Jon Gary Williams
Articles / Resources
0110
I. B. Bradley vs H. B. Taylor
September 10, 1914
Auburn, Tennessee
(By S. T. Nix)
Held at Auburn, Tennessee, July 7-11.
Mr. Skinner moderated for Taylor; J. W. Shepherd for Bradley. Both debaters fluent speakers and kind toward each other. Eighteen Baptist preachers and nine Christian attended debate.
Taylor asked: "Do you baptize a child of God or a child of the devil? Bradley answered: "We baptize the man Paul describes in Romans 6:3-5, dead to the love and practice of sin and having forsaken the kingdom of Satan and going toward the kingdom of Christ - in a state of transition; and baptism translates him into the kingdom of God's dear Son." Taylor then stated: "Bradley is the first man of his people I ever met that did not take the position that he baptized children of the devil." The note stating this was sent to brethren who had debated Taylor. Their answers: Freed: "I have never said in debate, or anywhere, that we baptize children of the devil." Bro. Hardeman: "I used the illustration of a foreigner's becoming naturalized, and said I baptized a man dead to the love and practice of sin, but not freed from the guilt thereof. And in the sense Taylor used it, he was neither a child of God nor of the devil, but in a state of transition." Bro. Boaz said: "Taylor charged us with baptizing children of the devil. I told him t his was not true; that the candidate was guilty of past sins; that he was dead to the love of practice of sin, fleeing from the kingdom of the devil, and going in the direction of the kingdom of God ready to be inducted into Christ. (Gal.3:26-27) He also adds: "Taylor cannot state his opponent's position as he is."
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