Baptistic Theologies, 2009

26 C.H. Spurgeon, ‘How to Read the Bible’, sermon on Matthew 12:3-7, delivered in 1879, Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, Vol. 25, No. 1503, p. 634. For more see I.M. Randall, What a Friend we have in Jesus (London: DLT, 2005), chapter 3. 60 Baptistic Theologies In a similar way in the life of the first Hungarian Baptists in Transylvania the relationship of people to the Bible, as a living expression of God’s revelation in Christ, was crucial. The ministry of Bible colporteurs Before the first Baptist churches were established in Transylvania the colporteurs of the British and Foreign Bible Society (BFBS) made an enormous impact by selling the Bible from house to house and talking to the people. Among the Baptist colporteurs was Janos Rottmayer, who, in a single year (after moving to Cluj), sold more than 10,000 Bibles." Since the need that he saw was so great, Rottmayer asked for and received helpers from the BFBS, and they all had an effective ministry. A study could be made of the ministry that a number of these colporteurs undertook, but I will look at only one of them, Antal Novak, whose ministry was particularly significant for the emergence and growth of the Hungarian Baptist movement. When analysing this period, Oliver Szebeni aptly spoke of ‘Bibles, Bible circles and Baptists’. In other words, in those places where colporteurs sold Bibles, Bible study groups were often formed, and out of this Baptist groups emerged. Those giving leadership were first of all British and Foreign Bible Society workers and later those people referred to as the Hungarian peasant prophets took over this work. Once the biblical teaching being offered was understood and put into practice, for example in relation to the practice of the baptism of believers only, new churches slowly emerged. Thus these Bible circles were the cradle and workshop of 9Q the Baptist movement in the second half of the nineteenth century." Although Janos Rottmayer was the most important pioneer in terms of the wider Hungarian Baptist Mission, the Baptist movement in Transylvania advanced significantly through the ministry of Antal Novak, who was born on 17 th January 1828 in Stajerorszag. Novak worked as a tailor in Budapest, and met Rottmayer who was working as a carpenter there. Soon they became good friends, helping each other in their small businesses. Rottmayer shared with Novak his new evangelical faith soon after they met. The result of this friendship and witness was the conversion of Novak and his wife. They then began to distribute Bibles, often selling those Bibles cheaper than the price at which they had purchased them. The 27 loan Bunaciu, Istoria Raspandirii Credintei Baptiste in Romania [The History of the Expansion of the Baptist Faith] (Bucuresti: Editura Uniunii Comunitatiilor Crestine Baptiste din R.S.R. Romania, 1981), p. 86 . 28 See Szebeni, Magyar Baptista Misszio Tortenelem. 29 Meszaros, A Baptista missz