This association was organized in 1821 at Gilgal meeting house in Lawrence county and consisted of eight churches with a membership of 245. Most if not all these churches had belonged to the Blue River Association, it was therefore quite natural that the new Association should adopt the Articles of Faith and Rules of Decorum of the old -- which was done. It is quite natural, too, that the name of the new should be White River, for it was bounded in the main by the two branches of White river; and rivers were far more formidable barriers to travel then than they are today -- there were no bridges. In five years the body had grown to twenty churches with a total membership of 603; and had in its bounds Elders Ambrose Carlton, Wesley Short and Abram Mitchell. The fifth anniversary was held also at Gilgal meeting house, and two of the ministers appointed to preach on Sunday were Daniel Parker and John M. Peck -- two men as widely separated as the poles in their conceptions and convictions; and yet in some measure they represent the two divergent tendencies in the Association. From item fifteen of the proceedings of this session we may easily infer that missions and anti-missions early became an issue in the Association; the item is as follows: "From the face of the letter from Wabash Association we discover that that body had excluded from her fellowship Moriah (Maria) Creek church for refusing to deal with her members who are engaged in aiding the cause of missions; therefore after mature deliberation, withdrew our correspondence from her." At the same session it was agreed to open correspondence with Union Association, which was known to be favorable to the mission cause. Whether the presence of Elder John M. Peck, the enthusiastic missionary, had any influence on this action we cannot positively assert; and yet it is most probable.
At the tenth session, held at Salt Creek meeting house seventeen churches are reported with a membership of 641; and the ordained ministers are Ambrose Tarlton, John M. Evans, Abram Mitchell, Elijah Chambers, Robert Hicks, T. Vandeveer, Charles Pennington, William Dotson, Jeremiah Douty, Samuel Owens, and Tarlton Bell. The seventeenth item of the business was as follows: "A request from Bloomington praying this Association to reject the doctrines of Alexander Campbell, taken up and answered in the affirmative. We reject the doctrines of Campbell and advise the churches composing our body to do the same, believing them to be contrary to the doctrines of God, our Savior." An extract from the Circular letter of 1833 indicates clearly that the Association is quite adverse to the teachings of Daniel Parker: "Another would-be reformer has arisen in these last days to disturb the peace and harmony of the churches. We allude to Elder Daniel Parker, and his celebrated doctrine of 'two-seeds.' This is an old doctrine and long since exploded, but now resuscitated, and brought to life from the grave, where it has lain long ages, and would to God it had continued to moulder there forever. This doctrine is nothing more than rank Antinomiaum (antinomianism) with a new dress: it leads to licentiousness, and is another bait of the devil to entice his victims to that region 'where the worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched.'" But strange as it may seem the Association having declared against the doctrines of both Campbell and Parker, also make this declaration, found in the nineteenth item of this same session; it is as follows: "We as an Association do not believe in the principles and practice of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions."
The Circular letters from this time on are above the average for clear strong statement of fundamental doctrines of the denomination. such as the divinity of Christ, mutual christian love, the conditions of communion, congregational church government, infallibility of the scriptures, the meaning and duty of sanctification, natural and spiritual terms in the scriptures, the doctrine of the atonement and church discipline. At the session in 1814, held at Prairie Creek meeting house, Daviess county, it appears that there were twelve churches, with a total membership of 426; the ordained ministers were Gideon Potter, J. Cole, Thomas Oliphant, E. Alien, and J. B. Van Mater; among these Thomas Oliphant, Sr., is evidently a leader, if we may infer so from his frequent election to the moderatorship, and frequent appointment to write the Circular letter. He was appointed to present the letter at this session, and it is so striking a deliverance that we may well make liberal extracts from it, for the insight they give of the convictions of the times as to the matter of missions: "The Roman Catholics have their missionaries now in almost all the world; in North and South America, in Canada, in nearly all Indian tribes south and west; many millions of dollars have been and still are expended for the propagation of their faith. Now considering the difference between Catholics and Protestants in doctrine and practice, is it not strange that Protestants, some of them, should be aping after Catholic fashions; but we are imitable beings, hence Protestants have borrowed this system from their neighbors, and if there is any glory in it the Catholics are certainly entitled to it." The sophistry here is apparent; it is simply this: We differ from Catholics; they believe in and prosecute missions; therefore we should not!
In the account of American missions the Baptist Advocate had said: "On these youthful students (Judson, Rice and Mills) the missionary spirit had evidently rested, and that while at school studying theology they were accustomed to pour out their prayers behind a haystack that was near the college, and there behind this stack they called down a missionary spirit from heaven which has proven the glory of our country."
To which he replies by this question: "If these young students called down the missionary spirit from heaven, was it ever in the church of Christ before?"
The implication is simply a travesty on reasoning. The missionary spirit was in the early church, and has been called down since as often as Christ's disciples have been awakened to an appreciation of their duty. Elder Oliphant next tried caricature -- a dangerous and unworthy experiment both in the ministry and out. He recites an account of the setting apart of the Rev. J. Wade and his wife as missionaries to Burma, including the sermon by Dr. Nathaniel Kendrick, the charge by Dr. Hascall, the hand of fellowship by the Rev. J. W. Clark, etc., etc. Now to make all this seem non-apostolic, and opposed to the teachings of the New Testament, he suggests that we change the passage in the book of Acts to read as follows: "On the 11th of June, 1844, the Rev. S. Paul and J. Barnabas were set apart as missionaries to Selencia and Cyprus by a board of managers of the Baptist General Convention, met in the city of Antioch; sermon on the occasion by the Rev. S. Niger from Isaiah -- 'The isles shall wait for his law.' The Rev. Lucius, of Cyrene, offered the consecrating prayer, the day was fine and a collection of $86.83 was taken on the spot, etc."
Now, he argues, Baptists have always stood for the scriptures as the infallible rule of our faith and practice; and where is the authority for such a mode of setting missionaries apart? He confounds the essential with the incidental; he might just as well have reasoned that as the White River Association is not mentioned in the scriptures therefore it ought never to have been organized. Again as Paul received no salary, therefore ministers of today have no right to receive salaries; and then he tells with apparent satisfaction that as Paul and Peter say nothing about money in their account of their missionary labors, there is no place for money in missions. Ten pages 7x4-1/2 inches are taken up with just such false reasoning. It is plain to be seen that if these utterances are indicative of the anti-mission spirit of the Association, it is no wonder that there was a steady decline in interest and power. In 1856 there was a total membership of but 503. And today the Association is extinct. ============ [From W. T. Stott, Indiana Baptist History, 1908, pp. 105-110. Transcribed by Jim Duvall.]
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