Religion Essay Example: The Catholic Church and the Baptists

The Baptists separated from the more prominent Catholic Church in the early 17th Century. Their primary reasons for seeking separate autonomy were,

They rejected the doctrine of baptizing infants. According to the Baptist, baptism should signify the death of the old version of a person and the birth of a new version. Given that infants have not sinned, their baptism is not needed. Their other argument against the baptism of infants is that baptism should be done after recognizes their mistakes and repents and professes Jesus as their Lord and savior. Only after this can anyone is baptized. Since infants do not recognize their sins and confess Jesus as their savior at that age, they are therefore not supposed to be baptized.

They called for a baptism that involved the bodys immersion in water rather than the Catholic version. Baptists believe in a baptism of emersion in water rather than the sprinkling of water done by the Catholic Church. The reason behind the emersion is that baptism indicates the death of the old body and the rebirth of the new. While one is immersed, this signifies the end of the former and the coming out of the water means the rise of a new being. The Catholics did not believe in this, and that contributed to the split.

Baptists believe that the bible is true and free of error. As such they believe in that, which can be traced back to the bible. This belief was another point of disagreement with the Catholic Church that often used literature not specifically from the bible but which was accepted as ordained.

Local governance, the Baptist churches are self-governing each church controls and dictates only the events that concern it. They do not have administrative bodies that control all their churches. This was much against what the Catholics believed as the Catholic Church has always had a body and a pope who controls what all the other Catholic churches will do.

Historical Background of the Baptist and the Catholic Church

It is not well known how Christianity got to England what is certain is that by the 7th century most of the English people were majorly Catholics. By the 16th century, many of these English men and women felt that the Catholic Church had diverged from the original teachings. Most pointed out corruption and selfishness among the major problems. The translation of the bible to English only added to the numbered of people calling for reforms. This continued and over time there broke out two groups from these reformers, the Puritans, and the Separatists. Puritans wanted to the purity of doctrine and the reforming of the church from within while Separatists called for the separation from the Catholic Church. The Baptists came from the Separatist group, they came out as two different groups with different beliefs, but their faith in believers baptism made them one.

Reason for the Separation

Given that all of the reasons for the separation of the Baptists from the Catholic Church were concerning God, their disagreement was due to theological issues.

Categorising the Catholic Church and the Baptists

The Catholic Church and the Baptists fall under the Founded movements; this is because they are both formed around Jesus the savior and his teachings. There is no blood or geographical relationship between the followers of the two, so they cannot be natural religious movements.

Similarities and Differences between the Catholic Church and the Baptists

Similarities:

Both the Catholics and the Baptists believe in the same God

They both believe in the holy trinity

They believe in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ

They also both agree on that Jesus performed miracles

They believe in the crucifixion of Jesus

Differences:

Catholics believe that one has to participate in sacraments, do good deeds and have faith to go to heaven while Baptist believes that only true faith is needed.

Catholics believe that saints can pray for others while Baptist believes that you should pray for your needs directly to God.

Catholics believe in Purgatory as a place where moderately sinful souls go to be purified after death while the Baptist believe that only the good go to heaven the evil end up in hell, according to them there is no Purgatory.

Catholics believe in baptizing the infant while the Baptists do not.

Bibliography

Anthony R. Baptism, and the Baptists: Theology and Practice in Twentieth-Century Britain. Wilf and Stock Publishers, 2017.

Hamburger, Philip. Separation of church and state. Harvard University Press, 2009. Cross,