Who founded the Baptist religion?

Answer 1

There are a number of different religious denominations which have the name 'Baptist'. Although some doctrines differ between the various Baptist groups, they all base their beliefs on the Bible, and all give particular emphasis to the need for total water immersion on the part of adult converts as an essential part of induction into the faith. (Matthew 28:19, Acts2:41) Given that Jesus Christ was baptised in this way and that he taught his followers that they should go and make disciples and baptise them, it could be said that Jesus himself started the Baptist movement. Similarly it is also possible to take the view that John ('John the Baptist') who started baptising adult believers some six months before he baptised Jesus was really the founder of the baptist church. Furthermore, as these individuals were carrying out God's will, then it could also be logically claimed that the actual founder of the baptist church was God. Although the bible record states that baptism is a fundamental part of Christianity, there is no record that the early believers called themselves 'Baptists' or the 'Baptist Church'. Nor are there any records in the early centuries of Christianity that the special term 'Baptist' was in any way ever applied to Christians. Many present day Baptists trace their religious roots to various devout Christian groups who practiced adult baptism, such as the Waldenses (about 1177). However the Waldenses were not called Baptists, nor did they call themselves Baptists. A more recent 'predecessor' of the Baptist movement would be the Anabaptists, but again, they were not called 'Baptists'. One person many consider to be the person most responsible for the development of the modern Baptist Church was John Smyth (1570-1612), an English ordained Anglican minister who broke from Anglicanism and established his own 'baptist' church in the Netherlands in 1608/1609. One member of that church, and baptised by John Smyth, was Thomas Helwys, who later returned to England and founded the first Baptist church there in 1612, in Spitalfields, London,. The congregation called themselves The General Baptists. For more information see Related Links below.

Answer 2

Many sources list John Smyth as the "founder" of the Baptist Church, but this is an over-generalization. Smyth was a former Anglican priest who led a congregation of English separatists who encountered the Mennonites in Holland. Impressed by the Mennonites' doctrine regarding baptism, Smyth's congregation adopted adult baptism - Smyth himself joined the Mennonites.

It's doubtful that all Baptists descend from Smyth's congregation. More than likely, Baptists arose from several different sources. Some probably descended directly from Anabaptist groups like the Mennonites, while others came from Calvinist separatist groups who adopted anabaptist-like ideas. From the beginning, there are references to "general Baptists" who stressed free-will like the earlier Anabaptists, and "particular Baptists" who stressed predestination like the Calvinists. There are also Baptist groups that evolved separately in Sweden, Switzerland and other countries. The Swedish Baptists emigrated to the United States and formed the Baptist General Conference denomination, which still shows many European Pietist influences. The Swiss Baptists became the Church of the Brethren, Grace Brethren, and other similarly-named churches which are strong in the Pennsylvania-Dutch regions.

Today, there are numerous Pentecostal and evangelical denominations in Africa and Latin America that have arisen independently and show the basic Baptist characteristics of adult baptism, congregational government, emphasis on the Bible's authority, and conversionist spirituality (although many Baptists in English-speaking countries would be uneasy with the Pentecostal emphases of these emergent denominations). That's because these ideas are very strongly implied in the New Testament texts themselves, and people who are dissatisfied with the state-established churches in their countries often react by withdrawing from the state church and fellowshiping with like-minded people - these fellowship groups eventually start to worship separately of the government-established religious authority and base themselves on the model they see in the New Testament. If every single Baptist/evangelical Christian was killed tomorrow, another evangelical group would likely emerge within a few decades. There really isn't a "Baptist church" or an "evangelical church" as much as there is an irrepressible tendency in Christianity to reject highly-evolved episcopal government and speculative doctrines and return to simpler New Testament patterns. If the ecumenical movement wants to realistically succeed, it needs to recognize that this tendency in Christianity cannot be expunged unless the Christian Church is willing to get rid of the New Testament itself. The Christian Church needs to stop fantasizing that all the denominations are going to re-merge in an episcopal institution with a standardized worship and church government, and accept the reality that a future united Christendom won't be a single religious denomination, but a loose confederation of people who share a common core faith but allow considerable latitude for various traditions in regard to worship styles, theological gray areas, etc. A future "united Church" doesn't look like the Roman Catholic or Anglican churches - it looks like a loosely-defined, nodal network.

Answer 3

Roger Williams Was a minister in Salem, Massachusetts, who founded the first Church in America. More Info:
He opposed forced attendance at church.
He also opposed the English colonists taking over Native American lands by force.
Because of his beliefs, the General Court forced Williams to leave the colony.
In 1636, he fled Southward and founded the colony of Rhode Island, which Guaranteed religious freedom and the separation of Church and State.

