St Matthew Missionary Baptist Church

Matthew is recognized as a saint in the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Lutheran and Anglican churches (see St. Matthew’s Church). His feast day is celebrated on 21 September in the West and 16 November in the East. (Those churches which follow the traditional Julian calendar would keep the day on 29 November of the modern Gregorian calendar, being 16 November in the Julian calendar.) He is also commemorated by the Orthodox, together with the other Apostles, on 30 June (13 July), the Synaxis of the Holy Apostles. His tomb is located in the crypt of Salerno Cathedral in southern Italy. Matthew is remembered in the Church of England with a Festival on 21 September.

In the 3rd century, Jewish–Christian gospels attributed to Matthew were used by Jewish–Christian groups such as the Nazarenes and Ebionites. Fragments of these gospels survive in quotations by Jerome, Epiphanius and others. Most academic study follows the distinction of Gospel of the Nazarenes (36 fragments), Gospel of the Ebionites (7 fragments), and Gospel of the Hebrews (7 fragments) found in Schneemelcher’s New Testament Apocrypha. Critical commentators generally regard these texts as having been composed in Greek and related to Greek Matthew. A minority of commentators consider them to be fragments of a lost Aramaic- or Hebrew-language original.According to Church tradition, while preaching in Ethiopia, Matthew converted and then consecrated to God, Ephigenia of Ethiopia, the virgin daughter of the Aethiopian King Egippus. When King Hirtacus succeeded Egippus, he asked the apostle if he could persuade Ephigenia to marry him. Matthew thus invited King Hirtacus to Mass the following Sunday where he rebuked him for lusting after the girl, as she was a nun and therefore was the bride of Christ. The enraged King thus ordered his bodyguard to kill Matthew who stood at the altar, making him a martyr.

Early Church tradition holds that the gospel of Matthew was written by the apostle Matthew. This tradition is first attested, among the extant writings of the first and second centuries, with the early Christian bishop Papias of Hierapolis (c. AD 60–163), who is cited by the Church historian Eusebius (AD 260–340), as follows: “Matthew collected the oracles (logia: sayings of or about Jesus) in the Hebrew language (Hebraïdi dialektōi), and each one interpreted (hērmēneusen – perhaps “translated”) them as best he could.” Likewise, early Christian Theologian Origen (c. 184 – c. 253) indicates that the first Gospel was written by Matthew, and that his Gospel was composed in Hebrew near Jerusalem for Hebrew Christians and translated into Greek. The Hebrew original was kept at the Library of Caesarea. Sometime in the late fourth or early fifth century the Nazarene Community transcribed a copy for Jerome which he used in his work. Matthew’s Gospel was called the Gospel according to the Hebrews or sometimes the Gospel of the Apostles and it was once believed that it was the original to the Greek Matthew found in the Bible. However, this has been challenged by modern biblical scholars such as Bart D. Ehrman and James R. Edwards. See also the two-source hypothesis.Matthew the Apostle (Saint Matthew) is named in the New Testament as one of the twelve apostles of Jesus. According to Christian traditions, he was also one of the four Evangelists as author of the Gospel of Matthew, and thus is also known as Matthew the Evangelist, a claim rejected by most biblical scholars, though the “traditional authorship still has its defenders.”Early Church fathers such as Irenaeus (Against Heresies 3.1.1) and Clement of Alexandria say that Matthew preached the Gospel to the Jewish community in Judea, before going to other countries. Ancient writers are not in agreement as to which other countries these are, but almost all sources mention Ethiopia. The Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church each hold the tradition that Matthew died as a martyr and the Babylonian Talmud appears to report his execution in Sanhedrin 43a.

The Basilica of Annunciation in Nazareth houses a capital that depicts Matthew the Apostle and his story regarding King Eglypus of Aethiopia and his sons. It shows how Matthew is leading them away from the demon in the far corner of the capital. The biblical story tells of Matthew converting the king and his sons to Christianity. Not only does this capital depict an act carried out by Matthew in the Bible, it also foreshadowing Matthew being a martyr. When Matthew the Apostle was murdered, he then became a martyr for the Christian religion as being killed for his faith and teachings given the demon in the corner of the capitol. The iconography of this capital helps understand the religion of the time period since it was just coming into Christendom. This shows the cross between Ethiopia and Nazareth as these are where the capitals are today.The Quran speaks of Jesus’ disciples but does not mention their names, instead referring to them as “helpers to the work of Allah”. Muslim exegesis and Quran commentary, however, name them and include Matthew amongst the disciples. Muslim exegesis preserves the tradition that Matthew and Andrew were the two disciples who went to Ethiopia to preach the message of God.

