Diverse from their beginning, those identifying as Baptists today may differ widely from one another in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians, and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship.[1] Baptist missionaries have spread various Baptist churches to every continent.[2] The largest group of Baptist churches is the Baptist World Alliance, and there are many different groupings of Baptist churches and Baptist congregations.
Baptist historian Bruce Gourley outlines four main views of Baptist origins:
the modern scholarly consensus that the movement traces its origin to the 17th century via the English Separatists,
the view that it was an outgrowth of the Anabaptist movement of believer's baptism begun in 1525 on the European continent,
the perpetuity view which assumes that the Baptist faith and practice has existed since the time of Christ, and
the successionist view, which argues that Baptist churches actually existed in an unbroken chain since the time of Christ.[3] Some people prior to the reformation acknowledge the existence of Baptists and their separation from the church.[5][pageneeded] Sir Isaac Newton stated "Baptists are the only body of known Christians that never symbolized with Rome".[citation needed]
Modern Baptist churches trace their history to the English Separatist movement in the 17th century, over a century after the foundation of the Church of England during the Protestant Reformation.[6] This view of Baptist origins has the most historical support and is the most widely accepted.[7] Adherents to this position consider the influence of Anabaptists upon early Baptists to be minimal.[3] It was a time of considerable political and religious turmoil. Both individuals and churches were willing to give up their theological roots if they became convinced that a more biblical "truth" had been discovered.[8]
During the Reformation, the Church of England (Anglicans) separated from the Roman Catholic Church. There were some Christians who were not content with the achievements of the mainstream Protestant Reformation.[1][9] There also were Christians who were disappointed that the Church of England had not made corrections of what some considered to be errors and abuses. Of those most critical of the church's direction, some chose to stay and try to make constructive changes from within the Anglican Church. They became known as "Puritans" and are described by Gourley as cousins of the English Separatists. Others decided they must leave the church because of their dissatisfaction and became known as the Separatists.[3]
Baptist churches have their origins in a movement started by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys in Amsterdam.[11][12][13] Because they shared beliefs with the Puritans and Congregationalists, they went into exile in 1607 with other believers who held the same biblical positions.[14] They believe that the Bible is to be the only guide and that the believer's baptism is what the scriptures require.[15] In 1609, the year considered to be the foundation of the movement, they baptized believers and founded the first Baptist church.[16][17]
In 1609, while still there, Smyth wrote a tract titled "The Character of the Beast," or "The False Constitution of the Church." In it he expressed two propositions: first, infants are not to be baptized; and second, "Antichristians converted are to be admitted into the true Church by baptism."[8] Hence, his conviction was that a scriptural church should consist only of regenerate believers who have been baptized on a personal confession of faith. He rejected the Separatist movement's doctrine of infant baptism.[18][19]
Shortly thereafter, Smyth left the group.[3] Ultimately, Smyth became committed to believers' baptism as the only biblical baptism. He was convinced on the basis of his interpretation of Scripture that infants would not be damned should they die in infancy.[20] Smyth, convinced that his self-baptism was invalid, applied with the Mennonites for membership. He died while waiting for membership, and some of his followers became Mennonites. Helwys and others kept their baptism and their Baptist commitments.[20] The modern Baptist denomination is an outgrowth of Smyth's movement.[9] Baptists rejected the name Anabaptist when they were called that by opponents in derision. McBeth writes that as late as the 18th century, many Baptists referred to themselves as "the Christians commonly—though falsely—called Anabaptists."[21]
Helwys took over the leadership, leading the church back to England in 1611, and he published the first Baptist confession of faith "A Declaration of Faith of English People" in 1611.[22] He founded the first General Baptist Church in Spitalfields, east London, in 1612.[23]
Another milestone in the early development of Baptist doctrine was in 1638 with John Spilsbury, a Calvinist minister who helped to promote the strict practice of believer's baptism by immersion (as opposed to affusion or aspersion).[7] According to Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, "Spilsbury's cogent arguments for a gathered, disciplined congregation of believers baptized by immersion as constituting the New Testament church gave expression to and built on insights that had emerged within separatism, advanced in the life of John Smyth and the suffering congregation of Thomas Helwys, and matured in Particular Baptists."[7]
Anabaptist influence view
A minority view is that early 17th century Baptists were influenced by (but not directly connected to) continental Anabaptists.[24] According to this view, the General Baptists shared similarities with Dutch Waterlander Mennonites (one of many Anabaptist groups) including believer's baptism only, religious liberty, separation of church and state, and Arminian views of salvation, predestination and original sin.
