Baptist

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Baptists
Baptists are Christians
Christians distinguished by baptizing professing believers only (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and doing so by complete immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling). Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the tenets of soul competency/liberty, salvation through faith alone, scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists
Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and the Lord's supper.[1] Baptist churches are widely considered to be Protestant, though some Baptists
Baptists disavow this identity.[2] Diverse from their beginning, those identifying as Baptists
Baptists today 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.[3] Historians trace the earliest church labeled "Baptist" back to 1609 in Amsterdam, Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic with English Separatist John Smyth as its pastor.[4] In accordance with his reading of the New Testament, he rejected baptism of infants and instituted baptism only of believing adults.[5] Baptist practice spread to England, where the General Baptists
Baptists considered Christ's atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists
Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect.[6] Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys formulated a distinctively Baptist request that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have freedom of religion. Helwys died in prison as a consequence of the religious persecution of English dissenters under King James I. In 1638, Roger Williams established the first Baptist congregation in the North American colonies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the First and Second Great Awakening
Great Awakening increased church membership in the United States.[7] Baptist missionaries have spread their faith to every continent.[5] The largest Baptist denomination is the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), with the membership of associated churches totaling more than 15 million.[7] Some Baptists
Baptists cooperate through the Baptist World Alliance, while some are individual believers and members of independent denominations.

Contents

1 Origins

1.1 English separatist view 1.2 Anabaptist
Anabaptist influence view 1.3 Perpetuity and succession view 1.4 Baptist origins in the United Kingdom 1.5 Baptist origins in North America

2 Baptist affiliations 3 Membership

3.1 Statistics 3.2 Qualification for membership

4 Baptist beliefs
Baptist beliefs and principles

4.1 Beliefs that vary among Baptists

5 Controversies that have shaped Baptists

5.1 Missions crisis 5.2 Slavery crisis

5.2.1 United States 5.2.2 Caribbean islands

5.3 Memory of slavery 5.4 Landmark crisis 5.5 Modernist crisis

6 See also 7 References 8 Bibliography 9 Further reading

9.1 Primary sources

10 External links

Origins[edit] Baptist historian Bruce Gourley outlines four main views of Baptist origins: (1) The modern scholarly consensus that the movement traces its origin to the 17th century via the English Separatists, (2) the view that it was an outgrowth of Anabaptist
Anabaptist traditions, (3) the perpetuity view which assumes that the Baptist faith and practice has existed since the time of Christ, and (4) the successionist view, or "Baptist successionism", which argues that Baptist churches actually existed in an unbroken chain since the time of Christ.[4] English separatist view[edit]

John Smyth is believed to have founded the first church labeled "Baptist" in Amsterdam
Amsterdam in 1609

Modern Baptist churches trace their history to the English Separatist movement in the 1600s, the century after the rise of the original Protestant
Protestant denominations.[8] This view of Baptist origins has the most historical support and is the most widely accepted.[9] Adherents to this position consider the influence of Anabaptists
Anabaptists upon early Baptists
Baptists to be minimal.[4] 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.[10][page needed][11] During the Protestant
Protestant Reformation, the Church of England
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
Protestant Reformation.[3][12] There also were Christians
Christians who were disappointed that the Church of England
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.[4] Historians trace the earliest Baptist church back to 1609 in Amsterdam, with John Smyth as its pastor.[4] Three years earlier, while a Fellow of Christ's College, Cambridge, he had broken his ties with the Church of England. Reared in the Church of England, he became "Puritan, English Separatist, and then a Baptist Separatist," and ended his days working with the Mennonites.[13] He began meeting in England with 60–70 English Separatists, in the face of "great danger."[14] The persecution of religious nonconformists in England led Smyth to go into exile in Amsterdam
Amsterdam with fellow Separatists from the congregation he had gathered in Lincolnshire, separate from the established church (Anglican). Smyth and his lay supporter, Thomas Helwys, together with those they led, broke with the other English exiles because Smyth and Helwys were convinced they should be baptized as believers. In 1609 Smyth first baptized himself and then baptized the others.[12][15] 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."[16] 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 (paedobaptism).[17][18] Shortly thereafter, Smyth left the group, and layman Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys took over the leadership, leading the church back to England in 1611.[4] 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.[19] Smyth, convinced that his self-baptism was invalid, applied with the Mennonites
Mennonites for membership. He died while waiting for membership, and some of his followers became Mennonites. Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys and others kept their baptism and their Baptist commitments.[19] The modern Baptist denomination is an outgrowth of Smyth's movement.[12] Baptists rejected the name Anabaptist
Anabaptist when they were called that by opponents in derision. McBeth writes that as late as the 18th century, many Baptists
Baptists referred to themselves as "the Christians
Christians commonly—though falsely—called Anabaptists."[20] Another milestone in the early development of Baptist doctrine was in 1638 with John Spilsbury, a Calvinistic minister who helped to promote the strict practice of believer's baptism by immersion.[9] 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
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."[9] Anabaptist
Anabaptist influence view[edit]