Matthew is mentioned in Matthew 9:9 and Matthew 10:3 as a tax collector (NIV) who, while sitting at the “receipt of custom” in Capernaum, was called to follow Jesus. He is also listed among the twelve, but without identification of his background, in Mark 3:18, Luke 6:15 and Acts 1:13. In passages parallel to Matthew 9:9, both Mark 2:14 and Luke 5:27 describe Jesus’s calling of the tax collector Levi, the son of Alphaeus, but Mark and Luke never explicitly equate this Levi with the Matthew named as one of the twelve apostles.The New Testament records that as a disciple, he followed Jesus. Afterwards, the disciples withdrew to an upper room (Acts 1:10–14)(traditionally the Cenacle) in Jerusalem. The disciples remained in and about Jerusalem and proclaimed that Jesus was the promised Messiah.

Jerome relates that Matthew was supposed by the Nazarenes to have composed their Gospel of the Hebrews though Irenaeus and Epiphanius of Salamis consider this simply a revised version of the canonical Gospel. This Gospel has been partially preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers, said to have been written by Matthew. Epiphanius does not make his own the claim about a Gospel of the Hebrews written by Matthew, a claim that he merely attributes to the heretical Ebionites.Most modern scholars hold that the Gospel of Matthew was written anonymously, and not by Matthew. The author is not named within the text, and scholars have proposed that the superscription “according to Matthew” was added sometime in the second century.

Black preachers interpreted the Civil War, Emancipation and Reconstruction as “God’s gift of freedom.” They had a gospel of liberation, having long identified with the Book of Exodus from slavery in the Old Testament. They took opportunities to exercise their independence, to worship in their own way, to affirm their worth and dignity, and to proclaim the fatherhood of God and the brotherhood of man. Most of all, they quickly formed their own churches, associations, and conventions to operate freely without white supervision. These institutions offered self-help and racial uplift, a place to develop and use leadership, and places for proclamation of the gospel of liberation. As a result, Black preachers said that God would protect and help him and God’s people; God would be their rock in a stormy land.Membership policies vary due to the autonomy of churches, but generally an individual becomes a member of a church through believer’s baptism (which is a public profession of faith in Jesus, followed by immersion baptism). Shared doctrines would include beliefs about one God; the virgin birth; miracles; atonement for sins through the death, burial, and bodily resurrection of Jesus; the Trinity; the need for salvation (through belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God, his death and resurrection); grace; the Kingdom of God; last things (eschatology) (Jesus Christ will return personally and visibly in glory to the earth, the dead will be raised, and Christ will judge everyone in righteousness); and evangelism and missions. A healthy Church kills error, and tears evil in pieces! Not so very long ago our nation tolerated slavery in our colonies. Philanthropists endeavored to destroy slavery, but when was it utterly abolished? It was when Wilberforce roused the Church of God, and when the Church of God addressed herself to the conflict—then she tore the evil thing to pieces! – C.H. Spurgeon an outspoken British Baptist opponent of slavery in ‘The Best War Cry’ (1883)

Baptists, like other Christians, are defined by school of thought—some of it common to all orthodox and evangelical groups and a portion of it distinctive to Baptists. Through the years, different Baptist groups have issued confessions of faith—without considering them to be creeds—to express their particular doctrinal distinctions in comparison to other Christians as well as in comparison to other Baptists. Baptist denominations are traditionally seen as belonging to two parties, General Baptists who uphold Arminian theology and Particular Baptists who uphold Reformed theology. During the holiness movement, some General Baptists accepted the teaching of a second work of grace and formed denominations that emphasized this belief, such as the Ohio Valley Association of the Christian Baptist Churches of God and the Holiness Baptist Association. Most Baptists are evangelical in doctrine, but their beliefs may vary due to the congregational governance system that gives autonomy to individual local Baptist churches. Historically, Baptists have played a key role in encouraging religious freedom and separation of church and state.Early in the 19th century, the rise of the modern missions movement, and the backlash against it, led to widespread and bitter controversy among the American Baptists. During this era, the American Baptists were split between missionary and anti-missionary. A substantial secession of Baptists went into the movement led by Alexander Campbell to return to a more fundamental church.

In 2007, the Pew Research Center’s Religious Landscape Survey found that 45% of all African Americans identify
with Baptist denominations, with the vast majority of those being within the historically Black tradition.Baptists have faced many controversies in their 400-year history, controversies of the level of crises. Baptist historian Walter Shurden says the word crisis comes from the Greek word meaning ‘to decide.’ Shurden writes that contrary to the presumed negative view of crises, some controversies that reach a crisis level may actually be “positive and highly productive.” He claims that even schism, though never ideal, has often produced positive results. In his opinion crises among Baptists each have become decision-moments that shaped their future. Some controversies that have shaped Baptists include the “missions crisis”, the “slavery crisis”, the “landmark crisis”, and the “modernist crisis”.