It is certain that the early Baptist church led by Smyth had contacts with the Anabaptists; however it is debated if these influences found their way into the English General Baptists.[25] Representatives of this theory include A.C. Underwood and William R. Estep. Gourley writes that among some contemporary Baptist scholars who emphasize the faith of the community over soul liberty, the Anabaptist influence theory is making a comeback.[3] This view was also taught by the Reformed historian Philip Schaff. [26]
However, the relations between Baptists and Anabaptists were early strained. In 1624, the five existing Baptist churches of London issued a condemnation of the Anabaptists.[27] Furthermore, the original group associated with Smyth (popularly believed to be the first Baptists) broke with the Waterlander Mennonite Anabaptists after a brief period of association in the Netherlands.[28]
Traditional Baptist historians write from the perspective that Baptists had existed since the time of Christ.[29] Proponents of the Baptist successionist or perpetuity view consider the Baptist movement to have existed independently from Roman Catholicism and prior to the Protestant Reformation.[30]
A Short Declaration of the Mistery of Iniquity (1612) by Thomas Helwys. For Helwys, religious liberty was a right for everyone, even for those he disagreed with.
In 1612 Helwys established a Baptist congregation in London, consisting of congregants from Smyth's church. A number of other Baptist churches sprang up, and they became known as the General Baptists. The Particular Baptists were established when a group of Calvinist Separatists adopted believers' Baptism.[35][pageneeded] The Particular Baptists consisted of seven churches by 1644 and had created a confession of faith called the First London Confession of Faith.[36]
Both Roger Williams and John Clarke are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in North America.[37] In 1639 Williams established a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, and Clarke began a Baptist church in Newport, Rhode Island. According to a Baptist historian who has researched the matter extensively, "There is much debate over the centuries as to whether the Providence or Newport church deserved the place of 'first' Baptist congregation in America. Exact records for both congregations are lacking."[6][38]
The First Great Awakening energized the Baptist movement, and the Baptist community experienced spectacular growth. Baptists became the largest Christian community in many southern states, including among the enslaved Black population.[2]
Baptist missionary work in Canada began in the British colony of Nova Scotia (present day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in the 1760s.[39] The first official record of a Baptist church in Canada was Horton Baptist Church (now Wolfville) in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on 29 October 1778.[40] The church was established with the assistance of the New Light evangelist Henry Alline. Many of Alline's followers, after his death, converted and strengthened the Baptist presence in the Atlantic region.[41][42] Two major groups of Baptists formed the basis of the churches in the Maritimes. These were referred to as Regular Baptist (Calvinistic in their doctrine) and Free Will Baptists (Arminian in their doctrine).[41]
The Baptist churches in Ukraine were preceded by the German Anabaptist and Mennonite communities, who had been living in southern Ukraine since the 16th century, and who practiced adult believer's baptism.[46] The first Baptist baptism (adult baptism by full immersion) in Ukraine took place in 1864 on the river Inhul in the Yelizavetgrad region (now Kropyvnytskyi region), in a German settlement. In 1867, the first Baptist communities were organized in that area. From there, the Baptist movement spread across the south of Ukraine and then to other regions as well.
One of the first Baptist communities was registered in Kyiv in 1907, and in 1908 the First All-Russian Convention of Baptists was held there, as Ukraine was still controlled by the Russian Empire. The All-Russian Union of Baptists was established in Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro) in southern Ukraine. At the end of the 19th century, there were between 100,000 and 300,000 Baptists in Ukraine.[47] An independent All-Ukrainian Baptist Union of Ukraine was established during the brief period of Ukraine's independence in early 20th-century and once again after the fall of the Soviet Union, the largest of which is currently known as the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine.
The majority of Baptist churches are part of national denominations (or 'associations' or 'cooperative groups'), as well as the Baptist World Alliance (BWA), formed in 1905 by 24 Baptist denominations from various countries.[53][54][55] The BWA's goals include caring for the needy, leading in world evangelism and defending human rights and religious freedom.
Membership policies vary due to the autonomy of churches, but generally an individual becomes a member of a church through believer's baptism (which is a public profession of faith in Jesus, followed by immersion baptism).[60] Most Baptists do not believe that baptism is a requirement for salvation but rather a public expression of inner repentance and faith.[6] In general, Baptist churches do not have a stated age restriction on membership, but believer's baptism requires that an individual be able to freely and earnestly profess their faith.[61]
In 2010, an estimated 100 million Christians identified as Baptist or belonging to a Baptist-type church.[62] In 2020, according to the researcher Sébastien Fath of the CNRS, the Baptist movement has around 170 million believers in the world.[63] According to a census released in 2024, the BWA includes 266 participating fellowships in 134 countries, with 178,000 churches and 51 million baptized members.[64] These statistics may not be fully representative, however, since some churches in the United States have dual or triple national Baptist affiliation, causing a church and its members to be counted possibly by more than one Baptist association, if these associations are members of the BWA.[65][66]
Among the censuses carried out by individual Baptist associations in 2023, those which claimed the most members on each continent were:
Since the early days of the Baptist movement, various associations have adopted common confessions of faith as the basis for cooperative work among churches.[68] Each church has a particular confession of faith and a common confession of faith if it is a member of an association of churches.[68] Some historically significant Baptist doctrinal documents include the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1742 Philadelphia Baptist Confession, the 1833 New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith, and written church covenants which some individual Baptist churches adopt as a statement of their faith and beliefs.