Print from Anglican theologian Daniel Featley's book, "The Dippers Dipt, or, The Anabaptists
Anabaptists Duck'd and Plung'd Over Head and Ears, at a Disputation in Southwark", published in 1645.

A minority view is that early 17th century Baptists
Baptists were influenced by (but not directly connected to) continental Anabaptists.[21] According to this view, the General Baptists
General Baptists shared similarities with Dutch Waterlander Mennonites
Mennonites (one of many Anabaptist
Anabaptist groups) including believer's baptism only, religious liberty, separation of church and state, and Arminian views of salvation, predestination and original sin. Representative writers including A.C. Underwood and William R. Estep. Gourley wrote that among some contemporary Baptist scholars who emphasize the faith of the community over soul liberty, the Anabaptist influence theory is making a comeback.[4] However, the relations between Baptists
Baptists and Anabaptists
Anabaptists were early strained. In 1624, the then five existing Baptist churches of London issued a condemnation of the Anabaptists. Furthermore, the original group associated with Smyth and popularly believed to be the first Baptists
Baptists broke with the Waterlander Mennonite Anabaptists
Anabaptists after a brief period of association in the Netherlands.[22] Perpetuity and succession view[edit] Main article: Baptist successionism Traditional Baptist historians write from the perspective that Baptists
Baptists had existed since the time of Christ.[23] However, the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention passed resolutions rejecting this view in 1859. Proponents of the Baptist successionist or perpetuity view consider the Baptist movement to have existed independently from Roman Catholicism
Catholicism and prior to the Protestant
Protestant Reformation.[24] The perpetuity view is often identified with The Trail of Blood, a booklet of five lectures by J.M. Carrol published in 1931.[24] Other Baptist writers who advocate the successionist theory of Baptist origins are John T. Christian, Thomas Crosby, G. H. Orchard, J. M. Cramp, William Cathcart, Adam Taylor and D. B. Ray[24][25] This view was also held by English Baptist preacher, Charles Spurgeon[26] as well as Jesse Mercer, the namesake of Mercer University.[27][original research?] Baptist origins in the United Kingdom[edit] See also: English Dissenters

