greater debt to the soldiers of the cross who suffered and gave their lives to secure our religious freedom, which is taken for granted today.

We present this book with the hope that it will be used to make God’s people aware of their glorious past. We pray that the all-wise God will see fit to use this work to once again enlighten His people and to give them the courage to stand for the truths contained in His precious Word.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Papamoa Press
• Release date: Dec 2, 2018
• ISBN: 9781789127355

A. A. Davis

ALTON ARTHUR DAVIS (1900-1978) was an American First Baptist Church Pastor. Born on September 9, 1900 in Elgin, Texas, the son of Oscar Augustus Davis and Mary Frances Rankin Davis, he was one of nine children; a tenth sibling died in infancy. Davis was married to Lillie S. Sims, and the couple had one son, Bill. A. A. Davis passed away in Lubbock, Texas on December 30, 1978 and was buried in Nowata, Oklahoma. M. J. LEE was a Pastor at the First Baptist Church in Guymon, Oklahoma and President of the Oklahoma Baptist General Convention.

Book preview

This edition is published by Muriwai Books – www.pp-publishing.com

To join our mailing list for new titles or for issues with our books – [e-mail]

Or on Facebook

Text originally published in 1952 under the same title.

© Muriwai Books 2018, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

Publisher’s Note

Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

THE BAPTIST STORY

SERMONS ON THE TRAIL OF BLOOD

BY

A. A. DAVIS

Pastor, First Baptist Church

Nowata, Oklahoma

A Series of Sermons on

Baptist Doctrines and Church History

FIFTH EDITION — REVISED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

DEDICATION 5

INTRODUCTION TO FIFTH EDITION 6

FOREWORD TO 5TH EDITION 7

A PERSONAL WORD WITH THE READER 8

SERMON NUMBER ONE 10

SERMON NUMBER TWO 18

SERMON NUMBER THREE 24

SERMON NUMBER FOUR 34

SERMON NUMBER FIVE 41

SERMON NUMBER SIX 50

SERMON NUMBER SEVEN 54

SERMON NUMBER EIGHT 66

SERMON NUMBER NINE 76

SERMON NUMBER TEN 87

APPENDIX I — THE CHURCHES OF JESUS CHRIST—IN SECULAR HISTORY 97

APPENDIX II — 36 REASONS FOR BELIEVING THAT THE CHURCH EXISTED BEFORE PENTECOST 100

APPENDIX III — IS THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH THE CHURCH OF CHRIST? 102

APPENDIX IV — SOME FACTS ABOUT EASTER 109

APPENDIX V — 101 QUESTIONS FOR CAMPBELLITES 112

APPENDIX VI — BIBLE BAPTISM 119

APPENDIX VII — THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE LORD’S SUPPER 122

APPENDIX VIII — THE ATONEMENT 126

APPENDIX IX — THE SUFFICIENCY OF THE ATONEMENT 129

APPENDIX X — THE UN-BAPTIZED BELIEVER 131

APPENDIX XI — 51 BIBLE FACTS ABOUT THE UNBELIEVER 133

APPENDIX XII — 65 BIBLE FACTS ABOUT THE BELIEVER IN CHRIST 136

APPENDIX XIII — BAPTISTS IDENTICAL IN DOCTRINE WITH CHURCHES OF THE NEW TESTAMENT 139

APPENDIX XIV — LIST OF HERESIES AND HUMAN INVENTIONS ADOPTED AND PERPETUATED BY THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH IN THE COURSE OF 1600 YEARS 143

APPENDIX XV — GOD’S PLAN AND PURPOSE WITH THE JEWS 148

APPENDIX XVI — SAVED AND SAVED FOREVER, OR WHY A SOUL ONCE SAVED CAN NEVER BE LOST 154

APPENDIX XVII — THE GREATNESS OF SALVATION 158

PARTIAL LIST OF BOOKS USED IN PREPARING SERMONS ON THE TRAIL OF BLOOD—THE BAPTIST STORY. 165

REQUEST FROM THE PUBLISHER 167

DEDICATION

This edition of the Baptist Story is affectionately dedicated to my wife

Mrs. Lillie Davis,

My faithful companion for more than fifty-one years

and

To my sons: Bill A. Davis and Alvin A. Davis

and W. D. Estes (Step Son)

who, with their families, have been a great source

of Inspiration, encouragement and strength

in my Ministry.

