Baptists

[Guest MrZX]

What denomination are the Baptists part of , do they fall under Protestants? 

[DaveW]

No.

To be clear, this site is about Independent Baptists, not just about "Baptists".

Some "Baptists" do consider themselves part of the protestant movement, but in general IB churches are INDEPENDENT from all denominations, and are not a close and solid group, but a bunch of independent churches that have similar doctrines because we try to follow the Bible.

As to the actual term "protestant" - that is technically referring to those people who were protesting against the Catholic church, and this happened during what is known as the "reformation" where these people were tyring to "reform" the Catholic church "back to the truth".

Problem is that the Catholic church was never a true church following the Bible anyway, so to "reform" them is to take them from an unbiblical position to an older unbiblical position.

There has however always been a group of people who have tried to follow the Bible alone, and it is this group that IB tentatively trace our heritage back to - not protestant, not Catholic, but Biblical.

[Ukulelemike]

Indeed-agree with DaveW. 

Most see the catholic 'church' as the end-all, be-all of Christianity until the 16th century, when Luther, then others, split off and started the reformation, and that's where all other churches came from However, that isn't the case.

All during the reign of Catholicism, which is NOT Christian, there were many other churches in existence, some good, some bad. Anabaptists were some of them; this was a name given to them by the Catholic church as an insult. It means "re-baptizers", so-called for their practice of baptizing former-Catholic converts when they became saved. Generally, this was shortened to 'Baptist' by some, while others maintained Anabaptist. These groups have grown and become various groups, like the Mennonites and Ahimsh, some independent Baptists, Independent Fundamental Baptist, etc. 

So true churches always existed from the time of Christ to the present, not part of any 'denomination'.