Baptists

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A Baptist Church in Saint Helier , Jersey

As Baptists members are referred to a Protestant confessional family to their special features the exclusive practice of believers' baptism and believer's baptism as much a part as the emphasis that the local church for their lives and teaching itself is responsible ( Congregationalism ). Like the Anabaptists of the 16th century, to whom the Baptists also refer in part, they vigorously advocated unrestricted freedom of belief from the start . The first Baptist church was founded in Amsterdam in 1609 . Baptism has been represented in France since 1820 and in Germany since 1834, from where it spread to many European countries. The beginnings of the Baptist movement in Switzerland and Austria go back to 1847. The main areas of distribution of the Baptists, who belong to the largest Protestant denominational communities, are North America and - with some distance - Africa and Asia .

Surname

Sandstone panel in the gable of the Felde Baptist Church : [Congregation] of baptized Christians

The term “Baptists” is derived from the Greek βαπτίζειν (baptizein), which means “to submerge” and figuratively means “baptize”, in English then “to baptize” (“baptize”), baptism (“ baptism ”) and baptist ("Baptist"). The Anabaptists of the Reformation period are called anabaptists (literally: "Anabaptists") in the English-speaking world in order to linguistically differentiate them from the later Baptists ("Baptists").

The name "Baptists" is not originally a self-designation, but a derisive name that was later adopted as a denomination. German Baptists, whose beginnings go back to the first half of the 19th century, also found it difficult to use this external term. At first they called themselves "Evangelical Baptist Churches" or "Churches of (believing) baptized Christians". The fact that most of the German Baptist congregations refer to themselves as “ Evangelical Free Churches ” - sometimes with the addition “(Baptists)” - is not due to the rejection of the former derisive name, but to a merger of German Baptists with two others in 1942 Free Churches. In connection with this association, they put their name in the background, but continue to add it in brackets: "Evangelical Free Church Community (Baptists)".

history

Front page of the Schleitheim article
Title page of the "Creed of the Evangelical Baptist Churches in America, Great Britain, Hamburg pp and Jever" written by Johann Ludwig Hinrichs in 1840

The biblical validity of infant baptism was already called into question in the pre-Reformation period - for example by the Waldensians . During the Reformation, it was the Anabaptists (polemically called “Anabaptists” by their opponents) who rejected infant baptism. A baptism - according to the Anabaptist articles in Schleitheim - is only biblical and therefore valid if the baptized have understood its meaning, believed themselves and personally desired and demanded the baptism. Even if the later Baptists essentially adopted this concept of baptism and the ecclesiology behind it, they must not be viewed as direct descendants of the Anabaptist movement.

Beginnings

The founders of the Baptists were influenced by the English Reformation, which after the death of Henry VIII opened up primarily to the influence of Calvinism and finally developed an independent form, Puritanism . This resulted in three types of churches , both inside and outside the Anglican Church : the Presbyterians , the Congregationalists and the Congregationalist separatists, also known as dissenters .

The latter group also included the group of English religious refugees who had gone to Amsterdam in 1608 under the leadership of the former Anglican priest John Smyth . Soon after their arrival, this group constituted itself as a congregation and decided - according to the rationale - to give more space to the work of the Holy Spirit , against a firmly established liturgy for worship . Almost a year later, Smyth introduced believers' baptism as what he understood as biblical and therefore only valid baptism. He saw this step as a change of religion for himself and those baptized by him: “Changing a wrong religion is recommended. To cling to a false religion is condemned. [...] The separation must either go back to England (meaning: into the Anglican Church) or forward to true baptism! ”The year 1609 is considered by the Baptists to be the official founding year of their denominational family. On closer historical consideration must however by a origination process be assumed that in 1609 began and lasted until about 1,641th

