A Baptist tradition. We share believer's baptism by immersion and the autonomy of the local church. Where we differ, Scripture's whole counsel settles the question; we receive those who believe the Gospel as brethren while we answer what we believe is error.
Where It Came From
Free Will Baptists belong to the long line of Baptist churches that Theologica holds have existed since the New Testament, distinct from Rome; like other Baptists, they did not come out of Rome. Their theology descends from the General Baptists of England, who held that Christ died for all and whose churches enter the documentary record with Thomas Helwys's congregation at Spitalfields near London in 1612. In America the movement has two roots: General Baptists in North Carolina, gathered by Paul Palmer in 1727, and a New England movement led by Benjamin Randall beginning in 1780. The southern and northern streams developed separately, and the National Association of Free Will Baptists was formed in 1935.
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In Their Own Words
This profile describes the tradition from its own official documents and standard teaching:
- Treatise of the Faith and Practices of the National Association of Free Will Baptists