Baptists baptise people only when they are old enough to choose faith for themselves.
Anabaptist & Baptist1609grew out of Congregational (Puritan)
John Smyth's English Separatist congregation in Amsterdam adopted believers' baptism in 1609; Thomas Helwys returned to England and helped establish a congregation there in 1612. Baptist traditions emphasise believers' baptism, congregational government and religious liberty. Immersion became characteristic of most Baptist churches, but the tradition developed through several streams.
Baptists baptise people only when they are old enough to choose faith for themselves, and they baptise by putting the whole person under the water. The movement began in 1609 among English exiles in Amsterdam, and it has argued for freedom of conscience ever since.
John Smyth, an English separatist minister in Amsterdam, concluded that a church should be made of believers who choose it, so he baptised himself and then his congregation in 1609, in contact with the Dutch Mennonites 17,16. Thomas Helwys brought part of that congregation home and founded the first Baptist church on English soil at Spitalfields in 1612 18,3. He sent King James a book saying that the king is a mortal man and not God, and therefore has no power over the immortal souls of his subjects, to make laws for them; he was put in Newgate prison and died there within a few years 18,16,3. A second stream, the Particular Baptists, formed in London from 1638 and wrote the confessions of 1644 and 1689 23,16.
In America the argument for liberty grew louder. Roger Williams, expelled from Massachusetts, founded Providence in 1636 and helped form the first Baptist church there, and in 1644 he published The Bloudy Tenent of Persecution, which held that forcing conscience is contrary to the will of Christ and that Jewish, Muslim and pagan consciences must be free too 7,19,10. Obadiah Holmes was publicly whipped in Boston in 1651 for holding a Baptist service 20,10. Baptists grew quickly in the awakenings of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, pressed hard for the religious liberty written into the American constitution, and became one of the largest bodies of Christians in the United States 10,11,12. Black Baptist congregations formed before emancipation and grew into the largest Black denominations in the country 12,16.
American Baptists divided in 1845, when Baptists in the South separated after the national mission board refused to appoint a slaveholder as a missionary and formed the Southern Baptist Convention 24,16. At its hundred and fiftieth anniversary in 1995 that convention passed a resolution apologising to African Americans, saying that it lamented and repudiated historic acts of evil such as slavery, and asking forgiveness 6,24. The division it made in 1845 has never been undone, and Baptists in the United States have been several bodies ever since.
Baptists teach that baptism is for people who believe, that each congregation governs itself under Christ, and that no one should be forced in matters of faith. Every believer may read the Bible and pray without a priest between them and God.
The Baptist Union of Great Britain states it in three sentences: Christ is the sole and absolute authority in all matters of faith and practice as revealed in Scripture; baptism is for those who profess repentance and faith, by immersion; and each church has liberty under Christ to interpret and administer his laws, with a duty to make the gospel known 3. Baptists write confessions, from the Second London Confession of 1689 to the Baptist Faith and Message of 2000, but they treat them as statements of what a body believes rather than as creeds binding on conscience 23,5,16.
Two convictions follow from that. The first is the priesthood of every believer, which is why Baptist churches decide matters in a meeting of the members rather than by a bishop, and why Baptists have insisted that a person answers to God for themselves 26,3,12. The second is religious liberty, held not only for Baptists but for everyone, which Helwys and Williams defended, and which Baptists in America pressed into law 7,18,11. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are usually called ordinances rather than sacraments, understood as obedience and remembrance 5,16.
Worship and practice
Baptist worship is built around preaching and singing, in a plain room with a pool for baptisms at the front. There is no set liturgy. Services are often warm and informal, and in many congregations people answer the preacher aloud.
A service usually has hymns or songs, prayer, a Scripture reading and a sermon of some length, often ending with an invitation to come forward and profess faith, a practice that grew out of the revivals 16,12. Baptism follows profession of faith, and the person is lowered backwards under the water and raised again, which Baptists read as acting out the death and rising of Christ from Romans 6 26,27. The Lord's Supper is kept as a memorial, in many churches monthly or quarterly 5,16. Black Baptist worship developed its own tradition of preaching and music that shaped gospel, and through it much of American popular music 12,14. Church business is settled at a members' meeting, and pastors are called by the congregation, not appointed from outside 3,12.
Scripture and Bible translations
Baptists read the King James Version for three centuries and use modern translations now. Because they hold that every believer can read Scripture, Baptists put enormous effort into translating it and getting it into people's hands.
William Carey, a shoemaker from Northampton who taught himself languages, went to India in 1793 and worked with his colleagues on translations of the Bible into Bengali, Sanskrit and dozens of other languages, and his example started the modern Protestant missionary movement 21,1. Baptists have no authorised version and no lectionary: a preacher chooses the passage, and congregations use whatever translation they prefer, most often the Christian Standard Bible, the New International Version, the English Standard Version or the New King James 5,16. Read here: the King James Version, the Bible of Baptist preaching for three hundred years, the Berean Standard Bible, and the Majority Standard Bible. The versions guide lists what Baptist bodies read today.
Documented use
The CSB is published by Holman Bible Publishers, a division of Lifeway, an entity associated with the SBC. Its interdenominational translation committee includes Southern Baptist and other conservative evangelical scholars; the CSB is not an official translation prescribed by the SBC. The NIV, ESV, NKJV and KJV are also encountered in Baptist churches.
King James
KJV-only advocacy is especially associated with parts of the Independent Baptist tradition. The KJV also retains an important place in some National Baptist and Primitive Baptist congregations, although representative usage data are limited.
These passages illustrate themes discussed in this profile; they are not a survey of members' favorite verses. Each is quoted from the King James (Authorized) Version and links to its chapter. You can explore the text for study or personal reflection; memorization is optional.
Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Buried with him by baptism into death. This is the verse Baptists act out when they lower a person under the water and raise them again.
And it came to pass in those days, that Jesus came from Nazareth of Galilee, and was baptized of John in Jordan. And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens opened, and the Spirit like a dove descending upon him:
Jesus came up out of the water. Baptists point here for both the manner of baptism and the fact that Jesus was baptised as an adult.
But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
A royal priesthood. The reason a Baptist church has no priest, and why the members decide together in a church meeting.
So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.
Every one of us shall give account of himself to God. Thirteen words that carry the Baptist case for liberty of conscience.
People
Thomas Helwysabout 1575 to about 1616 Founded the first Baptist church in England in 1612 and told King James that a king has no power over the soul; he died in Newgate prison for saying it.18
Roger Williamsabout 1603 to 1683 Expelled from Massachusetts for his opinions, he founded Providence and argued that no one, of any religion or none, should be compelled in conscience.19
John Bunyan1628 to 1688 A tinker who preached without a licence and spent twelve years in Bedford gaol, where he wrote The Pilgrim's Progress, for centuries the most read book in English after the Bible.8
William Carey1761 to 1834 The shoemaker who went to India in 1793 and spent forty years translating Scripture; his example began the modern missionary movement.21
Charles Spurgeon1834 to 1892 Preached to thousands every week in London for nearly forty years, founded a pastors' college and an orphanage, and published sermons that have never gone out of print.9
Nannie Helen Burroughs1879 to 1961 Organised the Woman's Convention of the National Baptist Convention and founded a school in Washington to train Black women when few others would.22
Martin Luther King Jr.1929 to 1968 Baptist pastor and leader of the American civil rights movement, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964 and killed in Memphis four years later.13
Today
The Baptist World Alliance counts about fifty-three million Baptists in more than a hundred and thirty countries, and many Baptist churches belong to no alliance at all. The largest single body is the Southern Baptist Convention in the United States.
The alliance describes itself as a global network of fifty-three million Baptists in a hundred and thirty-eight countries and territories, formed at a first world congress in London in 1905 2,1,25. Because Baptist churches are independent, no one can count them all, and wider estimates run higher 16,25. Baptists are numerous in Nigeria, Brazil, India, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Myanmar as well as in the United States 15,25. Baptist bodies differ among themselves over the ordination of women, over Calvinist and Arminian readings of salvation, and over how far a convention may direct its congregations, and those differences have produced many separate conventions rather than one church 5,16,12. Conventions exist to do together what a single congregation cannot, above all missions, disaster relief and training 4,2.
Words to know
ordinance
In Baptist and many other free churches, the word used for baptism and the Lord’ Supper: acts Christ commanded his people to keep, understood as obedience and remembrance. Churches that call them sacraments understand them as means through which God gives grace.
congregational government
Church government in which the members of each local congregation decide their own affairs, including choosing their own minister, with no bishop or presbytery above them. Congregations may join associations for fellowship and shared work, but those bodies advise rather than rule.
confession
In the Reformation churches, a written statement of what a church believes, such as the Augsburg Confession. In Catholic and Orthodox use, also the sacrament of telling one's sins to a priest.
justification
How a person is made right with God. Luther's teaching that this happens by faith alone, as a gift, was the heart of the Reformation.
canon
The list of books a community counts as Scripture. Jewish, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox canons overlap almost entirely and differ at the edges.
Reformation
The movement that began with Martin Luther in 1517 to reform the Western Church, and that produced the Protestant churches.
creed
A short statement of belief said together in worship. The Nicene Creed is shared by nearly every Christian tradition.
martyr
Someone killed for refusing to give up their faith. The word means witness. The early Church honoured its martyrs and kept the days of their deaths.
Questions people ask
Why do Baptists baptise by immersion?
Because the New Testament word means to dip or plunge, because Jesus is described as coming up out of the water, and because Paul speaks of being buried with Christ in baptism and raised with him. Baptists take the act as a picture of dying and rising, which only immersion shows 26,27,16.
Why do Baptists not baptise babies?
Because they hold that baptism follows a person's own faith, and an infant cannot profess faith. In Acts, people hear, believe and are then baptised, and Baptists take that order as binding. Children are welcomed and dedicated, and baptised later if they come to faith for themselves 26,3,5.
Do Baptists have bishops?
No. Each congregation governs itself, calls its own pastor and owns its own building. Churches join associations, unions and conventions for mission and fellowship, and those bodies can advise, fund and exclude, but they cannot govern a congregation 3,12,16.
What is the difference between Baptists and Southern Baptists?
Southern Baptists are one Baptist body among many. The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in the United States in 1845 and is the largest, but American Baptist Churches, the National Baptist conventions, the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and Baptist unions across the world are all Baptist and are not part of it 24,16,2.
Do all Baptists believe the same things?
No, and their own principles make that likely. General Baptists have held that Christ died for all and Particular Baptists that he died for the elect; bodies differ over women in ministry, over the confessions, and over politics. What holds them together is believer's baptism, the independence of the congregation and liberty of conscience 3,16,5.
Sources
Numbered references link the account above to its sources. These include the tradition's own documents and outside reference works. The review status below distinguishes source checking from completed member and scholarly review.
BibleVerse. “Baptist: where they came from, what they hold, and the Bible they read.” bibleverse.site, version 2026-09-09, https://bibleverse.site/denominations/baptist/
Awaiting review by a member of the tradition. First published 2026-09-07; last changed 2026-09-09. Years before the common era are written BC, and later years plainly, as the site's Christian pages do.
Found something wrong? Send it through the contact page. A correction checked against two sources is made within a week and logged in this page's change history.
Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