INTRODUCTION TO FIFTH EDITION

The Baptist story is a thrilling one, and it should be told again and again. Other evangelical bodies have a story to tell and they should tell it, but none can equal the Baptist Story. It is a story that dates back to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and His earthly ministry. Every Baptist should know the story and be ready always to repeat it.

Sermons on The Trail of Blood reveal years of study and mastery of The Baptist Story. A. A. Davis deals with the stubborn materials of history and the truth of the Word of God and lets both speak their truth in these messages. These sermons bring scriptural and historical facts about the church that will bless lives until Jesus comes again.

It has been my privilege to hear the messages given by the author, A. A. Davis, and my love for Baptists has grown deeper. And when I thin of those who counted not their lives dear unto themselves, but sealed their testimony with their blood, I rejoice and take courage. This book will challenge us to contend for The Faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints.

M. J. Lee, Pastor

First Baptist Church

Guymon, Oklahoma

Pres. Okla. Baptist General Convention

FOREWORD TO 5TH EDITION

It has been our joy to sit under the preaching of Brother A. A. Davis for more than twelve years at this writing. Every sermon is a pleasant and interesting voyage on the sea of thought with a guide whom you trust. Included in these sermons was the series which make up this 5th edition. Brother Davis has an inquiring and logical mind which will not let him accept a first conclusion, but which starts him on a historical and Scriptural search for all relevant evidence obtainable before he takes his position. He does not ask you to accept his conclusions but lays before you in such simple fashion the proofs he has found, that you know he is convinced they are God’s truth, and you want to thank him for having made the search for you.

You will note in reading this book that it is well named. The journey on which it takes you truly follows the trail of religious history marked by blood of the type which stained the old rugged cross. We are greatly inspired as we see the caravan of True Believers coming down this trail as many fall en route, victims of blind prejudice and persecution. If they could now speak we know they would deny being heroes and claim only to be casualties in God’s service. As the caravan emerges from the dark and suffering past, we recognize these True Believers as our own Baptist Churches of this day. Our hearts then swell within us and we thank God four rich heritage; and for the trail of blood from Eden where God killed the animal for its skin with which to cover naked Adam and Eve, on to recent times. It is the Blood Sprinkled Way; for Without the shedding of blood, there is no remission of sins.

Deacons

First Baptist Church

Nowata, Oklahoma

Mel Landers, Chmn.

Andrew Turner

Henry T. Clemons

P. E. Wood

Lloyd Hicks

W. E. Studemaker

L. A. Corey

H. A. Hunter

A PERSONAL WORD WITH THE READER

These sermons were delivered in the First Baptist Church, Quanah, Texas in June of 1951 where Brother M. J. Lee was the beloved Pastor. The messages were recorded on a dictaphone and transcribed for publication. In this form please think of a country preacher preaching instead of a ripened scholar in an elaborate office preparing a manuscript. I make no claims to scholarship and do not claim the final word. Dogmatism is essential in dealing with Truth after it is stripped of Satanic camouflages. But, it can become offensive and absurd. I hope you do not regard these sermons in the latter sense.

Study the charts as you read the sermons. You will find them attached in the back of the book.

In the sermons we have been forced to omit much good material. I am dissatisfied with this edition as I was the former editions. It is not a book submitted as a thorough and exhaustive treatise on the subject—it is a series of sermons IN STUDY of a great subject. To assemble all the scriptures and facts of history as they blend is somewhat like assembling a jig-saw puzzle, putting various parts and facts here and there together so as to complete the picture. Yet, vague as it may appear at first—we believe that if you will study the sermons you will see the Baptist Story in its completeness—as it is revealed in Scripture and in History.

