Baptists

Baptists denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to the ordinance of baptism . Since 1644 the name has been applied to those who maintain that baptism should be administered to none but believers and that immersion is the only mode of administering baptism indicated in the New Testament. The doctrine and practices of some earlier bodies, such as the Anabaptists and Mennonites , were similar.

Organization and Churches

Baptist churches are congregational in matters of government. Such general associations as are formed do not have control over the individual churches. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest body of churches, with about 16 million members. The original national organization of black Baptist churches is the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A.; it has about 8.2 million members (1992). Other large Baptist churches in the United States include the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A, the largely black National Baptist Convention of America (separated from the National Baptist Convention), and the Progressive National Baptist Convention, Inc. The Baptist World Alliance was formed in 1905 as an alliance of Baptist churches from around the world. Today the convention includes more than 210 unions and conventions with a combined membership of some 110 million (1999). The conservative Southern Baptist Convention withdrew from the Alliance in 2004, accusing it of being too liberal and increasingly anti-American, charges strongly denied by the Alliance and other American churches belonging to it.

History of the Baptist Churches

In Holland a group of English separatists , led by John Smyth , came under Mennonite influence and formed c.1608 in Amsterdam the first English Baptist congregation. Smyth baptized first himself, then the others. In 1611 certain members of this congregation returned to London and established a church there. This was the first of the churches afterward known as General Baptists, since they held the Arminian belief that the atonement of Jesus is not limited to the elect only but is general.

In 1633 the Particular Baptists were founded. They were a group whose Calvinistic doctrine taught that atonement is particular or individual. Immersion was not yet insisted upon in these churches, but in 1644 seven Particular Baptist churches issued a confession of faith requiring that form of baptism, and Baptist was thenceforth the name given to those who practiced it. In 1891, General and Particular Baptists united into a single body called the Baptist Union of Great Britain and Ireland.

In America it was Baptists of the Particular type that first gained influence among the Puritans and Calvinists, when Roger Williams and his companions in Rhode Island rejected infant baptism and established a church in 1639 based on the individual profession of faith. Baptists were later persecuted in New England for opposing infant baptism, and one group emigrated c.1684 from Maine to Charleston, S.C. A group of Separate Congregationalists from New England under Shubael Stearns and Daniel Marshall established (1755) the Separate Baptists in Sandy Creek, N.C.

In the Southeast the General Baptist views found acceptance, but the stricter Calvinistic ideas suited the pioneers who settled the southern mountains after the Revolution. Their opposition to mission work gave them the name Anti-Mission. They were also called Hard Shell or Primitive Baptists.

Early missionary activity extended the Baptist movement to the Continent and elsewhere. In the United States the American Baptist Missionary Union (under a longer title) was formed in 1814 to support workers in foreign lands. In 1832 the American Baptist Home Mission Society was organized. When the question of slavery became a dividing wall, the Southern Baptist Convention was established (1845).

Bibliography

See J. E. Tull, Shapers of Baptist Thought (1972); L. Davis, Immigrants, Baptists, and the Protestant Mind in America (1973); R. G. Torbet, A History of the Baptists (4th ed. 1975); W. H. Brachney, The Baptists (1988).

Baptists, followers of the religious doctrine that baptism should be administered only to believers. The modern Baptist movement originated in England (1608), but soon divided into two groups: the General Baptists, who hold to the Arminian belief that Christ's atonement is not limited to the elect; and the Particular Baptists, who follow Calvinistic doctrine in contending that atonement is individual. The first Baptists in America, of the Particular belief, established a church in Rhode Island (1639) under the leadership of Roger Williams, although Williams soon withdrew. The next group, in the same colony, was led by John Clarke and Anne Hutchinson. Because of their opposition to child baptism, the Baptists were persecuted in New England, although they flourished in Pennsylvania and throughout the South. The strict Calvinistic belief of the Particular Baptists in the South has led to their being called Hard Shell Baptists. There have been various schisms, occasioned by such events as the Great Awakening and the Civil War, but the Baptists have grown in number, so that in 1990 there were over 28,000,000 members in 12 different churches. The Baptists are distinguished for founding such educational institutions as Colgate and Brown, and for such missionary work as that of Adoniram Judson.

Baptists. One of the largest Protestant communions. Its origins in modern times are usually attributed to the action of John Smyth, a Separatist exile in Amsterdam, who in 1609 reinstituted the Baptism of committed believers as the basis of fellowship of a gathered Church. The first Baptist Church in England consisted of members of Smyth's congregation who had returned to London in 1612 under the leadership of Thomas Helwys. The Churches which sprang from this were Arminian in theology and came to be known as ‘General Baptists’. In 1633 the adoption of believers' Baptism by a group of Calvinistic London Separatists gave rise to ‘Particular Baptist’ Churches in many parts of the the country. Many Baptists were associated with the more radical spiritual and political movements of the 17th cent., but after the Restoration they moved close to the Presbyterians and Independents and became recognized as one of the Three Denominations of Protestant Dissenters. In the 18th cent. many ‘General Baptists’ came under Unitarian influences, but under the stimulus of the Evangelical Revival a ‘New Connexion’ was formed in 1770; it maintained a vigorous life and a century later united with the main stream of Baptist life. The Baptist Missionary Society, founded in 1792, initiated the modern missionary expansion among Protestant Churches. In the 19th cent. Baptists generally became less rigidly Calvinistic and most Baptist Churches welcomed all believers to Communion. The increase in numbers more than kept pace with the growth in population, but in Britain there has been a marked decline in the second half of the 20th cent.

In America the first Church on Baptist principles was established by Roger Williams in 1639. In the 18th cent. the Great Awakening led to the beginnings of rapid and spectacular growth. Baptist preachers were in the van as the frontier was carried westward and in many southern States Baptists became the largest religious community; about two thirds of the members of the Black Churches in the USA are Baptist. By 1997 there were over 33 million Baptists in N. America. They are organized in several Conventions, the Southern Baptist Convention being the largest and most conservative.

In 1834 a Baptist Church was formed in Hamburg. From this came an extensive Baptist movement in Continental Europe, spreading to Slavic-speaking peoples. Baptists were generally persecuted in Tsarist Russia, increased in numbers during the early years of the Soviet regime but later suffered from the restrictions on religious freedom. After 1990 they grew significantly and now form the largest Protestant community in countries of the former USSR. In Australia and New Zealand Baptist Churches were formed in the early 19th cent. and in the 20th cent. Baptist work expanded in Asia, Africa and South America. In ecumenical relations Baptists have been hesitant about schemes for organic union because of their concern to preserve their witness to believers' Baptism and the autonomy of the local Church as the ‘gathered community’, though they have been eager for partnership and co-operation with other Christians. Only 22 Baptist Conventions or Unions are members of the World Council of Churches, but they comprise about 45 per cent of the world Baptist constituency.