Baptist
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
A Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology which are committed to believer's baptism by immersion (as opposed to infant baptism and affusion and sprinkling) and favors the congregational model of church polity.[1] A Baptist church is a local congregation composed of Baptist people and committed to Baptist principles. A Baptist association is a group of Baptist churches and individuals which fellowship and work together in Christian endeavors.
There is a wide variety of doctrine and practice among Baptists owing to divergent origins of the various Baptist movements as well as diverse influences on the Baptists over the years. Through the years, different Baptist groups have issued confessions of faith to express their doctrinal distinctions from other Christian denominations as well as other Baptists. Baptist groups also have been characterized by local church autonomy and a disavowal of authoritative creeds, acknowledging the Scriptures alone as the authoritative rule of faith and practice.
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[edit] 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, and is in direct connection to "the Baptizer," John the Baptist.
The term Baptist as applied to the Baptist churches is a modification of the term Anabaptist (which means rebaptizer, though the Anabaptists ever disavowed that they practiced rebaptism and baptized those who were baptized in infancy because they considered infant baptism a nullity).[2]
The English Anabaptists were called Baptists as early as 1569.[3] The name Anabaptist continued to be applied to English and American Baptists up to the 19th century at least. 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[4]
[edit] Origins
The modern baptist denomination is an outgrowth of English Separatism and historically distinct from the Anabaptists, though influenced by them.[5] The earliest documented Baptist congregation was formed in the first decade of the 17th century by English separatists in Amsterdam.[6] In 1609, their pastor John 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 Puritan movement that maintained the practice of paedobaptism.[7][8] In 1611, Thomas Helwys, another influential member of this church, is credited along with others with formulating A Declaration of Faith of English People Remaining at Amsterdam in Holland, the earliest Baptist confession of faith.[9]
Both Roger Williams and John Clarke, his compatriot in working for religious freedom, are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in America.[10] 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."[11]
[edit] Baptist belief in perpetuity
Although the English Separatist position is the majority viewpoint among Baptist historians, another 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 consider the Baptists to be an outgrowth of the Anabaptist movement and 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."[12]
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."[13] Other Baptist historians holding the perpetuity view are Thomas Armitage, G.H. Orchard, and David Benedict.
[edit] Baptist associations
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Most 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.[14]
[edit] Membership
[edit] Statistics
Baptists 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.[15] 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).[16]
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).[17]
[edit] Qualifications
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The primary external qualification for membership in a Baptist church is baptism.[18] 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.
[edit] Baptist beliefs and principles
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Historical Background |
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Doctrinal distinctives |
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Pivotal figures |
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Baptist churches do not have a central governing authority (See Autonomy in BAPTIST Acrostic Below). Therefore, beliefs are not totally consistent from one Baptist church to another, especially beliefs that may be considered minor. However, on major theological issues, Baptist distinctive beliefs are held in common among almost all Baptist churches. Most Baptist churches are members of regional Associations of Baptist Churches, and as such, will subscribe to a centrally agreed Basis of Faith.
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.
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.
The following acrostic backronym, spelling BAPTIST, represents a useful summary of Baptists' distinguishing beliefs:[19]
- 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:[20]
- 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
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.[21] 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.
[edit] Beliefs that vary among Baptists
Protestantism |
Hussites • Lollards • Waldensians
Anabaptism • Anglicanism • Calvinism • Counter-Reformation • Lutheranism • Polish Brethren • Remonstrants |
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Because of the importance of the priesthood of every believer, the centrality of the freedom of conscience and thought in Baptist theology, and due to the congregational style of church governance, doctrine varies greatly between one Baptist church and another (and among individual Baptists) especially on the following issues:
- Calvinism/Arminianism
- Doctrine of separation
- Women in Ministry
- Biblical Eschatology
- Hermeneutical method
- The translation of Scripture (See King-James-Only Movement)
- 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
- Glossolalia (Speaking in Tongues)
- Drinking alcohol
- Homosexuality
[edit] 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.[22]
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.
[edit] Theological, cultural and political controversies
As with all major denominational groups, Baptists have not escaped theological, cultural and political controversy. Baptists have historically been sensitive to the introduction of theological error (from their perspective) into their groups. The older Baptist associations of Europe, Canada, Australia and the northern United States have assimilated influences of different schools of thought, but not without major debate and schisms.
Leading up to the American Civil War, Baptists became embroiled in the controversy of slavery in the United States. North and South grew further apart in 1845 when the Baptist Church 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 person could not be a missionary and still keep slaves as property. Currently American Baptist numerical strength is greatest in the former slave-holding states.[23]
In England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon fought against what he saw as challenges to his strongly conservative point of view in the Downgrade Controversy.
