Now, like any good movement, Baptists quickly started arguing. Because that’s what people do, right? Two main groups emerged:
General Baptists believed Jesus died for everyone. General salvation. Nice and wide. Then Particular Baptists (with a little help from a French guy named John Calvin) insisted Jesus died only for the “elect”—the folks God picked out ahead of time. Particular, see? Both groups agreed on one thing, though: no infant baptism. That was their hill. And they died on it, sometimes literally.
Baptists Go to America
Fast forward a bit. A guy named Roger Williams, a firebrand who annoyed the Puritans in Massachusetts, got banished in 1636. He founded Rhode Island—the rebel colony—and started the first Baptist church in America. Williams was a true original: he argued for complete separation of church and state. No government meddling in religion. That idea was so radical it got him kicked out of everywhere. But it stuck.
Soon, Baptists were spreading like wildfire. They weren’t priests in robes; they were farmers and tradesmen who preached in barns and under trees. They had a thing for full-immersion baptism—dunking you completely underwater. Why? Because they thought the Greek word “baptizo” literally meant “to plunge.” And they were not half-hearted about it.
Who Started Your Church Timeline – Catholic Church History Timeline – SDRN
