Baptistic Theologies, 2009

as well as for the Reformed Church since the first Baptist who was active in Budapest, Janos Rottmayer, also had a close relationship with John Duncan for about a 12 decade (1850-1860). Rottmayer had become a Baptist when in Hamburg. Ferenc Balogh, one of the disciples of Professor Revesz, who taught in the Reformed College in Debrecen, effectively propagated this new evangelical trend in theology through his work as editor of the periodical Evangeliumi Protestans Lap (Evangelical Protestant Paper). In this important periodical the teaching of liberal theology was combated. Nor was the paper confined to the propagation of the writings of those within the classical Reformed (Presbyterian) tradition. Messages by the influential nineteenth-century American evangelist D.L. Moody, as well as sermons by leading English Baptist preachers such as C.H. Spurgeon, were published in the periodical. The new orthodoxy in the Reformed Church held that there were substantial grounds for believing in the resurrection of Jesus Christ as an historical event. It also affirmed the experience of conversion. Because of such teaching a new spiritual renewal began in the Hungarian Reformed churches in both Hungary and Transylvania. This revival took place first of all in Debrecen, where scholars like Imre Revesz, Lajos Filo and Ferenc Balogh were tutors of theology, and it continued in the Alfold (the Southern part of Hungary), supported by scholars such as Jozsef Szalay, Karoly Racz and Ferenc Kecskemeti. These people published local papers and periodicals that were useful tools in their endeavour to make known the new orthodoxy. Remarkably, the leaders in the Southern part of Hungary accepted the Baptists and were even ready to defend them from Protestant attacks. Kecskemeti gives a picture of Reformed Church life at that time and alludes to the Baptists: ‘...Yes the church is sick, it is in confusion like spoiled wine. There is no Christian life, no faith, no discipline’. He suggested that the Reformed Church could learn from Baptists in several respects. 14 Imre Revesz, a Reformed church historian, suggested that the Hungarian Baptist mission helped in promoting Reformed renewal. 15 12 Kalman Meszaros, A Baptista Misszio megjelenese [The Emergence of Baptist Mission] in Krisztusert Jarvan Kovetsegben, p. 25. 13 Geza Kovacs, A Baptista Misszio Kibontakozdsa Magyarorszagon [The development of Baptist Mission in Hungary], in Krisztusert Jarvan Kovetsegben, p. 54. 14 Jeno Szigeti, A Bekesi paraszt-ecclesioldk vilaga es a baptista Gyttlekezetek megalakuldsa 1890-1891 [The World of Peasant Ecclesiolas in Bekes, and the Emergence of Baptist Churches, 1890-1891] in Mert lsten ezt hagyta... (Budapest: Tanulmanyok a nepi vallasossag korebol, 1987), p. 459. See also Anna- Maria Kool, God Moves in a Mysterious Way: The Hungarian Protestant Foreign Mission Movement 1756-1951 (Zoetermeer: Uitgeverj Boekencentrum B.V., 1993), p. 52