(620 words)
Baptists are Christians comprising a set of denominations as well as churches that believe in a doctrine that baptism should be conducted only to professing believers. The baptism should be done through complete immersion. The earliest Baptist church was founded in Amsterdam in 1609. The pastor of the church was separatists John Smyth. Massive spread of the church was witnessed in England where in 1638, Roger Williams brought up the first Baptist congregation in North American colonies (Newman, 1894).
The development of Baptist church was encouraged by certain factors, which directly influenced believes of a Christian. During this time, Catholicism was the main denomination and its practices were not in line with what most people wished to happen. It is during this time that issues such as slavery and racism were at rise. It was wrong for the most influential denomination at the time to ignore the agony of racism and slavery. This made most believers lack confidence in the denomination, leading to willingness to separate from the church. This was the beginning of the separatists’ movement that was supposed to cause extensive influence in development of Protestants, with Baptists being the first group (States News Service, 2010).
Beliefs are not the same among all Baptist churches. There is no central power or controlled way of doing things. This means that each of the churches has its authority to private practices. However, the practices have to remain in the line of Christianity. Among Baptists’ churches there are only two recognizable ministerial offices; deacons and pastors (Newman, 1894).
The issue of baptism has been central among Baptist churches. This is following the variant system of baptism that the church believes in compared to other denominations. Since the beginning of the Baptist church, baptism should not be done to infants. Baptism is a sign of accepting Jesus Christ as one’s savior and infants do not have a fully developed mind to accommodate the teachings of Jesus Christ and understand what was meant by getting born again (Newman, 1894).
Baptist Churches also believe in repentance. The church has a belief that God gave man a chance to talk to Him through prayers. It is through prayers that man should ask for anything from God as well as seek for forgiveness. The church recognizes sin as the only element that will separate man from God. Therefore, the church teaches that man should always repent their sins to keep themselves clean and acceptable before God. The mode of repentance is contrary to Catholics believes, where believers should repent to the father or the bishop of the church.
Modern Baptists worship in church, where different styles of worship are practiced. They worship through singing praise and worship songs. The singing is supposed to be a way to prepare worshippers to get to listen to the word of God through them being filled with the Holy Spirit. They also believe in prayers where every member of the congregation is supposed to present his needs to God through Jesus Christ. Preaching is the other most critical form of worship where nonbelievers are converted to Christianity. Also, the church believes in offering gifts as a form of worship (States News Service, 2010).
According to the Baptist World Alliance there are approximately 100 million Baptists in approximately 150000 congregations. In America, it is approximated that there are 33 million Baptists (States News Service, 2010).
Although, Baptist churches still practice some of the things it obtained from Catholicism, some of the practices are unique for Baptists. The style of repentance is one of the differences since Catholics believe that forgiveness can only be obtained through their leaders to whom they should repent. Also, recognition of prayers as a tool of worship in Baptist remains fundamental where every believer should present his or her own prayers to God. However, the case is different for Catholics who use a written guide as payers.
Works Cited
Newman, Albert Henry. A history of the Baptist churches in the United States. New York: Christian Literature, 1894. Print.
"ON THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THIRD BAPTIST CHURCH.." States News Service[Washington DC] 14 Sept. 2010: 23-25. Print.
