In Union School house in western Polk County, Oregon a group of Baptists were organized into a church in 1854 by Elder C. C. Riley and Elder Richard Miller. This group took the name of the Union Baptist Church of Christ, and Elder C. C. Riley was their first pastor.
Brother Riley is described by C.H.Matoon in his book "Baptist Annals of Oregon," as an "extreme, ultra-Landmarker." Union Baptist Church has therefor from its very beginning been a Landmark Baptist Church.
In 1872 Union Baptist Church bought a parcel of land in Harmony Community and that year had a bulding with benches constructed. Today,124 years later, we still meet in that same building, moreover we still preach and teach the same Landmarks of the Baptist faith that were taught here in those days.
To Begin with Landmark Baptists believe the Bible to all be true and they do not believe in adding doctrines to it. For instance,the invisible church of all the saved is nowhere to be found in God's Word. Landmark Baptists believe that the true New Testament Church consists of churches each of which is an independant body, a congregation of baptized believers in Christ Jesus. This persuasion is not held in ignorance, but is upheld by the usage of the word church in Scripture and also by the opinions of the best Greek scholars who declare that the word translated "church" in our Bibles always means an assembly or congregation, a group of people meeting together for a particular purpose. It could never refer to a class of people who do not meet or assemble together. That a true church is a local body is therefore a landmark of our faith.
In Mathew 16:18 Jesus said, "Upon this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it." Another landmark of Baptist faith is that: Jesus Himself founded His church while He was here on earth, that this church has never ceased to exist and shall continue untill He comes again.
As soon as Jesus had gathered about Him a group of baptized believers He had a church. In this church He first set the apostles, (1 Cor. 12:28) He gave it rules for discipling, (Matt. 18:15-17) He instituted the Lord's Supper in the church, (Matt. 26;26-29) and to the church He gave the Great Commission, authorizing them to continue making disciples, baptizing them and setting up churches on down though the years to the end of the age. (Matt. 28:18-20)
Most all other Baptists preach, teach and believe that the church was set up at Pentecost, a doctrine that comes from the Roman Catholics. Everywhere in their books, literature, sermons and teachings they speak of Pentecost as being the "birthday of the church." But where in the Bible does it say anything about a church being started at Pentecost? Not one word. Such teaching is not found there. Any church that started at Pentecost or afterwards is too late to be Christ's church. Such churches have no authority from Christ to do anything. Their baptisms are therefore no good, as Landmark Baptists believe.
"The gates of hell shall not prevail against it," said the Lord Jesus Christ, speaking to His church. Landmark Baptists believe His words to be true . He said, "Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away." (Mark 13:31) Even if I didn't have the evidence of many histories by Baptists and others proving that Christ's church has stood through all the years of persecution and torture of the dark ages, still I would believe it simply because Jesus said so.
Landmark Baptists, that is those Baptists who hold to these old truths, are the only ones who give Christ all the glory of founding His church, and of preserving His church, and of being Head over all things to His church. (Ephesians 1:22-23)
In the early part of the 19th century these doctrines, which we call landmarks, were generally held and preached by Baptists everywhere. Then the spirit of compromise crept in amoung Baptists. The people who before hand had been despised, persecuted, and slain by reformers and Romanists alike, now wanted to gain favor in the sight of the daughters of Rome. They began to leave off their peculiar Baptist markings for which their fathers had died, and today they openly ridicule them.
Let's not be ashamed of these Landmarks of the Baptist faith, which identify the one true faith of the true church, the "Church that Jesus built". They glorify God's Word as being absolutely true and dependable, and they glorify our one Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. There is no Romish heirarchy in the church that Jesus built, no organization over and above the local church in which Jesus through His Spirit is still the one Head. Him only do we serve.