Figure 1.--Baptists as the name suggest focus on the savrament of Baptism. Virtuall all Christian denominations recognize Baptism as a sacrament because of the Biblical references, but the Baptist being the sacrament to a central position of the faith.

Baptist churches date from the Reformation, but Baptists identify with the early Church founded by Jesus. They deby the Roman Church and claim an unbrokwn line from the Apostles. A Baptist theologian writes, "... our principles, sometimes veiled and forgotten, like a river which may travel under ground for a little season, have always had honest and holy adherents." [Spurgeon] With the Reformation, there was more freedom to form churches and Lutger's encouragement of indicidual Bible study resulted in the formatiion of new Protestance sects. One of these was the Baptists. They were persecuted by both Catholic and Protestant authorities. Disident English Protestants fleeing religious persecution formed the first identfiable Baptist Church in Amsterdam (1608). Church leaders included John Smyth and Thomas Helwys who orgnized the small group along New Testament patterns. They believed that the Roman Church as well as the Church of England could not reformed and more fundamental change was required, a virtual reconstiturion of the Church. The developing new church placed great emohasis on personal conversion and as the name suggests focused on the sacrament of baptism, And here the Baptists differed with both the Roman Church and developing Protestant Churches who baptized infants. Baptists believed that Batism should be delayed until a youth was old enough to make a commitment and profess faith in Jesus Christ. Thus Baptism was only available to believers and on mutual covenanting between and among believers. These ideas began to crystalize in Amsterdam, a rare island of relative religious tolerance in Europe. Affiliated churches began to develop when members of the Amsterdam group went back to Britain and began calling themselves 'Baptist'. At the time the subjects of each nation or principality was expected to adopt the religious of the monatch. And there was no Baptist soverigns. Thus the Baptists were among the most persecuted of the new religions. Discenting groups in England conceived of the idea of setting up utopian religious communities in the New World where the corruption of the Old World did not exist and the power of the monarchy and estblished Church of englans were limited. The Spanish were careful about the relgious proclibities of who they allowed in their colonies. King James I dithered on this and a discenting group, the Puritans, founded the Plymouth Colony (1620). After this the English made no real effort to restict emigration to the colonies on a religious basis and were soom emersed in the Civil War (1642-51) which essentially left the colonies on their own. Baptist churches were among the many different churches established in the English colonies. Baptist churches appeared in several European countries (England, Germany, the Netherlands, and other countries), but it was in America where the idea of religious freedom beginning with Roger williams became increasingly accepted that the Baptists flou

Sources

Created: 3:03 AM 2/16/2011
Last updated: 3:04 AM 2/16/2011