Baptist Origins Landmarkism Anabaptist Separatists

The Baptist church is a movement within the Protestant branch of Christianity that emphasizes a believer's baptism by full immersion, which is performed after a profession of faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. A congregational governance system gives autonomy to individual local churches which are sometimes associated in organizations such as the Southern Baptist Convention, which is the largest.

In the late 1990s, there were about 43 million Baptists worldwide with about 33 million in the United States (Microsoft® Encarta® Online Encyclopedia 2004. Baptists. Retrieved Aug. 6, 2004.).

1 Origins

There are several views about the origins of Baptists within the Baptist church.

1.1 Landmarkism

1.2 Anabaptist

1.3 Separatists

The view most strongly supported by historical evidence suggests that Baptists were originally separatists in the PuritanThe Puritans were members of a group of radical Protestants which developed in England after the Reformation. Terminology The word puritan is now applied unevenly to a number of Protestant churches from the late sixteenth century to the early eighteenth c reaction to perceived corruptions in the Church of England in the 1600s. In 1609, John Smyth, led a group of separatists to the Netherlands to start the General Baptist church with an Arminian theology. In 1616, Henry Jacob lead a group of Puritans in England with a Calvinist theology to form a congregational church that would eventually become the Particular Baptists in 1638 under John Spilsbury . Both groups had members who sailed to America as pilgrims to avoid religious persecution in England and Europe where they started Baptist churches in early colonies. The Particular and General Baptists would disagree over Arminianism and Calvinism until the formation of the Baptist Union of Great Britain in the 1800s under Andrew Fuller and William Carey for the purpose of missions. American Baptists soon followed suit.
See also: 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith

2 Beliefs

Baptist churches do not have a central governing authority resulting in a wide range of beliefs from one baptist church to another on issues such as the doctrine of separation , Calvinism/Arminianism, eschatology, the nature of Law and Gospel, the ordination of women, and homosexuality. However, aside from the general positions of the reformation common to most protestant groups, there are also several baptist distinctives that are common to most baptist churches.

2.1 Believer's baptism

Believer's baptism is an ordinance performed after a profession acceptance of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. It is viewed as a public symbolic representation of the spiritual transformation that has taken place. The ritual of baptism consists of total immersion in water, parallel to the style of baptisms performed by John the Baptist. In most cases this consists of submerging a believer in water, backwards, while invoking the Trinitarian formula of Matthew 28:19 and is symbolic of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Membership is often tied to baptism in Baptist churches.

Believer's baptism is commonly contrasted with infant baptism or pedobaptism. Baptists believe that only a person who has reached an "Age of Accountability" is eligible for baptism. The age of accountability is not a specific age, but rather is the age at which a God determines that person is accountable of their sins. Jesus began to visibly do the work of God at the age of 12 and somewhere around there is the typical "Age of Accountability". A person who is not mentally or emotionally capable of discerning their sins is generally believed to be in a state of grace and not subject to hell upon death. Some Calvinistic Baptists practice believer's baptism but reject the concept of an "Age of Accountability".

2.2 Congregationalism

Another distinctive is a congregationalist government system which gives autonomy to individual local churches. Baptist churches are not under the direct administrative control of any other body, such as a national council or a leader such as a bishop or pope. Administration, leadership and doctrine are decided democratically by the lay members of each individual church which accounts for the variation of beliefs from one Baptist church to another. John Wyclif and the Lollards who followed him, and Huldrych Zwingli, were strong influences in the early development of the idea of congregationalism. In a manner typical of other congregationalists, many cooperative associations of Baptists have arisen. The largest of these in the United States is the Southern Baptist Convention. The second largest is the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., which is also America's second largest predominantly African-American denomination. There are hundreds of baptist conventions and many Baptist churches do not fall into any of them. In addition, there are sometimes very strong disputes even within a Convention, which are often divided between Christian fundamentalists and moderates.

2.3 Separation of Church and State

Baptists have played an important role in the struggle for freedom of religion in England, the United States, and other countries, including many who were imprisoned and even died for their faith. Some important figures in this struggle were John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, Edward Wightman, Leonard Busher , Roger Williams (who was a Baptist for a short period but became a seeker), John Clarke, Isaac Backus , and John Leland. In 1612 John Smyth wrote, "the magistrate is not by virtue of his office to meddle with religion, or matters of conscience." That same year, Thomas Helwys wrote that the King of England could "comaund what of man he will, and wee are to obey it," but concerning the church - "with this Kingdom, our lord the King hath nothing to do." In 1614, Leonard Busher wrote what is believed to be the earliest Baptist treatise dealing exclusively with the subject of religious liberty. Baptists were influential in the formation of the first civil government based on the separation of church and state in what is now Rhode Island.

While there is a general belief that the state should not decide what the church can believe and should not prohibit the practice of religion, Baptists do disagree among themselves as to the degree to which the church should influence the state and what exactly constitutes state prohibition of religion. These disagreements manifest themselves in issues such as whether the state should restrict gambling, the purchase of alcohol, and abortion and the question of whether the prohibition of state sanctioned, public prayer in public schools in the United States is an example of prohibition of religion. Many conservative Baptists oppose gambling, alcohol, tobacco, and some even prohibit dancing and movies. Especially in areas where Southern Baptists form a majority of the population, the denomination has been successful in imposing its values on the general population - dry counties in the South (or the ban on music and dancing in the film Footloose) are an example.

2.4 Priesthood of all believers

The Baptist understanding of the Priesthood of all believers removes the hierarchial layers of priests, traditions and authority so that all Christians have equal access to God's revelation of truth through the careful study of the Bible. This is closely tied to the Protestant doctrine of sola scriptura which states that the Bible is the only authoritative source of God's truth and any view that cannot be directly tied to a scriptural reference is generally considered to be based on human traditions rather than God's leading. Each person is responsible before God for his/her own understanding of the bible, and is encouraged to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling. Biblical inerrancy is also a common position held by Baptists in addition to literal interpretations of the bible and fundamentalist theologies. However, because of the variety allowed under congregational governance, many Baptist churches are neither literalist nor fundamentalist although most do believe in biblical inerrancy. Even though it is only the Bible that is authoritative, Baptists also cite other works as illustrative of doctrine. One work which is commonly read by Baptists is the allegory Pilgrim's Progress, by John Bunyan.

Baptists also have a strong emphasis on the concept of salvation. Baptist theology teaches that humans have been contaminated by the sin of Adam and Eve's rebellion against God, and that for this sin we are condemned to damnation. The theology holds that Christ died on the cross to give humans the promise of everlasting life, but that this requires that each individual accept Christ into his life and ask for forgiveness. Nevertheless, the Baptist view of soteriology runs the gamut from Calvinism to Arminianism. Baptists generally believe in the literal Second Coming of Christ at which time God will sit in judgement and divide humanity between those that have accepted salvation and those that have rejected it (the Great White Throne judgement Book of Revelation 20:11) and Christ will sit in judgement of the believers (the Judgement Seat of Christ Second Epistle to the Corinthians 5:10) rewarding them for things done while alive.

2.5 Comparisons to other Protestants

Baptists share certain emphases with other groups such as evangelism and missions. While the general flavor of any denomination changes from city to city, this aspect of Baptist churches is much more prominent than in most Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian churches.

The Pacifism of the Anabaptists and the Quakers is not an ideal held by most Baptists. The Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America was organized in 1984 to promote peace, justice, and non-violence, but it does not speak for all Baptists that accept the ideal of pacifism.

3 Famous Baptists

4 See also

5 Other Resources

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