Baptist Church, a Protestant Christian who holds the same basic beliefs as most Protestants but believes that only Christians must be baptized and that it ought to be done by immersion instead of sprinkling or pouring water. (However, this viewpoint is decided to share by persons who are not Baptists.).
Although Baptists do not have a single religious community or denominational structure, the majority of them practice congregational church government. Some Baptists emphasize the importance of having no human founder, authority, ethnicity or religion.
History and Origin
Some Baptists believe that since the days of John the Baptist and the Disciples of Jesus Christ, there has been an unchanging succession of Baptist churches.
Others trace their roots back to the Anabaptists, a Protestant revolution on the European continent in the 16th century. Most scholars agree, however, that the Baptists as a British denomination arose as an early form of Puritanism in the 17th century.
Early Baptists were divided into two groups: Particular Baptists and General Baptists. The Particular Baptists held to the ideology of a specific redemption Christ died only for the elect—and were firmly Calvinist (following John Calvin’s Reformation teachings).
The General Baptists adhered to the theory of a general atonement, which maintained that Christ died for all people rather than just the elect and embraced the ever more moderate Calvinism of Jacobus Arminius, a 17th-century Dutch theologian.
The two currents were also differentiated by churchmanship differences relating to their separate points of origin. The General Baptists were descended from English Separatists, whilst the Particular Baptists sprung from non-Separatist independency.
Congregationalism was practised by both Separatists and non-Separatists. They held the same beliefs about the nature and governance of the church. They believed that church life should be organized in the manner of the New Testament churches, which means that churches should be self-governing bodies made up of believers.
Here are some facts about Baptists and their beliefs.
Baptism is the primary belief of the Baptist church.
The Baptist church believes that baptism should take place only when a person has confessed Christ as their Savior. Baptism represents the purification of sins. Some churches utilize a sprinkle of water for baptism, while the majority employ full immersion, in which the applicant is completely immersed in water.
This represents the disciples’ baptism, as stated in John 3. According to Romans 6, Christians are “buried beside him by baptism into death, that as Christ was resurrected from the dead in the glory of the Father, we too may receive a new life.”
Baptists have generally been staunch supporters of biblical authority.
Since the church’s inception, Baptists have held that the Bible is the ultimate authority for Christian practice and belief. Baptists consider that the Bible is the only source of truth because it is divinely inspired, or of a divine nature.
Baptists are passionate about evangelism and missionary activity.
Many Baptists support missionary work and evangelistic opportunities in response to Christ’s command to “make disciples of all countries.” According to Baptists, millions of people worldwide have never heard of Jesus.
And evangelism is the purpose of spreading Christ’s message. The Baptist church has a lengthy history of evangelism. Historians employed books, pamphlets, and other tools in evangelism as early as 1824, according to the American Baptist Churches USA.
Baptists favour religious freedom.
Early Baptists, like Thomas Jefferson, were staunch supporters of religious liberty. Baptists were subjected to fines, intimidation, and even jail time for their belief in a believer’s baptism.
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