Baptized 45 Years Ago!

Tomorrow will mark forty five years since I was baptized by my beloved departed father! It is a precious memory to me! I can remember the words he said as he laid me beneath the waters - "I baptize this my son in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit." Oh how glad I am that I was baptized as a result of my faith and allegiance to the Lord Jesus Christ!

I united with the church that father pastored, the Middletown Primitive Baptist church located in Trenton, Ohio, a place where several PB churches at one time existed in the 19th century. The famous preacher, Elder Stephen Gard, associate of Elder Wilson Thompson, and leader in the Miami Baptist Association, both before and after their split over the mission controversy in the 1830s, was buried not far from our meetinghouse in Trenton. Though I united with this church, it was not during a regular service of that church. The church was a member of the large Powell's Valley Association of Primitive Baptists and I requested baptism and membership with the Middletown church at the associational meeting of that association, which that year (1972) was held in Middlesboro, Kentucky, in the "Cumberland Gap." The Association met every year during the third weekend in August.

It was after the Friday morning opening session of the Association that I walked forward to make my request known to the moderator of the Association, Elder Harold Hunt, who stood in front of the stage at the High School that was being used for the meetings. When I told Elder Hunt of my desire he immediately stopped the singing, and all got quiet, including those in the long handshake line. Since most of the members of the Middletown church were present, they called for a vote and the members consented to my request for baptism and church membership. My baptism was scheduled for the next day, for early Saturday morning, in a small creek at the foot of a mountain. There was another adult man who was also scheduled to be baptized that morning.

This meeting of the Powell's Valley Association was the culmination of a ten day trip that father and I were on. We left on a Thursday, from Ohio, more than a week before the Friday when I joined the church at the PV Ass. meeting. We drove to Knoxville where father had an appointment at the church in Knoxville, a church in the PV Ass. Early the next morning we left to attend the three days meeting of the Sequatchie Valley-Blue Ridge Association. It was held with the Tickenetly Church in Elijah, Ga. I recall vividly those three days of meetings. I was so hungry to hear the gospel that I ate up all the preaching that told the old old story.

I had already been saved at a local Southern Baptist church near Oxford, Ohio. I had gone forward in that church sometime in the Spring of 1972 (I was 16) and would have been baptized by that church, and become a member there, had I not been influenced towards the PBs by my father. Ever since I was saved and given assurance of my salvation I had the strongest desire to be baptized. I didn't know if baptism was essential for salvation, but I did not want to take any chances! I wanted to make my formal public pledge in baptism to follow Christ.

Father and I left the Association in Elijah to go to Decatur, Alabama, the place where father was to have a four night debate with Thomas Thrasher of the "Church of Christ." It was during this debate that I first met several elders, such as Elder S.T. Tolley, who moderated for father during the debate. It was during this debate that I came to fully see and understand what are called "the doctrines of grace." It gave strength to my faith to understand grace and to put all my trust in the work of Christ. It was during this debate that I first made known to father and Elder Tolley of my desire to be baptized and unite with the PB church.

We left on early Friday morning after the debate was over and drove to Middlesboro, Ky. And, it was on that Friday morning, as stated, that I was accepted for church membership and for baptism. We left Sunday afternoon for the long drive back to Ohio. I was a new man! I was rejoicing! School was about ready to start. I was a junior. I wanted all to know that I was a follower of Jesus, a brother to all those who loved and followed the Lord Jesus Christ.

I could write a lot about the things I experienced in the Spring, Summer, and Fall of 1972, as it relates to my Christian experience! Though I have not always done my best to follow the Lord, yet I can say that I have never failed in my belief that Jesus is the Christ, my only hope. He has never forsaken me! He has been the best friend!