just who are these Baptists?
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​Approximately 30 million people around the world call themselves Baptists, and these are organized into many different national and denominational (as well as independent, noncooperating) churches. The denomination to which First Baptist Church belongs is called American Baptist Churches in the USA” or “ABCUSA”. Our regional grouping of churches is called “American Baptist Churches of Pennsylvania and Delaware” or ABCOPAD”. We are generally referred to as the “ABC” or “American Baptists”. Our national offices are in King of Prussia.
The following items are a brief list of concerns or principles which have generally been regarded as major Baptist emphases and which serve to describe the Baptist identity. They are not explained fully here, but are simply listed as a guide for further study and discussion:
  •  The Bible is the primary guide and authority for faith and practice.
  • Affirming the priesthood of all believers, persons are free and responsible to interpret the Bible in harmony with their consciences and in obedience to the Holy Spirit.
  • A Baptist Church maintains its congregational autonomy, and the highest official express of authority within a church is a congregational vote.
  • Baptism is administered to believers only and is done by immersion. Faith proceeds baptism: we do not baptize infants.   
  • Religious liberty is held to be a theological given and a civil right. The separation of church and state is a principle designed to protect such soul liberty - for everyone, not just Baptist.
  • Church members are required to enter into a covenant with one another rather than to subscribe to a particular creed.
  • The ordinances (Baptism and the Lord’s Supper) are held to be symbolic rather than sacramental.
There is an obvious accent upon the freedom and responsibility of the individual Christian and the local congregation. This favors a “Spiritual authority” rather than the authority of an apostolic or any kind of hierarchy. That is, the church is not to be defined by historical or organizational links, but by the active profession of faith and fellowship of believers in the local congregation.
 
Two confusing results of this freedom emphasis are:
  1. The tendency to splinter organizationally
  2. The wide diversity of Baptist opinion and theology. Even in the midst of such diversity, however, the above principles should be found with some consistency.