Baptist theology shares many doctrines with evangelical theology.[69] It is based on believers' Church doctrine.[70] Baptists, like other Christians, are defined by school of thought—some of it common to all orthodox and evangelical groups, and a portion of it distinctive to Baptists.[71] Through the years, different Baptist groups have issued confessions of faith—without considering them to be creeds—to express their particular doctrinal distinctions in comparison to other Christians as well as in comparison to other Baptists.[72] Baptist denominations are traditionally seen as belonging to two parties, General Baptists who uphold Arminian theology, and Particular Baptists who uphold Reformed theology (Calvinism).[4] During the holiness movement, some General Baptists accepted the teaching of a second work of grace and formed denominations that emphasized this belief, such as the Ohio Valley Association of the Christian Baptist Churches of God and the Holiness Baptist Association.[73] Most Baptists are evangelical in doctrine, but their beliefs may vary due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches.[74] Historically, Baptists have played a key role in encouraging religious freedom and the doctrine of separation of church and state.[75]
Most Baptists hold that no church or ecclesiastical organization has inherent authority over a Baptist church. Churches can properly relate to each other under this polity only through voluntary cooperation, never by any sort of coercion. Furthermore, this Baptist polity calls for freedom from governmental control.[76] Exceptions to this local form of local governance include a few churches that submit to the leadership of a body of elders, as well as the Episcopal Baptists who have an Episcopal system.
Baptists generally believe in the literal Second Coming of Christ.[77] Beliefs among Baptists regarding the "end times" include amillennialism, both dispensational and historic premillennialism, with views such as postmillennialism and preterism receiving some support.
Some additional distinctive Baptist principles held by many Baptists:[78]:2
The supremacy of the canonical Scriptures as a norm of faith and practice. For something to become a matter of faith and practice, it is not sufficient for it to be merely consistent with and not contrary to scriptural principles. It must be something explicitly ordained through command or example in the Bible. For instance, this is why Baptists do not practice infant baptism: they say the Bible neither commands nor exemplifies infant baptism as a Christian practice. More than any other Baptist principle, this one when applied to infant baptism is said to separate Baptists from other evangelical Christians.
Baptists believe that faith is a matter between God and the individual. It is connected in theory with the advocacy of absolute liberty of conscience.
Insistence on immersion believer's baptism as the only mode of baptism. Baptists do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. Therefore, for Baptists, baptism is an ordinance, not a sacrament, since in their view it imparts no saving grace.[78]
Since there is no hierarchical authority and each Baptist church is autonomous, there is no official set of Baptist theological beliefs.[79] These differences exist among associations and even among churches within the associations. Some doctrinal issues on which there is widespread difference among Baptists are:
Excommunication may be used as a last resort by some denominations and churches for members who do not want to repent of beliefs or behavior at odds with the confession of faith of the community. When an entire congregation is excluded, it is often called disfellowship.[87]
The architecture is generally sober, and the Latin cross is one of the only spiritual symbols that can usually be seen on the building of a Baptist church and that identifies the place where it belongs.[93]
Baptists have faced many controversies in their 400-year history, controversies of the level of crises. Baptist historian Walter Shurden says the word crisis comes from the Greek word meaning 'to decide.' Shurden writes that contrary to the presumed negative view of crises, some controversies that reach a crisis level may actually be "positive and highly productive." He claims that even schism, though never ideal, has often produced positive results. In his opinion, crises among Baptists each have become decision moments that shaped their future.[109]
Missions crisis
Early in the 19th century, the rise of the modern missions movement, and the backlash against it, led to widespread and bitter controversy among the American Baptists.[110] During this era, the American Baptists were split between missionary and anti-missionary. A substantial secession of Baptists went into the movement led by Alexander Campbell to return to a more fundamental church.[111]
Leading up to the American Civil War, Baptists became embroiled in the controversy over slavery in the United States. Whereas in the First Great Awakening, Methodist and Baptist preachers had opposed slavery and urged manumission, over the decades they made more of an accommodation with the institution. They worked with slaveholders in the South to urge a paternalistic institution. Both denominations made direct appeals to slaves and free Blacks for conversion. The Baptists particularly allowed them active roles in congregations. By the mid-19th century, northern Baptists tended to oppose slavery. As tensions increased, in 1844 the Home Mission Society refused to appoint a slaveholder as a missionary who had been proposed by Georgia. It noted that missionaries could not take servants with them, and also that the board did not want to appear to condone slavery.[112]
In 1845 a group of churches in favor of slavery and in disagreement with the abolitionism of the Triennial Convention (now American Baptist Churches USA) left to form the Southern Baptist Convention.[113] They believed that the Bible sanctions slavery and that it was acceptable for Christians to own slaves. They believed slavery was a human institution which Baptist teaching could make less harsh. By this time many planters were part of Baptist congregations, and some of the denomination's prominent preachers, such as Basil Manly Sr., president of the University of Alabama, were also planters who owned slaves.
As early as the late 18th century, Black Baptists began to organize separate churches, associations and mission agencies. Blacks set up some independent Baptist congregations in the South before the Civil War. White Baptist associations maintained some oversight of these churches.