Baptist missionary work in Canada began in the British colony of Nova Scotia (present day Nova Scotia and New Brunswick) in the 1760s. The first official record of a Baptist church in Canada was that of the Horton Baptist Church (now Wolfville) in Wolfville, Nova Scotia on 29 October 1778. The church was established with the assistance of the New Light evangelist Henry Alline. Many of Alline’s followers, after his death, would convert and strengthen the Baptist presence in the Atlantic region. Two major groups of Baptists formed the basis of the churches in the Maritimes. These were referred to as Regular Baptist (Calvinistic in their doctrine) and Free Will Baptists (Arminian in their doctrine).

In 1609, while still there, Smyth wrote a tract titled “The Character of the Beast,” or “The False Constitution of the Church.” In it he expressed two propositions: first, infants are not to be baptized; and second, “Antichristians converted are to be admitted into the true Church by baptism.” Hence, his conviction was that a scriptural church should consist only of regenerate believers who have been baptized on a personal confession of faith. He rejected the Separatist movement’s doctrine of infant baptism (paedobaptism). Shortly thereafter, Smyth left the group. Ultimately, Smyth became committed to believers’ baptism as the only biblical baptism. He was convinced on the basis of his interpretation of Scripture that infants would not be damned should they die in infancy. Smyth, convinced that his self-baptism was invalid, applied with the Mennonites for membership. He died while waiting for membership, and some of his followers became Mennonites. Thomas Helwys and others kept their baptism and their Baptist commitments. The modern Baptist denomination is an outgrowth of Smyth’s movement. Baptists rejected the name Anabaptist when they were called that by opponents in derision. McBeth writes that as late as the 18th century, many Baptists referred to themselves as “the Christians commonly—though falsely—called Anabaptists.”The statement sought forgiveness “from our African-American brothers and sisters” and pledged to “eradicate racism in all its forms from Southern Baptist life and ministry.” In 1995, about 500,000 members of the 15.6-million-member denomination were African Americans and another 300,000 were ethnic minorities. The resolution marked the denomination’s first formal acknowledgment that racism played a role in its founding.

In the postwar years, freedmen quickly left the white congregations and associations, setting up their own churches. In 1866, the Consolidated American Baptist Convention, formed from Black Baptists of the South and West, helped southern associations set up Black state conventions, which they did in Alabama, Arkansas, Virginia, North Carolina, and Kentucky. In 1880, Black state conventions united in the national Foreign Mission Convention to support Black Baptist missionary work. Two other national Black conventions were formed, and in 1895 they united as the National Baptist Convention. This organization later went through its own changes, spinning off other conventions. It is the largest Black religious organization and the second-largest Baptist organization in the world. Baptists are numerically most dominant in the Southeast.

In 2010, 100 million Christians identify themselves as Baptist or belong to Baptist-type churches. In 2020, according to the researcher Sébastien Fath of the CNRS, the movement would have around 170 million believers in the world.Leading up to the American Civil War, Baptists became embroiled in the controversy over slavery in the United States. Whereas in the First Great Awakening Methodist and Baptist preachers had opposed slavery and urged manumission, over the decades they made more of an accommodation with the institution. They worked with slaveholders in the South to urge a paternalistic institution. Both denominations made direct appeals to slaves and free Blacks for conversion. The Baptists particularly allowed them active roles in congregations. By the mid-19th century, northern Baptists tended to oppose slavery. As tensions increased, in 1844 the Home Mission Society refused to appoint a slaveholder as a missionary who had been proposed by Georgia. It noted that missionaries could not take servants with them, and also that the board did not want to appear to condone slavery.Most Baptists hold that no church or ecclesiastical organization has inherent authority over a Baptist church. Churches can properly relate to each other under this polity only through voluntary cooperation, never by any sort of coercion. Furthermore, this Baptist polity calls for freedom from governmental control.

In 1995, the Southern Baptist Convention passed a resolution that recognized the failure of their ancestors to protect the civil rights of African Americans. More than 20,000 Southern Baptists registered for the meeting in Atlanta. The resolution declared that messengers, as SBC delegates are called, “unwaveringly denounce racism, in all its forms, as deplorable sin” and “lament and repudiate historic acts of evil such as slavery from which we continue to reap a bitter harvest.” It offered an apology to all African Americans for “condoning and/or perpetuating individual and systemic racism in our lifetime” and repentance for “racism of which we have been guilty, whether consciously or unconsciously.” Although Southern Baptists have condemned racism in the past, this was the first time the convention, predominantly white since the Reconstruction era, had specifically addressed the issue of slavery.The Baptist churches in Ukraine were preceded by the German Anabaptist and Mennonite communities, who had been living in the south of Ukraine since the 16th century, and who practiced adult believers baptism. The first Baptist baptism (adult baptism by full immersion) in Ukraine took place in 1864 on the river Inhul in the Yelizavetgrad region (now Kropyvnytskyi region), in a German settlement. In 1867, the first Baptist communities were organized in that area. From there, the Baptist movement spread across the south of Ukraine and then to other regions as well. One of the first Baptist communities was registered in Kyiv in 1907, and in 1908 the First All-Russian Convention of Baptists was held there, as Ukraine was still controlled by the Russian Empire. The All-Russian Union of Baptists was established in the town of Yekaterinoslav (now Dnipro) in Southern Ukraine. At the end of the 19th century, estimates are that there were between 100,000 and 300,000 Baptists in Ukraine. An independent All-Ukrainian Baptist Union of Ukraine was established during the brief period of Ukraine’s independence in early 20th-century, and once again after the fall of the Soviet Union, the largest of which is currently known as the Evangelical Baptist Union of Ukraine. Following similar conflicts over modernism, the Southern Baptist Convention adhered to conservative theology as its official position. In the late 20th century, Southern Baptists who disagreed with this direction founded two new groups: the liberal Alliance of Baptists in 1987 and the more moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship in 1991. Originally both schisms continued to identify as Southern Baptist, but over time “became permanent new families of Baptists.” In his 1963 book, Strength to Love, Baptist pastor Martin Luther King Jr. criticized some Baptist churches for their anti-intellectualism, especially because of the lack of theological training among pastors.

