Dictionary:
Bap·tist (băp'tĭst)  |
[Middle English, baptizer, from Old French baptiste, from Late Latin baptista, from Greek baptistēs, from baptizein, to baptize. See baptize.]
Baptist Bap'tist adj.| Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Baptist |
For more information on Baptist, visit Britannica.com.
| The Religion Book: Baptist |
"Baptist," to many people, means Southern Baptist and brings to mind two of its most famous adherents, the Reverend Billy Graham and, until he left the denomination in 2000, former U.S. president Jimmy Carter. But although the Southern Baptist Convention is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, there are many more Baptist denominations, ranging from the mainline American Baptist Church to the smaller Conservative Baptists and Baptist General Conference. Then there are less well known Baptist denominations such as the Six Principle Baptists, Independent Baptists, and Charismatic Baptists.
Baptists came to America with the Puritan Roger Williams, who settled Providence, Rhode Island, in 1636. They have always been reluctant to force creeds and formulas, but, although their denominations are legion, they share certain doctrines and theological positions.
First, they practice adult baptism, almost always by full immersion in water. To be accepted into church membership, individuals must publicly confess conversion to Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This means they have become, in the words of John 3:3, "born again," or spiritually awakened to God. Having thus "accepted Jesus into their hearts" and received God's forgiveness for their sins, believers are baptized, usually in a public ceremony, "in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."
Second, Baptists tend to be conservative in theology, ranging from fundamentalists to evangelicals (See Evangelical; Fundamentalism). Christ is generally acknowledged as sole and absolute spiritual authority, speaking to each believer individually. The Bible is God's voice in all matters relating to faith and practice.
Third, Baptists practice congregational autonomy. Each congregation, although belonging to the denomination, is free to own its own buildings, call its own pastors, elect its own deacons, and manage its own affairs free from denominational hierarchy.
Fourth, worship is generally nonliturgical, featuring music, preaching, and teaching.
A recent and ongoing theological power struggle within the Southern Baptist Convention illustrates the tension between Baptist church polity and individual expression. Sensing erosion of fundamental theology, a group of conservatives, employing organizational techniques similar to those used in political parties, were able to fill key positions on both elected and appointed boards and committees within the convention during its 2000 annual spring meeting. After obtaining control, they proceeded to set forth a doctrinal agenda they believed was within the framework of traditional Baptist tradition. "The Baptist Faith and Message" is the denomination's chief doctrinal statement. All missionaries and teaching professors must affirm it to receive denominational support. Arguments erupted when it was amended to say that women must "submit graciously to their husbands" and could no longer hold pastoral teaching positions in the church. Because individual churches call their own pastors, the rule could not be enforced at the local level. But seminaries supported by the convention were urged to examine the classroom lectures of teaching professors, some of whom were respected women academics. A few of these professors were released, not explicitly because they were women, but because they taught theological positions contrary to those supported by the convention. Many churches stopped paying denominational dues and dropped their traditional monetary support of convention-based mission works. A church split loomed and is still a very real possibility. In 1985 more than 45,000 people attended the convention. In 2002 fewer than 9,500 registered.
The situation illustrates a fundamental question inherent in religious organizations that stress individual freedom. It is a question that has been asked again and again ever since Martin Luther sparked the Protestant Reformation, and it is at the core of why Christianity is so divided as a whole and even within individual denominations. If religion is fundamentally a personal choice, how do people band together for the common good? Put in other words, who determines, in a democratically based institution, what the fundamental belief structure is going to be? Every time a vote is taken, are the losers forced to change their religious beliefs? If they don't change their beliefs, must they drop out to form yet another Christian denomination? How far out can theological lines be drawn and still maintain traditional identity, especially when facing a changing secular culture? How long does tradition continue before it becomes dogma, especially in a church that originally formed by breaking traditional dogmas?
Sources: Breed, Allen G. “Baptist Leader Sees a ‘New Day.’” Boston Globe, June 13, 2002. Douglas, J. D., ed. The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing, 1974.
| Columbia Encyclopedia: Baptists |
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).
| Wikipedia: Baptist |
A Baptist is a Christian who subscribes to a theology which is 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 peculiar 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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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]
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.[5]
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.[6] 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).[7]
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).[8]
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The primary external qualification for membership in a Baptist church is baptism.[9] 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.
| Part of a series of articles on Baptists |
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Historical Background |
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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:[10]
Most Baptist traditions believe in the "Four Freedoms" articulated by Baptist historian Walter B. Shurden:[11]
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.[12] 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.
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:
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 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.
