History

The First Baptist Church of North Middleboro was founded by Isaac Backus (1724-1806). Isaac founded our church because he believed that each person ought to make a personal decision to accept the free gift of salvation.

Most churches in Isaac's day taught that people were automatically members of the church if their parents were members. Therefore, they baptized their infants as a sign of the infant's membership.

But Isaac believed that baptism signifies each person's decision to follow Christ as their Savior. So, in 1756, he started one of the earliest Baptist churches in America. In his diary, Isaac wrote his thoughts about this new church . . .

"And my soul had a very weighty sense of the greatness of the affairs before us and of the infinite importance of carefully keeping to the rules of Christ's house both in admitting members, and also in after dealings with them. And had not my soul believed that Christ would go before me, I should not have dared to step forward . . ."

We are so glad he stepped forward! To this day, we encourage all individuals to believe in Christ, and to be baptized as a sign of their personal faith. It is for this reason we are called a Baptist church.