In the postwar years, freedmen quickly left the white congregations and associations, setting up their own churches.[114] In 1866, the Consolidated American Baptist Convention, formed from Black Baptists of the South and West, helped southern associations set up Black state conventions, which they did in Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. In 1880, Black state conventions united in the national Foreign Mission Convention to support Black Baptist missionary work. Two other national Black conventions were formed, and in 1895 they united as the National Baptist Convention. This organization later went through its own changes, spinning off other conventions. It is the largest Black religious organization and the second-largest Baptist organization in the world.[115] Baptists are numerically most dominant in the Southeast.[116] In 2007, the Pew Research Center's Religious Landscape Survey found that 45% of all African Americans identify with Baptist denominations, with the vast majority of those being within the historically Black tradition.[117]
Martin Luther King Jr., a Baptist minister and civil rights leader, at the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, D.C. The Civil Rights movement divided various Baptists in the U.S., as slavery had more than a century earlier.
In the American South, the interpretation of the Civil War, abolition of slavery and postwar period has differed sharply by race since those years. Americans have often interpreted great events in religious terms. Historian Wilson Fallin contrasts the interpretation of Civil War and Reconstruction in White versus Black memory by analyzing Baptist sermons documented in Alabama. Soon after the Civil War, most Black Baptists in the South left the Southern Baptist Convention, reducing its numbers by hundreds of thousands or more.[citation needed] They quickly organized their own congregations and developed their own regional and state associations and, by the end of the 19th century, a national convention.[118]
White preachers in Alabama after Reconstruction expressed the view that:
God had chastised them and given them a special mission – to maintain orthodoxy, strict biblicism, personal piety, and "traditional" race relations. Slavery, they insisted, had not been sinful. Rather, emancipation was a historical tragedy and the end of Reconstruction was a clear sign of God's favor.
Black preachers interpreted the Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction as "God's gift of freedom." They had a gospel of liberation, having long identified with the Book of Exodus from slavery in the Old Testament. They took opportunities to exercise their independence, to worship in their own way, to affirm their worth and dignity, and to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Most of all, they quickly formed their own churches, associations, and conventions to operate freely without white supervision. These institutions offered self-help and racial uplift, a place to develop and use leadership, and places for proclamation of the gospel of liberation. As a result, Black preachers said that God would protect and help him and God's people; God would be their rock in a stormy land.[119]
The Southern Baptist Convention supported white supremacy and its results: disenfranchising most Blacks and many poor whites at the turn of the 20th century by raising barriers to voter registration, and passage of racial segregation laws that enforced the system of Jim Crow.[120] Its members largely resisted the civil rights movement in the South, which sought to enforce their constitutional rights for public access and voting; and enforcement of midcentury federal civil rights laws.[121]
In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution that recognized the failure of their ancestors to protect the civil rights of African Americans.[122] More than 20,000 Southern Baptists registered for the meeting in Atlanta. The resolution declared that messengers, as SBC delegates are called, "unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin" and "lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest." It offered an apology to all African Americans for "condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime" and repentance for "racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously or unconsciously." Although Southern Baptists have condemned racism in the past, this was the first time the convention, predominantly White since the Reconstruction era, had specifically addressed the issue of slavery.
The statement sought forgiveness "from our African-American brothers and sisters" and pledged to "eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry." In 1995, about 500,000 members of the 15.6-million-member denomination were African Americans and another 300,000 were ethnic minorities. The resolution marked the denomination's first formal acknowledgment that racism played a role in its founding.[123]
Caribbean islands
A healthy Church kills error, and tears evil in pieces! Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery, but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the Church of God, and when the Church of God addressed herself to the conflict—then she tore the evil thing to pieces! – C.H. Spurgeon an outspoken British Baptist opponent of slavery in 'The Best War Cry' (1883)[124]
Elsewhere in the Americas, in the Caribbean in particular, Baptist missionaries and members took an active role in the anti-slavery movement. In Jamaica, for example, William Knibb, a prominent British Baptist missionary, worked toward the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies (which took place in full in 1838). Knibb supported the creation of "Free Villages" and sought funding from English Baptists to buy land for freedmen to cultivate; the Free Villages were envisioned as rural communities to be centered around a Baptist church where emancipated slaves could farm their own land. Thomas Burchell, missionary minister in Montego Bay, was active in this movement, gaining funds from Baptists in England to buy land for what became known as Burchell Free Village.
Prior to emancipation, Baptist deacon Samuel Sharpe, who served with Burchell, organized a general strike of slaves seeking better conditions. It developed into a major rebellion of as many as 60,000 slaves, which became known as the Christmas Rebellion or the Baptist War. It was put down by government troops within two weeks. During and after the rebellion, an estimated 200 slaves were killed outright, with more than 300 judicially executed later by prosecution in the courts, sometimes for minor offenses.
