History Baptism

A more detailed introduction is available in Dutch, written by dr. Henk Bakker: Beknopte geschiedenis van het Baptisme in West-Europa en in het bijzonder Nederland

Dr. Olof de Vries - Brief history of Baptism

The beginning of Baptism

Amsterdam has fifty in 1609 were English, who because of religious persecution the mother had fled to the confession of their faith baptized. In 2009 millions of Baptists celebrated worldwide this event as the beginning of the history of their faith community: 400 years baptism!

What had moved them to this step? They had a religious background - the Church of England - which only infant baptism was served. They were in two steps led to the choice of faith baptism.

Fled to the Netherlands

It began with dissatisfaction about what they consider half-hearted way the Church Reformation in England was carried. The English church - the Anglican Church - had many Roman Catholic draw, especially in the celebration of worship and in the episcopacy. This dissatisfaction was in 1607/1608 led to the formation of an own municipality, regardless of the state church. That was in England a risky undertaking. To escape persecution, was the breakaway congregation fled to the Netherlands quite tolerant. Typify the character of this town is separated the way it was formed. The prospective members spoke one by one: "I commit myself with God and with all of you in the ways of God to walk ... '.Based on this foundation formula, the municipality entered into a covenant that members with God and each other. This vision begins with the church members and not the bishop, as in the Anglican church.

Baptism on confession

The second step of the kinderdopende Anglican state church to a confession of faith community baptizing was done in the Netherlands. The town had fled from England arrived in Amsterdam in contact with a Mennonite congregation. In the Netherlands, three-quarters century Anabaptists, the baptism on confession of faith practiced. In contact with them was John Smyth, the leader of the British refugee community, the belief that a municipality must be grounded in baptism. The covenant and a half years before that was not enough. That covenant was to shape the ministry of baptism. And if all members were subsequently baptized. This event is regarded as the beginning of the baptism. Not that the baptized are "Baptists" called. That would be in 1611 / 1612 London event. One of the baptized members of the refugee community - Thomas Helwys - went with a handful of fellow brothers and sisters back to England and founded the first Baptist congregation in London which bore this name.

In the history of baptism was the question of the true Christian community center. It was the church. They ought to consist of members who have a personal faith in Jesus Christ and professed its commitment to the cause of God worked and to each other. The emphasis on confession of baptism was a logical consequence. All the emphasis was on the community of believers with God and each had made a covenant. Each of these municipalities union was in itself a full-fledged municipality had no plan or church organization outside his own circle of need.

Each congregation was autonomous. The emphasis on the community as a fellowship of believers was also that the highest municipal authority rested with the assembly of all who had acceded to the Covenant (the town meeting). This community concept and practice is called Congregationalism (Congregatio = municipality) and to this day is typical for the baptism.

Separation of church and state

The baptism occurred in a climate of religious persecution. This Baptists from the outset made up fighters for freedom of belief and conscience. The aforementioned Thomas Helwys founded in 1613 to the English king, saying: "The king is a mortal man and not God. Therefore he has no control over the immortal souls of his subjects. " These words imply a fundamental separation between church and state. The state has no authority over the church and the faith of its members. And conversely, the church government is not trying to cart her efforts. These principles are in the course of time, anchored in the constitutions of many nations, for the first time in 1791 in the United States of America. Baptists have an important role.

The baptism occurred in an atmosphere of discontent with the situation in the Church of England. There was a broad trend that the Puritanism, the church wanted more radical reform. The refugees around town, John Smyth, from which the baptism arose, was strongly influenced by the Puritan. In this early light something on the further history of baptism. Through the centuries, Baptists have shown a great sensitivity for spiritual renewal and reform movements. An obvious example is the explosive growth of the American baptism in the eighteenth century, under the influence of the revival movement known as the Great Awakening. In the spirit of revival movements, the Baptist church itself as the "bibles alternative 'for the established, traditional church.

Passion for mission

The baptism was over 400 years has grown into a global community of communities. This expansion is linked with a passion for mission and evangelism.The baptism was in 1609 in Amsterdam started in a refugee English congregation. The Dutch first Baptist congregation dates from 1845. When a German Baptist baptized in a group of believers around Drenthe Gasselternijveen the ousted Dutch Reformed minister Dr JE Feisser. Feisser had faltered in the habit-Christian in his church. He had become convinced that a church should consist of members "who have signs of saving grace were visible. This approach church had then brought him to criticize the practice infant baptism. Like Smyth two centuries earlier, Feisser looked at the figure of the true Christian church. In 1845 history repeated itself in 1609.