Southern Baptist Church vs American Baptist Church

[DLThiessen]

Dear Katzpur,

By conservative (Southern Baptist) we mean that they hold to the "letter" of the Bible, reading the Bible literally. If the Bible says something is so, then for the conservative it is so. If the Bible says there is a literal Heaven and a Hell, then they believe there is a literal Heaven to desire and a literal Hell to be feared.

By liberal (American Baptist) we mean that they do do not hold to a literal interpretation of the Bible, reading the Bible figuratively. If the Bible says something they don't understand or believe, then it is explained as figurative not literal.

I hope can explain the differences.

[openmike]

It's a meaningless draw as both conferances are very biblically oriented both believe they are the "saved" beyond
saved ,saved saved with one question "are you saved like in OUR saved saved saved? Truth is they are saved those
saved saved saved. They both need to go outside their semi isolated albeit protected stiff necked righteous,, exclusive club and enhance their walk by returning to their hebrew roots, go beyond just church and step up to Gods plate of signs, as in harbingers ( what?) Blood moons ( what?) Shemitahs ( alright what?) preparation ( christian preppering).. TV evangelism ( oh my! are they saved saved?) aren't they all false?

[AuburnAL]

Originally Posted by olgal

re: difference between Southern and American Baptist churches?

My 2 cents: I was reared as an American Baptist in Kansas City, MO.
The difference that I saw was as follows:
American Baptist Church has OPEN communion. As long as you are a baptised church member from any church...Methodist, Presb, etc...you were welcome to take communion in my childhood church.
The Southern Baptists (my aunt as example) were much more "shall not" versus accepting people as valuable people even if they did not agree with all of your tennants.
Hope this is of use.

I do not know about American Baptists, but all the Southern Baptist churches I have been in allowed anyone to participate int he Lord's Supper if they considered themselves a Christian.

[AuburnAL]

Originally Posted by sheena12

Now there are other differences. The American Baptists are a mainline church and share many views with other Protestant denominations. They also ordain women. Some are open and accepting's towards Gays.

The Southern Baptists have become increasingly conservative over the years, in their stances on a variety of issues, both social and theological. They believe in he doctrine of the Rapture and they are essentially a Fundamentalist sect. They focus quite a bit on eschatology and evangelism.

Even from your own explanation, it sounds like you have it backwards. The Southern Baptists have remained true to the beliefs they have long held while it is the American Baptists who have become something different by drifting away from what they once believed.

[godofthunder9010]

yeshuasavedme, you were doing so well before you got sidetracked onto discussion Mormonism. Obviously, the question wasn't, "Where do Mormons and Baptists disagree." Everybody knows that they don't agree. Rather than waste time on that, I'm deleting the Mormonism stuff and completing the list. I'm also going to make some comments and corrections.

Originally Posted by yeshuasavedme

All Baptists believe in being born again, of the Living Spirit, and in water baptism by immersion for believers.
All Baptists believe in the Triune YHWH.
All Baptists believe the Word of God is inerrant in its original manuscripts, and that Revelation is the last Word from God the Word by inspiration to man.
All Baptists believe in the priesthood of the believer.

Beyond that, the reason there are many groups is that people differ and have the freedom to differ, in the body of Christ, and to gather together with like minded believers.

All Baptists religions came from John Smyth's group in 1609. Smyth was heavily influenced by the Mennonites. There are several important carry-overs from that:

1. All Baptists believe that infant baptism is wrong and that baptism should only occur when a person is old enough to understand the commitment that they are making. The most common magic number minimum age of baptism is 12 years old, but it varies.
2. Baptism is to be done by immersion, just like the Mennonites.
3. Like Mennonites, Baptists are against centralized authority telling individual congregations what to do. As a result, Baptists vary tremendously from one congregation to another. As long as they maintain a very short list of common beliefs, Baptist congregations are free to believe and teach whatever they want, though it is expected that what they teach should have some basis in scripture.
4. While not all Baptists are truly Born Again Christians, all of them believe something very similar. Their focus is on salvation by grace through faith, while de-emphasizing good works as a requirement for salvation. Again, this is largely a carry-over from Mennonites and other Protestant Reformers like Martin Luther.

In most other things, Baptists are in no way similar to Mennonites. Ironically, unlike Mennonites, many if not most Baptists do not believe that baptism is essential.

Other items:

• Most Baptists accept the Trinity as described in the Athanasian Creed. There are exceptions of course.
• They are very much Sola Scriptura, "the Bible is sufficient, inerrant, perfect and complete" sorts. Southern Baptists are probably more passionate in their belief on this particular issue.
• Most Baptists believe in a priesthood of all believers.

Originally, all Baptists in the USA were part of the National Baptist Convention. Baptists from the North got pushy in their attempts to get the Baptists leaders in the South to denounce slavery. The Baptists in the South got mand and withdrew from the American Baptist Convention and created their own convention, mostly because they wanted to preach in favor of slavery and not against it.

The two groups have evolved separately ever since they split in 1845. In general, it is true that Southern Baptists are more conservative than Mainline Baptists, but since all Baptists vary so much, that is not a reliable characterization. Some Mainline Baptists are very conservative. Some Southern Baptists are very liberal. Most likely, they are products of their respective environments. The south in the USA is very conservative. The north is very liberal.

Their advocacy for slavery undoubtedly helped the SBC grow much more rapidly than their parent religion, the Mainline Baptists. It's only logical that acceptance of an institution that was so divisive in America and so profoundly advocated for in the south would have made the pro-slavery SBC very attractive to Southerners. After the Civil War, the SBC was a big time champion of Jim Crowe laws, which undoubtedly increased their popularity even further. They did eventually issue a formal apology for to blacks for all of that racist crap ... I think it was in 1994?

In any case, the Southern Baptist Convention is 16 million strong currently. The original, the National Baptist Convention, is 7.5 million in number.

I'm not a Baptist. If there is anything in all of that which any Baptist disagrees with, by all means say so. But that's a brief summary of what I know on the subject.