Smyth had initially baptized himself in the absence of an Anabaptist , which earned him the nickname self-baptist (self-baptist) , but a short time later got into a conflict of conscience about it. He asked a Mennonite clergyman for the baptism of faith, which he also received from him. While Smyth subsequently turned to the Waterland Mennonites , his comrade Thomas Helwys stuck to the teaching agreement initially accepted, returned to London with his followers in 1611 and founded the first Baptist church in Great Britain in 1612 outside the walls of the British capital in Spitalfields . At about the same time he published his work A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity , which was written as early as 1610 , in which he advocated the full religious freedom of the individual and called for the state to be neutral in matters of faith and conscience. Because of this writing, Helwys was arrested and sent to prison, where he died after a few years. The community founded by Helwys tried after his death to establish contact with the Dutch Mennonites, but was rejected there due to unbridgeable doctrinal differences. While the Mennonites uncompromisingly refused to take the oath , the Baptists were ready to take it under certain circumstances (for example, as an oath of homage ). The Baptists also saw no insurmountable problem in assuming political office. Further contradictions existed in questions of the nature of Christ and in the understanding of ministry. An administration of the New Testament orders ( Lord's Supper and Baptism) by lay people was inconceivable for the Dutch Mennonites.

Independently of these Arminian congregations, which were later called General Baptists , the so-called Particular Baptists , who adhered to the Calvinist doctrine of predestination , arose at the latest in 1638 around John Spilsbury , Richard Blunt and William Kiffin . This group, which was less radical than the General Baptists in opposition to the Church of England , introduced baptism by immersion in 1641, after baptism of faith had previously been practiced with sprinkling.

Crisis and growth

In addition to the detachment from Mennonism, the young Baptist movement's internal struggle is also part of the development process of its founding history.

As early as 1626 there were five congregations of the General Baptists with 150 members and in 1644 alone in London - despite persecution - seven congregations of the Particular Baptists are occupied. The growth phase was not without crises and it was not until 1833 that the two Baptist movements merged.

Despite the separation, the rapid growth of Baptists in the United Kingdom continued until 1689. Only with the granting of general religious freedom did a certain stagnation occur, but this was overcome by the influences of the Methodist awakening movement . The Particular Baptist Missionary Society founded by William Carey was also the fruit of this movement . Through them, Baptism found its way to Asia and Africa in 1792 , where the commitment of Baptist missionaries within the British colonies led to the abolition of slavery in 1838 .

Theological directions

The Baptist church historian Hans Luckey drew attention to the fact that - viewed by Great Britain as a starting point - Baptism expanded in two different geographical directions with a time delay: the movement westwards and the movement eastwards . According to Luckey, both directions had their own special character. The westward movement was rooted in the Puritan world of thought and its theological conflicts. This was where the typical clashes between Arminianism ( General Baptists , Free Will Baptists ) and Calvinism ( Particular Baptists , Primitive Baptists ) took place. The political moment was also of great importance here. Freedom of belief and conscience was demanded by the absolutist state - not only for members of its own denomination - and later enshrined as a fundamental human right in the constitutions of the states of North America. The assumption of political responsibility was also expressly affirmed and encouraged. The eastward movement , which began in the first third of the 19th century, was influenced by the Methodist revival movement, which combined with pietistic and quietist elements on the European continent . This movement, which through Johann Gerhard Oncken first reached Germany and from there almost the entire continental European area up to the Black Sea , was rather undogmatic, apolitical and primarily geared towards the evangelization of those far from God and those distant from the Church. These differences - according to Luckey - can still be felt.

Development in the United States

Calvary Baptist Church, Lexington
Chinese Baptist Church in Seattle, USA

In addition to the United Kingdom, the United States of America was another starting point for the Baptist movement. Like many other followers of religious movements shaped by the Reformation, the Puritans also finally preferred to emigrate to what would later become the United States. A first Baptist church was organized there in 1639 in Rhode Island under the direction of Roger Williams . Rhode Island had a democratic constitution from the beginning and granted absolute freedom of religion.

