Ten Years of the Reformed Baptist Blog

As I recall, I first started a Blogger account back in 2002 or 2003, at which time I reserved the name Reformed Baptist Blog, knowing that I would want to start writing such a blog at some point. I didn't start posting on the blog, however, until November of 2006.

The reasons I had for starting to write the blog include my conviction that I might have more to offer the body of Christ in my role as a pastor, as well as my realization that some issues that I was facing in ministry were not always being addressed sufficiently by others. For example, I had been encountering a form of the House-Church Movement that I had not seen anyone else addressing, even though one of its primary leaders claimed to hold to the Baptist Confession of 1689, as did many of its adherents.

Anyway, such were the beginnings of the Reformed Baptist Blog, which has sought to maintain a pastoral focus, with a balance of teaching the Church as well as warning the Church to beware of both potential and actual errors. The blog has also sought to inform our brothers in the body of Christ -- especially within the Reformed Baptist community -- about matters of interest to them. And, of course, it is hoped that unbelieving visitors will be able to discover a clear presentation of the Gospel so that they may come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.

In July of 2009, Richard Belcher joined the blog and contributed a series of posts entitled CHARLES G. FINNEY: Heretic or Man of God? He also contributed another series of articles concerning the history of Baptist ecclesiology, but this was later taken down when he converted the series into a book. Dr. Belcher was unable to contribute after that, given his focus on writing the Journey books and his advancing age. His contribution is missed, and our prayers are with him in his twilight years of service for Christ.

However, Dr. Belcher did make one other important contribution to the blog when he introduced me to Jeff Johnson. He had been a reader of Jeff's outstanding book The Fatal Flaw of the Theology Behind Infant Baptism, and he wanted me to read it and to write about it on the blog. He felt that, since my recommendations of his Journey books had been so helpful to him, perhaps I could help in promoting Jeff's book as well. He had also been a mentor of mine and felt that Jeff and I were kindred spirits and that we should get to know one another. Well, not only did I like Jeff's book and give it a positive endorsement (in 2010) but I also liked Jeff immediately and asked him to join the blog the following year.

The most recent member of the blog team is Bob Gonzales, who joined us in March of this year. Regular readers of this blog may recall that Bob is one of my favorite theologians, and I am happy to say that he has already contributed a couple of terrific posts. We look forward to his further contributions, and we are grateful for his participation, especially given his busy schedule as the dean of the Reformed Baptist Seminary.

As I pointed out earlier, the focus of this blog has been pastoral from the beginning. We have thus never sought to be controversial simply for the sake of controversy. Too many blogs have adopted the alternative approach in an apparent attempt to get more readers, but we have waded into the waters of controversy only when we felt it necessary and truly helpful to the body of Christ.

It has been a great first ten years. We thank the blog's readers for their consistent support, and, Lord willing, we hope to serve you well in the coming years. May our blog always seek to bring glory to God through Christ Jesus our Lord!