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, Thomas Helwys
Thomas 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
Particular Baptists were established when a group of Calvinist Separatists adopted believers' Baptism.[28][page needed] The Particular Baptists
Particular Baptists consisted of seven churches by 1644 and had created a confession of faith called the First London Confession of Faith.[29] Baptist origins in North America[edit] See also: Baptists in the United States
Baptists in the United States and Baptists
Baptists in Canada Both Roger Williams and John Clarke, his compatriot and coworker for religious freedom, are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in North America.[30] 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."[8][31] The Great Awakening
Great Awakening energized the Baptist movement, and the Baptist community experienced spectacular growth. Baptists
Baptists became the largest Christian community in many southern states, including among the black population.[5] Baptist missionary work in Canada began in the British colony of Nova Scotia (present day Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in the 1760s.[32] The first official record of a Baptist church in Canada was that of the Horton Baptist Church (now Wolfville) in Wolfville, Nova Scotia
Nova Scotia on 29 October 1778.[33] The church was established with the assistance of the New Light evangelist Henry Alline. Many of Alline's followers, after his death, would convert and strengthen the Baptist presence in the Atlantic region.[34][page needed][35][36] Two major groups of Baptists
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.[35] In May 1845, the Baptist congregations in the United States split over slavery and missions. The Home Mission Society prevented slaveholders from being appointed as missionaries.[37] The split created the Southern Baptist Convention, while the northern congregations formed their own umbrella organization now called the American Baptist Churches USA (ABC-USA). The Methodist Episcopal Church, South
Methodist Episcopal Church, South had recently separated over the issue of slavery, and southern Presbyterians
Presbyterians would do so shortly thereafter.[38] Baptist affiliations[edit]

Christian denominations in English-speaking world

International associations Interdenominational associations

World Council of Churches World Evangelical Alliance

Denominational associations

Friends World Committee for Consultation Mennonite World Conference Anglican Communion Baptist World Alliance World Convention of Churches of Christ Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox Church Confessional Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Conference International Lutheran
Lutheran Council Lutheran
Lutheran World Federation World Methodist
Methodist Council Pentecostal
Pentecostal World Conference International Conference of Reformed
Reformed Churches Reformed
Reformed Ecumenical Council World Communion of Reformed
Reformed Churches World Reformed
Reformed Fellowship

Regional associations

Africa

All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Association of Evangelicals of Africa (AEA) All Africa Baptist Fellowship Africa Lutheran
Lutheran Communion

Asia

Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) Evangelical Fellowship of Asia Asia Pacific Baptist Federation Asia Lutheran
Lutheran Communion

Caribbean

Caribbean Conference of Churches (CCC) Evangelical Association of the Caribbean Caribbean Baptist Fellowship

Europe

Conference of European Churches (CEC) European Evangelical Alliance European Baptist Federation Pentecostal
Pentecostal European Fellowship

Middle East

Middle East Council of Churches (MECC)

Latin America

Latin American Council of Churches (CLAI) Latin American Evangelical Fellowship (FIDE) Union of Baptists
Baptists in Latin America

North America

North American Baptist Fellowship Standing Conference of Orthodox Bishops in America North American Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed
Reformed Council

Pacific

Pacific Conference of Churches
Pacific Conference of Churches (PCC) Evangelical Fellowship of the South Pacific (EFSP) Asia Pacific Baptist Federation

Australia

Christian denominations in Australia

Australian interchurch

Australian Evangelical Alliance
Evangelical Alliance • website National Council of Churches

Catholic and Anglican

Anglican Church of Australia Roman Catholic Church

Holiness and Pietist

Christian and Missionary Alliance Christian Outreach Centre Church of the Nazarene Salvation
Salvation Army Seventh-day Adventist Church

Historical Protestantism

Australian Friends Australian Baptist Ministries Open Brethren

Christian Reformed
Reformed Churches of Australia

Churches of Christ Fellowship of Congregational Churches Lutheran
Lutheran Church of Australia Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church of Australia Uniting Church in Australia Wesleyan Methodist
Methodist Church of Australia

Orthodox

Antiochian Orthodox of Australia and New Z. Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of Australia Serbian Orthodox of Australia and New Z.