There are several different views on how the Baptist Church was started:

View #1 - A separatist congregation led by John Smyth was the first Baptist church

The distinct Baptist denomination in the United States and England is thought to descend from a group of religious non-conformists led by John Smyth, who was an ordained Church of England Minister. In 1609, he had left England because his theological ideas did not fit in with the Church or State at the time. He went to Holland, and in 1609 "baptised" himself, and fellow members of the congregation. (Smyth later ratified his baptism with the Mennonites, an earlier Anabaptist group that practiced adult baptism.) This was a radical act, which affronted the authority of the English Monarch as head of the church.

The movement had been growing for many years, and it is difficult to say if any one person singularly founded the Church. Smyth had been a member of a radical separatist group in Lincoln shire before leaving for the Netherlands, but it seems that his "baptism" paved the way for the foundation of the baptist ministry.

View #2 - Baptists represent a continuation of the earlier Anabaptist movement

Before there were Baptists, there were numerous groups in continental Europe that practiced adult baptism. Many of these groups survive today as the Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, and Brethren. These groups and their ideas made it to England before John Smyth and his congregation were formed, and the Baptists retain not only the emphasis on adult baptism, but also the belief in church/state separation and the ecclessiastic structure of these groups. (However, some Baptists subscribe to Calvinist beliefs on predestination, which isn't typical of the Anabaptists, and Baptists generally are not pacificist on questions of war or self-defense.) Given the similiarity between Baptists and Anabaptists, it is likely that Baptists are properly considered the mature, institutionalized successor of the early Anabaptists.

View #3 - Baptists have existed since the time of Christ

In this view, groups that mainstream historians regard as Manicheaens, Gnostics or heretics (such as the Montanists, Paulicians, and Cathars) were in reality Bible-believing Christians who kept the pure faith, separate from Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholic corruption, and Baptists are their direct, linear successors. While this view is dismissed by most historians, some of the groups claimed as Baptist ancestors have been shown to be orthodox Christians (such as the Waldeneses). In some cases, serious doubts have been cast upon the charges of "heresy" leveled at some of these groups (such as the Cathars), and historians have demonstrated that Catholic chronicleers frequently slandered their opponents and misrepresented their beliefs. But on the whole, evidence that crypto-Baptists have existed throughout history is severely lacking. This view is found mostly among a fringe of fundamentalist Baptists, and is doubted even by most fundamentalists.

It seems like View #2 is the most likely explanation, if you allow that the anabaptists needed some time to evolve into the Baptist Church as we know it today.

Answer 4

Baptists are Christians who comprise a group of denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers (believer's baptism, as opposed to infant baptism), and that it must be done by immersion (as opposed to affusion or sprinkling). Other tenets of Baptist churches include soul competency (liberty), salvation through faith alone, scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice, and the autonomy of the local congregation. Baptists recognize two ministerial offices, pastors and deacons. Baptist churches are widely considered to be Protestant churches, though some Baptists disavow this identity.

Answer 5

Three theories:

1. Trail of Blood. This odd term describes the belief that the earliest church (Jerusalem) was Baptist and there is a spiritual (and sometimes literal) link between the "First Baptist Church of Jerusalem" and the Baptist churches today. Followers of this idea might say that the founder of the Baptist church was Jesus Christ... or John the Baptist. While Baptists do attempt to connect doctrinely with the primitive New Testament church, this theory is more of a case of faith than history.

2. Anabaptists. Some see the Baptist movement as springing from the Anabaptist movement of the 1500 and 1600s. The Anabaptists spring from German Protestants from this time. It is entirely possible that there was influence (both "Baptist" and "Anabaptist" come from the idea of baptizing people again), there is little direct historic evidence for this.

3. English Dissenters. The best historical theory is that Baptists came from the many dissenter groups that came from the Church of England. Other such groups include the Quakers, Puritans, and Methodists. From this people often point to "John Smyth" who founded a general baptist church around 1608 or 1609. There are differences between this church and Baptist churches today... but there appears to be a historical link of this church to the Baptist movement today.

Since Baptist churches are autonymous... history can be difficult to track. There is no formal hierarchy to track such as in other denominations.

Answer 6

The first missionary Baptist was sent by God according to John 1: 6, "There was a man sent from God whose name was John.". He was responsible for preparing a people for the Lord's ministry (Mat.3: 1-3) by preaching repentance and baptizing those who repent and believe. After believers had been baptized, Jesus himself prior to starting a church came to be baptized by John the Baptist (Mat. 3: 13-15). John the Baptist pointed his disciples to Jesus Christ (John 1: 29, 3:30). After the baptism of Jesus, we can read about Jesus walking in the shores of Galilee and started calling the baptized disciples of John the Baptist (Matt. 4: 17-22). The word church comes from the Greek word "Ekklesia" which means "a called out assembly". When Christ called out and started an assembly of baptized believers, that was the beginning of the first missionary Baptist.

Answer 7

The First Baptist Church in America was founded by Roger Williams in 1638. It sits on College Hill in downtown Providence, Rhode Island.

Answer 8

roger Williams