The 1925 NBC Meeting (Seattle, Washington)
I. The 1925 NBC Meeting (Seattle, Washington)
A. Two burning issues were at stake when Northern Baptists convened June 30-July 5, for their 1925 convention in Seattle:
1.open membership in Baptist churches and 2.liberalism on the mission fields.
3. It was the notorious Park Avenue Baptist Church, with its liberal pastors, Cornelius Woelfkin and Harry Emerson Fosdick, that had aggravated the open membership issue. These modernistic Baptists, along with scores like them, refused to require immersion for membership. When Fundamentalists at the Seattle convention attempted to insert a clause into the by-laws defining a Baptist church, the Laws Committee ruled it out on the ground that the Free Will Baptists who had merged with the NBC in 1911 had long practiced open membership.
1. Fundamentalists suffered still another defeat in Seattle when the convention voted down the famous "Hinson Resolution," which, if adopted, would have killed the inclusive policy in Northern Baptist missions.
II. W. B. Hinson-Spurgeon of the Pacific
A. Born in England in 1860, Walter Benwell Hinson moved to Canada in 1883, where he served several churches.
B. He went on to the pastorate of San Diego’s First Baptist Church, where he ministered for a decade. In 1910, Hinson moved to Oregon and succeeded J. Whitcomb Brougher to the pulpit of Portland’s First Baptist Church, which was known as the "White Temple.".
C. Just across the river was the East Side Baptist Church, which Hinson served from 1917 until death claimed him in 1926. East Side was then renamed Hinson Memorial Baptist Church.
1. It was here in Oregon that Hinson gained a worldwide reputation as a great preacher and pastor. Millions of copies of his printed sermons went all over the nation and to foreign lands. Many hailed him as the "Spurgeon of the Pacific."
2. A popular speaker at nearby Linfield College, Hinson brought twelve baccalaureate addresses there.
D. In a last-ditch effort to purge all liberalism from the Northern Baptist Foreign Mission Board and its missionaries, Hinson offered to the 1925 convention in Seattle his historic resolution.
1.The assembly responded with cheers and a standing ovation, but 2.the next day, with a 742 to 574 vote, the same audience killed the Hinson Resolution.