I have tried to be plain in speech—and not to make a play on words. It was not my purpose to offend anyone who did not agree with me. In making my study through the years I simply ran across some plain, stubborn facts in History and the Scriptures. I did not write either of them. I merely studied them and give you herewith some of the findings.

In response to a great number of urgent requests we here submit the new revised edition of the sermons on The Trail of Blood. We send them forth, prayerfully and ask that you read them in the same way. You will always remember the struggle between the two women in the Bible and History. You will remember the Poison bread and the woman who made it. When and where the girl baby was born. You will see her as she became great among the kings of the earth. You will remember her in her drunken orgy as the Apostle John described her. You will remember the True Bride of Christ—her long bloody history. You will always remember these two women.

Pure doctrine, as it is found uncorrupted in the word of God is the only unbroken, though often disturbed, line of succession which can be traced thru out all the centuries. Many facts relative to Divine Truth, some tangible, some intangible, relate themselves to the great story of organized Christianity. When God in the beginning created the human family, He placed within them the power of reproduction and commanded them to reproduce themselves. This, we believe has been done continuously throughout all centuries, back to the Garden of Eden. IF at any time in the journey the human family had lost the power of reproduction or had refused to exercise it, we believe the human family would have perished from the earth. Then before the human family could have found its way down to our day GOD would have been forced to another beginning, another Eden, another creation of Man, and thus begin all over again. In like manner it appears to us that when Christ established His Church on earth during his personal ministry He placed within that Church the Power to reproduce itself (Matt. 28:19-20), and gave the Church the assurance of His continual presence. This, we must believe, is exactly what has happened. IF the church lost that power to reproduce itself, or Refused to do so even though Christ was continually with them, then TRUE Christianity would have perished from the earth and Christ would have been forced to begin all over again. Another Virgin Birth, another John The Baptist would have been necessary to prepare a people for Him; in fact, if the Church perished and no longer existed it meant Christ was unable to prevent that disaster and the Gates of Hades did prevail against the Church. We simply DO NOT believe this has occurred. Therefore we must reject the JOHN SMYTHE (1608) See Baptism movement as the origin of the Baptists, regardless of who teaches it. Also, the 1641 NEW DISCOVERY incident cherished by Mr. Whitsett back in the 1890’s. We believe there is a dramatic story of a great people—today called Baptists.

We hope that you get a definite blessing from reading these sermons. If you do—Give the Lord all the Praise and Glory. If you do not—then blame me for it.

A. A. Davis

First Baptist Church,

Nowata, Oklahoma

SERMON NUMBER ONE

Introduction of subject. Background of Christianity. Origin of New testament Church. Distinct marks.

I am happy to be here at this time to lead in the discussion of some matters which you and I believe to be of vital interest to the Christian world. We are discussing the story of the church of Jesus Christ—the most dramatic story that could have been imagined, no matter how rich your imagination may have been. No writer could have dreamed a story as rich as the story of the church of Jesus Christ. I love to think of it. Even from a literary viewpoint, there is drama, struggle, contest, great victories, great defeats, great sorrows, great joys, glorious background, a rich destiny. And what we’re going to say here this week will be an exposition of scripture as taught in the Bible, with the blending of great historical events all of which were directed by God and put together to make a great story. Now I don’t know whether you call this preaching or lecturing or studying or sermonizing, so I’ll just let you name it. Dr. Carroll, in his lifetime, called them lectures. Personally I never did like the word lecture. It doesn’t carry a good suggestion. The first thing it suggests is a nap. You’re supposed to go to sleep. Well, in this sense of the word there will be some lecturing involved in it, I suspect. There will be quite a bit of preaching. And so, we simply choose to call them sermons on The Trail of Blood.