Non-Chalcedonic

Coptic Orthodox Church in Australia

Pentecostal
Pentecostal and related

Australian Christian Churches
Australian Christian Churches (AOG) Christian City Church Intl. CRC Churches International Revival Centres International Vineyard Churches Australia Worldwide Church of God

Other

LDS Church

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Canada

Canadian Christian bodies

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Canadian interchurch

Canadian Council of Churches Assembly of Canonical Orthodox Bishops of North and Central America North Am. Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed
Reformed Council

Anabaptist
Anabaptist and Friends

Canadian Mennonite Brethren Churches Canadian Yearly Meeting (Quakers) Mennonite Church Canada

Baptist and Stone-Campbell

Baptist

Association of Regular Baptist Churches Baptist General Conference of Canada Canadian Baptist Ministries Canadian Convention of Southern Baptists Fellowship of Evgcl. Baptist Churches, Canada North American Baptist Conference

Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement

Christian Church
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Evangelical Christian Church
Christian Church in Canada

Catholic and Anglican

Anglican Church of Canada Anglican Church in North America Polish National Catholic Church Roman Catholic Church Ukrainian Catholic Archeparchy of Winnipeg

Holiness and Pietist

Christian and Missionary Alliance, Canada Church of the Nazarene Evangelical Free Church of Canada The Salvation
Salvation Army Wesleyan Church

Lutheran

Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Church in Canada Lutheran
Lutheran Church–Canada Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Synod

Methodist

British Methodist
Methodist Episcopal Church Free Methodist
Methodist Church in Canada United Church of Canada

Eastern Orthodox
Eastern Orthodox and Oriental Orthodox

Eastern Orthodox

Antiochian Orthodox Archdiocese, N.Am. Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Toronto (Canada) Serbian Orthodox Eparchy of Canada Orthodox Church in America American-Canadian Macedonian Orthodox Diocese Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada

Oriental Orthodox

Armenian Apostolic Diocese of Am. Coptic Orthodox Church in Canada

Syncretic

Evangelical Orthodox Church

Pentecostal

Apostolic Church of Pentecost Canadian Assemblies of God Church of God of Prophecy Intl. Foursquare Gospel, Canada Intl. Pentecostal
Pentecostal Holiness Church Pentecostal
Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church of God

Oneness Pentecostal

United Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church Intl.

Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed

Canadian and American Reformed
Reformed Churches Christian Reformed
Reformed Church in North America L'Église réformée du Québec Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in Canada Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in America Reformed
Reformed Church in America United Church of Canada

Other

Messianic Jewish Alliance of America Plymouth Brethren Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Canada LDS Church Vineyard Canada Watch Tower Bible
Bible and Tract Society of Canada

Syncretic

Evangelical Orthodox Church

Ireland

Irish Christian bodies

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Irish interchurch

Irish Council of Churches Churches Together in Britain and Ireland Evangelical Alliance, UK

Church of Ireland
Church of Ireland (Anglican) Association of Baptist Churches Roman Catholicism Assemblies of God Elim Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in Ireland

Nigeria

Christian denominations in Nigeria

Nigerian interchurch

Christian Association of Nigeria Fellowship of Churches of Christ
Churches of Christ in Nigeria

African initiated

Cherubim and Seraphim Society Eternal Sacred Order of Cherubim and Seraphim Church of God Mission International Church of the Lord (Aladura)

Anglican

The African Church Church of Nigeria

Baptist, Anabaptist, DC

Church of the Brethren
Church of the Brethren in Nigeria Churches of Christ
Churches of Christ in Nigeria Mambila Baptist Convention of Nigeria Nigerian Baptist Convention

Catholic

Roman Catholic Church

Holiness and Methodist

African Methodist
Methodist Episcopal Church in Nigeria Deeper Christian Life Ministry Redeemed Christian Church
Christian Church of God United Methodist
Methodist Church of Nigeria

Lutheran

Lutheran
Lutheran Church of Christ in Nigeria Lutheran
Lutheran Church of Nigeria

Pentecostal

The Apostolic Church Nigeria Christ Apostolic Church General Council of the Assemblies of God Nigeria Gospel
Gospel Faith Mission International Church of the Foursquare Gospel The Lord's Chosen Charismatic Revival Movement New Apostolic Church in Nigeria Winners' Chapel

Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed

Christian Reformed
Reformed Church of Nigeria Church of Christ in Nigeria Church of Christ in the Sudan Among the Tiv Evangelical Reformed
Reformed Church of Christ N.K.S.T Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church of Nigeria Reformed
Reformed Church of Christ in Nigeria

Other Protestant

Evangelical Church of West Africa QIC-United Evangelical Church Seventh-day Adventist Church
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Nigeria Word of Faith Ministries

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South Africa

Christian denominations in South Africa

South African interchurch

South African Council of Churches

Catholic and Anglican

Anglican Church Reformed
Reformed Evangelical Anglican Church Roman Catholicism

Holiness and AIC

Die Heilsleër Zion Christian Church

Pentecostal

Apostolic Faith Mission [Assemblies of God]

Protestantism, Other

Baptist Union Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Church LDS Church Methodist
Methodist Church

Reformed

Dutch Reformed: NGK Dutch Reformed: NHK Evangelical Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church of Africa Reformed
Reformed Church in Africa Reformed
Reformed Churches: GKSA United Congregational Church Uniting Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church Uniting Reformed
Reformed Church

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United Kingdom

Christian denominations in the United Kingdom

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UK interchurch

Affinity (formerly British Evangelical Council) Churches Together in Britain and Ireland Evangelical Alliance, UK Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches

Churches Together in England

Action of Churches Together, Scotland (ACTS) Churches Together in Wales Evangelical Movement of Wales

Anglican

Church of England Church of Ireland Scottish Episcopal Church Church in Wales

Baptist

Association of Baptist Churches in Ireland Baptist Union of Great Britain Baptist Union of Scotland Baptist Union of Wales

Catholic

Roman Catholicism

Roman Catholicism
Catholicism in England and Wales Roman Catholicism
Catholicism in Ireland Roman Catholicism
Catholicism in Scotland

Holiness and Pietist

Church of the Nazarene Salvation
Salvation Army Seventh-day Adventist Church Wesleyan Holiness Church

Lutheran

Lutheran
Lutheran Church in Great Britain

Methodist
Methodist and Wesleyan

Methodist
Methodist Church of Great Britain Methodist
Methodist Church in Ireland

New Church Movement

Newfrontiers Pioneer Church

Orthodox

Greek Orthodox of G.B. (Eastern Orthodox)

Pentecostal

Assemblies of God Church of God in Christ Elim Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church

Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed

Asso. Presbyterian
Presbyterian Churches, Scotland Church of Scotland Congregational Federation Evangelical Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in Ireland Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church of Wales United Free Church of Scotland United Reformed
Reformed Church

Other

Newfrontiers LDS Church in England

United States

Christian denominations in the U.S.

U.S. interchurch

National Association of Evangelicals National Council of Churches Churches Uniting in Christ

Anabaptist
Anabaptist and Friends

Church of the Brethren Mennonite Church USA Amish

Anglican

Anglican Church in North America Episcopal Church

Baptist

Alliance of Baptists American Baptist Association American Baptist Churches Baptist Bible Fellowship
Baptist Bible Fellowship International Baptist Missionary Association of America Conservative Baptist Association of America Converge General Association of Regular Baptist Churches National Association of Free Will Baptists National Primitive Baptist Convention of the U.S.A. North American Baptist Conference Southern Baptist Convention Independent Baptist Churches

African-American Baptist

National Baptist Convention of America National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. National Missionary Baptist Convention of America Progressive National Baptist Convention

Catholic

Catholic Church
Catholic Church in the United States

Eastern Christian Eastern Orthodox

Antiochian Orthodox Christian Archdiocese Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America Orthodox Church in America Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia Serbian Orthodox Church
Serbian Orthodox Church in USA

Oriental Orthodox

Armenian Apostolic Church
Armenian Apostolic Church in USA Coptic Orthodox Church in USA Syriac Orthodox Church

