What is the difference in General Baptist and Southern Baptist?

Answer 1

General Baptists and Southern Baptists are two distinct branches of the Baptist denomination. General Baptists tend to hold Arminian beliefs, emphasizing free will and the possibility of falling from grace. Southern Baptists, on the other hand, tend to hold Calvinist beliefs, emphasizing predestination and eternal security. Additionally, General Baptists typically have a more decentralized structure, while Southern Baptists have a more centralized organization through the Southern Baptist Convention.

Answer 2

Southern Baptist Churches are members of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is not quite a denomination, because it does not truly govern the individual churches. Baptists in general hold to, among other things, "autonomy" of the local church, but through the system of seminaries, Sunday School Board, and other services, the SBC is very influential. It is an association, the largest among Baptists, through which churches pool resources both for missions and outreach, and for services back to the individual churches. There are of course any number of Baptist associations of various sizes and purposes, but none quite as extensively developed as the SBC. The original national Baptist association formed in 1814 was called the "General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions". The SBC was formed in 1845 in part over the usually regional differences in perspectives within this association regarding slavery. At the same time the Baptist churches up North remained somewhat loosely joined until 1907, when the Northern Baptist Convention was formed. This name ultimately was changed in 1950 to the American Baptist Convention & in 1972 to American Baptist Churches, USA. During the 1930's and '40's, controversy among the Northern Baptists over adherence to Biblical beliefs spawned the general Association of Regular Baptist Churches and the Conservative Baptist Association, which continue to exist today.

These are the major Baptist organizations, yet smaller groups exist & Independent Baptist churches, who often fellowship & associate together, such as The Bible Baptist Fellowship

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Answer 3

The title 'First Baptist' is assigned to the literal 'first' baptist church established in the area.

Southern Baptist is a denomination. There are many Baptist denominations. As such a Southern Baptist church CAN be called "First Baptist" if they were the first Baptist church in the town. However, the First Baptist Church in the denomination could be a different Baptist denomination.

Answer 4

Southern Baptist Churches are members of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is not quite a denomination, because it does not truly govern the individual churches. Baptists in general hold to, among other things, "autonomy" of the local church, but through the system of seminaries, Sunday School Board, and other services, the SBC is very influential. It is an association, the largest among Baptists, through which churches pool resources both for missions and outreach, and for services back to the individual churches.

There are of course any number of Baptist associations of various sizes and purposes, but none quite as extensively developed as the SBC.

The original national Baptist association formed in 1814 was called the "General Missionary Convention of the Baptist Denomination in the United States of America for Foreign Missions". The SBC was formed in 1845 in part over the usually regional differences in perspectives within this association regarding slavery.

At the same time the Baptist churches up North remained somewhat loosely joined until 1907, when the Northern Baptist Convention was formed. This name ultimately was changed in 1950 to the American Baptist Convention & in 1972 to American Baptist Churches, USA. During the 1930's and '40's, controversy among the Northern Baptists over adherence to Biblical beliefs spawned the general Association of Regular Baptist Churches and the Conservative Baptist Association, which continue to exist today.

These are the major Baptist organizations, yet smaller groups exist & Independent Baptist churches, who often fellowship & associate together, such as the Bible Baptist Fellowship

Read more: What_is_the_difference_between_Southern_Baptists_and_other_Baptist_churches

Answer 5

"Southern Baptist" is a denomination or convention of Baptist churches. Baptist churches who choose to fellowship as members of the Southern Baptist Convention, would describe themselves as Southern Baptist.

"Fundamental Baptist" is not a denomination, but is more descriptive of a theological stance. Being Fundamentalist says that you hold to certain "fundamentals of the faith". Often these are described as being 6 or 7 (Deity of Christ, Inspiration of the Bible, Trinity, etc.)

Most Southern Baptists would have articles of faith that line up fairly closely with the beliefs of Fundamental Baptists. In fact, some Southern Baptist would describe themselves as Fundmentalists. Some would not. And some would choose to use the word "Evangelical" because (in the minds of some), at least Fundamentalism suggests a certain narrowness of mind and harshness of attitude.

Answer 6

Nothing, a church being called first baptist means that it was the first baptist church founded in that towns history. Second Baptist would mean that it was the next to be started after the first baptist church. Most of the baptist that would be second baptist took other names so there aren't many churches named second baptist church out there. Richmond, VA has a sixth bpatist church...perhaps they took it a little bit to far.