Especially from the 18th century the Baptist communities in New England and the central colonies experienced a great boom, among other things because of their uncompromising attitude not only against the slave trade , but also against slavery itself ("Slavery is sin"; slavery is sin) . The Baptists of the South, however, saw it very differently. Although both blacks and whites were predominantly Baptists, the churches were almost always racially separated until the 1960s, and in some cases they are still. In the southern United States, the Baptists are the dominant denomination. The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. The Baptists are the second largest denomination in the United States after the Roman Catholic Church.

Germany and continental Europe

In the 19th century, Baptism returned to continental Europe. In 1819, for example, the Swiss Henri Pyt (1796–1835) gathered a group of around 200 Protestant believers in the northern French town of Nomain . He baptized the men Jean-Baptiste Ladam (1789-1846), Alexis Montel, Ferdinand Caulier and Jean-Michel Wauquier at a tributary of the Scarpe . Only a year later, the first Baptist church in France was built in the village. The leader in building this church was the farmer Louis Calier, who was also elected pastor. The church with a baptismal font offered space for 80 to 100 people in the early years. Ladam became the first Protestant colporteur in France after the Reformation . Because of his evangelistic activities he was first imprisoned in 1823; in his forty years as an evangelist, he was jailed 15 times. In 1821 the first typical Baptist meeting house was built in Aix-en-Pévèle . A little later, further Baptist churches were built in the vicinity of Nomains, and lively relationships with their members were maintained. From 1834 onwards, Gaelic-speaking Baptists founded the first churches in Brittany . In 1836 the first French creed was published with Croyance religieuse des baptistes .

The Hamburg merchant Johann Gerhard Oncken , who came from Varel , first converted to a Methodist congregation on a trip to England . When he returned to Germany, he came into contact with an American Baptist theologian who performed the baptism of believers on him. Oncken founded the first congregation in Hamburg on April 23, 1834, which became the nucleus of many continental European Baptist churches. Many Baptist congregations in Eastern and Southeastern Europe emerged from the German-speaking population and only gradually reached the respective national language.

In 1942 in Germany (also under pressure from the National Socialists) Baptists, Brethren congregations and Elim congregations merged to form the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches (BEFG), in which the Baptists form the majority, especially since after 1945 many Brethren congregations and also most of the Elim congregations left the covenant again. The difference between the two directions still exists, and some BEFG congregations make it clear by adding a name that they are Baptists.

distribution

Baptist congregations with around 47 million baptized members exist in around 160 countries around the world . Denominational statistics add children and friends who participate in the life of the community in order to compare the numbers with those of popular churches that typically practice infant baptism. According to this, around 100 million people are spiritually at home in Baptist churches.

General overview

Most national Baptist unions belong to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA). Significant exceptions here are, among other things, the US-American Federation of Southern Baptists ( Southern Baptist Convention ), which has resigned since 2004, with around 11 million baptized members, and the repatriate congregations of Russian-German Baptists with around 350,000 members. The number of Baptists has increased sevenfold since 1905. The strongest Baptist groups are to be found in the USA, the countries of the former USSR, as well as in Brazil , Nigeria , Burma and India . The official name of the German Baptists has been the Bund Evangelisch-Freikirchlicher Congregations in Germany (BEFG) since 1941 . According to its own information, this congregation federation forms the largest free church in Germany with a good 82,000 baptized members (without children and friends) in 814 congregations (without branch congregations).

These and the following figures do not include the Baptist unions that are independent of the World Federation and the Free Baptist Congregations . In the German-speaking countries, these include the Evangelical Christians-Baptists , the Baptists belonging to the Bund Taufgesminner Congregations , the Free Baptists connected by a loose network of congregations and the Calvinist Reformed Baptists . Exact numbers cannot be determined for these communities. The Religious Studies Material and Information Service quantifies the membership strength of all free Baptists in Germany with the vague statement “75,000 to 100,000” (2005). According to this source, the number of municipalities is 300.