Holiness and Pietist

Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of God (Anderson, Indiana) Evangelical Covenant Church Evangelical Free Church of America Church of the Nazarene The Salvation
Salvation Army Seventh-day Adventist Church Wesleyan Church

Lutheran

Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Church in America Lutheran
Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod North American Lutheran
Lutheran Church Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran
Lutheran Synod

Methodist

African Methodist
Methodist Episcopal Church African Methodist
Methodist Episcopal Zion Church Christian Methodist
Methodist Episcopal Church Free Methodist
Methodist Church United Methodist
Methodist Church

Pentecostal

Assemblies of God Church of God (Cleveland, Tennessee) Church of God in Christ Church of God of Prophecy Church on the Rock International Full Gospel
Gospel Fellowship International Church of the Foursquare Gospel International Pentecostal
Pentecostal Holiness Church Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church of God

Oneness Pentecostal

Pentecostal
Pentecostal Assemblies of the World United Pentecostal
Pentecostal Church Intl.

Presbyterian
Presbyterian and Reformed

Christian Reformed
Reformed Church in North America Conservative Congregational Christian Conference Cumberland Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church Evangelical Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church Korean Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in America International Council of Community Churches National Association of Congregational Christian Churches Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church (USA) Presbyterian
Presbyterian Church in America Reformed
Reformed Church in America United Church of Christ

Stone-Campbell

Christian Church
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) Christian churches and churches of Christ Churches of Christ International Churches of Christ

Other

LDS Church Community of Christ Grace Gospel
Gospel Fellowship IFCA International Jehovah's Witnesses Messianic Jewish Alliance of America Plymouth Brethren Vineyard USA

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Many Baptist churches choose to affiliate with organizational groups that provide fellowship without control.[5] The largest such group is the Southern Baptist Convention. There also are a substantial number of smaller cooperative groups. Finally, there are Independent Baptist churches that choose to remain autonomous and independent of any denomination, organization, or association.[39] It has been suggested that a primary Baptist principle is that local Baptist Churches are independent and self-governing,[40] and if so the term 'Baptist denomination' may be considered somewhat incongruous. In 1925, Baptists
Baptists worldwide formed the Baptist World Alliance
Baptist World Alliance (BWA). The BWA now counts 218 Baptist conventions and unions worldwide with over 41 million members.[41] The BWA's goals include caring for the needy, leading in world evangelism and defending human rights and religious freedom. Though it played a role in the founding of the BWA, the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention severed its affiliation with BWA in 2004.[42] Membership[edit]

The First Baptist Church in America
First Baptist Church in America located in Providence, Rhode Island. Baptists
Baptists in the U.S. number 50 million people and constitute roughly one-third of American Protestants.[43]

Statistics[edit] See also: List of Christian denominations by number of members and List of Baptist denominations Today, more than 100 million Christians
Christians identify themselves as Baptist or belong to Baptist-type churches. There are 36 million Baptists who belong to churches cooperating with the Baptist World Alliance. Many Baptist groups, including the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention and the Baptist Bible Fellowship
Baptist Bible Fellowship do not cooperate with the Alliance.[44][additional citation(s) needed] Baptists
Baptists are present in almost all continents in large denominations. The largest communities that are part of the Baptist World Alliance are in Nigeria (3.5 million) and Democratic Republic of the Congo
Democratic Republic of the Congo (2 million) in Africa, India (2.5 million) and Myanmar
Myanmar (1 million) in Asia, the United States (35 million) and Brazil (1.8 million) in the Americas.[45] In 1991, Ukraine
Ukraine had the second largest Baptist community in the world, behind only the United States.[46] According to the Barna Group researchers, Baptists
Baptists are the largest denominational grouping of born again Christians
Christians in the USA.[47] A 2009 ABCNEWS/Beliefnet phone poll of 1,022 adults suggests that fifteen percent of Americans identify themselves as Baptists.[48] A large percentage of Baptists
Baptists in North America are found in five bodies—the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); National Baptist Convention (NBC); National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.; (NBCA); American Baptist Churches USA
American Baptist Churches USA (ABC); and Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI).[49] Qualification for membership[edit] Membership policies vary due to the autonomy of churches, but the traditional method by which an individual becomes a member of a church is through believer's baptism, which is a public profession of faith in Jesus, followed by water baptism.[50] Most baptists do not believe that baptism is a requirement for salvation, but rather a public expression of one's inner repentance and faith.[8] Therefore, some churches will admit into membership persons who make a profession without believer's baptism.[51] 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.[52] (See Age of Accountability) Baptist beliefs
Baptist beliefs and principles[edit] Main article: Baptist beliefs 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.[53] 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
Christians as well as in comparison to other Baptists.[54] Most Baptists
Baptists are evangelical in doctrine, but Baptist beliefs
Baptist beliefs can vary due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches.[2] Historically, Baptists
Baptists have played a key role in encouraging religious freedom and separation of church and state.[55]

