Teachings, History, and Beliefs of Baptists Quiz

Answer: Baptist Successionism

Baptist Successionism, also known as Baptist Perpetuity, pretty much died out prior to the 20th century; however, there are some churches that still teach it today, but there is no evidence to support it. The theory promotes the idea that Baptists existed during Jesus's life well before the Roman Catholic Church was established. The subject was a controversy with Southern Baptists, who felt that modern day Baptists originated from 17th century English Separatism.

Landmarkism started in the Southern United States in 1851, formed by James Robinson Graves (1820-1893) and later by Benjamin Marcus Bogard (1868-1951) in response to Progressive Christianity earlier in the century. Landmarkists felt they were reclaiming who they used to be, while others claimed they were going further away from the foundations of their Baptist roots. By 1859 the Southern Baptist Convention passed several resolutions refuting Landmarkism which led those who were Landmarkists to form their own church, and leave the SBC.

Answer: John Spilsbury

A Particular Baptist is another name for a Strict Baptist, which means that they believe in a definite atonement that Jesus died to elect with certainty. Today Calvinist Baptists are mainly seen as or called Reformed Baptists, and some, like the Southern Baptist Convention, do not see Reformed Baptists to even be Baptists at all, since Calvinists and Baptists tend to disagree on the issue of salvation. It was found in 2013 by LifeWay Research that 30% of churches in the Southern Baptist Convention see themselves as Calvinist Baptist churches.

John Spilsbury was born in 1593 in England. His profession was as a cobbler and minister. He was a member of a London Separatist church in which he left in circa 1633. He published the work "Treatise Concerning the Lawfull Subject of Baptisme" in 1643 and "God's Ordinance, The Saints Privilege" in 1646. He died circa 1668.

Answer: "To be baptized" and "To baptize"

William Cleaver Wilkinson was born in Westford, Vermont on October 19, 1833. He was a graduate of Rochester University in 1857, and also graduated from their seminary in 1859. He would spend a year there as a tutor. He became a professor of homiletics and pastoral theology at Rochester in 1872 retiring in 1881 to focus on his literary works.

In the same year he graduated from Rochester he became a pastor at Wooster Place Baptist church in New Haven, Connecticut. He was also a pastor at Mount Auburn Baptist church in Cincinnati, Ohio. By 1892 he became a professor of poetry and criticism at University of Chicago. Wilkinson died on April 25, 1920 in Chicago, Illinois.

Answer: Biblical inerrancy

Biblical literalism has different meanings for different people. To some it is the definition of literal as you would find in a dictionary, such as: "Exactly as stated; read or understood without additional interpretation; according to the letter or verbal expression; real; not figurative or metaphorical." (Wiktionary) Or it could be in reference to "historical-grammatical method" which is a Christian hermeneutical method that attempts to find the original author's intent of the meaning of what he or she wrote, without denying the historical or cultural aspects behind them.

Biblical inerrancy is not to be confused with "infallibility", as it sometimes is. According to the theologian John Frame, inerrancy means "there are no errors" while infallibility means "there can be no errors". Biblical inerrancy is not an old theory, it first came into view sometime in the 18th and 19th century. By the 1970s the debate started to get traction amongst prestigious Christian seminaries who chose not to adopt "Biblical inerrancy" but instead "Biblical infallibility".

Biblical infallibility is defined as the concept that what the Bible states about "faith" in relation to Christian values is not only useful but also true, a guide a Christian can use to salvation and that it will not fail in said purpose.

Answer: Primitive Baptist

Formed in the early 1800s they are also known as "Old School" Baptist. They are a conservative Baptist denomination who formed by creating their own church following disagreements with mission boards, temperance societies, and Bible tract societies. The term "Primitive" is not meant to be derogatory, but relaying a sense of originality. Most of these churches are located in the Southeastern United States.

There are just over 100,000 members of this denomination in the United States, based on the "Historical Dictionary of the Baptists" (2009).

Answer: Novatian

Novatian (also known as Novatianus) was born circa 200 CE. A priest, scholar, theologian, writer, and antipope he was the first Roman theologian to use the Latin language. He wrote about Christians who converted but then wanted to return, and the issue of penance. He established his own church which lasted for several centuries. Pope Cornelius said of him in a sardonic way, "that creator of dogmas, that champion of ecclesiastical culture".

During the Decian persecution the Pope at the time, Fabian, was martyred and a new Pope wasn't elected amid the heavy persecution (which wasn't just of Christians, but of anyone who chose not to worship Roman gods). The church was ruled by several priests, including Novatian. After the persecutions began to abate the moderate Romans elected Cornelius as Pope instead of Novatian, the leading theologian during that time period. Soon after he was excommunicated along with his followers, and began his own church. Novatian died circa 258 CE.

Novatians viewpoints existed before him around the first to second century CE which could be found in "The Shepherd of Hermas". After Novatian's death the Novatians spread rapidly to many places, and they called themselves Purists ("katharoi"), attempting to distance themselves from a Catholic Church they found to be permissive in their practices. Novatianists were very strict. They denied anyone who converted under persecution, murder, idolatry, adultery, and even to an extent those who remarried.

Answer: Amsterdam

While the first General Baptist Church was created in Amsterdam, Holland (Netherlands), all the members were Englishman who had fled from persecution in England.