Baptists were active after emancipation in promoting the education of former slaves; for example, Jamaica's Calabar High School, named after the port of Calabar in Nigeria, was founded by Baptist missionaries. At the same time, during and after slavery, slaves and free Blacks formed their own Spiritual Baptist movements—breakaway spiritual movements which theology often expressed resistance to oppression.[125]
Landmark crisis
Southern Baptist Landmarkism sought to reset the ecclesiastical separation which had characterized the old Baptist churches, in an era when inter-denominational union meetings were the order of the day.[126]James Robinson Graves was an influential Baptist of the 19th century and the primary leader of this movement.[127] While some Landmarkers eventually separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, the movement continued to influence the Convention into the 20th and 21st centuries.[128]
The rise of theological modernism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries also greatly affected Baptists.[129] The Landmark movement has been described as a reaction among Southern Baptists in the United States against incipient modernism.[130] In England, Charles Spurgeon fought against modernistic views of the Scripture in the Downgrade Controversy and severed his church from the Baptist Union as a result.[131][132][133]
In his 1963 book, Strength to Love, Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Jr. criticized some Baptist churches for their anti-intellectualism, especially because of the lack of theological training among pastors.[141]
In 2018, Baptist theologian Russell D. Moore criticized some Baptists in the United States for their moralism emphasizing strongly the condemnation of certain personal sins, but silent on the social injustices that afflict entire populations, such as racism.[142] In 2020, the North American Baptist Fellowship, a region of the Baptist World Alliance, officially made a commitment to social justice and spoke out against institutionalized discrimination in the American justice system.[143] In 2022, the Baptist World Alliance adopted a resolution encouraging Baptist churches and associations that have historically contributed to the sin of slavery to engage in restorative justice. [144]
Anabaptism is a Christian movement which traces its origins to the Radical Reformation in the 16th century. Anabaptists believe that baptism is valid only when candidates freely confess their faith in Christ and request to be baptized. Commonly referred to as believer's baptism, it is opposed to baptism of infants, who are not able to make a conscious decision to be baptized.
A creed, also known as a confession of faith, a symbol, or a statement of faith, is a statement of the shared beliefs of a community which summarize its core tenets.
The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), alternatively the Great Commission Baptists (GCB), is a Christian denomination based in the United States. It is the world's largest Baptist organization, the largest Protestant, and the second-largest Christian body in the United States. The SBC is a cooperation of fully autonomous, independent churches with commonly held essential beliefs that pool some resources for missions.
The American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) is a Baptist Christian denomination established in 1907 as the Northern Baptist Convention, and named the American Baptist Convention from 1950 to 1972. It traces its history to the First Baptist Church in America (1638) and the Baptist congregational associations which organized the Triennial Convention in 1814.
The Holiness movement is a Christian movement that emerged chiefly within 19th-century Methodism, and to a lesser extent influenced other traditions such as Quakerism, Anabaptism, and Restorationism. Churches aligned with the holiness movement teach that the life of a born again Christian should be free of sin. The movement is historically distinguished by its emphasis on the doctrine of a second work of grace, which is called entire sanctification or Christian perfection. The word Holiness refers specifically to this belief in entire sanctification as an instantaneous, definite second work of grace, in which original sin is cleansed, the heart is made perfect in love, and the believer is empowered to serve God. For the Holiness movement, "the term 'perfection' signifies completeness of Christian character; its freedom from all sin, and possession of all the graces of the Spirit, complete in kind." A number of Christian denominations, parachurch organizations, and movements emphasize those Holiness beliefs as central doctrine.
Reformed Baptists, Particular Baptists and Calvinistic Baptists, are Baptists that hold to a Calvinist soteriology. Depending on the denomination, Calvinistic Baptists adhere to varying degrees of Reformed theology, ranging from simply embracing the Five Points of Calvinism, to accepting a modified form of federalism; all Calvinistic Baptists reject the classical Reformed teaching on infant baptism. While the Reformed Baptist confessions affirm views of the nature of baptism similar to those of the classical Reformed, they reject infants as the proper subjects of baptism. The first Calvinistic Baptist church was formed in the 1630s. The 1689 Baptist Confession of Faith is a significant summary of the beliefs of Reformed Baptists. The name "Reformed Baptist" dates from the latter part of the 20th century to denote Baptists who retained Baptist ecclesiology, and reaffirmed Reformed biblical theology, such as Covenant theology.
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an international Baptist association of Christian churches with an estimated 51 million people from 266 member bodies in 134 countries and territories as of 2024. A voluntary association of Baptist churches, the BWA accounts for about half the Baptists in the world.
Free Will Baptists or Free Baptists are a group of General Baptist denominations of Christianity that teach free grace, free salvation and free will. The movement can be traced to the 1600s with the development of General Baptism in England. Its formal establishment is widely linked to the English theologian, Thomas Helwys who led the Baptist movement to believe in general atonement. He was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous and punishable by death. He died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of Protestant dissenters under King James I.
General Baptists are Baptists who hold the general or unlimited atonement view, the belief that Jesus Christ died for the entire world and not just for the chosen elect. General Baptists are theologically Arminian, which distinguishes them from Reformed Baptists.
John Smyth was an English Anglican, Baptist, then Mennonite minister and a defender of the principle of religious liberty.