As early as the late 18th century, Black Baptists began to organize separate churches, associations and mission agencies. Blacks set up some independent Baptist congregations in the South before the American Civil War. White Baptist associations maintained some oversight of these churches.Since there is no hierarchical authority and each Baptist church is autonomous, there is no official set of Baptist theological beliefs. These differences exist both among associations, and even among churches within the associations.

Another milestone in the early development of Baptist doctrine was in 1638 with John Spilsbury, a Calvinistic minister who helped to promote the strict practice of believer’s baptism by immersion (as opposed to affusion or aspersion). According to Tom Nettles, professor of historical theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, “Spilsbury’s cogent arguments for a gathered, disciplined congregation of believers baptized by immersion as constituting the New Testament church gave expression to and built on insights that had emerged within separatism, advanced in the life of John Smyth and the suffering congregation of Thomas Helwys, and matured in Particular Baptists.”

However, the relations between Baptists and Anabaptists were early strained. In 1624, the then five existing Baptist churches of London issued a condemnation of the Anabaptists. Furthermore, the original group associated with Smyth and popularly believed to be the first Baptists broke with the Waterlander Mennonite Anabaptists after a brief period of association in the Netherlands.Baptist churches have their origins in a movement started by the English John Smyth and Thomas Helwys in Amsterdam. Due to their shared beliefs with the Puritans and Congregationalists, they went into exile in 1607 for Holland with other believers who held the same biblical positions. They believe that the Bible is to be the only guide and that the believer’s baptism is what the scriptures require. In 1609, the year considered to be the foundation of the movement, they baptized believers and founded the first Baptist church.

According to a Baptist World Alliance census released in 2023, the largest Baptist denomination in the world, it would regroup 246 Baptist denominations members in 128 countries, 176,000 churches and 51,000,000 baptized members. These statistics are not fully representative, however, since some churches in the United States have dual or triple national Baptist affiliation, causing a church and its members to be counted by more than one Baptist denomination.In 1612, Thomas Helwys established a Baptist congregation in London, consisting of congregants from Smyth’s church. A number of other Baptist churches sprang up, and they became known as the General Baptists. The Particular Baptists were established when a group of Calvinist Separatists adopted believers’ Baptism. The Particular Baptists consisted of seven churches by 1644 and had created a confession of faith called the First London Confession of Faith.The architecture is sober and the Latin cross is one of the only spiritual symbols that can usually be seen on the building of a Baptist church and that identifies the place where it belongs.In Africa, the Nigerian Baptist Convention with 14,523 churches and 8,925,000 members, the Baptist Convention of Tanzania with 1,350 churches and 2,680,000 members, the Baptist Community of the Congo River with 2,673 churches and 1,764,155 members.

Elsewhere in the Americas, in the Caribbean in particular, Baptist missionaries and members took an active role in the anti-slavery movement. In Jamaica, for example, William Knibb, a prominent British Baptist missionary, worked toward the emancipation of slaves in the British West Indies (which took place in full in 1838). Knibb also supported the creation of “Free Villages” and sought funding from English Baptists to buy land for freedmen to cultivate; the Free Villages were envisioned as rural communities to be centered around a Baptist church where emancipated slaves could farm their own land. Thomas Burchell, missionary minister in Montego Bay, also was active in this movement, gaining funds from Baptists in England to buy land for what became known as Burchell Free Village.

