History of Bethel Baptist Church: From Predestinarian Roots to New Hope
Published: 1976
Updated: May 1, 1995
Bethel Baptist Church was organized in an area referred to as the "dark corner" of Sabine County, between the settlements of Milam and Sexton. It was constituted on February 7, 1841, in the home of Theophilus Harris as a Predestinarian Regular Baptist Church of Jesus Christ under the authority of Daniel Parker and his Pilgrim Church at Elkhart, Anderson County. The Bethel group had met earlier and asked to be aligned with the Union Association of the Pilgrim Church, but it appears that it never did in fact join the association. Bethel Church was among the five East Texas Missionary Baptist churches that met at Union (Old North) Church four miles north of Nacogdoches on November 11, 1843, and organized the Sabine Baptist Association. They were the Union and Mount Zion, Nacogdoches County; Border and Bethel, Harrison County; and Bethel, Sabine County. The action of the Bethel Church in aligning itself with the Sabine Association naturally aroused the ire of Daniel Parker, his Predestinarian brethren in the Pilgrim Church, and the Union Association, who were opposed to missionary societies and boards, Bible societies, Sunday schools, and secret organizations, all of which were claimed to be purely devices of man with no scriptural authority for their existence. Parker's Pilgrim Church, in regular conference on August 17, 1844, called upon the Bethel Church to surrender its authority as a church, since it had "departed from the faith and order." At a meeting held at Bethel Church from October 6 to 13, 1845, thirty-six persons were baptized into the Missionary Baptist belief. The site of the old Bethel Baptist Church was deeded to the church on November 17, 1878, by Mrs. Julie R. Mason, widow of William Mason, who had obtained the land from the Republic of Texas in 1838. The white frame building and old cemetery are located in an opening of a heavily wooded forest. The oldest Baptist church in Sabine County, it has remained in continuous operation since it was founded, although the name has been changed to New Hope Baptist Church.
Bibliography:
Categories:
The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.
Helen Gomer Schluter, “Bethel Baptist Church,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed March 09, 2026, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/bethel-baptist-church.
Published by the Texas State Historical Association.
TID:
IVB01
- 1976
- May 1, 1995