Approximately 15.3% of Americans identify as Baptist, making Baptists the second-largest religious group in the United States, after Roman Catholics. Baptists adhere to a congregationalist structure, so local church congregations are generally self-regulating and autonomous, meaning that their broadly Christian religious beliefs can and do vary. Baptists make up a significant portion of evangelicals in the United States and approximately one third of all Protestants in the United States. Divisions among Baptists have resulted in numerous Baptist bodies, some with long histories and others more recently organized. There are also many Baptists operating independently or practicing their faith in entirely independent congregations.
Beginning in 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) experienced an intense struggle for control of the organization. Its initiators called it the conservative resurgence while its detractors labeled it the fundamentalist takeover. It was launched with the charge that the seminaries and denominational agencies were dominated by liberals. The movement was primarily aimed at reorienting the denomination away from a liberal trajectory.
Baptist beliefs are not completely consistent from one church to another, as Baptists do not have a central governing authority. However, Baptists do hold some common beliefs among almost all Baptist churches.
The positions of the Baptist churches about homosexuality are varied. They range from liberal to fundamentalist or moderate Conservative and neutral.
An ordinance is a term used by certain Christian denominations for a religious ritual that was instituted by Jesus for Christians to observe.
The Triennial Convention was the first national Baptist denomination in the United States. Officially named the General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions, it was formed in 1814 to advance missionary work and headquartered in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. In a dispute over slavery and missions policy, Baptist churches in the South separated from the Triennial Convention and established the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. This split left the Triennial Convention largely Northern in membership. In 1907, the Triennial Convention was reorganized into the Northern Baptist Convention, which was renamed American Baptist Churches USA in 1972.
Believer's baptism or adult baptism is the practice of baptizing those who are able to make a conscious profession of faith, as contrasted to the practice of baptizing infants. Credobaptists believe that infants incapable of consciously believing should not be baptized.
Protestantism is the largest grouping of Christians in the United States, with its combined denominations collectively comprising about 43% of the country's population in 2019. Other estimates suggest that 48.5% of the U.S. population is Protestant. Simultaneously, this corresponds to around 20% of the world's total Protestant population. The U.S. contains the largest Protestant population of any country in the world. Baptists comprise about one-third of American Protestants. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest single Protestant denomination in the U.S., comprising one-tenth of American Protestants. Twelve of the original Thirteen Colonies were Protestant, with only Maryland having a sizable Catholic population due to Lord Baltimore's religious tolerance.
The believers' Church is a theological doctrine of Evangelical Christianity which teaches that one becomes a member of the Church by new birth and profession of faith. Adherence to this doctrine is a common defining feature of an Evangelical Christian church.
Protestant theology refers to the doctrines held by various Protestant traditions, which share some things in common but differ in others. In general, Protestant theology, as a subset of Christian theology, holds to faith in the Christian Bible, the Holy Trinity, salvation, sanctification, charity, evangelism, and the four last things.
1 2 3 Fiddes, Paul (2022). "Baptists". In Andrew Louth (ed.). The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (4thed.). Oxford University Press. ISBN9780191744396.
1 2 3 4 5 6 Gourley, Bruce. "A Very Brief Introduction to Baptist History, Then and Now." The Baptist Observer.
1 2 3 Benedict, David (1848). A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World. Lewis Colby. p.325. It is, however, well known by the community at home and abroad, that from a very early period they have been divided into two parties, which have been denominated General and Particular, which differ from each other mainly in their doctrinal sentiments; the Generals being Arminians, and the other, Calvinists.
1 2 Briggs, John. "Baptist Origins". Baptist History and Heritage Society. Archived from the original on 5 January 2010. Retrieved 10 January 2010.
↑ Brown, Harold O.J. (1988). Heresies: Heresy and Orthodoxy in the History of the Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Hendrickson Publishers. p.337. ISBN1-56563-365-2.
↑ J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, US, 2010, p. 298
↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, US, 2009, p. 530
↑ Olivier Favre, Les églises évangéliques de Suisse: origines et identités, Labor et Fides, Genève, 2006, p. 328
↑ W. Glenn Jonas Jr., The Baptist River, Mercer University Press, US, 2008, p. 6
↑ Robert Andrew Baker, John M. Landers, A Summary of Christian History, B&H Publishing Group, US, 2005, p. 258
↑ Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 33
↑ Michael Edward Williams, Walter B. Shurden, Turning Points in Baptist History, Mercer University Press, US, 2008, p. 36
↑ McBeth, H Leon. "Baptist Beginnings". Baptist History and Heritage Society. Archived from the original on 21 October 2007. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
↑ John H. Y. Briggs, A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought, Wipf and Stock Publishers, US, 2009, p. 467
↑ Sébastien Fath, Une autre manière d'être chrétien en France: socio-histoire de l'implantation baptiste, 1810–1950, Editions Labor et Fides, Genève, 2001, p. 81
↑ Priest, Gerald L (14 October 2010), Are Baptists Protestants?(PDF), Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary, archived from the original on 20 June 2017{{citation}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link).
