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The largest group of Baptist churches is the Baptist World Alliance, and there are many different groupings of Baptist churches and Baptist congregations. Historians trace the earliest Baptist church to 1609 in Amsterdam , with English Separatist John Smyth as its pastor. [ 3 ]
John the Baptist adopted baptism as the central sacrament in his messianic movement, [26] seen as a forerunner of Christianity. [citation needed] Baptism has been part of Christianity from the start, as shown by the many mentions in the Acts of the Apostles and the Pauline epistles. Christians consider Jesus to have instituted the sacrament of ...
A large portion of Seventh Day Baptists adopted the teachings of the Sabbath, which led to the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. [10] Baptists are also viewed as the descendants of the Puritans who were shaped by the Anabaptists, thus the Baptist religion were considered an outcome of the Reformation. [10]
As of 2014, approximately 15.3% of Americans identified as Baptist, making Baptists the second-largest religious group in the United States, after Roman Catholics. [1] By 2020, Baptists became the third-largest religious group in the United States, with the rise of nondenominational Protestantism.
In the early 16th century, the Anabaptist movement began demanding that baptismal candidates be able to make a freely chosen profession of faith, thus rejecting the baptism of infants. This, and other doctrinal differences, led both Catholics and Protestants to persecute the Anabaptists, executing them by fire, sword, or drowning. [ 64 ]
Immersion in this sense has been employed in West and East since at least the 2nd century and is the form in which baptism is generally depicted in early Christian art. In the West, this method of baptism began to be replaced by affusion baptism from around the 8th century, but it continues in use in Eastern Christianity. [56] [57] [59]
General Baptists are Baptists who hold the general or unlimited atonement view, the belief that Jesus Christ died for the entire world and not just for the chosen elect. General Baptists are theologically Arminian , which distinguishes them from Reformed Baptists (also known as "Particular Baptists" for their belief in particular redemption ).
Gerd Theissen and Annette Merz assert that Jesus did not baptize, detached the notion of repentance from baptism, recognized John's baptism, and put forward a purity ethic in tension with baptism. [14] The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions also states that Jesus did not baptize as part of his ministry. [15] [page needed]