Black Puritan, USA (Quakers) ✝ 2023 Statement of Faith

---

As a Puritan-Quaker, Primitive Baptist, and Independent Methodist theological expression, our Religious Society of African American Friends holds to the belief that "Jesus Christ... hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Rev. 1: 5-6. 

We are Reformed Anglicans who trace our roots to the English Protestant Reformation-- beginning with King Henry VIII's split from the Roman Catholic Church during the early 16th century; the rise of the English Baptists and the English Quakers during the 17th century; and the rise of the Oxford Methodists and the Wesleyan movement during the 18th century.  We finally end this historical map in the city of of Philadelphia and the colony of Pennsylvania where William Penn (1644 - 1718) and the Quakers-- we believe-- laid the foundations of American liberty and democracy.  

In colonial British North America, the Quakers became the first true, real friends of the African American people, calling for an immediate end to African slavery and the transatlantic slave trade.

Hence, the Quakers were the first Christian denomination to oppose African slavery and the trans-Atlantic African slave trade, and to prohibit Quaker men and women from owning slaves.

When Rev. Richard Allen (first bishop of the A.M.E. Church) and Rev. Absalom Jones (first black Episcopal priest in the United States) founded the "Free African Society" in Philadelphia in 1787, their founding Charter required that one of the members of the Quakers must always serve as its its treasurer.

Today, not "slavery" or the "trans-Atlantic slave trade," but rather the EFFECTS of slavery continue to traumatize the Black family, the Black Church, the African American community,  the United States, and the entire world.

To that end, the Religious Society of African American Friends is committed to carrying out its anti-slavery heritage of advocating for social justice and human rights.

Hence, we are the BLACK PURITANS, USA (Quakers). 

As such we believe in the Reformed doctrine of the "Priesthood of All Believers!"

Jesus of Nazareth prophesied that the Second Temple would be destroyed, stating: “I say unto you, There shall not be left here one stone upon one another, that shall not be thrown down.” [Matthew24:2]

And as Jesus had prophesied, the Second Temple was ultimately destroyed in 70 A.D., within a generation after his death and resurrection.

This Second Temple was not rebuilt.  Instead, this Second Temple and the Levitical priesthood were officially ended, and the New Covenant was commenced, upon the death and resurrection of Christ.

A new temple with a new priesthood replaced this Second Temple.

According to 1 Peter 2:5-9, “Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.”

This is why the Apostle John wrote that when Jesus said that he would tear down and rebuild the Second Temple within three days, that “he spake of the temple of his body.” [John 2: 18-22].    

The body of Christ is his Christian Church. [Ephesians 1:23].

And the body of each individual Christian is a “temple.”   

This is why the Apostle Paul has written that “[k]now ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are….” [ 1 Corinthians 3: 16-17].

Since every Christian is a “temple” wherein dwells the Holy Spirit, who teaches and guides Christians into “all truth” [see, e.g., John 16:13] , there is spiritual equality amongst the faithful within Christ’s church. 

This is why the holy prophet Jeremiah wrote, “[a]nd they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them….”  [Jeremiah 31: 32-34. See, also, Hebrews 8: 9-11 (quoting Jeremiah 31:32-34).]

From this we deduce the validity in the doctrine of the “Priesthood of all believers.”   

And we highly acclaim the opinion of Augustine of Hippo (354 – 430 AD) on this important point, to wit:  

“For we see that priests and Levites are now chosen, not from a certain family and blood, as was originally the rule in the priesthood according to the order of Aaron, but as befits the new testament, under which Christ is the High Priest after the order of Melchizedek, in consideration of the merit which is bestowed upon each man by divine grace. And these priests are not to be judged by their mere title, which is often borne by unworthy men, but by that holiness which is not common to good men and bad.”  [St. Augustine, “The City of God” (New York, N.Y.: The Modern Library, 1950), p. 746].  

Therefore, at the heart of Puritanism (i.e., the religion of the Quakers) is the belief that Jesus of Nazareth instituted a radically different religion whereby every Christian believer would become a “king and priest.” The very body of a Christian believer, wherein dwells the Holy Ghost, is the “temple of God.”

As a Puritan-Quaker, Primitive Baptist, and an Independent Methodist theological expression, our Religious Society of African American Friends holds to the belief that "Jesus Christ... hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen." Rev. 1: 5-6. 

Article 23 of the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion states: 

"23. Of Ministering in the Congregation.

"It is not lawful for any man to take upon him the office of public preaching, or ministering the Sacraments in the

Congregation, before he be lawfully called, and sent to execute the same. And those we ought to judge lawfully called and sent, which be chosen and called to this work by men who have public authority given unto them in the Congregation, to call and send Ministers into the Lord's vineyard." 

Although we accept the Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion, in practice, we do not call our ordained Elders "priests" or "bishops."  Instead, we have adopted a "presbyterian" system patterned after the Primitive Baptist churches and (or) the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA).

At the same time, the Religious Society of African American Friends is egalitarian, considers all of its members to be "ministers of the Gospel," and holds no distinction between "clergy and laity."  

Why are we known as "Black Puritans" and not "Black Quakers"?  

It is because the word "Quaker" has a uniquely historical and English context that does not squarely fit our African American or African social and historical context.  

As a sect of the Black Primitive Baptist churches, Our mission is still to "purify" the established African American or African churches of the United States and on the African continent, through emphasizing conservative Evangelical theology and values, and to promote the doctrine of the "Priesthood of all Believers" (1 Peter 2:9). 

