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What's the difference: Southern Baptist, American Baptist....

Discussion in 'General Baptist Discussions' started by Pastor Timothy, Oct 27, 2008.

  1. Pastor Timothy

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    OK...here's my $100,000 question: What is the difference between the Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Missionary Baptist, Independent Baptist, and any other "Baptist" churches out there?
     
  2. Mexdeaf

    Mexdeaf New Member

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    Personalities and money. That's the main thing.
     
  3. tinytim

    tinytim <img src =/tim2.jpg>

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    Also the way the denominations are structured to do missions.
    The Basic Baptist beliefs are present in each one... (The Baptist Distinctives...google that term for more information)
     
  4. Jon-Marc

    Jon-Marc New Member

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    I know there are many differences between one Baptist church and another. I was told there are over 40 different kinds of Baptist churches, and many of them won't associate with any other Baptist church. In my home city of Battle Creek, MI, there is even a 7th day Baptist.

    I was in Fundamental Independent Baptist churches in Michigan and other states. When I moved to Florida I found that the southern Baptist churches are very different from other states.

    (1) Very few use the King James Bible; up north they all use it.
    (2) People go to Sunday morning service in sandals and shorts in Florida; no one ever did in Michigan.
    (3) Finding a church where my singing and song leading talent is need in Florida has been a problem. Up north I never had that problem; ALL the churches needed people with that talent. Up north they couldn't get people to sing. Down here they have an abundance of people to sing and lead the singing. They don't need me and my 45 years experience.
    (4) The preaching and teaching in Florida is mediocre at best. Up north it was inspirational and challenging.
     
  5. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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  6. Palatka51

    Palatka51 New Member

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    We are Missions focused. Being Missionary Baptist's, if there was human life on the moon we'd go and not spare any expense necessary to get there. Hence the avatar BTW.:laugh: However I believe that is the goal for the SBC and AB's or any God fearing Baptist.
     
  7. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    Most Baptists are mission minded.

    Southern Baptists support missions thru the Cooperative Program. That is we pool our resources and missionaries are sent out thur Home Missions (North American Missions) and Foreign Missions (International Missions). These missionaries are in essence employees of the SBC and thus are able to go right to the field that the Lord has led. (note: some SBC also support Independent missions as well)

    Independent Baptist missionaries will go on deputation for many months if not years to seek partial support from each of several churches. There are dozens of Independent mission boards. Standards vary from board to board. If not mistaken, there may be some missionaries who do not even go under a board.

    Some groups have "split" due to Doctrine issues ie Conservative Bap Association, GARBC, ect.

    Some Baptists had separate groups due to language, though that is somewhat few and far between now.

    There are specific doctrine groups, such as Seventh Day Baptist (worship on Sat), Free Will Baptists - (believe they can loose their salvation)

    So hows this for a start?

    Here is a good link: ALL ABOUT BAPTISTS

    sALTY :1_grouphug:
     
    #7 Salty, Oct 27, 2008
    Last edited by a moderator: Oct 27, 2008
  8. Thinkingstuff

    Thinkingstuff Active Member

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  9. Zenas

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    They are better educated in Michigan, or so I am told whenever the topic of funding for education comes up around here, so they have less difficulty reading the Elizabethan English of the KJV. :laugh:
    Well duh . . . It gets cold up there and it's hot in Florida.:laugh:
     
  10. Nicholas25

    Nicholas25 New Member

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    I am a Free Will BAPTIST!
     
  11. Salty

    Salty 20,000 Posts Club
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    What other differences would you say there are between FWB and other Baptists?

    Salty

    PS, I did pastor a FWB church for a spell:saint:
     
  12. dh1948

    dh1948 Member
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    Those churches who are a part of the American Baptist Association of Churches differ from SBC churches in that they are Landmark in doctrine. It all has to do with the nature of the church, which ABA churches believe is local only. They do not believe what we Southern Baptists would call "the universal church." Their stand on the local church only affects their beliefs about the authority to baptize, communion, pulpit affiliation, and the sponsorship of missionaries and new church starts.

    I was an ABA Baptist from the time I was saved in 1963 until 1991, when I became a Southern Baptist, so I know a bit about both's beliefs.
     
  13. Jon-Marc

    Jon-Marc New Member

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    These are all correct according to my experiences in Hudson, FL, and I've visited quite a few Baptist churches. I know nothing about other denominations.