A Baptist chaplain aboard the US navy aircraft carrier baptizes a mate

Shared doctrines would include beliefs about one God; the virgin birth; miracles; atonement for sins through the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus; the Trinity; the need for salvation (through belief in Jesus
Jesus Christ as the Son of God, his death and resurrection); grace; the Kingdom of God; last things (eschatology) ( Jesus
Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge everyone in righteousness); and evangelism and missions. 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, the Southern Baptist Convention's Baptist Faith and Message, and written church covenants which some individual Baptist churches adopt as a statement of their faith and beliefs. Most Baptists
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.[56] 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
Baptists that have an Episcopal system. Baptists
Baptists generally believe in the literal Second Coming
Second Coming of Christ. Beliefs among Baptists
Baptists regarding the "end times" include amillennialism, dispensationalism, and historic premillennialism, with views such as postmillennialism and preterism receiving some support. Some additional distinctive Baptist principles held by many Baptists:[57]: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
Baptists do not practice infant baptism—they say the Bible
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
Baptists from other evangelical Christians. Baptists
Baptists believe that faith is a matter between God and the individual (religious freedom). To them it means the advocacy of absolute liberty of conscience. Insistence on immersion as the only mode of baptism. Baptists
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.[57]

Beliefs that vary among Baptists[edit]

Church sign indicating that the congregation uses the Authorized King James Version of 1611

Since there is no hierarchical authority and each Baptist church is autonomous, there is no official set of Baptist theological beliefs.[58] These differences exist both among associations, and even among churches within the associations. Some doctrinal issues on which there is widespread difference among Baptists
Baptists are:

Eschatology Calvinism
Calvinism versus Arminianism The doctrine of separation from "the world" and whether to associate with those who are "of the world" Speaking-in-tongues and the operation of other charismatic gifts of the Holy Spirit
Holy Spirit in the modern church[59] How the Bible
Bible should be interpreted (hermeneutics) The extent to which missionary boards should be used to support missionaries The extent to which non-members may participate in the Lord's Supper services Which translation of Scripture to use (see King-James-Only movement)[60] Dispensationalism
Dispensationalism versus Covenant theology The role of women in marriage. The ordination of women as deacons or pastors.[61] Attitudes to, and involvement in the ecumenical movement.

Controversies that have shaped Baptists[edit] Baptists
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
Baptists each have become decision-moments that shaped their future.[62] Some controversies that have shaped Baptists
Baptists include the "missions crisis", the "slavery crisis", the "landmark crisis", and the "modernist crisis". Missions crisis[edit] 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.[63] During this era, the American Baptists
Baptists were split between missionary and anti-missionary. A substantial secession of Baptists
Baptists went into the movement led by Alexander Campbell, to return to a more fundamental church.[64] Slavery crisis[edit] See also: Christian views on slavery United States[edit]

First Baptist Church in Augusta, Georgia
Augusta, Georgia where the Southern Baptist Convention was founded

