Are Baptist's Protestant?

[Nova Scotian Boy]

Like the title says are Baptists, Protestant? Ive never heard a clear answer, i have always thought they were since they were created dureing the Reformation, and all Christian Denominations that came from that were considered protestant.

 

[sweetmercy]

Yes, Baptists are Protestant. You're exactly right

Jen

 

[aReformedPatriot]

It is disputed if I am not mistaken, but technically speaking we are.

 

[Kristi1]

I don't think we are, but, what do I know anyhow *tee hee*

I was Raised Baptist, I was always taken to a Baptist Church when I was young. Now that I am older, I go to a Baptist Church when I am able to do so.

KristiAnn
MsGuidedAngel

 

[daveleau]

Like the title says are Baptists, Protestant? Ive never heard a clear answer, i have always thought they were since they were created during the Reformation, and all Christian Denominations that came from that were considered protestant.

Technically, no Baptists are not Protestants, but we have much of the same theological ideas and interpretations as Protestants. Baptists trace their lineage back with Anabaptists (of which Baptists are an offshoot). Anabaptists originated (not in name but in belief) from the churches the Apostles set up. Over time, a form of the Baptist church has persisted, and since the late 300's AD (when the RCC was formed by Augustine) have existed alongside, but separate from the Roman Catholic Church. When Luther posted his theology, two types of Christian churches existed already, Anabaptist/Baptist and Catholic.

This is a pamphlet that describes the history. http://users.aol.com/libcfl/trail.htm
Some will dispute it, even within Baptist circles, because we Baptists do not focus on this aspect in our teaching. We do not find great value in the fact that we have a long tradition, because we look to Scripture rather than this tradition when in church. So, many Baptists are ignorant of this claim that Baptists make. The pamphlet is disputed heavily by many outside of the Baptist church because of obvious implications it has on other groups' (plural) theology that I do not want to discuss here.

 

[drstevej]

The English General Baptists of the early 17th c (Smyth - Helwys) are an interesting illustration of the difficulty of this question.

Smyth was an Anglican lecturer at Cambridge and became a separatist puritan. His congregation left England for Holland in 1608. In Holland the congregation rejected infant baptism. Smyth baptized himself and then the rest of the congregation.

Fellow English paedobaptists challenged this move and askerd why Smyth had not gone to the Dutch Waterlander Mennonites for baptism. Smyth began a dialogue with the Mennonites. His associate, Helwys, rejected this overture as affirmation of apostolic sucession and argued that they had the biblical authority to reconstitute their congregation without Mennonite or other sanction.

Smyth's faction joined with the Mennonites after exchanging confessions of faith. Helwys returned and founded the first batpist church on English soil. A decade later, after John Murton replaced Helwys as the EGB leader, there was an overture for the English General Baptist congregation to affiliate with the Dutch Mennonites. It was rejected because the English General (anti-Calvinistic) Baptists rejected Mennonite doctrines of the ban, pacifism and rejection of oaths. There were NO issues of soteriology mentioned as barriers.

So, the English General Baptists (from the Smyth, Helwys & Murton tradition) I would say are clearly Protestant in some ways and Anabaptist in others. My dissertation demonstrated that the doctrine of salvation of the Mennonites had an impact on John Smyth and John Murton; but not on Thomas Helwys.

I would say that Baptists draw from both the Protestant and Anabaptist traditions in formation of their core doctrines.

It is BOTH/AND.

PS - The sister congregation to Smyth in England (actually they viewed themselves as one congregation meeting in two locations at the time) also relocated to Holland and later became the Pilgrims. They were staunch Calvinistic-paedobaptists.
(See my WTJ article on Pilgrim Soteriology)

http://www.cybergeneva.org/historic/johnrobinson.asp