20+ Types of Baptists Explained 

Here's Matt's new video! ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oqv8KMsNqZE.html

Once upon a time, a Baptist got stranded on a deserted island. Years later he was rescued. As he was showing the rescuers his buildings, he pointed out that this was the 2nd Baptist Church. They noticed an exact styled bamboo building up the hill and asked him what that building was. He replied, "Oh, that's 1st Baptist Church, I don't go there any more." 😮

When you hit "Progressive Primitive Baptist," i burst out laughing. It gets ridiculous after a while.

I’m glad you spent some time on the historically black churches. They’re huge but often overlooked

I am a current member of a Free Will Baptist Church that is part of the NAFWB, (and yes we do participate in feet-washing and it is a blessing)... but let's always remember that it's not denomination that saves it's our faith in what Jesus Christ Our Lord and Savior did for us on the cross

Another great video. I’ve been waiting for this one. So many Baptists.

Saw a Reformed Baptist Church today and excitedly returned here to refresh on its details.

I loved living in Spain in the mid-80s. The Spanish simply asked if I were a Christian or a Muslim. Sometimes it was difficult to break away from a conversation regarding Jesus and the Scriptures because of the thirst and hunger of those I would meet. Conversations could go on for hours upon hours.

I was saved and baptized in a small Southern Baptist church. Spent my teenage and young adult years in Baptist Missionary Association churches and earned a Bachelor’s degree from a BMA college and served on the ministry staff of two BMA churches. When I decided to pursue a graduate degree I enrolled in a Southern Baptist seminary and earned a Master’s degree, served on ministry staff of five SBC churches. I also was in attendance at the organizational meeting of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. I expected to see Southern Baptist in the list, didn’t expect but wasn’t surprised to see the Baptist Missionary Association since they are small and are hard to find outside of the Deep South. It really surprised me to see the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as that organizational meeting was in 1990 so it isn’t very old. I commend you for your thorough research and understanding.

Episcopal Baptists? Now I've seen everything.

I had the best of two worlds growing up. I attended a Free Will Baptist School M - F and was a member of a “big Baptist” Southern Baptist Church for Church and social events. I loved it! As a proud “backrow Baptist”😂, my joke was if anyone uttered an “Amen” or anything other than a group response to the Pastor, everyone would turn around and say “who said that??”😂🙌🏻🙌🏻👏👏 And we Southern Baptists pride ourselves on Sunday service ALWAYS ending promptly at Noon!!😂🙏🏼🙏🏼🙌🏻

As a Baptist history nut, I was curious to see how you would bring together this vast jigsaw puzzle of Baptists in a short video. Did not think it could be done adequately in this amount of time, but you surprised me! This may be one of the best simple explanations of Baptists I've seen in a long time. I am one of those "provisionists" within the SBC, so I would only counter that the belief in the security of the believer from our point of view is not the same as the Calvinist "perseverance of the saints." There are some critical differences, which leads us to believe we have no agreement whatsoever with the five points of Calvinism. Some attempt to bridge the gap for the sake of unity and peace within the denomination, leading to key leaders of the denomination touting some commonality between the two. But this only comes from those who do not understand the full definitions and teachings behind the catch phrases. I look forward to more of your videos!

I was baptized in a Missionary Baptist in 1972. I think the pastor was secretly a fan of Chuck Smith & Greg Laurie. We had drums & guitars! And I remember the 1st time I wore blue jeans to church!

Josh, thank you so much for trying to sort out all this very confusing material. Makes my head spin!

Congrats on 100K Subscribers!!

THANK YOU Joshua. I have been anxious to see a video like this on various Baptists for a long time.

Attending college in Huntsville, TX in the early 80s, everyone in town became well aware of the New Zion Missionary Baptist Church. We all had our faiths, but we all became adherents of "The Church of the Immaculate Bar-B-Que". This small, black Baptist church, with it's very old church house with peeling paint...started having Sunday afternoon BBQ offerings and started selling it. As a poor college student, it was heavenly to got this this place and get a plate piled with brisket, beans, and potato salad for a mere $6. As I understand it, they continued to grow and offer lunch and dinner all week Good for them!! The last time I drove through Huntsville, they had either totally renovated their church house, or had built a new one. I think they have the absolute best brisket in Texas, and it's a very good cause.