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.[13]
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.[14]
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.
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There are two main views about the origins of the Baptists: Baptist origins in the 16th and 17th centuries and Baptist perpetuity.
The traditional 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."[15]
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."[16] Other Baptist historians holding the perpetuity view are Thomas Armitage, G.H. Orchard, and David Benedict.
Toward the end of the 19th century some Baptist historians concluded that the Baptists were an outgrowth of English Separatism and historically distinct from the Anabaptists, though influenced by them.[17]. This viewpoint considers English Separatists John Smyth and Thomas Helwys the key founders of the modern Baptist denomination.
The English Separatist position is currently the majority viewpoint among Baptist historians. H. Leon McBeth wrote, “Our best historical evidence says that Baptists came into existence in England in the early seventeenth century. They apparently emerged out of the Puritan-Separatist movement in the Church of England.”[17] Other historians who hold this view are William Heth Whitsitt and Robert Torbet.
Both Roger Williams and Dr. John Clarke, his compatriot in working for religious freedom, are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in America.[18] 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."[19]
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Some Baptists object to the application of the labels Protestant, denomination, evangelical and even Baptist to themselves or their churches, while others accept those labels.
Some who reject the label Baptist prefer to be labeled as Christians who attend Baptist churches. Also, a recent trend (most common among megachurches and those embracing the "seeker movement") is to eliminate "Baptist" from the church name, as it is perceived to be a "barrier" to reaching persons who have negative views of Baptists, whether they be of a different church background or none. These churches typically include the word "Community" or other non-religious or denominational terms in their church name.
Conversely, others accept the label Baptist because they identify with the distinctives they consider to be uniquely Baptist. They believe those who are removing the name "Baptist" from their churches are "compromising with the world" to attract more members. However, there are other church groups that hold to the beliefs listed above, that have never been known by the label Baptist, and also believe that these beliefs are not exclusive to the Baptist denomination.
The label Protestant is rejected by some Baptists (primarily those in the Landmark movement) because in their view Baptists have existed separately since the early days of the Catholic Church. Those holding this view maintain that Baptists have never been a part of the Catholic Church, and as such, Baptists are not "protesting" against Catholicism. Further, they claim that Baptists have no direct connection to any of the Reformationists like Luther, Calvin, or Zwingli. Other Baptists accept the Protestant label as a demographic concept that describes churches who share similar theologies of sola scriptura, sola fide, the priesthood of all believers and other positions that Luther, Calvin and other traditional reformers held in contrast to the Catholic Church in the 1500s.
The label denomination is rejected by some because of the local autonomous governance system used by Baptist churches. Being a denomination is viewed by them as having a hierarchy that substitutes for the Catholic Church. Another reason for the rejection of the label is the influence of the Restoration period on Baptist churches, which emphasized a tearing down of denominational barriers. Other Baptists accept the label, feeling that it does not carry a negative connotation but rather is merely a synonym for a Christian or religious group with common beliefs, organized in a cooperative manner to spread its beliefs worldwide.
The label evangelical is rejected by some fundamentalist Baptists who consider the term to describe a theological position that in their view is not fundamentalist enough, and conversely is also rejected by some liberal Baptists who consider the term to describe a theological position that in their view is too conservative. It is accepted by moderate Baptists who identify with the revival in the United States in the 1700s known as the First Great Awakening. Conversely, some Evangelicals reject the label fundamentalist, believing it to describe a theological position that they consider too extreme and legalistic. However some Baptists, such as the Independent Fundamental Baptists, embrace it.[citation needed]
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Wikisource has the text of the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica article Baptists. |
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| Translations: Baptist |
Nederlands (Dutch)
baptist, doper, doopsgezind
Français (French)
n. - (Relig) Baptiste
adj. - baptiste
Deutsch (German)
n. - Baptist
adj. - baptistisch
Ελληνική (Greek)
n., -
adj. - Βαπτιστής
Português (Portuguese)
n. - batista (m) (f)
adj. - batista
Русский (Russian)
Креститель, баптист
Español (Spanish)
n. - bautista
adj. - bautista, relativo o perteneciente a los bautistas
Svenska (Swedish)
n. - baptist
adj. - baptistisk
中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
施洗者约翰, 施洗者, 浸信会教友
中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 施洗者約翰, 施洗者, 浸信會教友
한국어 (Korean)
n. - 침례교도, 세례 시행자
日本語 (Japanese)
n. - バプテスト派, 洗礼者ヨハネ
العربيه (Arabic)
(الاسم) معمدان (صفه) معمد
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