I.

Introduction

Baptists, Protestant Christians who accept the basic tenets of the 16th-century Reformation (justification by faith, the authority of the Scriptures, and the priesthood of the believer) but have added other beliefs and practices, including baptism of believers by immersion only, the separation of church and state, and the autonomy of the local church. The Baptists are important for their emphasis on these and other beliefs and for their numbers. In the late 1990s there were about 43 million Baptists worldwide, with 162,000 churches.

The great majority of Baptists (about 33 million in the late 1990s) are distributed in 14 major denominations in the United States, where they make up two-fifths of the Protestant population. Other countries where Baptists are strong are, in descending order of total membership, India, Brazil, Nigeria, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC, formerly Zaire), South Korea, Myanmar (formerly known as Burma), the Philippines, the United Kingdom, Canada, Indonesia, Russia, and Romania. The largest number of Baptists are in North America (77 percent), followed by Asia (9 percent), Africa (8 percent), South America (3 percent), Europe (2 percent), and Central America and the Caribbean Islands (1 percent). Baptists espoused some of the religious convictions of the Anabaptists, although no established connection existed between the two groups. Organizationally, Baptists originated in the early 17th century in Holland and England, with John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, English separatists from the Anglican church, as leaders.

II.

Distinctive Beliefs

Baptists believe in a church composed only of regenerated or converted individuals—that is, persons who have had a personal experience of the Christian religion. The theological term is a gathered church: Individuals join voluntarily following repentance for sin and affirmation of faith in Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord. This is in contrast to a state church, in which all who are born within a given geographical territory and receive the sacraments become members automatically, or a church in which infants who are baptized are considered members. Baptists’ conviction regarding regenerate membership, even more than their belief in believers’ baptism by immersion, led to their early persecution.

The Baptist emphasis on believers’ baptism, by immersion rather than by sprinkling or affusion, implies sufficient maturity to make a religious decision and is a specific rejection of infant baptism. Baptists feel that infants have no comprehension of repentance and faith; consequently, they reserve the ordinance until a time of understanding (usually early teenage years and after), when joining the church will be by personal choice and therefore more meaningful. Furthermore, Baptists believe that no biblical precedent exists for the baptism of infants. The mode of immersion is employed because it most closely follows the example of Jesus when he was baptized by John the Baptist in the Jordan River and because it corresponds symbolically with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus as well as with the Pauline symbolism of the “death” of the old, selfish nature and the “resurrection” of the new, unselfish individual. Baptists do not, however, consider baptism a sacrament through which special grace is received; rather, they view it as an ordinance whereby one makes public confession of a faith already received. In addition to the ordinance of baptism, Baptists also observe the ordinance of the Lord’s Supper, or communion; many congregations do so on the first Sunday of each month. They interpret this as a memorial experience. See Eucharist.

The Bible, interpreted by the individual, is regarded as the ultimate religious authority in matters of faith and practice. This is in contrast to other possible authorities, such as tradition, reason, and human experience. Infrequently, Baptists have adopted creeds to give expression to their faith and to clarify their beliefs, but they have not elevated these to a place of authority equal or superior to that of the Scriptures. Individual biblical interpretation, in terms of theology, has resulted in a variety of Baptists.

Baptists follow the doctrine of separation of church and state, with a corollary emphasis on religious liberty. In both England and America, Baptists were among the forerunners protesting an established church or a union between church and state. This was based on the conviction that religion is a personal relationship between the human soul and God, a relationship with which no one may interfere. Early in the 17th century, as advocates of such religious liberty, the Baptists led in the founding (in what is now Rhode Island) of the first civil government in the world to be based on a separation of church and state (see Church and State). Although Baptists have opposed an official tie between the state and any religious organization, nevertheless they feel a responsibility to exert moral and spiritual influence on the state.

Baptists believe in the autonomy of the local church, which is the key unit in Baptist polity. The local church ordains and calls its own clergy and theoretically may dismiss its own clergy. No power—ecclesiastical or secular—may dictate to a local Baptist congregation. Voluntarily, however, most Baptist churches unite with other Baptist churches in associations, state conventions, national denominations, and the Baptist World Alliance for the purposes of fellowship, mutual assistance, and the support of common educational, evangelistic, and missionary goals. Baptists argue that the self-government of the local church preserves the spirit of democracy, encourages the participation of lay persons in the church, and permits a wide range of theological expression.

