Association of Regular Baptist Churches
The Association of Regular Baptist Churches is one of the smaller Canadian Baptist bodies. Formed in 1957, the association is fundamentalist and separatist in its doctrine. ARBC supports the Toronto Baptist Seminary and Bible College, and publishes The Gospel Witness. Currently (2003) the ARBC has 10 churches (mostly in Ontario) with approximately 1500 members. In addition to these ten churches that are considered "recognized" members of the association, about 10 more are considered "supporting" churches. One of its leading churches is Jarvis Street Baptist Church of Toronto, Ontario, whose well-known pastor of 45 years, Thomas Todhunter Shields (1873–1955), led fundamentalist forces in the Baptist Convention of Ontario and Quebec during the fundamentalist/modernist controversies in the first half of the 20th century. Forerunners of the ARBC include the Union of Regular Baptist Churches, which was formed in 1928 in Hamilton, Ontario by 77 churches withdrawing from Ontario/Quebec Convention over the election of a liberal professor at McMaster University. Another descendant of the Union of Regular Baptists is the Fellowship of Evangelical Baptist Churches in Canada.
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According to the ARBC, they are "a group of free, self-governing churches holding steadfastly to the great doctrines of Grace always held by Baptists, and acknowledging the sole authority of the Word of God and the headship of Christ."
Sources
- Baptists Around the World, by Albert W. Wardin, Jr.
- Four Centuries of Baptist Witness, by H. Leon McBeth
The ARBC has been dissolved and is no longer in existence.