Figure 1.-- Here we see a scene outside a very large Baptist church somewhere in England. Itv was an undated postcard-back photo, probabky taken about 1910. We are nit sure what is hapoening, but looks like the gtoungerv Sunday school children are being taken on some kind of outing, perhaps a picnuic. What a great team of horses.

The Baptists are one of the many Protestant denominations that emerged from the Protestant reformation. Luther and German Protestants were not apostles of religious freedom. Only once the break from Rome occurred, it was virtually inevitable that more than one Protestant church would emerge. The Baptists appear to have emerged from the relatively open religious environment of the Netherlands. Differing religious ideas in Germany faced severe opposition not only from the Catholic church, but Luther's reformed church as well. There is some disagreement among Baptists as to their origins. The most common understanding is that the first Baptist church was formed in Amsterdam, but with English roots (1609). English Separatist John Smyth was the pastor forming the church.【Gourley】 Smyth like Luther and other early Protestants believed in reading the Bible for religious inspiration. And like any major religious text, inevitably different religious ideas are going to emerge. As for Smyth and other Presidents this meant the New Testament and the issue he focused on was baptism, one of the Church's most important sacraments. Smyth agreed that baptism was important, but he objected to the baptism of infants which was the Catholic practice and accepted by Luther and most other Protestants. He believed that this baptism should only occur when the individual was old enough to understand the commitment he was making. 【Cross】 From the original Dutch church, Baptist beliefs spread to England. The environment there was not as open because of the established Church of England, but it was generally more free than on the Continent. Two schools of thought developed in England, the General and Particular Baptists. The General Baptists saw Christ's message applying to all of mankind. The Particular Baptists in contrast took the view that it only applied to the elect--an opinion taken by some other Protestant denominations. 【Benedict】 This was a major rift which developed among Protestants. Thomas Helwys enunciated a very important Baptist belief that would eventually become a major Protestant contribution to Western civilization. Helwys insisted that the church and the state should be separate. That there should be no established church. This of course put Helwys and his church in conflict with the Church of England and the monarchy tied to it. It was essentially the formulation of freedom of religion which would eventually become an important Protestant tenement--first in America and eventually in England as well. Helwys would be arrested by King James I and perish in prison. The idea of religious freedom, however, was inevitable among Protestants. There were so many Protestant different denominations, that Protestant countries over time had to embrace the idea.

Sources

Benedict, David (1848). A General History of the Baptist Denomination in America and Other Parts of the World (1848).

Cross, F.L., ed. "Baptists", The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005).

Gourley, Bruce. "A very brief introduction to Baptist history, then and now." The Baptist Observer.

Created: 12:39 PM 3/13/2024
Last updated: 12:39 PM 3/13/2024