As part of the continuing fundamentalist/liberal controversy within the Northern Baptist Convention, two new associations of conservative Baptists were formed—the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches in 1932 and the Conservative Baptist Association of America in 1947.
Landmarkism emphasized ecclesiastical separation and doctrinal rigidity and its cultural foundation was in the South. Old Landmarkism held to a historical consciousness that traced Baptists through dissenters—Donatists, Cathari (although it is not believed that ALL Donatists, Cathari, etc., were Baptists theologically)—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.[24]
Beginning in the 1980s, there was an effort by some theologically conservative Southern Baptists to purge what they viewed as modernist theological influence from its seminaries. This highly publicized SBC Conservative Resurgence/Fundamentalist Takeover led those opposed to the movement to create two more moderate Baptist organizations: the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Alliance of Baptists.
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ http://www.abc-usa.org/portals/0/ABC10FactsBrochure.pdf
- ^ Newman, Albert Henry (1894). A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States. Christian Literature. http://books.google.com/books?id=wCrmT5eki7YC. "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". These party names they earnestly repudiated, preferring to call themselves Brethren, Christians, Disciples of Christ, Believers, etc."
- ^ Christian, John T. A History of the Baptists. Broadman Press, chapter 15. 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. This book of religious denominations lists the Campbellites, German Baptists (otherwise known as Brethren or Tunkers), Mennonites, and Winebrennar Church of God along with the various other Baptist sub-groups all under the general heading of "Baptist Church".
- ^ McBeth, H. Leon. "Baptist Beginnings". Baptist History and Heritage Society. http://www.baptisthistory.org/baptistbeginnings.htm. Retrieved 19 October 2007. "Our best historical evidence says that Baptists came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century."
- ^ Traffanstedt, Chris. "A Primer on Baptist History". http://www.reformedreader.org/history/pbh.htm. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ Nettles, Tom J. (Spring 2009). "Once Upon a Time, Four Hundred Years Ago...". Founders Journal (Founders Ministries) 76: 2-8. http://www.founders.org/journal/fj76/article1.html.
- ^ Vedder, H. C.. "A Short History of the Baptists". The Reformed Reader. http://www.reformedreader.org/history/vedder/ch14.htm. Retrieved 23 December 2009.
- ^ Schaff, Philip (1819-1893). "§ 106. Arminian or Free-will Baptists.". Creeds of Christendom, with a History and Critical notes. Volume I. The History of Creeds.. http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/creeds1.x.vii.html.
- ^ Newport Notables
- ^ Brackney, William H. (Baylor University, Texas). Baptists in North America: an historical perspective. Blackwell Publishing, 2006, p. 23. ISBN 1405118652
- ^ Hosius, Stanislaus Cardinal (1563), White, Carolinne, Ph.D, ed., "Alberto Bavariae Duci", Liber Epistolarum 150, http://drbentownsend.com/Documents/HosiusQuoteInBaptistExpanded.pdf
- ^ Christian, John T (vol.1, 1922; vol.2, 1926). A History of the Baptists. Broadman Press. http://www.reformedreader.org/history/christian/ahob1/ahobp.htm.
- ^ Cooperman, Alan (16 June 2004). "Southern Baptists Vote To Leave World Alliance". Washington Post: p. A4. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A44658-2004Jun15.html. Retrieved 2009-11-04.
- ^ Baptist World Alliance Official Statistics
- ^ Baptist World Alliance 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. http://www.reformedreader.org/rbb/pendleton/churchmanual/bcm01.htm.
- ^ Articles on Baptists beliefs, polity, ministries, practices, organizations, and heritage. The information is intended to be useful for Baptists and non-Baptists alike.
- ^ Shurden, Walter B. The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms. Macon, Georgia: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, 1993.
- ^ Pinson, William M., Jr. "Trends in Baptist Polity." Baptist History and Heritage Society. Available online: http://www.baptisthistory.org/contissues/pinson.htm
- ^ The Southern Baptist Convention of 2000, VIII. The Lord's Day, The Baptist Faith and Message, http://www.sbc.net, 05DEC2009.
- ^ 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.
[edit] 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
- McBeth, 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.
- Life & Practice in the Early Church: A Documentary Reader, New York University press. 2001. pp. 5–7. ISBN 9780814756485.
[edit] External links
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Baptists. |
- Baptist at the Open Directory Project