What I have learned is that the term "Baptist", by itself, doesn't mean much. I am a part of the Free Methodist Church and the term Methodist seems like it is becoming that way, especially with everything happening in the United Methodist Church.

I'm a Black Missionary Baptist and you got my Head Spinning!!!

I've been a Baptist all my life - was in 'cradle roll' when I was an infant - and baptized when I was five. I was raised Southern Baptist ; mostly in Portland, Oregon if that sounds odd. I've been asked this very question - why so many? - many times. The short answer is perhaps the most useful. Doctrine is pretty similar in all subgroups. The triune God, the natural instinct to ignore God and make our own choices, and the gift of God to forgive our sins as humans. There are some activity differences - like how often to celebrate the Lord's Supper (or Communion for some), or how often to have baptismal services. Of course the need for baptism, not for salvation but as an act of obedience and commitment is constant. (That's why they are all 'Baptists'). Some congregations have either a demand or preference for the KJV, some don't. Differences. 1. How individual church congregations govern themselves. SoBaps hold a monthly business meeting allowing all members of the church to attend, but not mandatory. That is to determine budgets, call a new pastor (if needed), vote on remodeling and those kind of decisions. Other groups have congregations with a board of deacons or elders as an essential governing board. Usually, all major money spending issues go to a general vote. 2. How individual congregations finance their missionaries.

Great information. I was in an IFB (independent fundamental Baptist) church for 14 years. I graduated from one of their schools: Bob Jones University. It claims to be non-denominational, but all the churches on the approved church list to attend for campus students were some form of Independent Baptist or Bible Baptist. You could do an entire episode on fundamentalism or Independent Baptists because of all the different "camps" and I have to say it, "personality cults." While I was at BJU I heard what I thought were "rumors and gossip" about certain churches and the school associated with them that had to do with a lot of unbiblical and even abusive stuff.

Thank you! This truly cleared things up about Baptists😊❤

Spending most of my life in ABA churches, most of them were called Missionary Baptist. However, since there are many black Pentecostal churches in the South using the name "Missionary Baptist", a lot of Landmark churches have dropped the "Missionary" from their names. Growing up, I heard my grandparents talk a lot about New Lighters, Hard Shells, Calvinists, and Pentecostals.

Yikes! On the one hand I'm delighted that you have been able to provide so much information to so many people. On the other hand, I can't begin to process the information as fast as you are providing it.

My family has a strong General Baptist heritage on both my parents’ sides, and it was indeed a GB church that I was born into. Outside of the General Association, I don’t often come across anyone who knows what General Baptist is, so it’s kinda cool to hear it mentioned in a video! Thanks for your overview!

Thank you for this! I just found you over on the Matt "Useful Charts" channel. I've found a lot of baptist preachers in my family tree and it's hard to figure out what type they all were 😂

Thanks brother. These are helpful to many.

Greetings from a IFB (Independent Fundamental Baptist) church in Mexico! Nice video! I've always wanted to know what is the difference between all kinds of Baptist churches, such an informative video!

Thank you for this content.

I love your videos my brother! I’m a Primitive Baptist that learns a lot from your content.

This content is so fascinating

Well as a Baptist I must admit I didn't know most of these. The Progressive Primitive Baptists get the prize for most ironic title though. 😂 In Australia we're more homogeneous it would seem, though perhaps I'm just not aware of all groups. Most Baptist Churches in my state are part of a shared Baptist union.

I enjoy your videos. I find them very well researched. I'm getting up in age, so you look like you could hardly be out of college, much less seminary. But I suspect you've been and done well. Keep learning and sharing!!

Thank you for this, Josh. I hadn't realised that that Baptists were as diverse as this!

I clicked this video wearing my sdb sweatshirt thinking we wouldn’t be mentioned bc no one ever does and im ngl i had a lil bit of a fangirl moment seeing our denomination up there😭

Hat tip my friend. This was great.

This is one of those videos I have to rewatch a few times, maybe even take notes.

love this channel

Very useful. Thank you 😊

Excellent video!

Loved it. Thank you!

