Baptists


Baptists are a Protestant tradition of Christianity distinguished by baptizing only believers and doing so by total immersion. Modern Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul competency, sola fide, sola scriptura and congregationalist ecclesiastical polity. Baptists generally recognize at least two sacraments or ordinances: Baptism and the Lord's Supper.
Diverse from their beginnings, those identifying as Baptists today may differ widely from one another in what they believe, how they worship, their attitudes toward other Christians, and their understanding of what is important in Christian discipleship. Baptist missionaries have spread various Baptist churches to every continent. The largest Baptist communion of churches is the Baptist World Alliance, and there are many different groupings of Baptist churches and Baptist congregations.
Baptists are traced back to Dissenters from the Church of England in Great Britain. A nonconformist church was formed in Gainsborough led by the cleric John Smyth. The Gainsborough congregation and the Scrooby congregation went into exile in Amsterdam in 1608. In accordance with their exegesis of the New Testament, they came to reject infant baptism and instituted baptism only of professing believers. Thomas Helwys returned the congregation to England, where he formulated a distinctive philosophical request that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have liberty of conscience. Baptists spread across England, where the General Baptists considered Christ's atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect. The Second London Confession of Faith of 1689 is the greatest creedal document for Particular Baptists, whereas the Orthodox Creed of 1679 is the one widely accepted by General Baptists.

Origins

Baptist historian Bruce Gourley outlines four main views of Baptist origins:
  1. the modern scholarly consensus is that the denomination traces its origins to the 17th century English Dissenters, having minimal to no Anabaptist influence;
  2. the view that it was an outgrowth of the Anabaptist movement begun in 1525 on Continental Europe;
  3. the successionist view, which argues that Baptist churches actually existed in an unbroken chain outside of the mainstream Church since the time of Jesus Christ.
  4. the perpetuity view, similar to the successionist view, which assumes that the Baptist faith and practice has existed since the time of Jesus Christ.

    English Dissenters view

Baptist churches trace their history to English Dissenters, in 17th century England, 75 years after the formation of the Church of England, during the English Protestant Reformation. This view of Baptist origins is the most historically accurate and is widely accepted. It was a time of considerable political and religious turmoil. Both individuals and churches were willing to give up their theological roots if they became convinced that a more biblical "truth" had been discovered.
During the Reformation, the Church of England separated from the Roman Catholic Church. There were some Christians who were not content with the achievements of the mainstream Protestant Reformation. There also were Protestants who were disappointed that the Church of England had not made corrections of what some considered to be errors and abuses, being the most critical of the church's direction. They became known as "Puritans". Most Puritans in the 16th century were conformists, staying in the Anglican Church and trying to make constructive changes from within. Other Puritans left the established church because of this Puritan dissatisfaction, and these became known as Separatists, Dissenters, or Nonconformists.
In 1579, Faustus Socinus founded the Unitarian Polish Brethren in Poland-Lithuania, which was a tolerant country. The Unitarians taught baptism by immersion. After their expulsion from the Commonwealth in 1658, many of them fled to the Netherlands. In the Netherlands, the Unitarians introduced immersion baptism to the Dutch Mennonites.
Baptist churches have their origins with John Smyth, Thomas Helwys, and John Murton in the Kingdom of England and the Dutch Republic. Because they shared beliefs with the Congregationalists, they went into exile in 1608 with other believers who held the same positions. They believe that the Bible is to be the primary guide and that credobaptism is what the Bible teaches. In 1609, the year considered to be the foundation of the Baptist tradition, these exiled Dissenters baptized believers and their church became the first Baptist church.
In 1609, while still there, Smyth wrote a tract titled "The Character of the Beast". In it he expressed two propositions: first, infants are not to be baptized; and second, unbelievers are to be admitted into the true Church by baptism." Hence, his conviction was that a scriptural church should consist only of regenerate believers who had been baptized confessing faith and past sins. They rejected the doctrine of infant baptism.
Shortly thereafter, in 1610, Smyth was expelled from the church. Ultimately, Smyth became committed to believers' baptism as the only biblical baptism. He was convinced on the basis of his interpretation of Scripture that infants would not be damned if they died in infancy. Smyth, convinced that his self-baptism was invalid, applied with the Waterland Mennonites for union. He died before achieving it, and some of his supporters became Mennonites. Helwys and Murton others kept their commitment to credobaptism that would originate in the Baptist tradition. The modern Baptist denomination is an outgrowth of the Amsterdam English church. Baptists rejected the name "Anabaptist" when they were called that by opponents in derision because they considered Anabaptists as heretics. McBeth writes that as late as the 18th century, many Baptists referred to themselves as "the Christians commonly—though falsely—called Anabaptists."
Helwys took over the leadership, leading the church back to England in 1612, and he published the first Baptist confession of faith: the Helwys Declaration of Faith, or "A Declaration of Faith of English People", in 1611. He settled the church in Spitalfields, East London, in 1612. it became known as the first General Baptist church
Another milestone in the early development of the Baptist tradition was in 1638 with John Spilsbury, a Calvinist minister who later helped to promote the practice of baptism by immersion. According to Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, "Spilsbury's cogent arguments for a gathered, disciplined congregation of believers baptized by immersion as constituting the New Testament church gave expression to and built on insights that had emerged within separatism, advanced in the life of John Smyth and the suffering congregation of Thomas Helwys, and matured in Particular Baptists."

