Baptists in West Kentucky in 1893

      William Dudley Nowlin was pastor of the First Baptist Church of Hickman, KY from 1893-1895. While serving in Hickman he came up with an ingenious idea to demonstrate that Baptist churches are identical with the churches of the New Testament. He wrote a letter to himself from an imaginary preacher in Missouri names J. D. Brown.

      The letter told of Pastor Brown's efforts to start a church in Canton, Missouri. Nowlin filled the letter with phrases from Scripture, but changed the names and places. The made-up letter spoke of men being sent out as missionaries (Acts 15:23), of converts being buried in baptism (Romans 6:4), of non-church members being excluded from the Lord's Supper (I Corinthians 5:11), and of a salvation that is kept by the power of God until the end (I Peter 1:5). Yet, Nowlin never listed the name of the church or a denominational label.

      After writing the imaginary letter to himself, Nowlin went around Hickman asking people if they knew J. D. Brown and what type of church he pastored. He spoke to Methodists, Church of Christ members, Baptists and many others. After hearing the letter every person he talked to would reply, "Brown's a Baptist for every doctrine mentioned is Baptist doctrine." The following Sunday, Nowlin read the letter from the pulpit of First Baptist Church and preached a sermon on how people of all denominations recognized Bible doctrine and Baptist doctrine as one in the same (I Peter 3:15.

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(W. D. Nowlin went on to pastor throughout Kentucky and serve as editor of the Western Recorder newspaper. This true story was printed in the book "Fundamentals of the Faith" and published by the SBC in 1922.)

[From Ben Stratton, pastor of Farmington Baptist Church; transcribed by Jim Duvall.]

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