Statistical comparison 1894, 1958 and 2004

Entrance to the First Baptist Church in Washington DC
World region Members 1894 Members 1958 Members 2004 Local parishes 2004
Africa 6,392 279.241 6,126,307 25,389
Asia / Australia 131,947 769.875 4,718,530 25,937
Europe 450,429 1,142,127 793.507 12,973
Central America and the Caribbean 45.173 104,829 465,538 4,188
North America 3,989,876 19,804,632 17,901,569 61,817
Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) (USA) (included under North America) 16.053.006 - -
South America 729 146.988 1,447,745 10.126
Total 4,624,546 38,300,698 47,512,077 (incl. SBC ) 140.430

Teaching

German Baptist pin (around 1934)

An essential characteristic of Baptists is still their baptismal practice. According to the Baptist understanding, a baptism that is valid in the biblical sense presupposes the personal profession of faith of the baptismal applicant. An infant baptism is therefore rejected. Baptists are critical of the term adult baptism because, in their opinion, belief cannot be tied to age limits. They prefer to refer to their baptismal practice as believer baptism . In the account of faith , a Baptist creed in German-speaking countries, it says under the heading Faith and Baptism :

“Jesus Christ commissioned his church to baptize those who believe in him. Baptism testifies to man's conversion to God. Therefore, only those people are to be baptized who, because of their faith, desire to be baptized for themselves. Baptism by profession of faith is received only once. According to the practice attested in the New Testament, the person to be baptized is immersed in water. Baptism takes place in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit: The person baptized is thus placed under the rule of God. "

- Accountability for faith

There is no globally uniform Baptist creed , but there is great agreement on the following principles:

  • The Bible is the sole guideline for teaching, faith and life and is seen as the perfect word of God.
  • The church of Jesus is a creation of God's word. The preaching awakens, strengthens and corrects the faith of the individual and demands his answer. Preaching the gospel is a prerequisite for a person to come to believe. Those who come to believe in Jesus Christ are invited to be baptized on the basis of their personal confession.
  • Not baptism, but personal faith in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior is decisive for salvation.
  • The local believing church “administers” the word and the signs of baptism and the sacrament instituted by Jesus Christ. She delegates this task to individual parishioners.
  • The principle is the priesthood of all believers . All acts, including baptism, the Lord's Supper and sermon, can in principle be performed by any member of the congregation.
  • The Lord's Supper is primarily understood as a memorial meal.
  • Baptists see evangelism as the most urgent task of both the individual congregation member (“Every Baptist a missionary!” ( Johann Gerhard Oncken )) and the congregation and its regional and national associations.
  • Baptists advocate freedom of belief and conscience for people around the world . State and church are to be separated . No religion may be given preferential treatment by the state.

The theology of the Baptists in many churches evangelical . Influences of Calvinism ( federal theology ), the awakening movement , Puritanism (in the Anglo-American area) and Pietism (in the German-speaking area) are clearly perceptible, often ideas of dispensationalism as well . However, there can be big differences between individual Baptist unions and local churches.

Worship and practice

Image taken from a service in a Nuremberg Baptist church

The organization of the divine services is not subject to any specific liturgy and is therefore handled individually by each congregation. The preaching of the word of God is clearly in the foreground. Usually the service is divided into an introductory part, which is designed by parishioners or groups, and a sermon part. The sermon can also be given by non-ordained employees (mostly volunteers). The music in the church service includes singing together by the congregation or a choir. Some churches are charismatic . An important element is the open prayer of the congregation, in which every worshiper has the opportunity to pray out loud. Occasionally, prayer in tongues is practiced. Sunday school is offered for children parallel to the service .

The baptism is done by full immersion. Most Baptist churches have a baptistery (baptismal font) for baptism . Many Baptist churches also like to baptize in open water . In general, one can only join a Baptist church if one is baptized in faith. However, baptism does not have to have been performed in a Baptist church.

