This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Mark Osgatharp (talk | contribs) at 20:55, 16 January 2010 (Fixed "disputed reference" by restoring valid quotes and references to their unmutilated condition - the Hosius quote was never claimed to be in Christian.). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.
Revision as of 20:55, 16 January 2010 by Mark Osgatharp (talk | contribs) (Fixed "disputed reference" by restoring valid quotes and references to their unmutilated condition - the Hosius quote was never claimed to be in Christian.)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)| Part of a series on | ||||
| Christianity | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
|
||||
| Theology | ||||
|
||||
| Related topics | ||||
A Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology often supporting, among other principles, believer's baptism by immersion (as opposed to infant baptism and affusion and sprinkling) and favors the congregational model of church polity. Baptists also have been characterized as supporting local church autonomy and disavowing authoritative creeds. The term Baptist can also be used as an adjective to describe a church or organization holding to the same principles.
Baptists number 43 million people in over 200 countries in every continent of the world, making them the largest Protestant denominational family in North America. Most Baptists consider 2009 to be the year of their 400th birthday.
Since their organizational beginning in 1609, Baptists have differed in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians, and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship. Through the years, different Baptist groups have issued confessions of faith—though not considered by them to be creeds—to express their particular doctrinal distinctions in comparison to other Christians as well as in comparison to other Baptists.
Etymology
The term Baptist comes from the Greek word βαπτιστής (baptistés, "baptist," also used to describe John the Baptist), which is related to the verb βαπτίζω (baptízo, "to baptize, wash, dip, immerse"), and the Latin baptista.
The term Baptist as applied to Baptist churches is a modification of the term Anabaptist (which means rebaptizer). Baptists, though, often considered infant baptism a nullity thereby disavowing that they practiced rebaptism.
The English Anabaptists were called Baptists as early as 1569. The name Anabaptist continued to be applied to English and American Baptists, even after the American Revolution. Into the 19th century, the term Baptist was used as a general epithet for churches which denied the validity of infant baptism, including the Campbellites, Mennonites, Brethren and others which are not normally identified with modern day Baptists.
Origins
Historically, two views have been offered to explain the origins of the Baptists: 1) origin in the 17th century via the English Separatists, and 2) the Baptist perpetuity view that claims Baptists have existed continuously since first century Christianity, having become a distinct denomination in the 16th century via the Anabaptist movement.
Baptist origins in the 17th century
- Europe
The predominant view of Baptist origins is that Baptists came along in historical development in the century after the rise of the original Protestant denominations. The English Baptists, therefore, originated in 1609 among those who were not content with the achievements of the mainstream Protestant Reformation. Even before then, in 1606, John Smyth, a Fellow of Christ’s College, Cambridge, who had broken his ties with the Church of England, began meeting in England with 60-70 English Separatists, in the face of "great danger." Smythe went into exile in Amsterdam with fellow Separatists from the congregation he had gathered in Lincolnshire, separate from the established church (Anglican). Smythe and his lay supporter, Thomas Helwys, together with those they led, broke with the other English exiles because Smythe and Helways were convinced they should be baptized as believers. In 1609 Smyth first baptized himself and then baptized the others. In 1609, while still there, Smyth wrote a tract titled "The Character of the Beast," expressing his conviction that a scriptural church should consist only of regenerate believers who have been baptized on a personal confession of faith, rejecting the Separatist movement that maintained the practice of paedobaptism.
The modern Baptist denomination is an outgrowth of Smyth's movement. Wanting neither to be confused with nor identified with Anabaptists, Baptists rejected the name Anabaptist when they were called that by opponents in derision. MacBeth writes that as late as the eighteenth century, many Baptists referred to themselves as "the Christians commonly—though falsely—called Anabaptists."
- North America
Both Roger Williams and John Clarke, his compatriot in working for religious freedom, are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in North America. 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."
Baptist belief in perpetuity
Main article: Baptist successionismAnother view of Baptist origins dates the Baptist churches back to New Testament times or to John the Baptist. The Baptist perpetuity view considers the Baptist movement as historically separate from Catholicism and prior to the Protestant Reformation. The historians who advocate this position point out that many Reformation era historians and apologists considered the Anabaptists to pre-date the Reformation.
For example, Cardinal Hosius (1504-1579), a Roman Catholic prelate of the sixteenth century, wrote, "For not so long ago I read the edict of the other prince who lamented the fate of the Anabaptists who, so we read, were pronounced heretics twelve hundred years ago and deserving of capital punishment. He wanted them to be heard and not taken as condemned without a hearing."
Baptist historian John T. Christian writes in the introduction to his History of the Baptists: "I have throughout pursued the scientific method of investigation, and I have let the facts speak for themselves. I have no question in my own mind that there has been a historical succession of Baptists from the days of Christ to the present time." Other Baptist historians holding the perpetuity view are Thomas Armitage, G.H. Orchard, and David Benedict.