1 2 Rawlyk, George A, ed. (1986). The Sermons of Henry Alline. Hantsport: Lancelot Press for Acadia Divinity College and the Baptist Historical Committee of the United Baptist Convention of the Atlantic Provinces. p.32.
↑ Bell, DG (1993), Henry Alline and Maritime Religion, Ottawa: Canadian Historical Association.
↑ "Family Trees". Association of Religion Data Archives. Retrieved 28 November 2023. Modern Baptists are a group of Christian denominations and churches who subscribe to a theology of believer's baptism (as opposed to infant baptism), salvation through faith alone, Scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local church.
↑ Williams, Michael Edward; Shurden, Walter B. (2008). Turning Points in Baptist History. Mercer University Press. pp.63, 72. 63: "Baptists' practice of congregational church government means that all authority and power in Baptist life is focused in the local congregation of believers, not in any extra-local ecclesiastical body. From their beginnings, especially in America, the Baptist people consistently and repeatedly affirmed the local church as the center of their life together. For that reason there is no "The Baptist Church" in the same sense that there is "The Methodist Church," "The Episcopal Church," or "The Presbyterian Church." There are only "Baptist churches." Baptists have formed "conventions" of churches, "unions" of churches, and "associations" of churches, but final authority in Baptist life resides in the local congregation of believers. That authority does not rest in a denomination or any extra-local church body of any kind, civil or ecclesiastical." 72: " If you examine Baptist associations among different national Baptist bodies in contemporary America or if you compare Baptist associations in various countries today, you will find a wide divergence in the nature and practice of associations. This leads to the conclusion that Baptists really have no consistent or obvious theology of church order beyond the local church. Baptists do not have an ecclesiology beyond the local church that tells them how they must organize or structure their local churches into a Baptist denomination. For the most part, each group of Baptists has been guided primarily by practical issues, though they usually conscript both the Bible and Baptist theology in making the case for church connectionalism."
↑ Blankman, Drew; Augustine, Todd (17 April 2010). Pocket Dictionary of North American Denominations: Over 100 Christian Groups Clearly & Concisely Defined. InterVarsity Press. p.88. ISBN978-0-8308-6706-6.
↑ Stephen R. Holmes, Baptist Theology, T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 2012, p. 104-105
↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, US, 2020, p. 173–174
↑ Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 238
↑ Brackney, William H. (2009). Historical Dictionary of the Baptists. Scarecrow Press. pp.38–40. ASSOCIATIONS, BAPTIST. Groups of Baptist churches formed for the purpose of mutual support, aid to destitute congregations, and advice on matters of order, discipline, expansion, and identity. Based upon a principle common to most Christian organizations, Baptists have almost from their beginnings associated in this way with other churches of like faith and order. The Baptist association is not considered a superior body to the local congregation but rather an advisory body voluntarily covenanting with local churches for specific tasks.
↑ Weaver, C. Douglas (2008). In Search of the New Testament Church: The Baptist Story. Mercer University Press. p.26. Interdependence of Churches: Associations. Baptist life has accented the independence of the local church more than the interdependence of churches. At the same time, Baptists from their earliest decades of existence sought to practice cooperative work with other Baptist churches in associations. Churches met for fellowship and mutual encouragement and sought doctrinal unity with like-minded churches.
↑ Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 99
↑ J. Gordon Melton and Martin Baumann, Religions of the World: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices, ABC-CLIO, US, 2010, p. 292
↑ George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, US, 2016, p. 63
↑ George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christianity in the United States, Volume 5, Rowman & Littlefield, US, 2016, p. 1206
↑ Robert E. Johnson, A Global Introduction to Baptist Churches, Cambridge University Press, UK, 2010, p. 361
↑ Paul Finkelman, Cary D. Wintz, Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century Five-volume Set, Oxford University Press, US, 2009, p. 193
↑ Pinson, William M. Jr (2005). "Trends in Baptist Polity". Baptist Heritage and the 21st Century. Baptist History and Heritage Society. Archived from the original on 13 October 2007.
↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, US, 2009, p. 2-3
↑ Hammett, John S (2005), Biblical Foundations for Baptist Churches: A Contemporary Ecclesiology, Kregel Publications, ISBN978-0-8254-2769-5, One thing that all Baptists have in common is that everything is built upon the Bible..
↑ "Position Paper Concerning the IMB Policy on Glossolalia", Florida Baptist Witness, archived from the original on 28 July 2011, retrieved 18 March 2010.