In Europe, the All-Ukrainian Union of Churches of Evangelical Christian Baptists with 2,192 churches and 105,189 members, the Baptist Union of Great Britain with 1,897 churches and 99,475 members, the Union of Christian Baptist Churches in Romania with 1,697 churches and 83,853 members.Historians trace the earliest Baptist church to 1609 in Amsterdam, Dutch Republic with English Separatist John Smyth as its pastor. In accordance with his reading of the New Testament, he rejected baptism of infants and instituted baptism only of believing adults. Baptist practice spread to England, where the General Baptists considered Christ’s atonement to extend to all people, while the Particular Baptists believed that it extended only to the elect. Thomas Helwys formulated a distinctively Baptist request that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have freedom of religion. Helwys died in prison as a consequence of the religious conflict with English Dissenters under James I. In 1638, Roger Williams established the first Baptist congregation in the North American colonies. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the First and Second Great Awakening increased church membership in the United States. Swedish Baptists (Scandinavian Baptists) have origins in the Radical Pietism movement that split off from the Lutheran Church of Sweden due to the Conventicle Act (Sweden) rather than the English Dissenters that split off from the Anglican Church of England, but both reached similar conclusions on theology.

The Southern Baptist Convention supported white supremacy and its results: disenfranchising most Blacks and many poor whites at the turn of the 20th century by raising barriers to voter registration, and passage of racial segregation laws that enforced the system of Jim Crow. Its members largely resisted the civil rights movement in the South, which sought to enforce their constitutional rights for public access and voting; and enforcement of midcentury federal civil rights laws.Excommunication is used as a last resort by denominations and churches for members who do not want to repent of beliefs or behavior at odds with the confession of faith of the community.In the American South, the interpretation of the American Civil War, abolition of slavery and postwar period has differed sharply by race since those years. Americans have often interpreted great events in religious terms. Historian Wilson Fallin contrasts the interpretation of Civil War and Reconstruction in white versus Black memory by analyzing Baptist sermons documented in Alabama. Soon after the Civil War, most Black Baptists in the South left the Southern Baptist Convention, reducing its numbers by hundreds of thousands or more. They quickly organized their own congregations and developed their own regional and state associations and, by the end of the 19th century, a national convention. Both Roger Williams and John Clarke, his compatriot and coworker for religious freedom, are variously credited as founding the earliest Baptist church in North America. In 1639, Williams established a Baptist church in Providence, Rhode Island, and Clarke began a Baptist church in Newport, Rhode Island. According to a Baptist historian who has researched the matter extensively, “There is much debate over the centuries as to whether the Providence or Newport church deserved the place of ‘first’ Baptist congregation in America. Exact records for both congregations are lacking.” Since the early days of the Baptist movement, various denominations have adopted common confessions of faith as the basis for cooperative work among churches. Each church has a particular confession of faith and a common confession of faith if it is a member of a denomination. Some historically significant Baptist doctrinal documents include the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, 1742 Philadelphia Baptist Confession, the 1833 New Hampshire Baptist Confession of Faith, and written church covenants which some individual Baptist churches adopt as a statement of their faith and beliefs.Southern Baptist Landmarkism sought to reset the ecclesiastical separation which had characterized the old Baptist churches, in an era when inter-denominational union meetings were the order of the day. James Robinson Graves was an influential Baptist of the 19th century and the primary leader of this movement. While some Landmarkers eventually separated from the Southern Baptist Convention, the movement continued to influence the Convention into the 20th and 21st centuries.

In 2018, Baptist theologian Russell D. Moore criticized some Baptists in the United States for their moralism emphasizing strongly the condemnation of certain personal sins, but silent on the social injustices that afflict entire populations, such as racism. In 2020, the North American Baptist Fellowship, a region of the Baptist World Alliance, officially made a commitment to social justice and spoke out against institutionalized discrimination in the American justice system.

In Asia, the Myanmar Baptist Convention with 5,337 churches and 1,013,499 members, the Nagaland Baptist Church Council with 1,661 churches and 648,096 members, the Garo Baptist Convention with 2,619 and 333,908 members, the Convention of Philippine Baptist Churches with 1,079 churches and 600,000 members. Thomas Helwys took over the leadership, leading the church back to England in 1611 and published the first Baptist confession of faith “A Declaration of Faith of English People” in 1611. He founded the first General Baptist Church in Spitalfields, east London, England in 1612. Traditional Baptist historians write from the perspective that Baptists had existed since the time of Christ. Proponents of the Baptist successionist or perpetuity view consider the Baptist movement to have existed independently from Roman Catholicism and prior to the Protestant Reformation.In Baptist churches, worship service is part of the life of the Church and includes praise (Christian music), worship, of prayers to God, a sermon based on the Bible, offering, and periodically the Lord’s Supper. In many churches, there are services adapted for children, even teenagers. Prayer meetings are also held during the week.

Exceptions to this local form of local governance include a few churches that submit to the leadership of a body of elders, as well as the Episcopal Baptists that have an Episcopal system.Missionary organizations favored the development of the movement on all continents. In England there was the founding of the BMS World Mission in 1792 at Kettering, England. In United States, there was the founding of International Ministries in 1814 and International Mission Board in 1845. A minority view is that early-17th-century Baptists were influenced by (but not directly connected to) continental Anabaptists. According to this view, the General Baptists shared similarities with Dutch Waterlander Mennonites (one of many Anabaptist groups) including believer’s baptism only, religious liberty, separation of church and state, and Arminian views of salvation, predestination and original sin. Representative writers including A.C. Underwood and William R. Estep. Gourley wrote that among some contemporary Baptist scholars who emphasize the faith of the community over soul liberty, the Anabaptist influence theory is making a comeback. Baptists form a major branch of Protestantism distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers (believer’s baptism), and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches also generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul competency (the responsibility and accountability of every person before God), sola fide (salvation by just faith alone), sola scriptura (scripture alone as the rule of faith and practice) and congregationalist church government. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and communion.In Oceania, the Australian Baptist Ministries with 1,024 churches and 87,555 members, the Baptist Union of Papua New Guinea with 493 churches and 84,700 members.

Baptists were active after emancipation in promoting the education of former slaves; for example, Jamaica’s Calabar High School, named after the port of Calabar in Nigeria, was founded by Baptist missionaries. At the same time, during and after slavery, slaves and free Blacks formed their own Spiritual Baptist movements – breakaway spiritual movements which theology often expressed resistance to oppression.In many Baptist churches, same-sex marriage and same-gender love is affirmed and celebrated as is true in the Alliance of Baptists Denomination and for many churches in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the American Baptist Churches USA. Many Baptist congregations have also been at the forefront of the conversations on ending same-sex marriage bans. In 2014, the Alliance joined a lawsuit challenging North Carolina’s ban on same-sex marriage, which is America’s first faith-based challenge to same-sex marriage bans.

God had chastised them and given them a special mission – to maintain orthodoxy, strict biblicism, personal piety, and “traditional” race relations. Slavery, they insisted, had not been sinful. Rather, emancipation was a historical tragedy and the end of Reconstruction was a clear sign of God’s favor.

In North America, the Southern Baptist Convention with 47,198 churches and 13,223,122 members, the National Baptist Convention, USA with 21,145 churches and 8,415,100 members.Many churches are members of a national and international denomination for a cooperative relationship in common organizations, for the mission and social areas, such as humanitarian aid, schools, theological institutes and hospitals. There also are a substantial number of cooperative groups. In 1905, the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) was formed by 24 Baptist denominations from various countries. The BWA’s goals include caring for the needy, leading in world evangelism and defending human rights and religious freedom.

Prior to emancipation, Baptist deacon Samuel Sharpe, who served with Burchell, organized a general strike of slaves seeking better conditions. It developed into a major rebellion of as many as 60,000 slaves, which became known as the Christmas Rebellion (when it took place) or the Baptist War. It was put down by government troops within two weeks. During and after the rebellion, an estimated 200 slaves were killed outright, with more than 300 judicially executed later by prosecution in the courts, sometimes for minor offenses. In 1579, Faustus Socinus founded the Unitarians in Poland, which was a tolerant country. The Unitarians taught baptism by immersion. When Poland ceased to be tolerant, they fled to Holland. In Holland, the Unitarians introduced immersion baptism to the Dutch Mennonites. In general, Baptist churches do not have a stated age restriction on membership, but believer’s baptism requires that an individual be able to freely and earnestly profess their faith. (See Age of Accountability)The rise of theological modernism in the latter 19th and early 20th centuries also greatly affected Baptists. The Landmark movement, already mentioned, has been described as a reaction among Southern Baptists in the United States against incipient modernism. In England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon fought against modernistic views of the Scripture in the Downgrade Controversy and severed his church from the Baptist Union as a result.

Even within Calvinism and Arminianism in the Baptist church, there are differing beliefs and many conversationsabout it. The Southern Baptist Convention itself has held many conferences centering on the long-standing Protestant debate.

Truthfully, if a person only had a New Testament, and as a church, practiced what the New Testament taught, he would be identified as a Baptist church.

As a Baptist church, we believe that baptism is a matter of obedience. Jesus instructed his followers to baptize disciples (Matt 28:19), so we baptize those who have become disciples because we want to obey Jesus. We also believe that only believers are united to the body of Christ by faith (cf. Gal 3:26-28), so only believers should be welcomed as members into the visible expression of the body of Christ, the local church. If someone is not repenting of all known sin, trusting Christ for salvation, and submitting to all his commands and teaching, we don’t welcome him or her into church membership. Since we view baptism as a matter of obedience, we understand unbaptized people to be disobedient on this point.

Looking for a transformation in your life? Come join us! You’re always welcome here! If you have questions or just want to leave a comment, this is your place. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

We’re very excited to have you here and couldn’t wait any longer to start sharing our perspective of our cause with you! We’re already working on our next post and while it is still in the making, we invite you to get to know more about Greater New St Matthew Missionary Baptist Church and read through how we work and our philosophy .

They separated because the Baptists became convinced that for the sake of their own consciences, they had to practice what they were convinced was required in order to obey Jesus. They had to obey Jesus and be baptized as believers, and they had to refuse communion to those they were convinced were unrepentant on the point of baptism. You’ll also find some privileged insights into how and why things are done the way we do as well as a comprehensive perspective on all the benefits that people can get when they choose the right professionals. And believe us when we say… these benefits can extend much past what you might already be seeing! Our God is our savior, health, life, our everything. We are here because He allowed us. How can we not praise the Almighty? Come join us in our weekly praising so we can show love and appreciation for our precious and beloved God, who never abandoned us. This question hurts. It’s personal. Let me briefly explain. A great family with a quiver full of kids began to visit our church — wonderful people with exemplary kids older than and near the ages of my own. Everyone, not least yours truly, was encouraged and eager to spend time with them. You can imagine how much we wanted to have them join our church, and, by God’s grace, they wanted to do so. In Arminianism, named after Jacobus Arminius, the teachings say that God has chosen us to bring salvation to all and people have the ability to make the decision for faith.

Since the origins of the church, Baptists have said the Bible is the only authority for Christian faith and practice. Baptists believe that the Bible is the only authority because it is divinely inspired or has a divine nature.Baptist people are not Protestants because we were never part of the Catholic Church. We didn’t have to protest the Catholic Church or try to reform the Catholic Church because our churches were never part of it. There were Baptist churches in practice beginning with the church founded by Jesus and with charter members, His apostles.

Unity has to be based on the truth of the Scriptures and a joint commitment to obey the Lord. Baptists are those who unite together in the conviction that those who believe are united to Christ by faith, joined to his body by virtue of their belief in him. This spiritual union with Christ by faith is depicted in the immersion of the believer in water as a testimony that when Jesus was “baptized” on the cross (Mark 10:38-39), he was overwhelmed by the floodwaters of God’s wrath.According to Bruce Gourley, who served as executive director of Baptist History & Heritage Society, there are four main opinions on how Baptists originated. The first is that Baptists grew from within the English Separatist movement, in the 16th-18th centuries, Protestant Christians separated from the Church of England. This is the most accepted view and the earliest Baptist church is considered a 1609 church in Amsterdam.

Baptist: it’s one of the most well-known denominations in Protestant Christianity and is aptly named after its main belief in believer’s baptism, where a person chooses to publicly proclaim their faith in Christ by baptism. It is time for us to pray and worship. We believe in the power of prayer; prayer moves the heart of God. Your prayers matter. Let’s join the Greater New St Matthew Missionary Baptist Church and leave your prayer request, big or small! Dial-in, mute your phone and allow us to pray with and for you. In the Baptist World Alliance, the largest organization of Baptists in the world, about 48 million are part of the alliance, according to a 2016 report.We did not selecte our name; it was given to us by those who hated us. Yet, this name has been a label that true Baptists have worn with honor throughout the centuries.

Baptism is not a requirement for salvation and many churches do not subscribe to infant baptism Instead, Baptism in the Baptist church is a public expression of faith. “While it is personal, it is not private,” an article from the Southern Baptist Conventions’ journal says. “Such an act of obedience actually then clarifies their testimony and opens the door for ministry in the church.”The truth is that the extent of our services goes far beyond simply providing help to the community of Los Angeles regarding community and spiritual guidance through God’s wisom. As invested and passionate individuals, we actually make it our mission to help maintain a high standard of practice within our field of work. And what better way to do so than by helping others see how they can also be involved in this or any other project? It was painful to part ways with that wonderful family who disagreed with us on baptism, and we miss them still. But our affection for them personally, our affinity with them theologically, and our emotional desire to welcome them into membership do not change the fact that Jesus gave instructions that we must obey. The separation from paedobaptists we love may be painful, but it is separation to obey Jesus. The surpassing greatness of knowing him is worth whatever it costs. As an organization concentrating on solutions such as bible studies, worship and prayer sessions, here in our blog, you will have access to all sorts of knowledge and updates to understand how charity and non-profit organizations work.In response to that persecution, Baptists later helped influence the First Amendment. The early church believed in separation in church and state so that religious liberty was available to all and all were free to practice as they saw fit. With the First Amendment, Baptists supported “free exercise of religion” and not a “national pastor.”

John Bunyan agreed that baptism is the immersion of a believer in water but felt that he did not have the right to deny church membership to someone who gave evidence of regeneration and believed he had been baptized. William Kiffin’s response was that he did not have the right to disregard, and thereby overrule, a command of Jesus.The second opinion holds that Baptists originated from English Separatism and were greatly influenced and formed out of Anabaptists, or Dutch Mennonites. The third and fourth opinions say that the Baptist church has existed in some form since Christ and John the Baptist. The practice comes from Jesus’ Last Supper with his disciples. At the meal, unleavened bread and wine were served. The bread symbolizes the purity of Christ and the wine (sometimes grape juice) symbolizes the blood of Christ that was shed for his people. The only problem was that they were convinced Presbyterians. There was even a willingness to “go through the motions” of being baptized as a believer, but there was also a settled conviction against what our church’s statement of faith, the Abstract of Principles, says about baptism:The Holy Spirit inspired the Bible and empowered men to record the truth about God and give directives on how to apply the Bible to the Christian life. Some Baptist churches may disagree on certain practices, but many say the Bible is their sole authority.

