Baptistic Theologies, 2009

of Rhode Island. He had additional support from others in New York and from Edinburgh. He baptised as infants needed to be baptised again. Despite his personal authority, several of his followers came to a different conclusion. 47 Eidberg, Detfolk som kcdles Baptister. En unders0kelse av Det Norske Baptistsamfunn bakgrunn, tilblivelse, historic og egenart til jubileet 1902, ET from Norwegian, p. 20. 48 This church had its beginning in 1841 when the Baptist Female Bethel Union wanted to start a ministry for the merchant seamen. As a result the Church was constituted in 1843. Ibid., p. 60. 49 He was not ordained until 1852 in Denmark, and later in Norway by the Swedish Baptist Church in Stockholm led by the well known leader Anders Wiberg in 1860. Ibid., p. 60. Baptist Beginnings in Norway 115 returned to Denmark in 1850 as a ‘colporteur missionary’ as he called himself. 50 In 1852 the Odense Baptist Church was founded and Rymker was appointed its pastor. Conflicts and meagre results might have caused Rymker to look for other fields of service. 51 Later in October, Rymker writes to Wiberg ‘But some of my Brethren wish me to go to Norway, now this is also a question with me if there is any call for me to go there, about which I could ask your opinion’. He continued: ‘There is no question but that Norway should have a good Missionary or that the whole Scandinavian 52 Fields should be taken in, but if I am the man, I doubt much’. Arrival in Norway In 1857, with the support of the American Baptist Publication Society (ABPS), and of Wiberg as the ‘Superintendent of Missionary Colportage’, Rykmer became an ABPS worker, which made Rymker report his missions work in Norway through Wiberg. As a result, Wiberg had a meaningful and important influence on the Baptist work in Norway until the 1880s. Rymker left Denmark on 19 th September 1857, leaving his family behind in Odense, bound for Christiania (Oslo). During his sea voyage he met Peder Sprensen who was familiar with the Lammers movement in Skien. Four days later he arrived in Skien. He reported back to Wiberg ‘my meeting with Sprensen made me choose Skien instead of Christiania, because in Skien it was said that there was a little unrest concerning the view about baptism. 53 Arriving in Skien, Rymker met and came into contact with quite a few people. Many of them were members of the Lammers Free Church or agreed with Lammers about their faith and Christian practice. Rykmer discovered that a large group of people agreed with his Baptist biblical view of baptism and other teachings. 54 Work in Norway from 1857 to 1860 Rymker’s contact with the Lammers Free Churches in Skien allowed him to be invited to preach there many times. In addition, he visited the surrounding villages of Brevik, Porsgrunn and Langesund. In Langesund, 50 Ibid. 51 He began correspondence with Wiberg, beginning in May 1856. His supporters in New York suggested he fi