John Smyth was born circa 1570 in England. Educated in a grammar school in Gainsborough. Smyth became ordained an Angelican priest in 1594, but soon after broke with the church and moved to Holland. One of his published works is "The Differences of the Churches of the Separation" in 1608 or 1609. He died circa August 1612.

Most historians consider Smyth to be the founder of Baptist churches.

Answer: Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton

The first Baptist Church in the Americas was established in 1638 by Roger Williams. In 1707 they moved from the New England area to Philadelphia and started the Philadelphia Baptist Association. Evangelism was a big part of their lives, but Baptists from Alabama and Georgia wanted to appoint slaveholders as missionaries while those in the Northern States were against it. The association split in 1848, and the Southern Baptist Convention was created.

Warren Gamaliel Harding was born on November 2, 1865 in Blooming Grove, Ohio, and was a Northern Baptist. He was the 29th President of the United States from March 4, 1921 to August 2, 1923. He also served as a U.S. Senator in Ohio from March 4, 1915 to January 13, 1921 and served as the 28th Lieutenant Governor of Ohio from January 11, 1904 to January 8, 1906. He attended Ohio Central College in Iberia at the age of 14 years old, and graduated three years later. He died before the end of his first term in office on August 2, 1923 in San Francisco, California. He never served in the military.

Harry S. Truman was born on May 8, 1884 in Lamar, Missouri and was a Northern Baptist. He was the 33rd President of the United States from April 12, 1945 to January 20, 1953. He was also the 34th Vice President of the United States from January 20, 1945 to April 12, 1945. He served as a U.S. Senator from Missouri from January 3, 1935 to January 17, 1945 and was a presiding Judge of Jackson County, Missouri from January 10, 1927 to January 3, 1935. He served in the U.S. Army from 1905 to 1911 and was honorably discharged as a Major and served in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1917 to 1919 and honorably discharged as a Colonel. He commanded the Battery D, 129th Field Artillery, 60th Brigade, 35th Infantry Division, and served during WWI on the Western Front. Truman died on December 26, 1972.

James Earl Carter, Jr. was born on October 1, 1924 in Plains, Georgia and is a former Southern Baptist and current Baptist. He was the 39th President of the United States from January 20, 1977 to January 20, 1981. He was also the 76th Governor of Georgia from January 12, 1971 to January 14, 1975, and a member of the Georgia Senate for the 14th district from January 14, 1963 to January 10, 1967. He attended the U.S. Naval Academy from 1943 to 1946 where after graduation he was commissioned an Ensign rising to the rank of Lieutenant before being honorably discharged. He served in the U.S. Navy from 1943 to 1953 and then served in the U.S. Navy Reserves from 1953 to 1961.

Bill Clinton was born William Jefferson Blythe III on August 19, 1946 in Hope, Arkansas and is a former Southern Baptist and current Baptist. He was the 42nd President of the United States from January 20, 1993 to January 20, 2001. He was also the 40th and 42nd Governor of Arkansas and served from January 9, 1979 to January 19, 1981 and from January 11, 1983 to December 12, 1992. He also served as Arkansas's 50th Attorney General from January 3, 1977 to January 9, 1979. He's a graduate of Georgetown University (1968); went to University College, Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship but transfered to Yale and did not graduate from University College, Oxford. He graduated from Yale in 1973 earning his Juris doctorate. He opposed the Vietnam War and did not serve in the military.

Answer: New International Version and King James Version

As of 2015, 97% of Southern Baptist church pastors use either the King James Version or the New International Version in their churches. Many clearly use more than one version: 96% also use The Living Bible and 95% use either the New King James Version or the New American Standard Bible.

In a survey conducted by LifeWay Research in 2012, 80% of churchgoers in the United States do not read their Bible daily. Researchers George Gallup and Jim Castelli put it aptly, "Americans revere the Bible--but, by and large, they don't read it." According to the Barna Group: 56% of Americans are pro-Bible yet more than half of those people have never read the Bible in its entirety, or at all. The average household in the United States has an average of 4 to 5 Bibles.

The Bible, in its many versions, and languages, is considered the most sold book in the entire world. The number most agreed upon is 5 billion; however, it should be taken into account that many churches, associations, and other groups buy them in bulk then give the vast majority of them away as a method to evangelise, such as with missionaries. Also, some versions leave certain parts of the Bible out - some Christian denominations only have the New Testament as their Bible and the Old Testament isn't included.

Answer: False

Catholics outnumber all Baptists in the United States, and individual denominations. As of 2015 there are about 66.5 million Catholics in the United States. Baptists make up about 35 million. Even in the late 80s to early 90s, Catholics outnumbered Baptists by a good percent margin. However, Protestants as a whole outnumber Catholics in the United States by a difference of 82 million, and Baptist is the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.

As of 2015 Mainline Protestants have been declining in the United States at a heavy rate, while Evangelical Protestants have been on a decline at a slower rate. The Catholic population in the US has been basically holding at the same rate for over 30 years. In the Southern Baptist Convention, and some other Baptist associations throughout the U.S., they have been gaining more churches but not gaining more adherents, and sometimes even losing adherents. Protestants dominated the United States since its founding in 1776; studies conducted by Pew Research in 2012, and by the University of Chicago in 2014, however, show that it no longer dominates, falling below a 50% margin.