About Baptist Surfer

Title: Baptist Surfer.

URLs: Baptist Surfer - Original URL (hosted on American web space provider Angelfire).

           Baptist Surfer - Christian Banner Edition (hosted on Canadian web space provider CrossSpot).

Website initiated: Start of May 2000.  What I thought would take 2 weeks, actually took a full month, due to some late, essential additions, and some links & picture problems.  Even now, it's still being polished & tweaked.

Submitted to most major search engines: Around June 11th 2000 to Altavista, CrossSearch (Christian search engine) and all major UK search engines; around June 17th 2000 to any others I could locate.

Country of Origin: Wales, United Kingdom (see map below).

Denomination:

WB

Welsh Baptist.   (Coincidentally, the same initials as Warner Bros!   But it's no coincidence Warner Bros have a Christian Music division!  Click on their logo to find out more!!!   Yep!  It's a free plug for Warner Bros Christian Music Division!)

A Brief History of Baptists:

Religious persecution led a group of people who did not agree with the Church of England to move to Holland in 1608, with John Smyth (c. 1554-1612) and Thomas Helwys (c. 1550-1616) - English separatists from the Anglican church - as leaders. Smyth established a church in Amsterdam in 1609, and Helwys established a church in London in 1612. (Excerpted from various encyclopaedias.)

In 1813 the Baptist Union of Great Britain was organised and Baptist churches became very popular, especially in towns. (Excerpted from The Oxford Interactive Encyclopedia.  Developed by The Learning Company, Inc. Copyright (c) 1997 TLC Properties Inc. All rights reserved.)

Of the world total of approximately 31 million, some 26.5 million are in the USA and 265,000 in the UK.  (Excerpted from Hutchinson Multimedia Encyclopaedia 2000)

On the basis of the New Testament, Baptists claim that baptism is for believers only.  This means that one must be aware of one's faith before being baptised.  Smyth concluded that baptism should be restricted to believers only. This, he contended, was the practice of the New Testament churches, for he could find no scriptural support for baptising infants. Individuals are not normally baptised before the age of 12. The form the ceremony takes is total immersion, not the pouring on or sprinkling on of water. The Baptist emphasis on believer's baptism, by immersion rather than by sprinkling or affusion, implies sufficient maturity to make a religious decision and is a specific rejection of infant baptism. (Excerpted from various encyclopaedias.)

Baptists believe in a very simple style of church and worship service. They feel that one is not closer to God by having candles, incense, rich altar cloths, and highly decorated vestments. In fact, these outward signs may detract from the individual's direct experiences of God. In this conviction Baptists hope that they are creating a church environment close to the form of early Christianity.

In keeping with the simplicity of their worship, Baptists also play down creed, dogma, and sacraments. They care more about faith and practice than about intellectual formulations.

Two key beliefs are closely related: the complete separation of church and state, and freedom of religious expression.

(Excerpts from Compton's Interactive Encyclopedia © 1998 The Learning Company, Inc.)

For more information, click on What Baptists Believe.

.

United Kingdom Statistics:

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

starting point.

.

tt

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.

.