Leading up to the American Civil War, Baptists
Baptists became embroiled in the controversy over slavery in the United States. Whereas in the First Great Awakening, Methodist
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
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.Citation Needed The Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention was formed by nine state conventions in 1845. They believed that the Bible
Bible sanctions slavery and that it was acceptable for Christians
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 the Rev. Basil Manly, Sr., president of the University of Alabama, were also planters who owned slaves. As early as the late 18th century, black Baptists
Baptists began to organize separate churches, associations and mission agencies. Blacks set up some independent Baptist congregations in the South before the American Civil War. White Baptist associations maintained some oversight of these and, after a slave rebellion, required a white man to be at church services.Citation Needed In the postwar years, freedmen quickly left the white congregations and associations, setting up their own churches in order to be free of white supervision.[65] In 1866 the Consolidated American Baptist Convention, formed from black Baptists
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.[66] Baptists
Baptists are numerically most dominant in the Southeast.[67] 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.[68] Caribbean islands[edit]

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)[69]

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
British West Indies (which took place in full in 1838). Knibb also supported the creation of "Free Villages" and sought funding from English Baptists
Baptists to buy land for freedmen to cultivate; the Free Villages were envisioned as rural communities to be centred around a Baptist church where emancipated slaves could farm their own land. Thomas Burchell, missionary minister in Montego Bay, also was active in this movement, gaining funds from Baptists
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 (when it took place) 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
Baptists were active after emancipation in promoting the education of former slaves; for example, Jamaica's Calabar
Calabar High School, named after the port of Calabar
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.[70] Memory of slavery[edit]

Martin Luther King Jr.
Martin Luther King Jr. at the 1963 civil rights march on Washington, D.C.

In the American South the interpretation of the American 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
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.Citation Needed White preachers in Alabama
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
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.[71] The Southern Baptist Convention
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.Citation Needed 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.Citation Needed On 20 June 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention voted to adopt a resolution renouncing its racist roots and apologizing for its past defense of slavery. More than 20,000 Southern Baptists
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
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.[72] Landmark crisis[edit] Further information: Landmarkism Southern Baptist Landmarkism
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.[73] James Robinson Graves
James Robinson Graves was an influential Baptist of the 19th century and the primary leader of this movement.[74] While some Landmarkers eventually separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, the movement continued to influence the Convention into the 20th and 21st centuries.[75] For instance, in 2005, the Southern Baptist International Mission Board forbade its missionaries to receive alien immersions for baptism.[76] Modernist crisis[edit] Further information: Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy

Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon later in life.

The rise of theological modernism in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries also greatly affected Baptists.[77] The Landmark movement, already mentioned, has been described as a reaction among Southern Baptists in the United States
Baptists in the United States against incipient modernism .[78] In England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon fought against modernistic views of the Scripture in the Downgrade Controversy
Downgrade Controversy and severed his church from the Baptist Union as a result.[79][80][81] The Northern Baptist Convention
Northern Baptist Convention in the United States had internal conflict over modernism in the early 20th century, ultimately embracing it.[82] Two new conservative associations of congregations that separated from the Convention were founded as a result: the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches
Association of Regular Baptist Churches in 1933 and the Conservative Baptist Association of America
Conservative Baptist Association of America in 1947.[82] Following similar conflicts over modernism, the Southern Baptist Convention adhered to conservative theology as its official position.[83][84] In the late 20th century, Southern Baptists
Baptists who disagreed with this direction founded two new groups: the extreme liberal Alliance of Baptists
Alliance of Baptists in 1987 and the moderately liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991.[85][86][87][88] Members of both groups originally continued to identify as Southern Baptist, but over time the groups "became permanent new families of Baptists."[85] See also[edit]

Baptist portal Evangelical Christianity
Christianity portal Christianity
Christianity portal Religion portal

List of Baptist confessions List of Baptist denominations List of Baptists English Dissenters Anabaptists

References[edit]

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