↑ Beck, Rosalie (Response to 'The Ordination of Women Among Texas Baptists' by Ann Miller). "Perspectives in Religious Studies". Journal of the NABPR. Archived from the original on 13 June 2011. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, US, 2009, p. 625
↑ David W. Music, Paul Akers Richardson, "I Will Sing the Wondrous Story": A History of Baptist Hymnody in North America, Mercer University Press, USA, 2008, p. 479-480
↑ John H. Y. Briggs, A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought, Wipf and Stock Publishers, US, 2009, p. 81
↑ John H. Y. Briggs, A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought, Wipf and Stock Publishers, US, 2009, p. 399
↑ William H. Brackney, Historical Dictionary of the Baptists, Scarecrow Press, US, 2020, p. 35
↑ William H. Brackney, Congregation and Campus: Baptists in Higher Education, Mercer University Press, US, 2008, p. IX
↑ Bill J. Leonard, Baptists in America, Columbia University Press, US, 2005, p. 37
↑ William H. Brackney, Congregation and Campus: Baptists in Higher Education, Mercer University Press, US, 2008, p. 43
↑ Hankins, Barry (2002). Uneasy in Babylon: Southern Baptist Conservatives and American Culture. Tuscaloosa, Alabama: University of Alabama Press. p.74. ISBN978-0-8173-1142-1. One scholar has called the proslavery racism that gave birth to the SBC the denomination's original sin. He argued that the controversy of the 1980s was part of God's judgment on a denomination that for most of its history engaged in racism, sexism, and a sense of denominational superiority. Whatever the merits of this particular argument, the Southern Baptist Convention, like most southern institutions, reflected, manifested, and in many instances led the racism of the region as a whole. Nowhere was this more prevalent than during the Civil Rights era of the 1960s, when most of the leaders of the opposition to desegregation were Southern Baptists. For just one example of a fairly typical Southern Baptist attitude, one can turn to Douglas Hudgins, pastor of one of the South's most prominent churches in the 1950s and 1960s, First Baptist, Jackson, Mississippi. Hudgins used the moderate theology of E. Y. Mullins, with its emphasis on individualism and soul competency, to argue that the Christian faith had nothing to do with a corporate, societal problem like segregation. He, therefore, refused to speak up for African Americans and, in more ways than he could have known, helped inspire a whole generation of Southern Baptists to rest comfortably in their belief that segregation was natural and that the Civil Rights movement was a perversion of the gospel.
↑ Smith; Handy; Loetscher (1963). American Christianity: An Historical Interpretation With Representative Documents. Vol.II: 1820–1960. Charles Scribner's Sons. p.110.
↑ Ashcraft, Robert, ed. (2000), History of the American Baptist Association, Texarkana, History and Archives Committee of the American Baptist Association, pp.63–6
↑ Nettles, Tom (21 July 2013). Living By Revealed Truth The Life and Pastoral Theology of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Ross-shire: Christian Focus Publishing. p.700. ISBN9781781911228.
↑ Hefley, James C., The Truth in Crisis, Volume 6: The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, Hannibal Books, 2008. ISBN0-929292-19-7.
↑ James, Rob B. The Fundamentalist Takeover in the Southern Baptist Convention, 4th ed., Wilkes Publishing, Washington, Georgia.
↑ Mead, Frank Spencer; Hill, Samuel S; Atwood, Craig D (2001). Handbook of Denominations in the United States. Abingdon Press. p.46. ISBN978-0-687-06983-5.
Wright, Stephen (2004), Early English Baptists 1603–1649.
Further reading
Bebbington, David. Baptists through the Centuries: A History of a Global People (Baylor University Press, 2010) emphasis on the United States and Europe; the last two chapters are on the global context.
Brackney, William H. A Genetic History of Baptist Thought: With Special Reference to Baptists in Britain and North America (Mercer University Press, 2004), focus on confessions of faith, hymns, theologians, and academics.
Brackney, William H. ed., Historical Dictionary of the Baptists (2nd ed. Scarecrow, 2009).
Cathcart, William, ed. The Baptist Encyclopedia (2 vols. 1883). online
Gavins, Raymond. The Perils and Prospects of Southern Black Leadership: Gordon Blaine Hancock, 1884–1970. Duke University Press, 1977.
Harrison, Paul M. Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition: A Social Case Study of the American Baptist Convention Princeton University Press, 1959.
Harvey, Paul. Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among Southern Baptists, 1865–1925 University of North Carolina Press, 1997.
Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (1997).
Isaac, Rhy. "Evangelical Revolt: The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia, 1765 to 1775", William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., XXXI (July 1974), 345–368.
Life & Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader, New York University press, 2001, pp.5–7, ISBN978-0-8147-5648-5 .
Kidd, Thomas S., Barry Hankins, Oxford University Press, 2015
Leonard, Bill J. Baptists in America (Columbia University Press, 2005).
Pitts, Walter F. Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora Oxford University Press, 1996.
Rawlyk, George. Champions of the Truth: Fundamentalism, Modernism, and the Maritime Baptists (1990), Canada.
Spangler, Jewel L. "Becoming Baptists: Conversion in Colonial and Early National Virginia" Journal of Southern History. Volume: 67. Issue: 2. 2001. pp.243+
Stringer, Phil. The Faithful Baptist Witness, Landmark Baptist Press, 1998.
Underwood, A. C. A History of the English Baptists. London: Kingsgate Press, 1947.
Whitley, William Thomas A Baptist Bibliography: being a register of the chief materials for Baptist history, whether in manuscript or in print, preserved in Great Britain, Ireland, and the Colonies. 2 vols. London: Kingsgate Press, 1916–1922 (reissued) Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1984 ISBN3487074567
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