Did you hear the one about the couple who got on a ship...?

How far would you go to follow your Lord Jesus? Could God relocate you geographically - accepting a new job, a new town, a new state, or a new country? When God sends missionaries far away, leaving so much behind, we realize we should do anything to follow our Master’s command: “Follow Me!” (Matthew 9:9). But what if following Jesus theologically is the harder move? All genuine believers who are trying to study and follow the Bible as true Bereans (Acts 17:11) must be willing to relocate theologically if God reveals better doctrines.

      That happened to Adoniram and Ann Judson, who sailed from Salem, Massachusetts, in 1812 to Burma as the first missionaries of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions. (ABCFM). They began the voyage as “pedobaptists,” sharing their sending board's theology of infant baptism.1

                But during the journey, as Adoniram translated the New Testament from Greek, his study led him to change his convictions about who should receive baptism. As he later wrote, months of "serious and prayerful consideration" and "laborious research and painful trial" …[reshaped His] “entire conviction that the immersion of a professing believer is the only Christian baptism.”²

Acting upon the bold decision to receive true believers’ baptism, Adoniram wrote to their sending mission board to inform them of their parting of ways. Now a self-professed Baptist, he wrote, “The board will, undoubtedly, feel as unwilling to support a Baptist missionary as I feel to comply with their instructions, which particularly directs us to baptize “credible believers with their households.” Unsure whether Baptist churches in America would begin to support them financially, he expressed his profound concerns, even as he severed his ties with them:

I consider most distressing consequences of my late change of sentiments, and indeed, the MOST distressing events which have ever befallen me. I have now the prospect before me of going alone to some distant island, unconnected with any society at present existing, from which I might be furnished with assistant laborers or pecuniary support. Whether the Baptist churches in America will compassionate my situation, I know not. I hope, therefore, that while my friends condemn what they deem a departure from the truth, they will at least pity me and pray for me.³

Ann also studied the Scriptures herself and reached the same conclusion, and made this life-altering decision with Adoniram! She, too, felt bound, not by the convictions of her husband, her family who had baptized her as an infant, or a denomination, but by her personal obedience to Scripture alone (sola scriptura). She wrote, “Thus, we are confirmed Baptists, not because we wanted to be, but because truth compelled us to be"⁴

                As we marvel at their courage, we face the same call: to follow Scripture over tradition - not rashly, but through careful, patient study. That is what led me to memorize the Gospel of John, my first book. Amid heated seminary debates over "Lordship Salvation," I set aside the seemingly endless competing arguments and let Scripture speak for itself. I finished memorizing John before many of my classmates had settled the question—some, I fear, still have not. Wayne Grudem's counsel captures why you must study and then act! “It is of utmost importance therefore that each person beginning such a course firmly resolve to abandon as false any idea found to be clearly contradicted by the teaching of Scripture.⁵

                   Now, do not worry! You cannot and will not abandon first-order doctrines, those which you must believe to be saved. The Holy Spirit will not let you walk away from them and perish: Essential doctrines such as the authority of Scripture, the sinfulness of human beings, the Trinity, the deity of Christ, and justification by grace alone.  But be cautiously open on second-order doctrines that divide us into denominations, like who should be baptized and how (infants or professing believers; sprinkling, pouring, or immersion?), or church polity (government) – Congregational or Presbyterian, etc. Likely, you hold the right view, inherited from your family and church tradition, but maybe not. Surely some who are reading this blog hold the “wrong” view on mode of baptism or church polity. Yes, we are still believers even with mid-level theological errors, but to echo James, these things ought not to be! If the careful study of Scripture changes your mind, will you admit and affirm the right way, even if costly? I am now three decades into ministry, quite firmly Baptist, not only by heritage but by now, so much the more, by personal study and conviction.                

               And on third-order doctrines (about which Southern Baptists – at least in theory- agree to disagree), you can be even more open to changing your views as persuaded in the Scriptures. I enjoyed attending Baptist seminaries that taught me to think and study and allowed freedom on minor views. That prepared me well for the journey of letting my own study and memorization change my view on several minor issues. Listen to how others interpret smaller issues like speaking in tongues, end-times views, political engagement, etc., and bring those debates to the sustained, serious study of Scripture. For more reflection on theological views and how we should approach changing or not changing them, check out the two-part blog series "Strange Things to Our Ears," Part 1 and Part 2.

R. Albert Mohler Jr., “The Pastor as Theologian,” in A Theology for the Church (Nashville, TN: B&H Academic, 2014), 726.

Let God speak to you directly through his word, as Adoniram and Ann Judson did, and then follow your Shepherd's voice where he leads, at all costs. When I headed to seminary, an older, wiser man cautioned me that “those who pay your salary will determine your doctrine.” Perhaps that adage was a bit cynical, but years in ministry have provided many examples of ministers who “temper” their actual views on minor issues for the sake of approval or income. Thank God that the Judsons followed their convictions over convenience and support! God blessed their courage, as he will yours!

Did you hear the one about the couple who got on a ship? Yes, they followed their convictions, baptized professing believers in Burma, contributed to the founding of a new Mission Board, the American Baptist Missionary Union, and left behind a legacy of more than 7,000 baptized believers in 63 churches.

* Some of the images in this blog were created by AI or modified from public domain material using AI.

1 “The Judson’s Pioneering Legacy,” https://www.judsonheritage.org/the-judsons. Accessed August 8, 2026

2J. Clement, Memoir of Adoniram Judson: Being a Sketch of His Life and Missionary Labors (Watertown, WI: Classic Baptist Books, 2003), 30.

³H. Leon McBeth, A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1990), 206.

⁴Courtney Anderson, To the Golden Shore: The Life of Adoniram Judson (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 2009), 144–45. 

⁵Wayne Grudem, Systematic Theology: An Introduction to Biblical Doctrine, Second Edition (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Academic, 2020), 5.