That which is known as Christianity today had its origin in the New Testament times, under the ministry of John the Baptist, who came preaching in the wilderness of Judea, saying the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand. The immediate background, religiously speaking, was two-fold; Judaism and Paganism, the two religions of the world. Judaism was the religion of ancient Israel, which at the time John came on the scene, had long since lost its spiritual power. And it had deteriorated into a cold Pharisaical system of ceremonies and forms and rituals, without power to touch human heart or turn a soul to God. That’s why John had to preach to the religious leaders of the day. The greater part of the New Testament preaching even on the part of Christ himself, was directed toward the religious leaders of the day. The other religion that had its grip on the world was Paganism. Paganism was and is a religion of many gods, manifesting itself in various forms and weird ceremonies, always, making its appeal to the superstition of the people. A religion of many gods, a religion of visible gods, that expressed itself in relics, images, everything visible, always in the field of the mystic, such was Paganism.

Judaism was a religion of forms, rituals, and outward manifestations, which was the immediate background of Christianity. In the midst of this situation, Jesus Christ comes on the scene to make a new revelation to the world.

Now I want you to think with us tonight, for this is always the most difficult part of all these discussions—the beginning of Christianity itself. If Jesus Christ had a friend on this earth, He had to make him. Every friend of God then and now is a transformed enemy. No man is a friend of God by nature. He is God’s enemy by nature. Ephesians 2:2 All the children of wrath by nature. It is just as natural for man to sin as it is for a fish to swim. It is human nature. The world is yet suffering because of what happened in the Garden of Eden. And the reason why the world does not appreciate what happened on Calvary’s Cross, is that they have never yet realized what happened in the Garden of Eden or they are not willing to admit it. Jesus Christ met a world of enemies. Paul says, While we were yet enemies, Christ died for us. Rom. 5:8-10. Every friend of God on this earth is a transformed enemy. And if that man has not been transformed, he is still God’s enemy. Now with and through congregations of transformed enemies, Jesus Christ sets His movement out in the world, the church. What would you think of the government of the United States if it should be turned over to a group of Japanese warlords, the former enemies of this country, who would claim or profess a change of mind, a change of heart? How much confidence would you have in them to bestow upon them the honors and the privileges of Washington’s government? You would really have to believe they were transformed, wouldn’t you?

The cause of Christ committed to the hands of transformed enemies, men who have been born again. This is so vital, we dare not regard it lightly. For a right beginning is always indispensable to a proper development of any case. Are we willing to study, are we willing to make our religion personal, are we anxious that we possess a personal conviction of what truth is? Or are we willing just to drift along, thinking maybe so, perhaps by accident, we will be caught in a lucky gust of wind, and swept out Elijah-like, into the regions beyond?

These messages are directed and aimed at your heart; to plant in your heart and in your life a personal conviction of what is right, religiously speaking, and what is true, biblically speaking. Jesus Christ organized His followers, whom He called disciples, into a visible organization that He called His church. That is what He called it, My church. We want to pin-point it. We want to put our finger on it, and say here is where it started. I think of no more definite indication in all the Scriptures than the third chapter of Mark. I think it is listed over here on this first chart. You’ll find it so listed in the sixth chapter of Luke, find it again in the fifth chapter of Matthew, where, after our Saviour had spent the night in prayer, (and the record says, All night in prayer,) He called in His disciples and of them He chose 12, and ordained them, and sent them forth to preach. That was a very unique beginning. On the mountainside, if you please, on top of the mountain, after an all-night prayer meeting, exactly as is pictured in the second chapter of Isaiah, in the second verse, that it would occur on top of the mountain. The Lord’s house should be established in the tops of the mountains. You say, Preacher, I don’t see that that is of any particular concern. I want to say to you as God’s people, that before the week is out you will surely agree with me that it is of vital importance. A vital matter.

I understand there are various ideas regarding the origin of the church, but the Baptists’ position is that which we believe to be the Scriptural position; that it occurred on the mountain top, (Lk. 6:12-16) (Isa. 2:2) (Mat. 16:18) and was founded by Jesus Christ Himself, and that the twelve apostles were the first members. (1 Cor. 12:28). The apostle Paul pinpoints the statement that God had set some in the church, first, the Apostles. So when you call the list of twelve Apostles, you have the list of your first churchmen.