At the same time, the "Religious Society  of  African American Friends" is the spiritual heir of the "Quakers" of 17th century England.

According to the Britannica on-line encyclopedia, the word "Quaker [means a] member of the Society of Friends, or Friends church, a Christian group that stresses the guidance of the Holy Spirit, that rejects outward rites and an ordained ministry, and that has a long tradition of actively working for peace and opposing war. George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends in England, recorded that in 1650 'Justice Bennet of Derby first called us Quakers because we bid them tremble at the word of God.'

"It is likely that the name, originally derisive, was also used because many early Friends, like other religious enthusiasts, themselves trembled in their religious meetings and showed other physical manifestations of religious emotion. 

"Despite early derisive use, Friends used the term of themselves in such phrases as 'the people of God in scorn called Quakers.” No embarrassment is caused by using the term to or of Friends today. For a more detailed discussion of the history and beliefs of Quakers, see Society of Friends."

Source: Britannica 

.

For many reasons, the Black Puritans, USA ("Religious Society of African American Friends")  traces its spiritual roots to the "Congregationalism" of the English Puritans, the English Baptists, the English Quakers, and the Black Primitive Baptists.

“Traditional Baptist historians write from the perspective that Baptists had existed since the time of Christ.” [“Baptists,” Wikipedia].  

The perpetuity or succession theological position that autonomous groups of “independent” Christian believers existed has firm Scriptural support.   

First off, various communities formed around John the Baptist who baptized believers both prior to and during Jesus’ earthly ministry.

Secondly, in the Gospel of Mark, for example, the disciple John said to Jesus, “Master, we saw one casting out devils in thy name, and he followeth not us, and we forbad him, because he followeth not us. But Jesus said, Forbid him not: for there is no man which shall do a miracle in my name, than can lightly speak evil of me.  For he that is not against us is on our part…. And whosoever shall offend one of these little ones that believe in me,it is better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he were cast into the sea.”  [Mark 9: 28-29(KJV)].

Thirdly, the Gospel of Mathew defined the church as consisting of from between “two or three” persons, whenever they are “gathered together in my name,” because, there, Christ shall be “in the midst of them.” [Matthew18:18-20].   

And in this same verse of Scripture, it is uttered that “if two of you shall agree on earth as touching any thing that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven.” [Matthew 18: 18-20].

During the First Century, the Gospel spread through Asia, Europe, India, and Africa-- all autonomous churches.  

The development of the Roman Catholic Church, the Eastern Orthodox Church, and the other auto-cephalus Oriental Orthodox Churches, did not emerge until centuries later.  

Hence, it is for this reason that the Black Puritans, USA sense that “church structure” is largely “man-made” and that the groups of Puritans known as the Baptists (and even the Quakers) made a strong argument that the Christian religion, and the Christian faith, should be expressed in more democratic and egalitarian terms.  

We have expressly adopted  the Evangelical Friends Church International Statement of Faith

We also agree with the London Baptist Confession of 1644.  

We also agree with the Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689.   

And, finally, we also agree with the National Primitive Baptist Articles of Faith (1907).

.

As a Puritan-Quaker and Primitive Baptist theological expression, the Black Puritans, USA ("Religious Society of African American Friends") is committed to establishing and sustaining the traditional African American family unit, as well as the extended family.

Family government was at the heart of the Puritan societies of colonial New England, because Biblical family government was at the heart of ancient Israel. 

The first and primary human society and institution was the “family” –  the union of Adam and Eve as man and wife. (Genesis 2: 21 – 24).

“That is why a man leaves his father and mother and is united to his wife, and they become one flesh.” (Genesis 2: 24; Matthew 19:4).

From this arrangement, the man as Husband has been placed by divine authority at the head of the Wife and the family. (Ephesians 5:23; 1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Timothy 2: 11-15.)

In English- American common law, this male headship over the family was firmly established.  

See, e.g., 26 Am Jur, Husband and Wife, § 10 Head of Family (“The husband, unless incapacitated from executing the authority and performing the duty, is head of the family.”)

However, American slavery did not recognize African American fathers, husbands, families, or the sanctity of marriage among black slaves.

See, e.g., Alexis de Tocqueville, “Democracy in America,” Chapter XVIII: Future Condition of Three Races- Part I (“The negro has no family; woman is merely the temporary companion of his pleasures, and his children are upon an equality with himself from the moment of their birth.”)

See, e.g., W. E. B. Bu Bois, “The Souls of Black Folk,” Writings (New York, N.Y.: The Library of America, 1986), p. 378 (“[h]ere at a stroke of the pen was erected a government of millions of men,-- and not ordinary men either, but black men emasculated by a peculiarly complete system of slavery, centuries old; and now, suddenly, violently, they come into a new birthright….”)

Today, due to social, cultural, economic, and political challenges facing African men, husbands, and fathers, the plight of the African American family continues to be a major challenge in American life.

See, e.g., Moynihan, Daniel P., “The Negro family: The Case for National Action.” Washington, DC: Office of Policy Planning and Research, U.S. Department of Labor (March 1965)(“It was by destroying the Negro family under slavery that white America broke the will of the Negro people.”)

Hence, because of American Slavery and its negative effects, re-establishing and bolstering Black male headship over the Black family unit is a major spiritual mission and objective of The Black Puritans, USA ("Religious Society of African American Friends").