Featured Denominations

From one "just a born again Christian" to another, welcome to the forum. I hope your time here will be blessed and that you in turn will be a blessing to those here.

I am not a church history buff, but I believe it derives from the Anna-Baptists (re-Baptizers).

But as far as there being only one denomination, there is: Christian. Paul rebukes the Corinthians in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians for their sectarian division, and encourages the same doctrine in all of his teachings. We have to consider that there are going to be cultural differences but when it comes to Doctrine the Bible should be the only source of Doctrine and Practice.


God bless.

 

It's an easy, shorthand way of summarizing your main beliefs. "Baptist", at it's core, means people are baptized by immersion after a profession of faith. Most people equate Baptists with believers baptism by immersion.

When people ask me about my denomination I too, say I'm a "born again Christian" and then I'll say, I attend a Baptist church because it's closest to the majority of my beliefs.(Actually, my church removed "Baptist" from their title a while back, but their website says they have a "Baptist tradition".)

 

As others have pointed out, "Baptist" is the name of a theological movement, not a strict denominational identity. Moreover, Baptists didn't name themselves "Baptists," their enemies did that. One of the earliest Baptist distinctives was the rejection of infant baptism, what had profound theological and political implications. People who oppose you like to have labels to use, so the name "rebaptizers" or "Baptists" began to take hold. Baptists eventually embraced the description.

 

Deniminations exist due to how the different ones understand certain doctrines ie the Doctrine of God, Christ, the Church etc.

The term Baptist was at first used as a derogatory term to those who only believed in the baptism of believers. When people converted from Cathoicism they were rebaptized as believers hence the term

 

Denominations exist for a lot of different reasons. I doubt any one individual anywhere on earth has correct theology on every point. Therefore, we're inevitably going to disagree on some things. Sometimes it's just the "birds of a feather" phenomenon; a denomination carries a certain culture or demeanor that appeals to us. The only question is whether we can reach across the aisle when the need arises. If not, that is true division.

I'm a Southern Baptist because I like our focus on repentance, missions, and conservative habits. But that doesn't mean I don't respect, even desire, certain beliefs from other denominations. We're probably missing out on a few Holy Spirit truths from the charismatic side, for example. And many Baptists I know don't seem to understand prayer particularly well.

 

I think Denominational names help to identify partially what one believes to someone else. If I ask a person what he believes and that person say's, the bible I still don't have a clue to what he believes. If I ask a person what church he belongs to and he say's, I'm a Christian that still don't tell me much either.

 

My experience has been very few Christians understand prayer

 

Interestingly, Jesus disagrees w you in Matthew when the disciples ask him to teach them to pray

 

Unbelievable. The sad part is you probably really believe that nonsense. Totally unbelievable

 

A true prayer is not in words or a position of the body but what comes out of the heart. God looks on the heart.

 

God bless.

 

Baptists are a denomination in the same sense that a Methodist is. The Baptists have a certain book of discipline like every other denomination has. Sadly these books of discipline have divided the church more than brought us together. Even the non-denominational churches each have a different code they govern by. When the code each and every church should govern by is based on the bible. If the church can not come together on one way to look at the doctrine, how can we ask those of the world to follow our lead?