Truth Will Prevail

Truth Will Prevail. . , John Mulkey was instrumental in the founding of the Mill Creek Baptist Church. Moving here around 1797, he and his brother, Philip, began their work; John as the first pastor and Philip the first clerk. In 1804 the present Meetinghouse was built., Over time and with much study, John Mulkey became concerned that elements of the Baptist doctrine were contrary to the Bible. He was forced to make a choice between holding to a doctrine that he believed was false or renouncing the doctrine of his ancestors and restoring New Testament Christianity to this church. He chose the latter.¹ , On November 18, 1809, the Mill Creek Baptist Church congregation split over doctrine. Those members who sided with John were approximately 150 in number, as opposed to the 50 or so that chose to remain royal to the Baptist tradition. John Mulkey's group retained the site and the Meetinghouse.¹ The smaller group retained the name "Mill Creek Baptist” and the "Book of Records” from which the church's history is taken. (It is interesting to note that the group that continued as Mill Creek Baptist built their new meetinghouse just a short distance from here, the same size and shape as this one. That log structure was eventually encased by weatherboard and then brick as the congregation continued into modern times. Mill Creek Baplist Church still meets in this building today.) , John and his followers sought to abandon human creeds, doctrines and church names in an effort to restore New Testament order in their thinking and practice. They aspired to be the church of Christ that is written about in the Bible.¹ Note the words of John Mulkey speaking of his confidence and purpose: "Finally our light will shine and truth will prevail. Indeed, brethren, we have reason to rejoice that notwithstanding the floods of opposition and torrents of abuse that have poured forth from various quarters, yet truth is prevailing. Gospel light is shining. Error and sectarian bigotry is in many instances giving way; and the kingdom of the Redeemer is spreading..." ² , John and his followers left no written record of the church which they established here. Exactly what they called the new church is not known. Local history teaches the site was simply "Old Mulkey's Meetinghouse” and that services were held here until approximately 1856...twelve years after John Mulkey's death. At that time, for reasons unknown the congregation abandoned the Meetinghouse and met in the basement of the courthouse. When all of the original members had died the remainder of the congregation reportedly moved their local membership to the Church of Christ at Tompkinsville., John Mulkey was viewed as a heretic by the Baptists of the time. Yet he found plenty of "New Light" congregations in which to preach until he retired in. 1841. He preached throughout lower east Tennessee and northern Alabama.³ He knew personally many of the leaders of the restoration movement such as Barton Stone, Samuel DeWhitt, Isaac Reaneu, David Haggard and others.¹ Many religious historians believe he and this congregation played a much larger role in the restoration movement than they are given credit for.³ Oddly, John Mulkey was laid to rest on his family farm rather than here in view of the pulpit from which he made his famous stand., 1 The Mulkeys of America by Phillip Hunt Mulkey , 2 A Fork in the Road by E. Clayton Gooden Copyright 1972 Pueblo Publishing Co. , 3 Vignettes.of Virtue by Frank Richey Copyright 2010 Cypress Creek Book Co.