Baptist associations
 | This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Baptists" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (December 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Many Baptist churches choose to associate with associational groups that provide fellowship without control. The largest Baptist association is the Southern Baptist Convention, but there are many other Baptist associations. There are also autonomous churches that remain independent of any denomination, organization, or association.
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) is an umbrella group that embraces many Baptist associations from around the world. Though it played a role in the founding of the BWA, the Southern Baptist Convention severed its affiliation with BWA in 2004.
Membership
Statistics
See also: List of Christian denominations by number of members See also: List of Baptist sub-denominationsBaptists number over 110 million worldwide in more than 220,000 congregations and are considered the largest world communion of evangelical Protestants with an estimated 38 million members in North America. Large populations of Baptists also exist in Asia, Africa and Latin America, notably in India (2.4 million), Nigeria (2.5 million), Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) (1.9 million), and Brazil (1.7 million).
According to a poll in the 1990s, about one in five Christians in the United States claims to be a Baptist. U.S. Baptists are represented in more than fifty separate groups. Ninety-two percent of Baptists are found in five of those bodies—the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC); National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (NBC); National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.; (NBCA); American Baptist Churches in the USA (ABC); and Baptist Bible Fellowship International (BBFI).
Qualifications
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Baptists" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
The primary external qualification for membership in a Baptist church is baptism. General Baptist churches will accept into membership people who have made a profession of faith but have not been baptized as a believer. These are included as members alongside baptized members in the statistics. Some Baptist churches do not have an age restriction on membership, but will not accept as a member a child who is considered too young to fully understand and make a profession of faith of their own volition and comprehension. In such cases, the pastor and parents usually meet together with the child to verify the child's comprehension of the decision to follow Jesus. There are instances where persons make a profession of faith but fail to follow through with believers' baptism. In such cases they are considered saved and usually eligible for membership. Baptists do not believe that baptism has anything to do with salvation. It is considered a public expression of one's inner repentance and faith.
Baptists believe that the act of baptism is a symbolic display of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. When a person who has already been saved and confessed Christ submits to scriptural baptism, he or she is publicly identifying with Christ in His death to old self, burial of past sinful thought and action, and resurrection in newness of life, to walk with Christ the remainder of their days.
Some churches, especially in the UK, do not require members to have been baptized as a believer, so long as they have made a believer's declaration of faith—for example, been confirmed in the Anglican church, or become communicant members as Presbyterians. In these cases, believers would usually transfer their memberships from their previous churches. This allows people who have grown up in one tradition, but now feel settled in their local Baptist church, to fully take part in the day to day life of the church, voting at meetings, etc. It is also possible, but unusual, to be baptized without becoming a church member immediately.
Baptist beliefs and principles
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Baptists" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (January 2010) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
| Part of a series on |
| Baptists |
|---|
_(cropped).jpg) |
| Background |
| Doctrine |
| Key figures |
| Organizations |
 Christianity portal |
Baptists share many orthodox Christian beliefs with other Christian denominations. These would include beliefs about one God; the virgin birth; miracles; atonement through the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus; the Trinity; the need for salvation (through belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God, his death and resurrection, and confession of Christ as Lord); grace; the Kingdom of God; last things (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 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. 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 that have an Episcopal system. Baptists generally believe in the literal Second Coming of Christ. Beliefs among 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 include the following:
- 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, even though nowhere does the Bible forbid it. More than any other Baptist principle, this one when applied to infant baptism is said to separate Baptists from other evangelical Christians.
- Similarly prominent is their insistence on regenerate ("saved") members who have received Believers' Baptism. To Baptists, the "church universal" is the entire body of those who have personally become partakers of the salvation of Christ.
- 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 do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation. Therefore, they do not consider it to be a sacrament, since imparts no saving grace.
