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Landmarkism Under Fire 

A Study of Landmark Baptist Polity on Church Constitution

by Elder J.C. Settlemoir 

 

Appendix III. - Did Brother Roy Mason Change His Position on Church Constitution?

Another strong advocate of EMDA was Bro Roy Mason.[581] I first met Bro Mason in 1964 and was blessed by his preaching and his messages in TBE. His book The Church That Jesus Built is a standard among Baptists. Did Bro Mason always believe in EMDA? Bro Cockrell says: “Any person who alleges that either of these two men[582] did not believe in a link chain of Baptist churches has knowingly and deliberately misrepresented these old brethren.” But the question here is not did Bro Mason believe EMDA in 1964 but did he always believe it? I do not believe so.

Bro Mason wrote The Church That Jesus Built in 1923[583], and when he deals with perpetuity he says not one single word about EMDA but he quotes the very authors who (it is now admitted) did not teach EMDA[584] to define what he meant by church perpetuity! He quotes J.B. Moody:

2. Baptist do not claim perpetuity upon the basis of a successive and unbroken CHAIN OF BAPTISMS.....

3. Baptists do not claim perpetuity upon the basis of a chain of CHURCHES succeeding each other in the sense that kings and popes succeed each other.[585]

Bro Mason then says:

What then is meant by perpetuity as used by Baptists? It will not be amiss for me to quote two or three well-known Baptists who have given this subject more than ordinary attention. In the writings of S.H. Ford, LL.D., of honored memory we find these words:

Succession among Baptists is not a linked chain of churches or ministers, uninterrupted and traceable at this distant day...the true and defensible doctrine is that baptized believers have existed in every age since John baptized in Jordan, and have met as a baptized congregation in covenant and fellowship where an opportunity permitted.[586]

Here one learns that S.H. Ford’s idea of perpetuity was not that of EMDA! And this is quoted by Bro Mason with approval. Ford expressly denies EMDA.

Finally Bro Mason quotes Bro Jarrel:

All that Baptists mean by ‘church succession’ or church perpetuity is: there has never been a day since the organization of the first New Testament church in which there was no genuine church of the New Testament existing on earth.[587]

It seems impossible for Bro Mason to quote a statement by Jarrel on church succession (which does not line up with EMDA in any sense), and yet mean to teach EMDA! This would mean that Bro Mason did not understand what Jarrel was saying as Bro Cockrell and others do! Jarrel’s position denies EMDA.[588]

In June of 1948 Bro Mason wrote an article for TBE, “How New Testament Churches should be Organized To be Scriptural as to Practice.”[589] In this article he asks: “How should a church be organized?” His answer is:

It should be an independent, self-governing church, recognizing Jesus Christ as the only head. ‘Headquarters’ should be in heaven.....The New Testament Plan of Organization. Each church, separate, independent, self-governing. (No church or group in N.T. times interfered with another church.)[590]

There is not only not a word of EMDA in this article, but it is diametrically opposed to it! How could anyone read EMDA into Bro Mason’s statement? This is in agreement with self constitution as taught by Graves, Jarrel and others. Does this indicate a change of position from what Bro Mason believed and wrote in the sixties? I think it does.

Now these quotes from Bro Mason are not agreeable with the position of EMDA. EMDA advocates do not like these quotes and will not use them. In 7 Questions As to Church Authority[591] Bro Mason’s answer in question number five seems at odds with what he wrote in his book in 1923. I think there is good reason to believe he changed his view between 1923 and 1964.[592]

Footnotes

[581] See Bro Mason’s articles on this subject in, 7 Questions and Answers as to Church Authority.

[582]I.e., Roy Mason and John R. Gilpin.

[583] Roy Mason. The Church That Jesus Built. No date. See the introduction. Dr. J.W. Jent says the first edition appeared in 1923, p. 2.

[584] Milburn Cockrell. SCO, p. 16- 17. Bro Cockrell quotes Jarrel and says he has three ways to start a church ( which is not true). But he does not quote Ford or Graves on how to constitute a church as does Jarrel. Why not? These quotes could not be missed in Jarrel’s book and they are diametrically opposed to EMDA. Cf. W.A. Jarrel. Baptist Church Perpetuity, p. 1-3.

[585]Roy Mason.The Church That Jesus Built, p. 9. Bro Mason gives no reference but the quote is taken from J.B. Moody’s My Church, p. 132.

[586]Roy Mason. The Church That Jesus Built, p. 10. Bro Mason does not identify his source, but he is here quoting from W.A. Jarrel’s Baptist Church Perpetuity or History, p. 1.

[587] Op. cit., p. 10. This is a quote from Jarrel’s Baptist Church Perpetuity, p. 3.

[588] W.A. Jarrel. Baptist Church Perpetuity, pp. 2-3.

[589]TBE. June 5, 1948, p. 1.

[590]Ibid.

[591]This booklet was from questions sent to TBE in 1964. It was published in 1966. See the Preface by Bro Gilpin.

[592] 7 Questions and Answers as to Church Authority. The Baptist Examiner, 1966. The articles from which the book is taken appeared in TBE in 1964. Cf. Bob Ross. Old Landmarkism and The Baptists, p. 103, where Bro Ross quotes a personal letter from Bro Mason on this subject: “I think you have the right idea of the thing that I try to express in my book–the continuous existence of churches, rather than the linked-chain theory.” Sept. 1, 1964.