     
  14. Revmitchell

    Revmitchell Well-Known Member
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  15. Nicholas25

    Nicholas25 New Member

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    Outstanding question! Free Will Baptist Churches vary very much from church to church. The obvious difference would be the FWB view of conditional security as opposed to the Baptist view of eternal security. Many in my church have different views concerning salvation. There are some in my church that feel if you pass away without repenting for every sin, you will not have everlasting life in heaven.

    I personally believe we are saved by grace through faith. My view on salvation is that we can walk away from the Lord, but it's not by sinning, it's by placing our faith back into the world's standard of living and practices. I do believe that one's consistent works show the level of their faith. I do not believe that we are lost, saved, lost, saved, lost, etc.... The official FWB doctrine teaches that one is saved until they committ apostasy, and when they reach this point there is no returning to Christ. I struggle with this teaching as well!

    Other than that FW Baptist and Baptist Churches are pretty much the same.
     
  16. Pastor Timothy

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    Would you consider one more conservative than the other? And if so, why?
     
  17. Nicholas25

    Nicholas25 New Member

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    I would consider the FWB Church I am a member at to be more conservative. Most of the women/girls wear dresses and skirts. Not many, if any at all, think it's ok to "social drink", and our pastor only preaches out of the KJV. He does not preach against other Bible versions, but he only uses the KJV.
     
  18. Tom Butler

    Tom Butler New Member

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    A sizable number of Southern Baptists embrace Landmark ecclesiology to some extent. My own frame of reference is Western Kentucky and West Tennessee, where up to about 30 years ago, Landmarkism was dominant. Although I'm not sure there's a connection, it seems to me that the decline in Landmarkism was concurrent with the rise of dispensationalism.
     
  19. Dr. Bob

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    Here is some input on the two LARGE groups of Baptist: In early America there were Baptists. They had local associations and fellowships and every three years would gather to raise money for home and foreign missions (Triennial Convention).

    Slavery had been practiced in every colony/state. But in the North it slowly began to be erradicated. It was still practiced by missionaries who were from the South. So how much money would a church in Boston give to support a slave-holding missionary from Raleigh?

    Answer? None. So in 1845 the Baptists of the South formed their own convention, with missionaries and schools. In the North, the state or local associations were the norm. Around the turn of the Century the Northern Baptists formed their own, much smaller, convention.

    Again, it was for unified missionary activity. Small mission boards, faith missions, etc, fall far short of the big Conventions in building schools, hospitals, regional mission programs, even church planting.

    By WWII the Northern (now American) Baptists had left fundamentalism and drifted into outright liberalism. So the "conservatives" in the NBC formed the Conservative Baptist Foreign (and Home) Mission Societies, telling the conservative churches in the Convention that they could trust their money with these missionaries.

    Within 20 years, the Conservative Baptist movement, which had left the Northern Baptists totally, were overrun by new evangelicals and had compromised all their beliefs.

    So many (is some states, most) Northern Baptist churches became Conservative Baptist churches, and then left that to become simiply Independent Baptist churches. Still with state or local connections, but now supporting individual missionaries through faith mission boards and not through a convention.

    Each of the other Baptist groups will find their origin either in the SBC or NBC or in a convention from a foreign country (like the Swedish Baptist Convention is now the Baptist General Conference based in Minnesota). And three very large Black Baptist conventions/conferences.

    The differences will focus on structure, money, missions and very much on doctrine and practice. We have a Northern (American) Baptist church a couple blocks away with a woman preacher and not requiring baptism for membership. It has a NAME that it liveth, but it is long dead.

    Hopes this adds some historical perspective.
     
  20. Dr. Bob

    Dr. Bob Administrator
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    BTW, I am "Reformed" Baptist. This is a return of Baptists to their earliest roots of doctrinal fidelity with the reformation era and strong calvinistic bent.

    In the SBC it is called the "Founders" movement, since every single founder who signed the 1845 charter was a 5-point calvinist (as all good Baptists should be ;) ). For those from the roots in the NBC history, we are simply Reformed or Particular (not peculiar) Baptists after the likes of Carey, Judson, Spurgeon and millions of Baptists over the past 400 years.

    Look at the 1644 and 1689 London Baptist Confessions (and their children, the New Hampshire and Philadelphia Confessions) to see our great calvinstic heritage.
     
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