Baptists have never adopted a universal creed, although on occasion they have adopted confessions of faith (Philadelphia, 1742; New Hampshire, 1832). More frequently they have adhered to church covenants that are not doctrinally oriented but set forth general ethical standards by which Baptists are expected to live.

III.

History

John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, English separatists of Congregational persuasion, founded the first Baptist church on Dutch soil at Amsterdam in 1609. Smyth eventually applied to join the Mennonites, and Helwys returned to an unfriendly England. There, in 1611 or 1612, he led a small group of Christians in establishing the first Baptist church on English soil, at Spitalfields, near London. As they grew in number, English Baptists came to be divided between General Baptists and Particular Baptists. The former, who were Arminians (see Arminianism), believed that the spiritual benefits of the death of Jesus applied potentially to all people; the latter believed, with the Calvinists, that those benefits applied only to the elect (see Predestination). Eventually these two groups united in the 19th century, when theological issues had changed and the need of an effective missionary advance helped to draw them more closely together. From their base in England, Baptists have grown to number nearly 1 million members in Europe.

It was in America, however, that Baptists experienced their greatest growth. Roger Williams, an English Puritan clergyman, founded the first Baptist church in America at Providence, Rhode Island, in 1639. About the same time, physician and minister John Clarke established a Baptist congregation at Newport, Rhode Island. Frequently the subject of bitter persecution, the denomination at first grew slowly, but Baptist growth accelerated in the 18th century, largely as a result of the movement known as the Great Awakening. Later in the same century, the Baptists ardently supported the American Revolution and thus became more popular. In the 19th century the Baptists, like most other Protestant denominations, split over the issue of slavery. This led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845. In 1907 the northern Baptists drew together their various educational and missionary societies to form the Northern Baptist Convention (now the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.). In the midst of their growth, the Baptists had a strong appeal for members of the black community, due in part to evangelistic outreach, informal preaching, emotional appeal, and autonomous polity. Today, seven-eighths of the black population in the United States that claims denominational affiliation belongs to either a Baptist or a Methodist church.

In Canada, Baptist congregations were first formed about 1760, and the longest continuous history of a single Baptist church is claimed by a congregation organized in Horton, Nova Scotia, in 1765, now known as Wolfville United Baptist Church. About 0.5 percent of Canadians are Baptists, the largest number of which live in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Baptists historically have been ardent proponents of education; they are responsible for the founding of Bates, Colby, and Wake Forest colleges, as well as Brown, Temple, Bucknell, Colgate, Redlands, Baylor, and Furman universities.

The four largest Baptist denominations in the United States (according to their membership in 1999) were the Southern Baptist Convention (15.9 million); the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A. (1.5 million); the National Baptist Convention, U.S.A. Inc. (8.5 million); and the National Baptist Convention of America (3.1 million). The latter two are black Baptist groups. The remarkable growth of the Southern Baptist Convention (an increase in membership of more than 250 percent between 1940 and 1980) is accounted for in part by aggressive missionary and revivalistic outreach, zealous preaching, and, in the judgment of some, greater centralization of denominational machinery. The southern Baptists are more conservative in theology than their northern counterparts and more revivalistic in methodology. Northern and southern Baptists have also differed on racial and ecumenical matters. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the only major Protestant denomination not affiliated with the National Council of Churches or the World Council of Churches.

IV.

Current Attitudes

On social issues no single “Baptist” position exists, because of the Baptist belief in religious liberty and local church autonomy. Theologically, the issue of biblical inerrancy remains a concern of many southern Baptists.

During the last decades of the 20th century, the leadership of the SBC became increasingly conservative. In response, a more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) formed in 1991, with headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. The CBF drew a number of congregations that had left the SBC and by 2000 had 1,800 affiliated churches. Among the issues that disturbed moderates was a declaration in 1998 by the SBC that wives should submit to their husbands and a decision in 2000 to ban women from serving as church pastors, even though Baptists ordain women. The SBC also strengthened its opposition to abortion and homosexuality at its annual meeting in 2000. Although some people criticized the SBC for its increasing rigidity on social issues, the SBC leadership emphasized that it was seeking only to uphold Baptist tradition and belief in the Bible against efforts by liberals to modernize the denomination.