Now there are three different ideas about the origin of the church. One is the common worldly concept that was in existence even at the time Christ set up His church, known as the Old Testament Theory, held to by many of the Pedo-Baptist world; i.e. that the church is an invisible something, that all the saved are members of the church, that when a man is saved, that he becomes a member of the church then and there, that’s the big church. That’s the Pedo-Baptist concept of it. Those folks often talk about belonging to the Big Church. We find no reference in the Scriptures to such an imaginary church. I call that an imaginary church.

And the second concept is the Pentecostal concept: That it was set up on the first Pentecost following the resurrection of Christ. That theory is held to by our Roman Catholic friends, and one or two Protestant bodies. The only difficultly is that if there were a church set up on the day of Pentecost, there is no reference to it. And if there were a church established on the day of Pentecost, Jesus Christ didn’t establish it. For Jesus was at the right hand of the Father. He had already gone back to Heaven. Then either Simon Peter of the Holy Spirit would have been the founder of that church that was set up on the day of Pentecost. Nowhere did the Scriptures give Peter or the Holy Spirit the authority to set up a church. The Holy Spirit isn’t in the church setting-up business. Christ has to do that. Nowhere did the Holy Spirit claim the authority to set up a church. Nowhere did any being on this earth ever have authority to set up a church, except Christ Himself, during His personal ministry. Here, in the very nature of the thing, is where the trouble first started. The very fact that Christ made Himself the head of His church was an insult to the unregenerate peoples of this earth (Eph. 5:23). People always wanted a religion directed by human power and human will. They wanted humanism in their religion. The Pagans had it and so did the Jews have it. And they tried to make gods out of Paul and Barnabas, over in the 14th chapter of the Acts (Acts 14:8-16), you remember when they healed the impotent man over at Lystra. They fell down before Paul and Barnabas and said, Oh the gods have come down to earth in the likeness of men. They called one Mecurius and the other Jupiter. Paul says, You stand on your feet, we’re not gods, we’re men just like you are. That’s that thing in the bloodstream of depraved humanity that wants a human god in a human church in a human religion. The same thing came out in the tenth chapter of the Acts when Peter was preaching to the household of Cornelius. Cornelius came out and met him and fell down at his feet and worshipped Peter. Peter rebuked him, and said, I’m just a man like you (Acts 10:25, 26). Why was it Cornelius fell down before Peter and tried to make a god out of him? It seems that if Peter ever did have a desire to become a pope, right there was his chance.

Cornelius did his dead-level best to make a god out of him in the tenth chapter of the Acts. Peter wouldn’t let him do it. And so, my friends, that thing is in the background of the struggle of Christianity to get its start in the world. Struggling against the depravity of a race that was marked in sin and headed away from God. (Isaiah 53:5, 6) (Rom. 3:23). And so Christ insulted the religious leaders of the world when He made Himself the true and only head of His Church. (Eph. 5:23). He insulted the religions of the world when He laid down the qualifications of membership in His church: You must be born again! In other words, He said to the entire world; there isn’t anything you can do to men or for men that will fit them for heaven. They will have to be born again. Just an out and out new birth. Men objected to that then. Men object to that now. The world has always wanted a religion where there wouldn’t be anything said about being born again. The world has always wanted a religion where there wouldn’t be anything said about the authority of Jesus Christ in the affairs of men. They want a religion of rules, of rituals, of farce, of creeds and deeds, but unregenerate human nature rebels at the idea of somebody commanding them to do something or be something. And Christianity is an authoritative religion with an authoritative head, with an authoritative message. You must be born again! Jesus Christ further insulted this world when He made the church the dwelling place of the Holy Spirit and gave the Holy Spirit to the Church. (Eph. 2:19-22). He didn’t give Him to any other organization in the world. No matter how meritorious it might be, no matter how high it might be in the educational world, how high in the social world, or in the fraternal world; He didn’t give His Holy Spirit to anybody’s lodge; He didn’t give His Holy Spirit to any social order; He didn’t give His Holy