Baptist are not Protestants! The name Protestant was given to those churches which came out of Roman Catholicism during the Reformation which began in the 1500's. It originally applied through the 1700's to Lutherans, and Anglicans.

Later Presbyterians, Episcopalians and Methodist were added to the lists of Protestants denominations. Though many people including Webster's Dictionary refers Baptists as being Protestants, it is not correct to refer to them as such or to lump all non-Catholic denominations in one group and label them Protestant.

Historically, Baptists were never a part of the Roman Catholic Church or the Protestant Reformation and therefore can not be correctly called "protesters" or Protestants.

Its is true that many Baptists left the ranks of Protestant churches which were doctrinal unsound and apostate. They left these churches because of their strong conviction that the Word of God should not be compromised. Some formed new churches and called themselves Baptists to make it clear that they believed and followed the New Testament.

It is not historically correct to identify Baptists as Catholic "protesters" who left the Roman church. In the many books on church history which make up the bibliography for this paper, there is not one recorded incident of a Baptist church beginning founded out of Roman Catholicism. Protestants for centuries saw the Baptists as their "enemies" and murdered them by the thousands in the name of Protestantism.

It is surely an affront to call a Baptist by the name of a group that has so hated and persecuted them down throughout history. There have always existed, from the time of Christ, New Testament churches which were not a part of the Roman Church. In fact the Roman Church can only trace its history back to 313 AD when the Roman Emperor Constantine made Christianity a legal religion. In 395 AD, Emperor Contantius "Christianized" Rome and made the worship of idols punishable by death.   By  400 AD, the Emperor Theodosius had declared Christianity the only state religion of the Roman Empire.

Many churches by this time had come under the domination of the Rome government and had ceased from being New Testament churches. When the Roman Emperor declared Christianity the religion of Rome, he in mass "converted" hordes of pagans which made up the Empire. Pagan temples became the meeting houses for "Christians." Rome, then hired unregenerate pagan priests as "Christian" ministers. The influx of these falsely converted pagans is one reason Roman Catholicism came to have so many false and pagan beliefs.

However, in the midst of all this apostacy, that was the foundation of the Roman Catholic church, there were groups of Christians who were never a part of the "Christianization" of the Roman Empire. These New Testament believers rejected every attempt to include them in with the other churches who compromised and accepted the Roman government's money, rule and authority.

The over the years the growth of so many false and idolatrous practices caused some within the Catholic church such as Martin Luther to rebel, and to attempt to "reform" the Catholic church. This was the birth of Protestant churches.

Although, many Protestants returned in part to a belief in the Bible as their authority for their faith and practice, not one of them EVER completely left all the doctrinal errors and false teachings of the apostate Roman Catholic church.

Protestants have never accepted the principle of separation of church and state. In Europe, Protestant churches are "state" churches and supported to some degree by government imposed taxes. In Germany, the state church is Lutheran and in England, the Anglican church, France, the Roman Catholic Church, etc.

The idea that the bread and wine (grape juice) in the Lord's Supper actually becoming the physical body of Christ when taken is a Roman Catholic teaching that Protestants only modified slightly. Still today, many Protestants see the Lord's Supper as a sacrament, having to some degree saving properties or imparting some spiritual benefit. True New Testament Christians have always rejected such unbiblical ideas.

Protestants still practice infant baptism which absolutely is not taught in the Word of God. Many Protestant denominations still hold to the writings of their church fathers as a source of church doctrine and have never accepted the Bible as their sole source of teachings for their faith and practice. They all hold on to a system of hierarchy in church government and do not accept the autonomy the local church.

Autonomy means each local church governs itself free from outside authority and control. Baptists, basing their beliefs solely on the Bible, have never held to these teachings and see them as heresy.

Thus, history and the doctrines of Protestantism clearly show that Baptists are not Protestants.

GUESTBOOK

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