Understanding Professionals

Baptist Church Through the Years

There are different Protestant denominations in the world, but the Baptist Church serves as the third largest. Its origins started during the major European Reformation during the 1500s. Anabaptists were the first ancestors of the Baptist Church. Ana- means re-, and for these people, you can only be baptized in the faith if you are old enough and you have chosen baptism as your faith. This is why the Baptist Church was not considered as popular as the other types of Protestant religions during those times. During those times, believers of the faith have been persecuted and some were even killed.

In the United States in 1637, Roger Williams created the first Baptist Church in Rhode Island. The religious awakening then took place in the following 200 years or more. With people feeling freer to join the religion, the Church then gained a following. Gone were the days where people had to belong to the same church that they were born into because they can now choose which religion they must go for.

When the Baptist Church started off, two divisions were created. These two divisions were named General Baptists and Particular Baptists. For General Baptists, any person could have a claim on the Atonement of Jesus Christ as long as they followed his ways and were baptized accordingly. The Atonement, however, can only benefit a particular group of followers that have been chosen by Particular Baptists. Among the two, the latter was stricter.

Today, though, the Baptist Church is comprised of a good number of divisions. With the belief of the Baptists that every person has the power in them to choose and believe what they think is right, there is division of the church. In short, if they are presented with a doctrine or idea, it is all up to them if they must follow it or just leave it be. It goes to say that each Baptist Church congregation has the freedom to choose what they want to preach and teach inside. Unlike other Protestant religions and the Catholic Church, you cannot find any hierarchy in the Baptist Church.

In the present, there are five main divisions in the Baptist Church. You have the Southern Baptist Conference created in the south of US were people used to justify human slavery as a kind of life. There is also the American Baptist Convention that is more liberal and much smaller as a group of Baptists. The biggest denomination for US African Americans is the National Baptist Convention. You also have the Independent Baptists for those who have not selected a group to belong to while the International Baptists are for small congregation groups scattered throughout the globe. To know more about these churches in Burbank CA, check it out!
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