Baptists

They arose from English Separatists exiled in Amsterdam, where John Smyth founded a believers-only baptizing church in 1609; Thomas Helwys brought the group back to London in 1612. General (Arminian) and Particular (Calvinist) Baptists soon emerged; the latter’s 1689 London Confession remains a standard.

The first Baptists (1609) probably baptized by pouring; immersion was adopted around 1641 and fixed in the 1644 Confession. Helwys’ 1612 book also asked for religious liberty even for Jews and Muslims, and it landed him in prison.

• John Smythc. 1570–1612
• Thomas Helwysc. 1575–c. 1616
• John Bunyan1628–1688
• Charles H. Spurgeon1834–1892

• A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (Helwys)1612
• First London Confession1644
• Second London Confession (drafted 1677, adopted 1689)1689
• New Hampshire Confession1833
• Baptist Faith and Message (Southern Baptist Convention)1925

• Puritanism

• Anabaptists (Radical Reformation)