The Lord's Supper emphasizes the fellowship of believers with one another and with Jesus Christ. All are invited who know that they have been reconciled to God and people through Jesus Christ. The biblical admonition applies: "Everybody should examine himself and eat this bread and drink from this cup!" ( 1 Cor.  11). Usually plates with broken bread and goblets with wine are passed through the rows. Often, out of consideration for addicts, grape juice is served instead of wine . Other forms of communion are also practiced.

For Baptists, it is not so much the external form of the worship service that is important as the intensive fellowship with the other church members and Jesus. That is why many parishes offer church coffee or even lunch together afterwards . Guests are welcome to all events - apart from the community meetings, where decisions are made on all important issues of community life.

There are house groups as places of personal encounter . These consist of around 8-10 people and meet regularly (usually weekly or fortnightly). Personal participation in the other members and growing together in faith are important. The “ priesthood of all believers ” is also strongly expressed here.

organization

The Baptist churches are organized in a congregational manner , i. H. the individual communities are independent on essential issues. At regional, national and international level, Baptists come together to form working groups, associations and leagues. However, the local church plays the decisive role in the self-image of the Baptists. Sometimes there are several Baptist congregations in a city which, for historical, ethnic, theological or practical reasons, belong to different national or international associations. It is quite possible that - for example within the framework of the Evangelical Alliance - a local Baptist church has more intensive contacts to congregations with different denominations than to the other local congregations of the Baptist denomination.

Baptist Church in Deva, Romania

The individual communities are financed exclusively through voluntary donations and membership fees. In Germany most of the Baptist congregations belong to the Federation of Evangelical Free Churches . Russian-German returnees have founded their own national leagues since the 1970s. These include the Association of Evangelical Christians -Baptists , the "Brotherhood of Evangelical Christians-Baptists", the "Brotherhood of Christian Congregations in Germany" and, with some restrictions, the Association of Baptist Churches . These four community associations alone had around 42,000 members in 2004 and were organized nationwide in 249 communities. The Baptists in Austria and Switzerland are also organized in national congregational federations: the Federation of Baptist Congregations in Austria, founded in 1953, and the Federation of Baptists in Switzerland . With other Baptist unions in Europe and the Middle East , they belong to the European Baptist Federation , a subdivision of the Baptist World Federation .

Freedom of religion and conscience

Baptists have been committed advocates of religious freedom from the start . The first Baptist creed of 1610 declares that Jesus Christ "did not combine the office of secular government with the offices of his church". In 1639 the Baptist colony of Rhode Island became the first country in the world to guarantee complete freedom of religion. In addition to the Quakers , Baptists later (1777) campaigned for religious freedom to be included in the United States' constitution . In Germany, Julius Köbner represented similar convictions with his manifesto of free primitive Christianity .

Well-known Baptists in a selection

First Baptist Church Ottawa, Canada
Köbner's Church in Wuppertal
Baptist Church Berlin-Wedding

  • Politician
    • Warren G. Harding (1865-1923), 29th US President 1921-1923
    • Harry S. Truman (1884–1972), Democratic politician and 33rd President of the United States
    • Tommy Douglas (1904–1986), Canadian pastor, social democrat politician and Prime Minister of Saskatchewan (1944–1966)
    • Jimmy Carter (* 1924), Democratic politician and 39th President of the USA 1977–1981
    • Chuck Colson (1931–2012), adviser to US President Nixon
    • John McCain (1936–2018), Vietnam War fighter-bomber pilot and Republican Senator from Arizona
    • Olusegun Obasanjo (* 1937), officer and President of Nigeria 1976–1979 and 1999–2007
    • Bill Clinton (* 1946), Democratic politician and 42nd President of the USA 1993–2001
    • Yukio Hatoyama (* 1947), Japanese politician and Prime Minister 2009–2010
    • Al Gore (* 1948), Democratic politician, US Vice President 1993-2001 and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate
    • Levy Mwanawasa (1948–2008), lawyer and President of Zambia 2002–2008
    • Mike Huckabee (* 1955), American pastor and Republican governor of Arkansas
    • Loretta Lynch (* 1959), US attorney and attorney general
    • Ted Cruz (* 1970), American attorney and Republican Senator from Texas
  • Other
    • Thomas Cook (1808-1892), English carpenter, pastor, printer and tourism pioneer
    • John D. Rockefeller (1839–1937), American industrialist
    • Frank País (1934–1957), Cuban revolutionary
    • Ben Wallace (* 1974), African-American NBA professional who became NBA champion in 2004

