Why Fairfield Changed His View

My dear friend, — Your letter is before me, in which you say: “For many years you and I have been of the same belief on the subject of baptism; I now learn that you have changed your views and your church relation. I doubt not that you have what seem to you to be good and sufficient reasons for this change, and as it is my sincere and honest desire to find the exact truth on all matters of Christian doctrine and duty, I wish you could find time to give me a full statement of those reasons.”

To this request I am happy to respond; but you will not expect me to be able to do it in a few lines. It is a subject upon which I have spent many months of study; it will require several letters to set forth the reasons for giving up opinions which I had long held. If you have the patience to read all that I am willing to write, I feel sure that you will not only give me credit for honesty in my present position, but for having good and ample grounds for disavowing my former belief. I think you will see, indeed, that I could not honestly have done anything else.

You know, perhaps, that I have been a Baptist for more than a quarter of a century; and no man was more certain of being right. I had not a doubt on the subject.

How this change came about may be told in a few words. Some years ago, I was requested by a Baptist publishing house¹ to prepare a book in defense of Baptist views. They proposed a volume of about four hundred duodecimo pages. I accepted this appointment with the fullest assurance that an argument could be made in that compass that nobody could fairly answer. In order to do it I determined to go over the whole ground from the beginning; so that when the work was finished the honest and intelligent reader of my book would be constrained to admit that it was unassailable.

I fully believed that immersion was the only water baptism, and that it could be made so to appear to every candid inquirer.

My disappointment you can imagine when I tell you that, as I prosecuted my study of the subject, I found tower after tower of my Baptist fort tumbling down! Most laboriously did I strive to repair them. Month after month for more than two years did I labor to maintain my old ground, but to no avail. There were too many hard and solid facts against me. Having studied the subject through and through on both sides, I was convinced of my error. Immersion was not the only baptism. The word baptizo did not mean “immerse” in the New Testament. I saw it clearly. I could not have been an honest man, and continue to profess to believe what I did not believe. I had believed it with strong conviction, and I do not for one moment question the honesty of my Baptist brethren. They are as sincere in their convictions as I formerly was in mine. But with the facts now before me it was impossible for me to remain a minister of the gospel in any Baptist denomination.

With your patience, I will set before you, as you request, my present views, and the reasons for them. You of course must weigh the evidence for yourself, and reach your own conclusions.