Anabaptist influence view

A minority view is that early 17th century Baptists were influenced by or even directly connected to continental Anabaptists. Representatives of this theory include A.C. Underwood and William R. Estep. Gourley writes that among some contemporary Baptist scholars, who emphasize the faith of the community over soul liberty, the Anabaptist theory is making a comeback. This view was also taught by the Reformed historian Philip Schaff. According to this view, Baptists shared common beliefs and practices with Dutch Waterlander Mennonites including believer's baptism, belief in religious liberty and church-state separation, and similarities on soteriology.
It is certain that the Baptists in the Dutch Republic had contacts with the Mennonite Anabaptists, and John Smyth later even joined the Anabaptist movement, while those who remained as Baptists did so under Thomas Helwys. However, although it is possible that Helwys was subordinately influenced by Dutch Anabaptism, he still rejected multiple of their doctrines such as Melchiorite Christology and had a more high role for the civil magistrate. However, any influence Helwys and the General Baptists could have had would not necessarily translate to influence on Reformed Baptist theology, as although they share the same name, they are often viewed as having a distinct origin. Nevertheless, some historians have proposed for some Anabaptist influence on Reformed Baptists in addition to General Baptists, such as by proposing influence from a natively existing English Anabaptist population, rather than from Dutch Anabaptists. It has been sometimes speculated that a natively existing Anabaptist population in England gave rise to multiple English dissenting groups, including Particular Baptists. It has been noticed that there is some evidence for a native English Anabaptist population, and some historical records refer to two Anabaptists that were executed in England under Henry VII in 1575. However, many historians dismiss any links between the particular Baptists and Anabaptists, and there does not exist explicit evidences of Anabaptist influence on Particular Baptists.
Despite this, relations between Baptists and Anabaptists were early strained, which makes it difficult to support the Anabaptist view consensually. In 1624, the five existing Baptist churches of London issued an epistle of anathema to the Anabaptists for what they considered heresies, and throughout the centuries Baptists strongly rejected the nomenclature of "Anabaptist". Furthermore, the Gainsborough church exiled in Amsterdam, under Helwys' leadership, rejected unification with the Waterlander Anabaptists after a brief period of association; and Helwys exposed negatively their beliefs and practices, considering them as heretical. Nonetheless, many modern Baptists have much more positive views of Anabaptism, emphasizing the agreements in many core areas of theology.