Please enjoy reading the August 2017 edition of the Glad Tidings newsletter.

Many churches of yesteryear would write a document detailing what is expected of its members. This is called a Church Covenant. Just as a Statement of Belief is a document detailing what members agree they believe, a Church Covenant details what they contract themselves to do. In essence, a covenant is what we as members pledge to do upon joining.

“Greet Priscilla and Aquila my helpers in Christ Jesus: Who have for my life laid down their own necks: unto whom not only I give thanks, but also all the churches of the Gentiles.” – Rom. 16:3-4

We are first introduced to the godly couple of Aquila and Priscilla as Paul arrives in Corinth in Acts 18:2. They were Jewish tentmakers who had fled Italy under the discriminatory decree of Claudius Caesar expelling Jews from Rome. The couple comes in contact with Paul because they were of the same profession (they were tentmakers), and Paul comes to reside with them during his ministry in Corinth (Acts 18:3-4). They are presented initially as simply quiet, unassuming disciples of Christ, but these simple tentmakers had a profound impact on the kingdom of God and on the first-century church.

Many modern church historians claim that Baptist perpetuity, the belief that the Baptist Church is the only true Church that Jesus Christ established and has existed since the first century under various names, was fabricated by Baptist minister, J. R. Graves. Graves lived from 1820-1893. Most then would place Landmarkism, falsely so called, only appearing around the 1850s and no time before. With this claim in mind, let's examine the following quote from The Autobiography of Elder Wilson Thompson: