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Baptist History

Claudia Miclaus
Where did the Baptists come from? Several theories are shown here, but religions and interpretations are subject to change. The Holy Bible, and God Himself are the only ones not changing.
When one takes a look at the Baptists that we have in world today, they would see that there are different people that claim to be Baptists, each one has belief system. Why is that? Are we not supposed to be the body of Christ? Are we not supposed to be one in Him?
To understand why Baptists act the way they do today, we have to take a look at their history. Remember, when you are studying Baptist history (or any history), that history is interpreted by the one writing it, so there will be various, if not contradictory, interpretations.
Did you know that while Baptists disagree on many things, they don't even know for sure where it is that they came from? Of course, there are many theories, one of them being the theory that Baptists come from English Separatism.
This theory states that Separatist movement was an attempt to get away from the Church of England, which tried to get away from the Catholic Church; members of the Church of England who disagreed with the doctrine taught there could leave or stay. Some stayed and wanted to purify the church, called Puritans.
It was in 1609 that we have the first record of the Baptist church; this church was established in Amsterdam by John Smyth, who was also the pastor, although later on Thomas Helwys took over as pastor.
This church believed in the doctrine of Believers Baptism, and it was this doctrine that became the defining moment in the establishing of the Baptist church.

The theories do not stop there though, because there are several others, one of them as explained.

The Anabaptist Theory

It is this theory that states the fact that Baptists originated from English Separatism, but it doesn't end there, it goes on to say that there would not have been an English Separatist movement if it wasn't for the earlier Anabaptist.
The Anabaptist and the Baptists have many things in common in their beliefs, for example; they both believe in religious liberty and the believer's baptism, good things to believe in.
There were also things that the two denominations do not believe in, however, such as the sharing of earthly goods and the goodness of human nature, something that the Baptists are completely against. It is because of these differences that many people think that this theory has nothing solid to stand on, making it false.
You might think that it is strange for some people to believe something that has no proof to back it up, but if you think that is bad, well, just read our next theory.
There are some people (their number is growing) who believe that the Baptist faith and belief system, including the practices and doctrinal beliefs go back through time, through different churches all the way to the time of Christ. But that is not all, there are some people that insist on taking it ever farther than that.
They believe that the Baptist church has existed in an unbroken line, through the ages all the way from the time of Christ and John the Baptist; a nickname for this theory is 'Landmarkism' or the 'Trail of Blood' theory.
This theory goes ahead to state that Baptist churches through time were all the churches that did not agree with the Roman Catholic Church. It did not matter if these churches called themselves Baptist or not, or if they had Baptist doctrine, according to the supporters, what made the churches Baptist was the fact that they did not like the Catholic Church.
As long as the believers in this world can not even make up their minds about something as simple as where they come from, then how are we going to be able to fulfill the Bible verse that states: "So we, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another." Romans 12:5 KJV