Baptist
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Baptist churches are a Protestant denomination originating from the English Puritan movement with Anabaptist influences. There are about 100 million world-wide members, mostly in the USA. Theologically, Baptists teach a believer's baptism where adults who have professed faith in Jesus Christ are baptised as a symbol of their salvation. The churches tend to be conservative and evangelic, with a strong focus on the authority of the Bible. Each church has autonomy with a congregational governance system, however churches often associate in organizations such as the Southern Baptist Convention.
Statistics
There are over 90 million Baptists worldwide in nearly 300,000 congregations, with an estimated 47 million members in the United States. Other large populations of Baptists also exist in Asia, Africa and Latin America, notably in India (2.4 million), Nigeria (2.3 million), Zaïre (1.9 million) and Brazil (1.2 million). Only those people who are baptized members of a local Baptist church are included in the total number of Baptists. Most Baptist churches do not have an age restriction on membership, but will not accept as a member a child that is too young to make a profession of faith. If children and unbaptized congregants are included in the total number of Baptists then the number may be more than 100 million.
Baptists are a rapidly growing Christian denomination, largely due to the growth in Asia, Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe.
Worship style
Quotes
Roger Williams (who founded the first Baptist church in the United States of America, explaining the Baptist principle of separation of church and state, 1640 AD)
- An enforced uniformity of religion throughout a nation or civil state, confounds the civil and religious, denies the principles of Christianity and civility, and that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh.
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