Often considered a major division in the Protestant church is Calvinism vs. Arminianism. Calvinism is named after John Calvin, a theologian and pastor during the Protestant Reformation. The major tenant of Calvinism is predestination, where some people are predestined to be saved. That is, God decided the destiny of some with salvation by grace. Others are meant for damnation due to their original sin. This is the whole reason there are Baptist churches at all. This is why Baptists don’t commune with Presbyterians, though it doesn’t close down the possibility of cooperation in gospel efforts that are wider than local church ministry (such as T4G and TGC). If this issue were not big enough to divide over, to deny membership over, then why did the Baptists ever separate from the Presbyterians? In the Baptist church, the Lord’s Supper, also known as communion, is a symbolic practice meant to honor the death of Jesus. Communion is not necessary for salvation.

Baptists believe that those who have not been immersed in water as believers to symbolize their union with Christ by faith have not been baptized. Presbyterians and other paedobaptists think they have been baptized, even if they have not been immersed in water as believers.Our Baptist forefathers were influential in getting religious liberty incorporated into the Constitution. The First Amendment is really due to the influence of the Virginia Baptists on Thomas Jefferson. It was the Baptists in Rhode Island in 1600 that got a charter from the king of England to grant that colony full religious liberty. It was a Baptist by the name of Shubal Stearns that went to North Carolina and planted the Sandy Creek Baptist Church. From that church, Baptist churches were planted all across the southern states.

There is no set calendar for partaking in the Lord’s Supper among Baptist churches, but each time it is practiced, it is meant to be a time of devotion and prayer. In many churches, all are able to participate in the Lord’s Supper.Other affiliations include smaller conservative organizations (such as the American Baptist Churches USA, Baptist General Conference, and the Baptist General Convention of Texas) of Baptist churches and the Independent Baptist churches that are not part of a hierarchical structure or governing authority. This group started in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and is made up of believers who wanted to adhere to a more conservative doctrine.

Another pastoral anecdote: a few years ago, a couple that had been sprinkled in water as believers wanted to join the church I was then pastoring. Could they join, or did they need to be baptized? This question forced me to examine all the baptism language in the New Testament: baptize, baptist, baptism. The word means plunge or immerse. Every time it is used in the New Testament, it is either talking about an immersion in water or assuming that reality and using immersion as a metaphor. That couple was convinced and baptized — they saw that though they had been sprinkled in water as believers, they had not been baptized.

In response to Christ’s call to “make disciples of all nations,” many Baptists encourage missionary work and evangelism opportunities. Baptists say that millions of people around the world have not heard of Jesus and evangelism is the mission of sharing Christ’s message. Evangelism has a long history in the Baptist church. According to the American Baptist Churches USA, historians used books, tracts, and other resources in evangelism as early as 1824.I realize that there are some unsightly incidents in Baptist history. Some men and churches have not worn the distinct title of being “Baptist” in position and doctrine very well. Regardless of what others have done, and though some men are distancing themselves from this title and name, I am still very proud to call myself an independent Baptist. There are at least five reasons why I am very proud to be identified with this name.

Aligning with Thomas Jefferson, early Baptists held strongly to a view that supported religious liberty. Facing some persecution for their own belief in believer’s baptism, Baptists endured fines, harassment and sometimes jail time. In Massachusetts 1645, for example, the colony outlawed Baptists, calling them “the troublers of churches in all places,” according to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Former evangelist, Billy Graham’s events have inspired waves of new evangelistic conferences and conventions, which draw in millions of people. Locally, Baptists encourage each other to share their faith openly and take the message of Christ to their neighbors, workplaces, schools, and other day-to-day activities. Baptists believe in a “calling” to share the gospel and in many churches, Baptists are learning to adapt their approach to better deliver the message of Christ.

The Baptist church believes in Baptism only after a person has professed Christ as their Savior. Baptism symbolizes the cleansing of sins. Some churches use a sprinkling of water as Baptism, but most practice full immersion, where the candidate is fully immersed in water. This symbolizes the disciples’ own baptism as stated in John 3. The practice also stems from Romans 6, which says Christians are “buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.”As Baptists, we’re not denying that paedobaptists have a right to their own perspective; we are simply maintaining the integrity of our own convictions. Our consciences will not permit us to welcome into membership and communion those who have not obeyed Jesus at the point of baptism.