General Baptist
Encyclopedia
General Baptists is a generic term for Baptists who hold the view of a general atonement, as well as a specific name of groups of Baptists within the broader category.

General Baptists are distinguished from Particular
Strict Baptist
Strict Baptists, also known as Particular Baptists, are Baptists who believe in a Calvinist or Reformed interpretation of Christian soteriology. The Particular Baptists arose in England in the 17th century and took their namesake from the doctrine of particular redemption.-Further reading:*History...

 or Reformed Baptists.

History

Baptists were first identified by the name General Baptists in 17th century England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

. They were called General Baptists because they believed in a general atonement — holding that the death of Christ atoned for the sins of all people. These churches were Arminian in tendency and held the possibility of falling from grace. The earliest known church of this type was founded about 1609 in the Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...

. Early leaders of the movement were Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys
Thomas Helwys , an Englishman, was one of the joint founders, with John Smyth, of the Baptist denomination.In the early seventeenth century, Helwys was principal formulator of that distinctively Baptist request: that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals...

 and John Smyth
John Smyth (1570-1612)
John Smyth was an early Baptist minister of England and a defender of the principle of religious liberty. Historians consider John Smyth as a founder of the Baptist denomination.-Early life:...

 (circa 1560–1612). Smyth was ordained as an Anglican priest in 1594, but received Baptist views by 1609. Helwys was a well-to-do layman. Smyth and Helwys gathered a band of believers in the Midlands, but migrated to Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 1607. In 1611, Helwys led a small group back to England and established in Spitalfield what appears to have been the first General Baptist church on English soil. Smyth and Helwys were also ardent defenders of religious liberty for all people.

General Baptists slowly spread through England and into the United States, but they never seemed to command as vital an existence as the Particular Baptists. In England at least, the religious revivalism of the mid 18th century changed all that. "Many of the Particular Baptists also effectively sat out of the revival, being especially skeptical of Wesley
John Wesley
John Wesley was a Church of England cleric and Christian theologian. Wesley is largely credited, along with his brother Charles Wesley, as founding the Methodist movement which began when he took to open-air preaching in a similar manner to George Whitefield...

 due to his Arminianism". Wesley's Arminianism posed no problems for General Baptists. However, traditionally non-creedal, many General Baptist congregations were becoming increasingly liberal in their doctrine, obliging the more orthodox and the more evangelical among them to reconsider their allegiance during this period of revival. Before this re-organisation, the English General Baptists had begun to decline numerically due to several factors linked to non-orthodox 'Free Christianity'
Free Christian
The term Free Christian refers specifically to individual members and whole congregations within the General Assembly of Unitarian and Free Christian Churches....

. Early Quaker converts were drawn from the General Baptists, and many other churches moved into Unitarianism
Unitarianism
Unitarianism is a Christian theological movement, named for its understanding of God as one person, in direct contrast to Trinitarianism which defines God as three persons coexisting consubstantially as one in being....

, a tendency that was replicated on a smaller scale amongst Methodists
Methodism
Methodism is a movement of Protestant Christianity represented by a number of denominations and organizations, claiming a total of approximately seventy million adherents worldwide. The movement traces its roots to John Wesley's evangelistic revival movement within Anglicanism. His younger brother...

 in east Lancashire (see Rev. Joseph Cooke). Another former Methodist, Dan Taylor
Daniel Taylor (Baptist pastor)
The Rev Daniel Taylor was the founder of the New Connexion of General Baptists, a revivalist off-shoot from the Arminian Baptist tradition, one of two main strands within the British Baptist movement.-From Methodist to General Baptist:...

, managed to draw together orthodox Arminian Baptist congregations throughout Yorkshire and the east Midlands to form the New Connexion of General Baptists
New Connexion of General Baptists
New Connexion of General Baptists was a revivalist off-shoot from the Arminian Baptist tradition, one of two main strands within the British Baptist movement....

 in 1770. By 1798 the Connexion had its own Academy, which later became the Midland Baptist College, Nottingham
Nottingham
Nottingham is a city and unitary authority in the East Midlands of England. It is located in the ceremonial county of Nottinghamshire and represents one of eight members of the English Core Cities Group...

. By 1817 it had about 70 chapels, with notable concentrations in the industrial Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...

.

Baptist Union of Great Britain
Baptist Union of Great Britain
The Baptist Union of Great Britain, despite its name, is the association of Baptist churches in England and Wales. -History:...

 formed in 1812 did not include General Baptists. However, after the so-called 'Down Grade Controversy' resulted in the withdrawal of several Calvinistic theological conservatives like Charles Spurgeon
Charles Spurgeon
Charles Haddon Spurgeon was a large British Particular Baptist preacher who remains highly influential among Christians of different denominations, among whom he is still known as the "Prince of Preachers"...

, who were sceptical of the value of modern Biblical criticism, the path was open to greater inclusion. John Clifford, baptised in a New Connexion chapel and ordained after studying at the New Connexion's Midland Baptist College, became the President of the Baptist Union of Great Britain
Baptist Union of Great Britain
The Baptist Union of Great Britain, despite its name, is the association of Baptist churches in England and Wales. -History:...

 in 1888. Under his leadership, the New Connexion merged with the Union in 1891. John Clifford became the first President of the Baptist World Alliance
Baptist World Alliance
The Baptist World Alliance is a worldwide alliance of Baptist churches and organizations, formed in 1905 at Exeter Hall in London during the first Baptist World Congress.-History:...

 (1905 – 11).

A few surviving Arminian elements would remain independent, whilst a number of congregations joined together in the federal Old Baptist Union
Old Baptist Union
The Old Baptist Union is a group of evangelical Baptist churches in the United Kingdom. The Old Baptist Union was founded in 1880, owing largely to the labours of Henry Squire, an itinerant preacher...

.

In the United States, the General Baptists also declined and were often overtaken by the churches of the Regular Baptist
Regular Baptist
Regular Baptists are a diverse group of Baptists in the United States and Canada. The presence of the modifier "Regular" in their names attests to the strong influence of the early Regular Baptists on the growth of Baptists in North America. Two strains of Baptists emigrated from England to America...

s. Remnants were probably responsible for the rise of the Free Will Baptists
Free Will Baptist Church
Free Will Baptist is a denomination of churches that share a common history, name, and an acceptance of the Arminian theology of free grace, free salvation, and free will. Free Will Baptists share similar soteriological views with General Baptists, Separate Baptists and some United Baptists...

 in North Carolina. Other groups have risen that have an Arminian general atonement emphasis, including the General Six-Principle Baptists
General Six-Principle Baptists
The Six-Principle Baptists were the first Baptist association in the Americas. The "six-principles" adhered to are those listed in :* Repentance* Faith* Baptism* Laying on of hands* Resurrection of the dead* Final judgment...

 and the General Association of General Baptists
General Association of General Baptists
General Association of General Baptists - a group of Baptists holding the general atonement , located mostly in the midwestern United States....

. Today (2009), the majority of English and American Baptist churches hold a hybrid Calvinist/Arminian outlook, combining the general atonement whosoever will view of the General Baptists, with the eternal security view of the Regular/Particular Baptists.

Further reading

  • A History of the Baptists, by John T. Christian
  • Baptists Around the World, edited by Albert W. Wardin, Jr.
  • The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness, by H. Leon McBeth
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