Baptists
2 of the 6 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Baptists. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a Protestant denomination based on the belief that immersion is the only Scriptural mode of baptism, and that those only are proper subjects for this ceremony who are converted and profess personal faith in Christ. They thus reject both infant baptism and baptism by sprinkling or pouring of water as invalid. There are, however, other sects, including the Mennonites, the Christians, the Disciples of Christ, etc., who accept the prominent principles of the Baptists in whole or in part, and yet are not classified with them, owing to some minor differences. The Baptists first appeared in Switzerland, in 1523, and soon spread to Germany, Holland, and other continental countries, whence they were driven to England by persecution on account of their rejection of infant baptism. The first regularly organized church was Arminian, and was established in 1610 or 1611. A Calvinistic Baptist Church was founded about 1633. Those holding Arminian views received the name of General Baptists, and those holding Calvinistic views, the name of Particular Baptists. The Baptists in the United States spring historically from the English and Welsh Baptists; but the first Baptist Church was organized by Roger Williams, who was a minister in the Massachusetts Colony previous to his immersion. After being immersed, in 1639, by Ezekiel Holliman, whom he in turn immersed with 10 others, he organized a Baptist Church in Providence, R. I. There were other Baptists, however, who emigrated from England century, and, before the end in the 17th of the 18th century, became numerous in New England, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Georgia, and other States. In all the British colonies, excepting Rhode Island, the Baptists were persecuted for a long time. After the Revolutionary War the Baptists increased with great rapidity, especially in the South and southwestern States, and have steadily increased ever There are at present three principal bodies of Regular Baptists, the Northern, the Southern, and the Colored, all of whom agree in doctrinal and ecclesiastical principles, but each has its own associations, State Conventions and general missionary and other associations. In 1845 a controversy concerning slavery, caused a division between the Baptists in the Northern and those in the Southern States, after which the Northern Baptists continued to support the Home Mission Society and the American Baptist Missionary Union, on an anti-slavery basis. The Southern Division is the largest branch of white Baptists. After the division of 1845 the Southern churches established the Southern Baptist Convention, which holds annual meetings. It is composed of representatives from associations, other organizations, and from the churches. The Colored Baptists compose the largest body of Regular Baptists, those being included who have separate churches, State Conventions, and associations. The Colored Baptists of the North are generally members of churches belonging to white associations. In 1866 the first State Convention of Colored Baptists was organized in North Carolina. Besides these associations there are the American National Convention, which deliberates upon questions of general concern; the Consolidated American Missionary Convention, the General Association of the Western States and Territories, the New England Missionary Convention, and the Foreign Missionary Convention of the United States. Besides the three large divisions of Baptists, there are several smaller ones: The Six Principle Baptists, Seventh Day Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Original Free Will Baptists, General Baptists, BAPTIST YOUNG PEOPLE'S UNION 415 Separate Baptists, United Baptists, bank, daily, weekly, and monthly pe- Baptist Church of Christ, Primitive riodicals. Pop. (1910) 6,324; (1920) Baptists, Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Bap- 5,538. tists, Regular Baptists, etc. The Free Will Baptists joined the Regular Baptists in 1911. All Baptist denominations are congregational in polity. Each church, under its officers of pastor and deacons, manages its own affairs. There are Associations and State Conventions, composed of pastors and delegates from the churches, but none of these bodies have any ecclesiastical authority. Councils, consisting of ministers and laymen, may be called to advise churches, to ordain ministers, or to recognize new churches at the invitation of individual churches. Statistics of the Churches. The following table gives a summary of the various Baptist Churches in the United States: Organiza- Members Ministers tions 8,178 1,227,448 8,631 North.. 23,692 2,711,591 15,946 South.. 21,754 3,018,341 19,423 Colored. 5,156 279,270 4,992 Other (14 bodies) The total membership of the Baptist Church in 1920 was estimated as follows: United States and Canada, 7,600,- 000; British Isles, 408,000; elsewhere, 1,000,000; world total, 9,008,000. BAPTIST YOUNG PEOPLE'S UNION OF AMERICA, an association representing numerous young people's societies connected with the Baptist Churches in all the States and in Canada, organized in June, 1891, in Chicago, Ill., which place has since been its headquarters and the place ace of publication of its monthly magazine "Service." Conventions are held yearly.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a large religious denomination. The sect originated in England during the reigns of Henry VIII and Elizabeth, and has spread throughout all parts of the English speaking world. It is difficult to state a religious belief in a few words. The Baptists inherited a reverence for the Scriptures and a Trinitarian faith from the Church of England. The denomination holds that baptism is a holy ordinance requiring an intelligent faith on the part of one who is baptized, and may therefore be administered only to adults. Infant baptism is, in their judgment, only a christening or naming, a dedication of the child by its parents, not the offering of one's self implied in baptism. Immersion is the form of baptism generally preferred. In Great Britain and Ireland at the present time there are about 3,000 Baptist churches with a membership of one-third of a million. One of their most noted men was the late Rev. Charles Spurgeon, whose mammoth tabernacle and work in London have a world-wide reputation. Roger Williams, who was expelled from Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1635, is considered the founder of the Baptist church in America. In Boston, as late as 1661, Baptists were sentenced to be fined and "well whipped." In 1678 the doors of their meeting house were ordered nailed up by the court. At the beginning of the present century, there were in the ' United States about 44,000 Baptist churches with a membership of over 4,000,000, or about one-eighteenth of the entire population. The denomination is strong in the South and includes a large number of colored churches. There are about 1,000 churches in Canada, with an approximate membership of 100,000. Recent statistics of the denomination show that it has in this country thirty-one colleges, seven seminaries, thirty-two schools for women only, forty-six academies and seventeen schools for negroes and Indians, with an enrollment of about 40,000 students, and endowments aggregating between $40,000,000 and $50,000,000. The older of these institutions are Brown University, Colby, and Colgate. To the above showing must be added a controlling interest in the University of Chicago. See Anabaptists
What Has Changed in the Last Century
Collier's 1921 table shows the Southern Convention at just over three million members and traces Baptist origins to Switzerland in 1523; most historians now derive English Baptists from Separatist congregations — John Smyth's exiles at Amsterdam in 1609 and Thomas Helwys's London church of 1612 — rather than from continental Anabaptists, and Aiton's claim of an origin under Henry VIII has no support at all. The Southern Baptist Convention went on to become the largest Protestant body in the United States, peaking near 16 million members in 2006 and falling to roughly 13 million by the mid-2020s; in 1995, on the 150th anniversary of the 1845 split Collier's describes, it formally apologized for its defense of slavery. The "Colored Baptists" of the old entry are now the National Baptist Convention USA and its sister bodies, joined in 1961 by the Progressive National Baptist Convention, the denominational home of Martin Luther King Jr. The Northern Baptists renamed themselves the American Baptist Churches USA in 1972, and the Baptist World Alliance, founded in 1905, now counts a global fellowship of well over 50 million baptized members.
Written for this edition, 2026.