Great video! I would add the Conservative Baptist - think of Myron Cederholm and Maranatha Baptist Bible College- that came from GARB and American Baptist roots. Would be interesting as well to include some the colleges started by each group. 👍🏾

Whew! Whirlwind tour, thank you Joshua.

As a proud and devout member of the North American Baptist Conference I was thrilled to see Joshua mention us. We are 65,000 members strong and adhere to the Word of God but don't make the same amount of noise as say the SBC.

Great video! Free Will Baptist here

I can see how confusing it would be if one person from a particular "Baptist" church moved elsewhere and sought to join a "Baptist" church in their new community...and found it to be a completely different type of faith community!

When I became active in Protestantism and left Roman Catholicism I was drawn to the Baptist Church because I became greatly influenced in the study of the Scriptures in the Holy Bible. Although I believed in the "Body of Christ", I cherished visiting and Corporate Worship with any Believers who followed the Gospels and Teachings of the Bible. For some time, I visited many local Baptist Churches in the Eastern Massachusetts Area. I was amazed in the different "Twist" of the Baptist Church which depended upon the specific church. The differences in Baptist Churches were amazing. Thank you.

I had no idea there were so many Baptist groups! This amplifies how splintered Christianity is if that's a fraction of the groups in one denomination alone! Thanks for mentioning the predominantly Black Baptist groups: my understanding is they broke from the Southern Baptist Convention when it became evident that 11 o'clock on Sunday morning was the most segregated hour of the week. You are a scholar - yet I know your videos go deeper than sharing you research on our divided faith. You make me think about C.S. Lewis and his book, "Mere Christianity." I have recently adopted the term, "Christianism," to distinguish between our malpractice of the faith and actually following, "The Way." I do not absolve myself of guilt in this regard. Oftentimes, we wind up driving people away from Jesus instead of drawing folk to Him by letting our Light shine. Keep up your outstanding independent work and your profitable collaborations. You're doing your job....

Great video, as always. Have you done a video explaining the difference between the types of church polity?

this was such an interesting panorama. thank you! i say so because, in brazil, there are really only two types of baptists: calvinists (represented mainly by the brazilian baptist convention, cbb in portuguese) and arminian-pentecostals (represented mainly by the national baptist convention, cbn in portuguese). there are smaller baptist denominations here too, but nowhere near as expressive. the alliance of baptists, for example, has a very tiny presence here, that doesn't rival even a single multi-site church in the cbn.

I'm gonna have to watch this in slow motion with no distractions and a pad of paper nearby to take notes!

Wow. Raised in a church environment, I had only heard of a very few of these various Baptist varieties. I had no idea there existed so much variance, albeit much of it quite subtle. Thank you for a very interesting video.

Very fascinating video. I was raised in a subset of Missionary Baptists that also call themselves "Old Time Baptists". They have a heavy emphasis on an emotional conversion experience being necessary for salvation, and reject the sinner's prayer. I think at one time they might have been Landmark Baptists, but the Baptist successionism doctrine seems to have faded away. Origins of all these Baptist groups can be hard to parse through. It's great to have concise videos like yours to watch and learn from.

There was a church in the county south of mine that split in two in 1837, with one becoming Missionary Baptist and the other becoming Primitive Baptist. I have relatives in both.

In 1992, Bishop Paul S. Morton helped to co-found the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship, which is a schism from the Missionary Baptist Church that was part of the National Baptist Convention. My dad was a member of Greater Saint Stephen when it was Missionary Baptist and when it became a new denomination as Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship. The main difference to me is FGBCF is more music and inspiration focused than the MBC. My grandmother is MBC, & one of my uncle is Primitive Baptist Church, so I have experience with these three Baptist Church traditions. I have met some seventh day Baptist, seven word Baptist, & American Baptist. They're all very similar in being Sola Scriptural, and not into systematic theology.

Another wonderful video, congrats! Nice to know how the Baptists are being spread out mostly in the US. But, as ever, those Churches would, with some coloring levels to identify themselves within the 3 main Protestant types of Church spread in the US as defined by the Pew Forum: There are both Baptists in the mainstream tradition, Baptists in the Evangelical tradition, and Baptists in the traditionally black Churches tradition. Perhaps it would facilitate to viewers if in next videos of same type to make the diagram of the Churches by identifying them across those 3 categories. Thanks in advance and have a nice day!...