The following acrostic backronym, spelling BAPTIST, represents a useful summary of Baptists' distinguishing beliefs:
- Biblical authority (Matthew 24:35; 1 Peter 1:23; 2 Timothy 3:16–17)
- Autonomy of the local church (Matt. 18:15–17; 1 Cor. 6:1–3)
- Priesthood of all believers (1 Peter 2:5–9; 1 Timothy 5)
- Two ordinances (believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper) (Acts 2:41–47; 1 Cor. 11:23–32)
- Individual soul liberty (Romans 14:5–12)
- Separation of Church and State (Matthew 22:15–22)
- Two offices of the church (pastor-elder and deacon) (1 Timothy 3:1–13; Titus 1–2)
Most Baptist traditions believe in the "Four Freedoms" articulated by Baptist historian Walter B. Shurden:
- Soul freedom: the soul is competent before God, and capable of making decisions in matters of faith without coercion or compulsion by any larger religious or civil body
- Church freedom: freedom of the local church from outside interference, whether government or civilian (subject only to the law where it does not interfere with the religious teachings and practices of the church)
- Bible freedom: the individual is free to interpret the Bible for himself or herself, using the best tools of scholarship and biblical study available to the individual
- Religious freedom: the individual is free to choose whether to practice their religion, another religion, or no religion; Separation of church and state is often called the "civil corollary" of religious freedom
Beliefs that vary among Baptists
| Part of a series on |
| Protestantism |
|---|
 |
| Concepts |
| History |
| Branches |
| Movements |
|
Christianity portal |
| This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources in this section. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Baptists" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (October 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Because of the importance of the priesthood of every believer, the centrality of the freedom of conscience and thought in most Baptist theology, and due to the congregational style of church governance, doctrine can vary greatly even among Baptists holding to most or all of the Baptist distinctives especially on the following issues:
- Alcohol as a beverage
- Biblical Eschatology
- Calvinism/Arminianism
- Doctrine of separation
- Glossolalia (Speaking in Tongues)
- Hermeneutical method
- Homosexuality
- The extent to which missionary boards should be used to support missionaries
- The extent to which non-members may participate in communion services
- The nature of Gospel
- The translation of Scripture (See King-James-Only Movement)
- The role of Women in marriage
- The role of Women in ministry
The Sabbath Debate
Nearly all Baptists worship on Sunday, in contrast with the Old Testament tradition of a Saturday Sabbath. As would be expected amongst any people who hold to freedom of conscience, there have historically been a small number of Baptists who have held to some form of Sabbatarian doctrine. There are some Southern Baptist churches, though, that recognize the Sabbath, Saturday, to be a day of rest and instead worship on Sunday, that is the Lord's Day-the day of Jesus' resurrection, a day that proceeded a Sabbath.
There is a small group known as the Seventh Day Baptists. Some trace their origins to earlier Anabaptist or pre-Reformation sects however most acknowledge that the denomination was established in the mid-seventeenth century in England. Seventh Day Baptists may be either General or Particular Baptists but they are united in their observance of their day of worship on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. Although the degree to which they observe the Sabbath varies from person to person, from congregation to congregation, there is a consensus within their circles that none should judge the spirituality of another's personal practices.
In the mid-nineteenth century a Seventh-Day Baptist tract eventually led to a large portion of the Adventist movement to adopt Sabbatarian teachings, eventually forming the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Controversies which have shaped 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 each have become decision-moments that shaped their future. Shurden writes of three controversies that reached crisis proportions:
- Missions crisis
- Racial crisis
- Landmark crisis
Missions crisis
Early in the 19th century, the rise of the modern mission movement led to tension among some Baptists. During this era, U.S. Baptists were split between the north and south, as well as between missionary and anti-missionary, and large numbers of Baptists went into the Campbellite movement.
Slavery Crisis
Leading up to the American Civil War, Baptists became embroiled in the controversy of slavery in the United States. In 1845 when the Baptists split into Northern and Southern organizations. The Southern Baptist Convention formed on the premise that the Bible sanctions slavery and that it was acceptable for Christians to own slaves (in the 20th century, the Southern Baptist Convention renounced this interpretation). Northern Baptists opposed slavery. In 1844, the Home Mission Society declared that a slave owner could not be a missionary. Currently American Baptist numerical strength is greatest in the former slave-holding states and the Baptist faith is the predominant faith of African-Americans. After the Civil War the African-American Baptists, who had for the most part been in the same churches with the whites, went out to form separate churches and associations.
Landmark crisis
Landmarkism emphasized ecclesiastical separation and doctrinal rigidity which characterized the old Baptist churches in an era when doctrinal tolerance and ecumenism was becoming more widely-accepted. Old Landmarkism held to a historical consciousness that traced the Baptists back to Jesus, the Jordan River, and the early church in Jerusalem. Popular Landmarkism contributed to a historical consciousness implicit in the idea that Baptists were an extension of the New Testament community. Landmark theology continued to hold great influence among Southern Baptists well into the 20th century.
The Modernist Crisis
The rise of theological modernism in the mid to late 19th century also greatly affected the Baptists. In England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon fought against modernistic views of the Scripture in the Downgrade Controversy. The Northern Baptist Convention had internal disagreement over modernism in the early 20th century, ultimately embracing it, which resulted in two new conservative associations: the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches in 1932 and the Conservative Baptist Association of America in 1947. Among Southern Baptists in the late 20th century was a fundamentalist takeover, now termed the Southern Baptist Convention conservative resurgence, that led to the forming of a new Baptist fellowship (in many ways a new Baptist denomination but not so termed by the group), the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
See also
Notes
- ^ Shurden, Walter B. (1993). The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms. Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys Publishing.