Ecumenism

The World Baptist Federation maintains many contacts with other churches, including free churches , and international organizations and is also involved in the ecumenical movement . "Jesus Christ builds his congregation in different churches and communities", it says in a confession of the BEFG. He is involved in the German Evangelical Alliance and is one of the founding members of the Working Group of Christian Churches in Germany . He is also a member of the Association of Evangelical Free Churches .

In Austria, the Baptists, together with the Federation of Evangelical Congregations , the Mennonites , the Free Christian Congregation (Pentecostal Church), and the Elaia Christian Congregations form a state-recognized church . The common church has been called " Free Churches in Austria " since 2013 .

In Italy the Baptists belong to the Federazione delle chiese evangeliche in Italia with Lutherans , Waldensians , Methodists , the Salvation Army and others .

In Sweden, the Baptist Union , Methodist Church and the Reformed Mission Church passed a “declaration of intent” in November 2007 to “form a new common church” by 2012. The church, which was founded in 2011, has been called Equmeniakyrkan since 2013 .

See also

Portal: Baptists  - Overview of Wikipedia content on the topic of Baptists

literature

  • Günter Balders : Dear brother Oncken. Life of Johann Gerhard Oncken in pictures and documents. Oncken, Wuppertal / Kassel 1978, ISBN 3-7893-7871-2 .
  • John HY Briggs (Ed.): A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought. Paternoster, Milton Keynes et al. a. 2009, ISBN 978-1-84227-535-1 .
  • Heather J. Coleman: Russian Baptists and Spiritual Revolution, 1905-1929 . Bloomington 2005, ISBN 0-253-34572-3 .
  • John David Hughey: The Baptists: Introduction to Doctrine, Practice, and History . Oncken, Kassel 1959, DNB 452133734 . Evangelisches Verlags-Werk, Stuttgart 1964, DNB 450227987 .
  • H. Leon McBeth: A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage. Broadman Press, Nashville (Tennessee) 1990, ISBN 0-8054-6589-8 .
  • Ernest A. Payne: The Fellowship of Believers - Baptist Thought and Practice Yesterday and Today. London 1944.
  • Ian M. Randall: Communities of Conviction. Baptist Beginnings in Europe . Neufeld Verlag , Schwarzenfeld 2009, ISBN 978-3-937896-78-6 .
  • Andrea Strübind , Martin Rothkegel (Ed.): Baptism. History and present. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 2012, ISBN 978-3-525-55009-0 .
  • Henry Clay Vedder: A Brief History of the Baptists. Hamburg 1896.
  • Albert Wardin: Baptists Around the World - A Comprehensive Handbook. Broadman & Holman, Nashville (Tennessee) 1995, ISBN 0-8054-1076-7 .
  • Charles Willams: The Principles and Practices of the Baptists - A Book for Inquirers. London 1880.