You are excellent !

I am baptised in Southern Baptist Convention Churches in The Philippines

😎 Brother break down without any um or ah!! *Great Job Explaining*

Great work!!! It would be great to see a video like this one on other Protestant religions

I’m a longstanding member of a Baptist church (in Australia) My goodness - all these different groups and offshoots are confusing even to me. One can only wonder how overwhelmingly complex they appear to unchurched people. I’d imagine that it would, generally speaking, be a turn-off to them.

Good information 🇹🇹

Watch out for the notorius Westboro!

This guide gets two thumbs up from this Reformed Southern Baptist!

I was brought up Baptist in the UK My parents were missionaries and as a child I mixed with Christian’s from all over the world Guitar and band music including hymns and choruses were what we was used to As an adult I became part of an AOG church which followed the same principles

There's one additional predominantly black Baptist denomination among the three that you mentioned, which has an episcopal structure with bishops, and embraces many Pentecostal beliefs, and that is the Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship.

Good video 😊

I was baptized Regular Baptist in a GARBC affiliated church, but moved over to LCMS in college

Watching this video gave me an idea for a video to request from you (if you haven't done it already). Could you discuss exactly what is meant by the term "evangelical" and how it differs from non-evangelical or "mainline Protestant" churches? Likewise, how are evangelicals different from fundamentalists? I have my own ideas about the answers to this, but I'd like to hear it explained by someone more knowledgeable about it than me!

I grew up non-denom but it was a Bob Jones church that was kind of like FBFI Then we went to an KJVOIFB (Separatist) for a few years In college it was Campus Church but they were like KJVOIFB Then got married and went to IFB that had pulled out of SBC so it was IFB that felt southern Then went to another IFB, then led music at an SBC (Evangelical) Then went to a Southern IFB then have been at SBC since. I've been around the block a bit - I've observed that Baptist infighting hurts the cause of Christ. I call myself an evangelical Christian that leads music at a traditional SBC church and I'm not reformed but I like Sovereign Grace music. I have reformed friends, Arminian friends, Mennonite friends, and friends in almost every group.

I grew up in and still highly involved in the Baptist Missionary Association and like to see we got recognized. Very often we are over looked as a Baptist association in most things related to the Baptist denomination as a whole. Also I must say (not that I disagree with you) but the landmark principle isn't one that is actively taught in the BMA. Maybe the founders believed that but most people I know don't necessarily subscribe to that. It wasn't until college that I heard someone use "The trial of Blood" book to promote that idea.

At 7:30 of course "denominate" simply means "to name" and my definition of a "denomination" is any group of churches with a shared name, thus the name on the outside gives you a good idea of what takes place inside.

I loved this overview! Great job. One very interesting point to all of this denomination sub-splitting... If churches would simply stick to their doctrine, we wouldn't see organizational splits every other generation. I'm very concerned that today's churches stopped asking what the truth is and now change church doctrine to increase head count. Worse yet, most of the new franchise Baptist churches no longer put out any doctrinal statements in order to avoid the chance of having to back-track later. It is truly a sad commentary on the modern church.

I'm a part of an Independent Fundamental Baptist Church. Love it. Preaching from the Word, singing the old hymns and a no nonsense approach to Salvation. They are KJV only, but that's the only thing I disagree on. The church has really helped me recover from my time being raised Pentecostal

This is as clear as mud, being a fairly new believer.

have you done The Local Church (Witness Lee)? BTW, have you considered parsing the varieties of Calvinism/Arminianism or positions on the doctrine of election?

I’m Catholic and I literally got dizzy listening to these denominations. Does anyone find it odd that there is a need for such denominationalism?

Thanks buddy.

Thanks!

Makes my head spin😮

Also it depends on the cultural roots. North American Baptist Conference, the church I grew up in, is German. General Baptist Conference is Swedish. Southern Baptists are considered the strictest.

