Thanks for your responses everyone!
If you are wondering what prompted this question, I read this:
"Baptists are not Protestants but hold tenaciously to the original precepts and practices of Christ and the apostles. Baptists believe the pure Word of God to be sufficient authority on all matters. Baptists reject all human religious traditions and practices that have originated since the time of the apostles. Full historical data immediately refutes the view that there was only one religious group -- the Roman Catholic church -- until the time of Martin Luther. Anyone who claims this simply has not done his homework.
Baptists make no effort to trace a historical succession back to the age of the Apostles. Their only claim is that at every age in church history there have been groups that have held to the same doctrines that Baptists hold today. These groups may or may not have been connected and they have been known by various names.
There were the Montanists (150 A.D.), the Novatians (240 A.D.), Donatists (305 A.D.), Albigenses (1022 A.D.), Waldensians (1170 A.D.), and the name Anabaptists came into prominence just before the time of the Protestant Reformation. In fact, the first use of a form of the Baptist name may be found in a response to the Diet of Speier in 1529, taking action against the Turks and the Lutheran groups who questioned the doctrines of the Catholic Church.
Certain Lutheran princes appeared before this Roman Catholic Diet with a formal written protest against those matters in which the Diet went contrary to the Christian faith as they understood it. This protest was signed by Elector John of Saxony, Margrave George of Brandenburg, Dukes Ernest and Francis of Braunschweig-Luneburg, Landgrave Philip of Hesse, Prince Wolfgang of Anhalt and the representatives of fourteen imperial cities.
Once the Diet's edicts were published, a formal letter of protest by these government authorities was also issued to counter the Church's pronouncement, but they made it clear the did not speak for Baptists. n their written statement,
"All Anabaptists and rebaptized persons, male or female, of mature age, shall be judged and brought from natural life to death, by fire, or sword or otherwise, as may benefit the persons, without preceding trial by spiritual judges." The Baptists then did not share in this protest and consequently cannot bear the name "Protestant."
Catholic prelate Stanislaus Hosius spoke of the history of the Baptist movement predating the Lutheran separation by centuries. Pope Paul IV designated Cardinal Hosius as one of the three papal presidents of the famous Council of Trent. Hosius carried on vigorously the work of the counter-reformation. If anyone in post-reformation times knew the doctrines and history of non-Catholic groups, it was Hosius. Cardinal Hosius wrote,
"Were it not that the Baptists have been grievously tormented and cut off with the knife during the past 1,200 years, they would swarm in greater number than all the Reformers"
It is also evident that the Baptists were not Protestants because they were fiercely persecuted by the Protestant Reformers and their followers. Uncounted thousands of them lost their goods, their lands, and their lives in these persecutions. Konred Grebel died in prison in 1526. Felix Manz was drowned by the authorities at Zurich in 1527. Noted Baptist leader Baithauser Hubmaier was burned alive at the stake in Vienna March 10, 1528. Three days later his wife was drowned by being thrown over the Danube bridge with a stone tied to her neck. The facts abundantly attest that historically Baptists are not Protestants.
While modern Protestant churches have largely abandoned Catholic doctrine regarding infant baptism, an Earthly head of the church, and other Catholic teachings that Luther and others brought out of the Church with them, Baptists have never believed those things. And there are numerous remnants of Catholic doctrine still sprinkled among Protest denominations.
Doctrinally, Baptists differ even from the modern Lutherian teachings.
- God's Word alone is sufficient for faith and practice. We read "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine..." (II Timothy 3:16). Various Protestant denominations have creeds, catechisms and assorted doctrinal standards.
- Baptists believe that Christ and only Christ is the Head of the Church even as the Scripture says, "Christ is the head of the church" (Ephesians 5:23). There is no man who has the oversight of Baptist churches.
- Baptists believe in a free church in a free state. Christ plainly taught that the state and the church each had its own realm when he said, "Render therefore unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's; and unto God the things which are God's" (Matthew 22:21 ). While most American churches of Protestant origin have also adopted that view, many European and South American Protestant churches align themselves as a sanctioned state church.
- Baptists believe strongly in individual accountability to God because the Scriptures clearly teach that "every one of us shall give account of himself to God" (Romans 14:12). Again, most American Protestant denominations have slowly adopted this view, but Luther, Calvin, and others did not, and many European and South American Protestant churches continue to practice formal confession as do Catholics.
- Baptist people furthermore have always held to believers' baptism. None of the Protestant Reformers held this Bible teaching, and sprinkling rather than immersion is practiced by those churches today.
- Baptists, on the basis of Scripture, have always held to a regenerate church membership; that is, a membership that is made up only of people who give a credible profession of faith in Christ. There is no automatic or formalistic membership in Baptist churches today, but there is in both Protestant and Catholic churches.
From a practical point of view, we have little in common with Protestants.
- The Protestant groups look to some human being as their founder, often even taking their name from a man: Luther, Calvin, Knox, Wesley. Here is a historical question worthy of serious investigation: Who was the Baptist founder? It is impossible to find any one man who gave rise to Baptist churches.
- The creed of Baptists is not the Augsburg Confession, the Canons of Dort, or the Westminster Confession, but the simple Word of God.
- Baptists have never been linked with Protestants and have never been identified with the Roman Catholic Church. Through the years before and after the Reformation, they have maintained their identity and been faithful to the Scriptures. Real Baptists hold to the plain teaching of Christ and the Apostles. For these God-given doctrines they have been willing to die.
At the time of the Reformation, Baptists were considered by both Protestants and Catholics to be heretics. In Rottenburg in Reformation times there were 900 executions of Baptists in less than ten years. These deaths were often vicious and cruel. The execution of Baptist believer Michael Sateler in 1527 included hanging, having his tongue cut out, having his flesh burned with hot tongs, and then his body hung on the city gate as a warning to other Baptists. His wife and children were drowned, and many other men were beheaded for their Baptist faith ...
... By Protestants following Luther." Source:
Here.