Web links

Commons : Baptist Christianity  - collection of images, videos and audio files
Wiktionary: Baptist  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sébastian Fath: Une autre manière d'être chrétien en France: socio-histoire de l'implantation baptiste, 1810–1950. (= Histoire et société. N ° 41). Labor et Fides, 2001, ISBN 2-8309-0990-9 , p. 116.
  2. See the title page of the creed of the Evangelical Baptist Churches shown in the article .
  3. See the picture of the sandstone plaque in the gable of the fields Baptist Church!
  4. "Great Britain" with only one "n" in the original!
  5. Schleitheimer Anabaptist Confession , Article 1. museum-schleitheim.ch, archived from the original on July 7, 2011 ; Retrieved June 10, 2011 .
  6. For details of the development of congregationalism see the article: Congregationalism in the reformed online lexicon ; Accessed January 26, 2008.
  7. ^ WT Whitley (Ed.): The Works of John Smyth. Volume II, 1915, p. 564 f; quoted from JD Hughey: The Baptists. Teaching, practice, history. Kassel 1959, p. 70.
  8. Note from the European-Baptic Federation on the anniversary event in Amsterdam , viewed on August 23, 2009.
  9. JD Hughey: The Baptists. Teaching, practice, history. Kassel 1959, p. 71f.
  10. ^ H. Leon McBeth: The Baptist Heritage. Four Centuries of Baptist Witness. Nashville, Tennessee 1987, pp. 39ff.
  11. ^ E. Brandt: Baptism / Baptists. In: Helmut Burkhardt, Uwe Swarat (ed.): Evangelical Lexicon for Theology and Congregation. Volume 1, R. Brockhaus, Wuppertal 1993, p. 175.
  12. The Reformed Baptists see themselves as descendants of the Particular Baptists .
  13. Hans Luckey: Article Baptists. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Ecclesiastical-theological concise dictionary. (edited by Heinz Brunotte, Otto Weber in collaboration with others), Göttingen 1959, p. 304f.
  14. Hans Luckey: Article Baptists. In: Evangelisches Kirchenlexikon. Ecclesiastical-theological concise dictionary. (edited by Heinz Brunotte, Otto Weber in collaboration with others), Göttingen 1959, p. 304.
  15. ^ Sébastian Fath: You ghetto au réseau. Le protestantisme évangélique en France 1800–2005. (= Histoire et société. N ° 47). Labor et Fides, 2005, ISBN 2-8309-1139-3 , p. 116 and p. 332.
  16. For the period from 1930 to 1942, this development, including the coexistence of Baptists from different peoples, can be traced in the journal Anabaptist-Bote that was published at the time . Community history reviews published at the time also give rise to impressions from the previous decades.
  17. ^ History
  18. DIE GEMEINDE magazine (press release): Pastor Hertmut Riemenschneider remains president of the largest German free church ( Memento from May 1, 2015 in the Internet Archive ); Accessed September 20, 2011.
  19. ^ Association of Evangelical Free Churches / Baptists: Statistics ( Memento of October 3, 2013 in the Internet Archive ); Accessed September 20, 2011.
  20. ^ Homepage of the Free Baptists ; Accessed September 20, 2011.
  21. ^ Homepage of the Reformed Baptists ; Accessed September 20, 2011.
  22. REMID: Info numbers ; Accessed September 20, 2011.
  23. ^ Henry Vedder: A Brief History of the Baptists. Hamburg 1896, p. 147.
  24. JD Hughey: The Baptists. Teaching, practice, history. Kassel 1959, pp. 140ff.
  25. ^ Official statistics of the Baptist World Federation
  26. no longer BWA member since October 2004
  27. Baptistenkirche-Nordhorn.de: Accountability of the faith (as of May 31, 2019) PDF-Online, p. 4; accessed on January 15, 2020
  28. See for the following John David Hughey, Jr.: The Baptists. Introduction to teaching, practice and history . JG Oncken Published by Kassel 1959.
  29. see: Thomas Helwys , Roger Williams and Julius Köbner , The Manifesto of Free Original Christianity from 1848.
  30. Lars Jentsch: Evangeliumschristen-Baptisten ( Memento from December 15, 2015 in the Internet Archive ); at: taeufergeschichte.net , last accessed on December 28, 2012.
  31. Julius Köbner: Manifesto of free early Christianity to the German people: To the German people. (PDF; 357 kB). edited, introduced and commented on by Markus Wehrstedt and Bernd Wittchow. WDL-Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86682-102-6 , pp. 33-54.
  32. Documented in MdKI 59/2008, issue 5, p. 131; see. also common framtid? ( Memento from August 23, 2010 in the Internet Archive )