Baptist: Words, Works, And Worship Essay, Research Paper

The Baptists: Words, Works, and Worship

The branch of Christianity known as The Baptists was born out of the Radical Reformation, which begun during the 16th century. The Reformation occurred in response to discontent and disagreement within the Christian Church. Prior to the Reformation in Europe, communities of ?Anabaptists? (re-baptizers) had begun to form. The Anabaptists differed in their perspectives widely, but were united in their rejection of infant baptism. ?The forerunners of present day Baptists were the Anabaptists of the Reformation Period. Some Anabaptist congregations were settled in Holland in the early 17th century when groups of Puritan Independents, or Congregationalists, fled from England to Holland.?

John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, English separatists of Congregational persuasion, founded the first Baptist church on Dutch soil at Amsterdam in 1609. The Baptists essentially began as part of the Separatist movement, but did not think that the Separatists went far enough in distancing themselves from the teachings and practices of the Church of England and in following the teachings of the Bible. Baptists primarily differed from the Separatists on the issue of baptism. ?Baptists reserved the rite for confessed believers. These Baptists began forming associations of like-minded churches, giving rise to the first Baptist denominations.? Then, in 1611, the group returned to England, and formed the first Baptist congregation in Spitalfields, near London.

There was a great deal of diversity of opinion among the Baptists. Two groups of Baptists emerged in England during this Puritan reform movement. ?While sharing the view that only believers should be baptized, the two groups differed with respect to the nature of Christ?s atonement.? The two groups became known as the General Baptists and the Particular Baptists. The former, 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, those predestined for salvation. The General Baptists trace their beginning to the Baptist church founded Spitalfields in 1611. Particular Baptists originated with a Baptist church established in 1638 by two groups who left an independent church (not part of the Church of England) in London. 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 more than 1 million members in Europe.

It was in America that the Baptists experienced their greatest growth. Baptist origins in the United States can be traced to Roger Williams. Williams, banished by the Puritans from Massachusetts Bay, founded Providence, Rhode Island as a ?shelter for persons distressed in conscience.? He was also responsible for founding the First Baptist Church of America in Providence in 1639. In most of the original colonies, Baptists were outcasts, rejected because they did not follow the established religion of the colonies. ?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.? Though Rhode Island remained a Baptist stronghold, the center of Baptist life in colonial America was Philadelphia. The first supra-congregational association was formed there in 1707, and the Philadelphia Baptist Association proceeded to sponsor new Baptist churches throughout the colonies. ?The democratic, informal, Scripture centered, relatively untheological mode of Baptist service was ideal for any unsettled, rural, or frontier situation. This the South, the Midwest, and the far West were heavily populated?by Baptists.? Increases were especially drastic in the Southern colonies, where Shubael Stearns established a church at Sandy Creek, N.C., in 1755. From this center revivalistic preachers fanned out across the southern frontier, establishing a Baptist dominance in the region which persists to the present. The membership of revivalistic Baptists continued to grow rapidly in the 19th century, assisted by lay preachers and the congregational church government well adapted to frontier settings.

During 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 for the Northern Baptist Convention. ?Southern Baptists and Northern Baptists (later American Baptists) developed distinct regional characteristics following the Civil War and still exhibit different tendencies in theology, ecumenical involvement, missionary activity, and worship.? 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. ?Black Baptist churches, now grouped primarily in two large conventions, constitute another major segment of Baptists in the United States. There are currently over 27 million adult baptized members of this branch of Christianity in the United States.

Baptists are Protestants who accept the basic tenants 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, which distinguish them from other denominations of Christianity.

One of the major tenants of Baptist faith is baptism of believers by immersion only. The emphasis on believer?s 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. ?It is considered an act of obedience, symbolizing a believer?s faith in Christ.? Baptists feel that infants have no comprehension of repentance and faith; consequently, they reserve the ordinance until a time of understanding, when joining the church will be a personal choice and therefore be meaningful. Baptists also favor immersion because it most closely models the example of Jesus Christ when he was baptized by John the Baptist. Baptists do not, however, consider baptism a sacrament through which special grace is received, but rather an ordinance whereby one makes a public confession of faith. ?While most Baptists do not believe that baptism is necessary for salvation, they teach that faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is essential.? In addition to the ordinance of baptism, Baptist also observe the ordinance of Lord?s Supper, or communion. This is usually taken the first Sunday of every month. They interpret this as a memorial experience, a ?symbolic act in which communicants testify that they remember the death of Jesus Christ.?

Second is the doctrine of a regenerated church, That is, only converted souls who have been baptized by immersion are proper members of the church. They are 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. This emphasizes another central belief; the belief in a separation between church and state. The gathered church is in contrast to a state church, in which all who are born within a given geographical territory and receive sacraments automatically become members. This conviction led to their early persecution. Within the parameters of separation between church and state lies an emphasis on religious liberty as well. In both England and America, Baptists were among the forerunners protesting an established church. This is based on the conviction that religion is a personal relationship with God, and in being so, cannot be interfered with. ?religious liberty is important to Baptists who assert that man is free under God in all matters of conscience and has the right to embrace or reject religion, to choose or change his faith, and to preach, teach, and worship publicly and privately, with due respect to the rights of others.? The Baptists led in the founding of the first civil government in the world to be based on a separation of church and state. ?By the time of the Revolution, Baptists were poised to make a mark on the newly forming federal government and its constitution. Two outspoken Baptist pastors are noteworthy for their advocacy of the religious freedom and their promotion of the First Amendment, John Leland and Isaac Backus.?

Baptists believe in the autonomy of the local church, which is the key unit in Baptist polity. This independence of each congregation implies that the church, ?should not subordinate to the rule of any other religious body and is subject only to Christ, who stands at the head of each congregation.? The local church ordains and calls its own clergy. No power-ecclesiastical or secular-may dictate to a local Baptist congregation. They dismiss the authority of the Pope, as a means of preserving the spirit of democracy, encouraging the participation of lay persons in the church, and permitting a wide range of theological expression.

The Bible, interpreted by the individual, is regarded as the ultimate religious authority. ?Fundamental Baptists are strict in interpreting the Bible in a ?literal? sense. In other words, when the Bible speaks, the words have a literal meaning and that is the meaning God intended. They reject the efforts of the many who ?spiritually? interpret the Scriptures, placing hidden or specially revealed meaning to the words of the Bible.? (SURVEY) Infrequently, Baptists have adopted creeds to give expression to their faith, but they are not equal or superior to the authority of the scriptures. Although never adopting an universal creed, they have adopted Confessions of Faith. The Philadelphia Confession of Faith states, ?the Holy Scripture is the only sufficient, certain, and infallible rule of all saving knowledge.? Similarly, the New Hampshire Baptist Confession says, ?We believe that the Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired, and is a perfect treasure of heavenly instruction.?

The individual biblical interpretation has resulted in a variety of different Baptists groups. On social issues no single ?Baptist? position exists, because of the Baptist belief in religious liberty and local church autonomy. ?It might seem that the idea of unity would be foreign to Baptists, given their strong views on independence and their doctrine of the autonomy of the church.? Baptist organizations are largely voluntary, cooperative ventures that have no legal binding force over their members. ?A man or woman voluntarily seeks membership in a congregation; congregations voluntarily associate with one another for a variety of purposes; churches and individuals voluntarily join and contribute to benevolent enterprises in response to the call of the gospel, and so on.? Through this voluntary network, laypersons become involved in the hands-on mission of the church regarding both religious and social issues. This interaction, and the fundamental beliefs such as baptism for adults who have made the choice to except Jesus Christ, has had the most notable impact on the Baptist church.