There are an estimated 170 million people in the world who identify as Baptist. The defining belief of Baptists is that infants should not be baptized. Baptism requires the full immersion of a confessed believer. This is referred to as a believer’s baptism.
Although the Anabaptist movement also rejected infant baptism, its influence on the beginnings of the Baptist movement is thought by most historians to be minimal. Rather, the Baptist movement is predominantly thought to be a result of dissatisfied members of the Church of England after its split from Roman Catholicism. Those that strived to reform the Church of England from within were called Puritans. Those that chose to break off were called Separatists.
The Baptist denomination resulted from a Separatist movement started by John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, who left England for Amsterdam in 1607 to pursue religious freedom. In 1609, they founded the first Baptist church and began to baptize believers by full immersion. Helwys moved back to England in 1611, founded the first General Baptist Church, and wrote first Baptist confession of faith, “A Declaration of Faith of English People.”
Early Baptist growth came primarily from people leaving other denominations. Some of these denominations taught Reformed theology and some taught Arminian theology. Baptist denominations holding to Reformed theology are called Particular Baptists or Regular Baptists. Baptist denominations holding to Arminian theology are called General Baptists or Free Will Baptists.
The Baptist movement in America was started by Roger Williams and John Clarke. This happened in Rhode Island, which Williams founded after being expelled from the Massachusetts Bay Colony as a place allowing for religious liberty. In 1638, Williams established a Baptist church in Providence. Around the same time, Clarke began a Baptist church in Newport.
The Baptist movement gradually spread, but then experienced quick growth during the First Great Awakening, a revival movement that occurred from about 1730 to 1740 (see Jonathan Edwards on p. 76). This was especially true in the Southern States, where Baptists were often the largest population in a community, including among black slave communities. About 100 years later, tensions over slavery that led to the U.S. Civil War resulted in a North-South Baptist split. The northern Baptist congregations organized under what is now the American Baptist Churches USA (ABC-USA) and the southern Baptist congregations organized under what is now the Southern Baptist Convention.
There are currently many more Baptist organizations and many independent Baptist churches that choose not to be associated with a larger organization. This makes a discussion of doctrine problematic, as each organization and each church typically have its own doctrinal position. Therefore, this section will focus on the doctrinal positions of the two largest Baptist organizations: the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) and the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). The SBC is the largest Baptist denomination at about 47,000 churches and 13 million people. The BWA is the largest organization of Baptist conventions, consisting of 266 conventions and about 51 million people. The SBC is not a member of the BWA, but the ABC-USA (about 1.1 million members) is a member.
The beliefs of the SBC are recorded in the pamphlet “The Baptist Faith and Message.” This was first adopted in 2000 and was amended in 2023. It starts by asserting the inerrancy of the Bible. Although this language implies historical and scientific inerrancy, the focus is clearly on spiritual truths:
“It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us, and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which all human conduct, creeds, and religious opinions should be tried.”[i]
The SBC is therefore sola Scriptura. The Bible and the Bible alone is the only authoritative source for Christian doctrine. Beyond this, the “The Baptist Faith and Message” is largely Arminian. It speaks of the free will of mankind and that salvation is offered to all who accept Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour. As with Arminian theology, the SBC pamphlet also states that God has perfect knowledge of future decisions of His free creatures, implying that certain choices that cannot be otherwise are compatible with free will.
“The Baptist Faith and Message” departs from Reformed and Arminian theology with regards to original sin. It states that people become transgressors and are under condemnation as soon as they are capable of moral action. Therefore, all children before they are morally accountable are not under condemnation. But once a person is saved, the Reformed rather than the Arminian position is stated in that a true believer will never fall away from the state of grace but shall persevere to the end.
Beyond this, the “The Baptist Faith and Message” asserts the following doctrinal positions:
- Christ’s death on the cross is a substitutionary atonement;
- Women are not allowed to be pastors, elders, or overseers;
- The sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper are symbolic acts of obedience. However, baptism is required for church membership and for a person to partake in the Lord’s Supper;
- It is the duty of every church member to constantly evangelize to non-believers;
- Adultery, homosexuality, and pornography are sexually immoral; and
- Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman in covenant commitment for a lifetime. Same-sex marriage is unbiblical and it is implied that Christian divorce and remarriage after divorce is somehow impossible, but specifics are not elaborated.[ii]
Perhaps the biggest surprise in “The Baptist Faith and Message” is its position on baptism. In agreement with Arminianism, it holds that baptism is merely symbolic and has no spiritual effects. Baptism is obedience to a Biblical command and results in the baptized person becoming a member of the church.
The BWA statement of beliefs can be found on its website.[iii] It is far less detailed than “The Baptist Faith and Message,” and it perhaps is best understood by what it does not address rather than what it does address. It is worth noting that the SBC withdrew from the BWA in 2004, primarily for increasing anti-American sentiment and increasingly liberal theological positions such as with homosexuality.
As with the SBC, the BWA begins its belief statement with its understanding of the Bible. Whereas the SBC understands the Bible as inerrant, the BWA see it as infallible in areas of faith and Christian conduct. The only substantial theological area of difference relates to the nature of the Atonement, which the BWA describes it as Christ paying the price for our sin rather than being a substitutionary sacrifice. The BWA does not state any doctrinal positions on original sin, perseverance of the saints, the role of women in the church, homosexuality, or marriage/divorce/remarriage. As such, member churches of the BWA can vary widely on these issues, resulting in some having liberal practices of which the SBC disapproves. For example, the ABC-USA ordains female pastors and allows individual congregations to decide whether or not to ordain LGBT clergy and/or perform same-sex marriages.
[i] “The Baptist Faith and Message,” Southern Baptist Convention, 2023: §1 The Scriptures.
[ii] The SCB took up the issue of divorce and remarriage in it 2010 convention. Resolution 3 in the convention proceedings is titled “On the Scandal of Southern Baptist Divorce.” This resolution affirms the position of the “The Baptist Faith and Message” by stating, “We have affirmed in our confession of faith our belief in the sanctity and permanence of marriage. However, the resolution essentially encouraged people to take marriage vows seriously but does not condemn either divorce or remarriage.
[iii] baptistworld.org/beliefs
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