Baptists are members of a large Protestant religious group who reserve baptism for adult or mature persons who affirm their faith in Jesus Christ as their savior. Baptists are organized in separate conventions or associations. Many of these organizations belong to the Baptist World Alliance. More Baptists live in the United States than in any other country.
The Baptist movement developed as one wing of English Congregationalism during the early 1600’s. These Baptists, like some earlier Christian groups, opposed the baptism of infants. They insisted that baptism should be restricted to believers who are old enough to make their own declaration of faith. Later in the 1600’s, these Baptists said that baptism should be by immersion (dipping under water), rather than by pouring or sprinkling the water.
Early history.
The earliest Baptist leader was John Smyth, a clergyman in the Church of England. About 1607, Smyth went to the Netherlands with those English exiles who later became the Pilgrims of New England. While in the Netherlands, Smyth and 36 of the exiles formed a Baptist church. Differences of opinion developed within the church, and 11 members of the new congregation broke away. These members returned to England to form a church there in 1611. However, major Baptist growth did not occur in England until the Puritan revolution.
Except for the issue of baptism and a strong defense of freedom of conscience, there was little to distinguish early Baptists from Congregationalists. All the Congregationalists feared the authority of bishops and synods (councils) and strongly declared the rights of lay people and local congregations to govern themselves. Most Baptists accepted as their doctrine a slightly modified Westminster Confession of Faith formulated by the Puritans in the 1640’s.
William Carey, an English Baptist who went to India in 1793, was one of the first English-speaking Christian missionaries. American Baptists joined the foreign missionary movement in 1812 when Adoniram Judson went to Burma (now Myanmar), and missionaries later went to Europe and Latin America. As a result of this activity and the movement of British Baptists into Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, most countries today have at least a small Baptist community.
Baptists in America.
In the American Colonies, Roger Williams formed a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1639. Philadelphia later became the major Baptist center in colonial America. During the years immediately before and after the Revolutionary War, the number of Baptists increased greatly. By 1800, the Baptists were the largest denomination in America. However, during much of the 1800’s, the Methodists outnumbered the Baptists. In the 1900’s, the Baptists expanded to once again form the largest Protestant denomination in America.
About half of the Baptists in the United States are affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention. The two main African American national Baptist groups—the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc., and the National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.—form another large segment. A fourth major group, the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A., is the oldest continuously active Baptist group. The leading Canadian body of Baptists is called Canadian Baptist Ministries.
During the 1900’s, the Baptists, like most other Protestants, were divided on matters of theology. Modernists and fundamentalists differed on how best to understand the Bible. Modernists emphasized studying the Bible historically rather than as the literal word of God. Fundamentalists feared that the authority of Scripture, and thus the basis of Christianity, was being undermined by the new methods of Bible study and by acceptance of modern scientific theories. Today, controversy over these two points of view is still very strong, especially among Southern Baptists.
