of Baptist beliefs and teaching. One can identify four constants: rejection of
infant baptism, commitment to congregational autonomy, regenerate church
membership, and the Bible as sole authority. Because congregations are not
under any overarching authority, doctrinal uniformity is something Baptists
may argue for but not enforce.
Baptists often disagree about whether to be more or less Calvinist. The
earliest division among Baptist groups, in the 17th century, was between
General Baptists and Particular Baptists about whether to accept Dordt’s
doctrine of “particular redemption” (that is, limited atonement). The “hyper-
Calvinists” were 18th-century Particular Baptists who argued that offers of
grace should not be preached because Christ did not die for those whom
God has predestined for damnation. The earliest Baptist missionaries had
to overcome the hyper-Calvinist view that the reprobate, being unable to
believe Christ, have no responsibility to repent, believe, or accomplish any
spiritual good. Most Baptists take a strongly Zwinglian view of the Lord’s
Supper as merely a symbol or memorial, though some take a view closer
to Calvin’s. Most Baptists describe Baptism and the Lord’s Supper not as
sacraments (which suggests they are a means of grace), but as ordinances
commanded by Christ. Some Baptists
practice foot washing as a third ordinance
because it’s in the Bible (John 13:15).
The Landmarkist movement, arising among
Southern Baptists in the 1850s, was a radical
af¿ rmation of Baptist Separatism; they were
highly resistant to the idea of missionary
societies. They took the motto, “Remove
not the ancient landmark, which thy fathers have set” (Prov. 22:28). They
refused to recognize non-Baptist churches, ministers, or ordinances. They
refused to recognize alien immersion, that is, adult baptism by immersion
not performed within a Baptist congregation. They insisted on “close
communion,” that is, they excluded non-Baptists, and even Baptists from
other congregations, from the Lord’s Supper. They taught that there was an
unbroken but hidden continuity of Baptist churches going back to the New
Testament church.
Like other persecuted
groups, the Quakers
were ¿ rm advocates of
religious liberty for all.