Baptist beliefs


Baptists do not have a central governing authority, and Baptist beliefs are not completely consistent from one Baptist church to another. However, Baptists do hold some common beliefs among almost all Baptist churches.
These would include beliefs about one God, the virgin birth, the impeccability, miracles, vicarious atoning death, burial and bodily resurrection of Christ, the need for salvation, divine grace, the Church, the Kingdom of God, last things, evangelism and missions.
Baptist beliefs are seen as belonging to two parties, General Baptists who uphold Arminian theology and Particular Baptists who uphold Reformed theology.

Overview

The following acrostic acronym, spelling BAPTIST, summarizes Baptists' distinguishing beliefs:
Baptists practice believer's baptism and the Lord's Supper as the two acts of faith-obedience to the example and commands given by Christ for Christians. Most Baptists call them "ordinances" instead of "sacraments". Therefore, historic Baptist theology considers that no saving grace is conveyed by either ordinance and that original sin is not washed away in baptism. Baptists have traditionally believed that they are symbols.
Some Primitive Baptists and Separate Baptists in Christ also practice foot washing as an ordinance.

Varying views

Most Baptists hold their services and worship on Sunday. However, there is a group known as the Seventh Day Baptists whose origins are derived from Anabaptism and the pre-Reformation. Seventh Day Baptists gather and worship on the seventh day of the week on Saturday. A large portion of Seventh Day Baptists adopted the teachings of the Sabbath, which led to the formation of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Baptists are also viewed as the descendants of the Puritans who were shaped by the Anabaptists, thus the Baptist religion were considered an outcome of the Reformation. In the early 17th century, those individuals who called themselves Baptists broke apart from the Church of England. Some notable Puritan separatists included John Smyth and Thomas Helwys who were acknowledged as key founders of the Baptist denomination.
Furthermore, some Baptists hold to a belief in perpetuity, which embraces the notion that the Baptist belief existed since the time of Christ until today as the Church of Christ founded in Jerusalem was Baptist. Those who believe in perpetuity view the Baptist belief as not being a critical aspect of the Protestant Reformation.

Baptist theologians