Landmarkism

Landmarkism is a movement among some Baptist Christians that began in the nineteenth century in the American South. Its proponents held that local Baptist churches were the only true and legitimate churches that could trace their origin to the earliest Christian churches in the first century. Landmarkers oppose agreements that allowed any association with Christians from other denominations, including having non-Baptist preachers teach in Baptist churches. This led to division among Baptists, particularly in the Southern Baptist Convention. Some Landmark congregations continue to exist, though not as many as in the past.

Background

Baptists are Protestant Christians who trace their origin to the early 1600s. They split from the Church of England, which baptized infants into the faith, because they believed that people should be old enough to profess faith in Jesus Christ before baptism. The first Baptists came to America in the mid-seventeenth century. Roger Williams, who founded Plymouth Plantation in 1636, is generally seen as the founder of the American Baptist Church as well.

In 1845, Baptists in Georgia formed the Southern Baptist Convention, or SBC. It was initially established by pro-slavery Baptists who split from others in the denomination over that issue. However, the SBC later renounced and repudiated that pro-slavery stand. In the twenty-first century, the SBC is the largest Baptist and Protestant denomination in the United States.

Overview

Landmarkism began in the 1850s, shortly after the establishment of the SBC. Many immigrants were arriving in America from different countries, bringing with them variations of Christian belief. Debates and discussions arose over which of these beliefs were correct and which were not. At particular issue was theology put forth by a man named Alexander Campbell. Campbell believed that Christians needed to return to the practices of the first-century churches, and he insisted on the exclusion of anything not specifically mentioned in the Bible. This included instrumental music during worship, the use of a confession of faith, and regular salaries for ministers, among other things. His teachings became known as Campbellism and led to intense discussions and disagreements about what practices were and were not acceptable for a “true” Christian church. As part of this process, some Christian leaders began attempting to trace the path of various beliefs and practices back to their roots.

For Baptists, this stopped in the early 1660s, when the first Baptist congregations were formed in Europe. However, some were not content with this and set about tracing the practices used by Baptists further into the past. Journalist James Robinson Graves, who published the Tennessee Baptist, was a leader among a group who held to the belief that the practices and theology of the Baptist Church could be traced all the way back to the first century and the earliest Christians. The principal leaders of this group were Graves and two other Baptist ministers, James Madison Pendleton and Amos Cooper Dayton. Pendleton and Dayton both wrote influential works about what became known as the Landmark movement. Pendleton’s 1854 essay was published in Graves’ paper. Dayton published a novel in two volumes entitled Theodosia Ernest, or, The Heroine of Faith, in which baptism played an important role. It helped bring the concepts behind Landmarkism into the public forum. Dayton also wrote many essays that emphasized the importance of a true church being a local body, not one run by a central authority. Together, Graves, Pendleton, and Dayton are known as the “Great Triumvirate” of the Landmark movement.

Graves and others traced the church’s origin through time and various countries back from the Plymouth Colony in America to Germany, Holland, and other parts of Northern Europe, through Wales and down to Southern Europe, then through Africa and finally into the Holy Land in the Middle East in the first century. This history was laid out in a small booklet called Trail of Blood, published decades later in 1931 by Baptist minister James Milton Carroll. Graves, Carroll, and others based much of the claims of Baptist succession that are at the heart of Landmarkism on the Baptist practice of believer’s baptism, only baptizing those who were able to make a true confession of faith in Christ.

The Landmark name came from Pendleton’s 1854 “An Old Landmark Reset” essay. Pendleton took the concept from two passages in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible, Proverbs 22:28 and Job 24:2, which reference landmarks. The Proverbs passage cautions against removing landmarks set up by previous generations, while the passage from Job states that only wicked people remove landmarks. The landmarks referenced were property boundaries, and Pendleton, Graves, and others adopted the idea as a metaphor for faith traditions and practices that were true to those established by the ancient church. Adding to the emphasis on believer’s baptism, Pendleton’s essay stressed the importance of having only Baptist ministers who had undergone a believer’s baptism by immersion preach in Baptist congregations.

This was a much stricter interpretation of religious practice than many Baptists were willing to accept. It resulted in heated debates and disagreements among Baptists across the country, especially in the recently formed Southern Baptist Convention. As a result, in the 1850s, the Landmarkers split from the main Baptist Church and the SBC. They began forming congregations across the American South until what began in Middle Tennessee could be found in Louisiana, Arkansas, Oklahoma, Texas, Kentucky, southern Illinois, and parts of Missouri. This became known as the Landmark Belt. The number of churches adhering to Landmarkism has dwindled somewhat in contemporary times, but a number of churches continue to adhere to Landmarkism. These include the American Baptist Association, the Baptist Missionary Association of America, and the Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary Baptist Association.

These Landmark congregations continue in the belief established by Graves, Pendleton, and others that only the Baptist Church had managed to hold true to authentic first-century Christian practices in an unbroken line of succession from the beginning of Christianity to their time. In addition to the foundational principle of believer’s baptism, Landmark Baptists insist on clergy who have received this baptism and emphasize the need for practicing communion as instituted by Jesus Christ in his last meal with his disciples before his crucifixion.

Bibliography

“The Baptist Tradition.” Missouri State University, www.missouristate.edu/Reformations/Baptist.htm. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

Beck, Rosalie. “Landmark Movement.” Texas State Historical Society, 13 Nov. 2019, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/landmark-movement. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

Bell, Marty G. “Landmarkism.” Tennessee Encyclopedia, 1 Mar. 2018, tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entries/landmarkism. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

Gage, Matthew. “Landmarkism: The Original Fundamental Baptists?” Baptist Basics, 13 July 2021, www.baptistbasics.org/2021/06/10/landmarkism-the-original-fundamental-baptists. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

"James Milton [J. M.] Carroll. D. D." Baptist History Homepage, baptisthistoryhomepage.com/carroll.j.m.bio.html. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

“James Robinson Graves.” Southern Baptist Historical Library & Archives, sbhla.org/biographies/james-robinson-graves. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

Laskow, Sarah. “Charting the Succession of the ‘True Church’ Through History.” Atlas Obscura, 24 July 2018, www.atlasobscura.com/articles/what-is-baptist-landmarkism. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.

Moritz, Fred. “The Landmark Controversy: A Study in Baptist History and Polity.” Maranatha Baptist University, www.mbu.edu/seminary/the-landmark-controversy. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.