I am surrounded by church buildings with his name inscribed on their building.
He did some mighty, Spirit-led, sound, and perspicacious works for The Lord.
...
His brother was instrumental, being used of The Lord, in the founding of my present church home, in 1786.
Our History – Bryan Station Baptist Church
Bryan Station Baptist Church is a
local, visible, called-out assembly of
scripturally baptized believers, covenanted together according to the Biblical pattern of a “one member, one vote,” spirit-led democracy; whose purpose is the carrying out of
the Great Commission of
Matthew 28:16-20. The Bible teaches that only such a church as this is
authorized and constructed to be able to do so.
Our
authority came, according to the Biblical doctrine of “church succession,” through particular New England “separate” Baptists who had sought out existing Baptist churches for this arm of authority. Such were Elders Shubeal Sterns and Daniel Marshall who,
once they were saved, sought out Baptist Baptism; Shubeal Sterns at the Baptist Church at Toland, Connecticut on May 20, 1751; and Daniel Marshall from Winsor, Connecticut, saved and burdened to preach, came to Winchester, Virginia where he became convinced of
the soundness of Baptist doctrine and was immersed at the age of forty-eight...
“Sometime in 1766…
Elijah Craig and two others came to this same
Mr. Harris’s home in order to procure his services in Orange County, Va. and adjacent parts; to preach and
baptize and organize new converts. They found to their surprise that he himself at that time had not yet been ordained; but being more perfectly instructed in the way of the Lord he carried them about 60 miles into North Carolina to get James Read (who was ordained) (Robert B. Semple, “A History of the Rise and Progress of the Baptists in Virginia.”) and (John T. Christian, “A History of the Baptists,” pg. 215, vol. 2),
even as Jesus traveled at least as far to receive baptism at the hands of a Baptist* preacher (Mark 1:9-14).
(Alan note"; more Scripturally accurately, "a Baptist-like", or "The Baptist", i.e., they are saying, "a Baptist with Scriptural Authority", that John the Baptist had from God.
"Mark 1:2
As it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
"Behold, I will send My messenger ahead of You, who will prepare Your way.")
John 1:7;
"There came a man who was sent from God; his name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all men might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world."
"From this beginning churches were established and ordination by them was begun (John T. Christian, pg. 216, vol.2), and a church was soon found at
Spotsylvania, Va. – the Spotsylvania Baptist Church, pastored by Elder Lewis Craig. And it is from this church, when it became the famous
“Traveling Church” in September of 1781, when Lewis Craig led the whole church over the Cumberland Gap to settle in the bluegrass region of Central Kentucky, that
the authority for our
Bryan Station Baptist Church came, organized in 1786.
...
Elijah Craig (ca. 1745–18 May 1808), Baptist minister and distiller, was born in Orange County and was the son of Tolever Craig and Mary Hawkins Craig. He received a rudimentary education and lived an unremarkable life until 1764, when the preaching of David Thomas led him to a religious conversion. The following year Craig attended meetings held by
Samuel Harriss, another prominent evangelist, who convinced him to spread the gospel. Along with other new believers, Craig began holding worship services almost daily in his tobacco barn.
In 1766 he journeyed to North Carolina and persuaded a clergyman, James Read, to return with him to Orange County in order to baptize the converts. Craig soon began preaching but did not abandon farming because he believed ministers should not rely solely on pastoral duties for their living.
An uncompromising Calvinist with a solemn yet powerful presence (a contemporary described him as like "a man who had just come from the dead"), he quickly established himself as a leading Baptist preacher. In 1769 he helped found Blue Run Church in Orange County, became its presiding elder, and later, probably in June 1770, was ordained as a minister.
...Although many traditional accounts list Craig as a member of the so-called
Traveling Church, a large group of Baptists who migrated in 1781 from Spotsylvania County to
central Kentucky, he did not accompany his two elder brothers, Joseph Craig and
Lewis Craig (also Baptist ministers), who led that famed party. He remained in Virginia, but during the next few years, he speculated in Kentucky land and may several times have visited the area in which his brothers had settled. Craig participated in a meeting of Baptist preachers in the area in 1785 but may not have permanently moved to what became
Scott County, Kentucky, until 1786, the year he sold his Orange County farm. In 1787 he became pastor of the Baptist church at
Great Crossing. About five years later the congregation split because some members wished to replace Craig with another minister. Excluded in 1791, Craig later regained his pulpit but left about 1795 to lead nearby churches at McConnel's Run and Silas.
...
I still associate myself with him when I visit and talk with local liberal, apostate "pastors", like at
Great Crossings, shown right above, where he preached, as Pastor.
I'll tell them, "that's not what Elijah Craig said".
His name is on their building.
I live in Georgetown,
Scott County, Ky and is link and the pictures are from here.
Georgetown, a Baptist minister and Kentucky bourbon
Elijah Craig!?! Is that the Whiskey distributor ?
That would be he. I live near a creek he used. The next county over is, "Bourbon County".
How did he go from being a Baptist Pastor to running a still?
I am going to say that is what would be called, "the flesh".
What Baptist would buy Elder Craigs recipe!
A typical
baptist Church Covenant (nowadays) reads, "to abstain from the sale of, and the use of destructive drugs or intoxicating drinks as a beverage; to shun pornography; to abstain from gambling and to be zealous in our efforts to advance the Kingdom of our Saviour."
I can only guess that he was exposed to and probably at one point agreed to some kind of agreement to abstain from
the sale of, and the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage;
Dunno.
Did this apply?
"If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire"?
...
Looks like Charles Spurgeon went from drinking beer back to being an advocate for The Temperance Movement.
I heard he was not happy that beer shops advertised something like, "this is the beer Charles Spurgeon drinks", INSTEAD OF, "Jesus Christ is The Savior", or something like that.
Spurgeon the Drinker: The Rest of the Story - The Aquila Report
I do not condemn my brothers and sisters who disagree with me on this issue. But I do ask to receive the same respect. My conviction is not one born out of legalism or mindless acceptance of tradition. I believe my conviction comes from the same place that Spurgeon’s did – a pastor’s heart sensitive to the needs of those around him and ready to contextualize in order to most effectively preach the Gospel in the world where God has placed us.
It comes as a shock to many Baptists, but it is true. Our “prince of preachers,” our model for fiery, evangelistic preaching – Charles Haddon Spurgeon – was a drinker and smoker.
Those who advocate drinking and smoking in the Southern Baptist Convention today enjoy knowing that one of our Baptist heroes would seem to have been on their side. You don’t have to visit blogs for long to notice how Baptists who like their beer often trot out Spurgeon as the token saint of drinking.
The stories make for great internet fodder, even today. Who can forget Dr. Pentecost’s public chiding of Spurgeon’s habit from Spurgeon’s own pulpit in 1874? Newspapers record Spurgeon announcing to the crowd that he did not consider smoking a sin, he intended on “smoking a cigar before retiring to bed” that night, and that he would continue to smoke “to the glory of God.”
vs
Alcohol & Charles H. Spurgeon: everybody become abstainers (1834-1892)
“Next to the preaching of the Gospel, the most necessary thing to be done in England is to induce our people to become abstainers.”
– Charles Spurgeon, 1882 (Baptist Church)