- Newman, Albert Henry (1894). A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States. Christian Literature.
This rejection of infant baptism and this insistence on believers' baptism were so distinctive of these Christians that they were stigmatized as Anabaptists, Catabaptists, and sometimes as simply Baptists; that is to say, they were declared to be "rebaptizers", "perverters of baptism", or, as unduly magnifying baptism and making it the occasion of schism, simply "baptizers".
- Christian, John T. A History of the Baptists. Broadman Press (1922, chapter 15,pages 205-206): "The word Baptists was used by a high official of the English government in the earlier days of the reign of Queen Elizabeth. That official was Sir William Cecil, afterwards Lord Burleigh, then the Secretary of State and especial adviser of the Queen. The date is March 10, 1569.".
- John T. Christian, History of the Baptists , volume I page 205 and volume II page 212|http://www.reformedreader.org/history/christian/ahob1/ahobp.htm
- "The Illustrated Book of All Religions From the Earliest Ages to the Present Time", Star Publishing Company, 1895.
- ^ Brackney, William H. (2006). Baptists in North America: an historical perspective. Blackwell Publishing. p. 22. ISBN 1405118652.
- Shurden, Walter (2001). "Turning Points in Baptist History". Macon, GA: The Center for Baptist Studies, Mercer University. Retrieved 16 Jan 2010.
- ^ Briggs, John. "Baptist Origins." Baptist History and Heritage Society. Web: 10 Jan 2010. Baptist Origins
- Beale, David (2000). The Mayflower Pilgrims: roots of Puritan, Presbyterian, Congregationalist, and Baptist heritage. Emerald House Group. ISBN 978-1889893518.
- Traffanstedt, Chris. "A Primer on Baptist History". Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- Nettles, Tom J. (Spring 2009). "Once Upon a Time, Four Hundred Years Ago..." Founders Journal. 76. Founders Ministries: 2–8.
- Vedder, H. C. "A Short History of the Baptists". The Reformed Reader. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- MacBeth, H. Leon. "Baptist Beginnings". Baptist History and Heritage Society. Retrieved 19 October 2007.
- Newport Notables
- Hosius, Stanislaus Cardinal (1563), White, Carolinne, Ph.D (ed.), "Alberto Bavariae Duci" (PDF), Liber Epistolarum 150
{{citation}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: editors list (link) - Christian, John T (vol.1, 1922; vol.2, 1926). A History of the Baptists. Broadman Press.
{{cite book}}: Check date values in:|year=(help)CS1 maint: year (link) - Cooperman, Alan (16 June 2004). "Southern Baptists Vote To Leave World Alliance". Washington Post. p. A4. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
- ^ "Baptist World Alliance Official Statistics".
- Albert W. Wardin, Baptists Around the World (Nashville: Broadman and Holman Publishers, 1995) p. 367
- Pendleton, J. M. (1867). Church Manual For Baptist Churches. The Judson Press.
- Pinson, William M., Jr. . Baptist History and Heritage Society.
{{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires|journal=(help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ Newman, Albert Henry (1915). A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States (3 ed.). Christian Literature.
- Articles on Baptists beliefs, polity, ministries, practices, organizations, and heritage. The information is intended to be useful for Baptists and non-Baptists alike.
- The Southern Baptist Convention of 2000, VIII. The Lord's Day, The Baptist Faith and Message, http://www.sbc.net, 05DEC2009.
- Shurden, Walter B. "Crises in Baptist Life" (pamphlet). Web: 16 Jan 2010. Crises in Baptist Life
- Department of Geography and Meteorology, "Baptists as a Percentage of all Residents, 2000" Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, Indiana.
- Leonard, Bill J. "Historical Consciousness and Baptists in the South: Owning and Disowning a Tradition." Proceedings of American Academy of Religion 2002 Annual Meeting.
- Web: 16 Jan 2010 CBF History
References
- 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), 345–68.
- Leonard, Bill J. Baptist Ways: A History (2003), comprehensive international history
- Life & Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader, New York University press. 2001. pp. 5–7. ISBN 9780814756485.
- MacBeth, H. Leon, (ed.) A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage (1990), primary sources for Baptist history.
- McGlothlin, W. J. (ed.) Baptist Confessions of Faith. Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1911.
- 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.
- Torbet, Robert G. A History of the Baptists, Judson Press, 1950.
- Underhill, Edward B. (ed.). Confessions of Faith and Other Documents of the Baptist Churches of England in the 17th century. London: The Hanserd Knollys Society, 1854.
- Underwood, A. C. A History of the English Baptists. London: Kingsgate Press, 1947.
- Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785–1900, Oxford.