I found it curious when you described leanings of the BBFI toward the movement of evangelicalism. That sounds like a different BBFI from the one I knew in the past. My personal knowledge of the BBFI began when I was growing up. My father was involved in the BBFI and he described himself as a pastor of a "independent fundamentalist Bible believing Baptist church." Later he retired from teaching in their Bible college. My mother retired from working in BBFI missions office. More than one dinner conversation included discussions how the Baptist church was a continuation of the New Testament church. This would not have been about the Baptists in general but Baptists with specific doctrinal position that was derived directly from the Bible. This means that the Baptists who are closely aligned to the church that was created by the Apostles would be the only Baptists who measured up to what the name means. Whether we could trace Baptist linage from church to church down through history like some denominations do is unlikely. This is all the more unlikely due to the viciousness of the enemies of those who have been called Baptists, ana-baptists, or re-baptizers. I think if we look across the spectrum of Christians Baptists are more likely than anyone else to insist that the Bible is our only source of doctrine and anything outside the Bible is to be rejected. To be consistent this means that Christians do not need any writings, agreements, confessions, or canons by any other Christians to interpret the Bible for themselves. Through Scripture and the presence of the Holy Spirit we ourselves have immediate access to the words of Jesus Christ and the Apostles. As such it is unacceptable to think that God would have ever allowed the New Testament church to have totally disappeared at any time. These are some of the ways that we can discover what a Baptist is. It is absolutely ludicrous that we would have had to wait around until Luther to remind us of the role of faith in our salvation. I have never believed that the Christianity that we have now necessarily threads through the Catholic Church or the Reformation. We may never know how many churches or individual believers remained at any given point in time but no matter what that was God would have always intervened to keep the Gospel message alive. We see this pattern in the Bible described as a remnant or some protected group that often includes those whose righteousness will set them apart to fulfill the will of God. What purpose would be more important to God than Salvation. We have long passed the time when calling oneself a Baptist is specific enough to have a consistent meaning to not only other Baptists but anyone else. 20+ types of Baptists is stunning but given the goals of enemies of the Church of Jesus Christ this plan is perfectly understandable.

How do you keep all of this straight??

Could you make a video on the Baptists originating from Tyrol in Austria expelled during the counter Reformation?

Do you know anything about the baptist union in Australia? And how they came about ?

I have read that Abraham Lincoln's parents were Hardshell/Primitive Baptists. That must have been interesting.

Been a member of the Baptist church for over 30 years. It is a real meze of faiths . I was a member of a Southern Bap church and then Free Will Bap. Their is a difference in the way they do things.

Wow lots of info succinctly put, anybody know about "second" baptists? Matt didn't mention them either unless I missed it.

I grew up in the BMAA. The Landmarkism is fading away. There are some older people know what it is, and a few that believe it, but that's about it. I had never even heard of it until I went to a BMA college and the president talked about it.

Where does the NIFB fall? Do you have a video about or on them?

Per a Baptist preacher uncle of mine, if Landmakers come into your town, you're already there but are not Landmark, they will take the title of "First Baptist" as you are not a true Baptist. That may explain why both Troy Baptist and First Baptist Churches were both on John R Road in Troy, Mich. Also why when Calvary Baptist of Wayne (Mich.) became the 1st B.C. of Canton even though an SBC and a Reformed Baptist congregations were already functioning in Canton Township (Mich).

I love the Useful Charts channel as well.

An ABA ( missionary) baptist church helped me see my need of salvation and I was saved. I later moved to a IFB church( which was basically the same as the ABA church.) In recent years it has become more New Evangelical, according to your description of what that is…

With so many different Baptist identities, the totality of it comes across to this outsider as its own mini-Protestantism. Also, if there are Regular Baptists, are there also Irregular Baptists who would offer potluck dinners high in dietary fiber at their church socials?

Joshua, thank you so much for your video. Matt from Useful Charts sent me here to ask you this question on his video. I grew up in the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches. Where would they fall in his Baptist tree and in comparative size where do they stack up to those listed? Thank you again!

Can you do "Evangelical Baptist Church of Georgia"?? Are they really Baptist in their beliefs and practices?

Are you going to continue your "outliers" series?

There’s more? I know as a SBC and former member of an Independent Missionary Landmark Baptist Church that there was a lot of variety, I had know idea there was this much and more.

Can anyone tell me which Baptist groups hold to the New Hampshire confession of faith? Besides GARBC if any.Thanks

I'm trademarking ''Bodhisattva Baptists'' (TM) before anyone else takes it ! :-)