Baptist History and Denominational Development — Unit 10: Baptists Worldwide: Latin America, Africa, Asia, the Baptist World Alliance, and the Future

Key Verse

"Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you." (Matthew 28:19-20, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Explain how Baptist churches spread beyond Britain and North America, and the part played by both missionaries and national believers.

2. Describe the beginnings and general course of Baptist work in Mexico, Cuba and Brazil.

3. Describe the beginnings of Baptist work in Nigeria, Burma (Myanmar) and northeast India, and mention the work of Johann Oncken in Germany.

4. Explain what the Baptist World Alliance is, when it began, and what it does and does not do.

5. State the main objections to Baptist work abroad, give the Baptist answer, and name the main challenges facing Baptists today.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Baptist tradition, for Baptist students. It is theologically conservative. When it says "we," it means Baptists who hold the Bible to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God. Many readers of this unit are themselves Baptists in Mexico, Cuba and other Latin American countries, and this unit is about their story as much as anyone's. We tell it with care. Where the facts are less certain, we say so, and we invite you to add what your own association and elders know.

How the Baptist Faith Spread

Earlier units told how Baptists began in England and Holland, grew in America and sent out missionaries from the 1790s onward. In this last unit we look at where that work led. Today Baptist churches are found on every inhabited continent, and most Baptists no longer live in Britain or North America. This is exactly what the Great Commission looks forward to: disciples "of all the nations."

Four things appear again and again in the story.

Missionaries. Men and women left their homes, often at great cost, to preach the gospel. Some died young. Their sacrifice should be honored.

National believers. In nearly every country the work did not stand on missionaries alone. A man or woman who was converted told neighbors and family, and became a pastor or evangelist. In many places the Baptist church grew mainly because of such local believers.

The Bible in the people's language. William Carey and his coworkers translated the Scriptures into languages of India, as Unit 6 explained. Adoniram Judson later translated the Bible into Burmese. A church grows when the people can read the Word in their own tongue.

Churches that cooperate. Baptist churches in a country soon formed associations and national conventions to train pastors, send missionaries and help one another. Each church remained independent, as in Unit 9.

Baptists in Latin America

Most of Latin America has had a Roman Catholic majority for five hundred years. Baptists and other evangelicals were therefore a small minority at first. We are grateful for all that is good in the Christian heritage of these lands, including the faith in Christ that many Catholic believers hold. We also hold, as Baptists have always held, that a person is saved by grace through faith in Christ alone (Ephesians 2:8-9), and that every person has the right to hear the gospel, read the Bible and follow his conscience. Baptist history in Latin America is closely tied to the struggle for religious liberty.

Mexico

Baptist work reached Mexico in the second half of the nineteenth century. This was a time when the Reform laws of the 1850s and 1860s were reducing the power of the Church in public life, and Protestants, including Baptists, had more room to preach than before. Missionaries from the United States took part, and so did Mexican believers who were converted and began congregations of their own. Over the years Baptist churches formed associations and state conventions, and a national convention of Baptist churches in Mexico, the Convención Nacional Bautista de México, was organized in 1903.

The twentieth century was not easy for Mexican evangelicals. The Constitution of 1917 placed strong limits on churches and clergy, and for many years churches had little legal standing. In 1992 the Mexican government reformed the law and gave churches legal recognition. Today Baptists in Mexico include churches in a national convention, churches in state conventions, and independent Baptist churches. All of them hold the Baptist principle that each local church is a body of baptized believers under Christ. A Mexican Baptist pastor stands in a line of national believers who carried the gospel to their own people.

Cuba

Baptist work in Cuba began in the late nineteenth century. Alberto Díaz, a Cuban believer, is remembered as a pioneer who began Baptist work in Havana in the 1880s, with support from Baptists in the United States. After 1898, American Baptists worked in the east of the island and Southern Baptists in the west, and two conventions grew up: the Western Cuba Baptist Convention and the Eastern Cuba Baptist Convention. Cuban Baptists today belong to more than one body, and we do not tell the story of any one group as the whole.

In 1959 a revolution began a new period. For decades the government was officially atheist, and many churches faced restrictions in their work, in education and in public life. Many foreign missionaries left. Yet Cuban Baptist pastors and members stayed, and the churches continued to meet. In 1992 the constitution was changed so that the state was no longer described as atheist, and since then the churches have had more freedom, although they are still not free in every respect. The story of Cuban Baptists is a witness to faithful endurance. When Paul wrote that he had been "in deaths often," he spoke for all who have kept the faith under pressure (2 Corinthians 11:23). Cuban Baptists teach the rest of us what it costs to remain a faithful church.

Brazil

The first Baptist church in Brazil was formed in 1871 by American settlers in the state of São Paulo, in the town of Santa Bárbara. The first Brazilian Baptist church was formed in Salvador, Bahia, in 1882, after the arrival of the American missionaries William Bagby and Zachary Taylor, who came in 1881. The Brazilian Baptist Convention was organized in 1907. Brazilian Baptists have since sent their own missionaries to other countries. This is an important pattern: churches that once received missionaries now send them.

Baptists in Africa

Nigeria. Baptist work in Nigeria began in 1850, when Thomas Bowen, an American Baptist missionary, arrived among the Yoruba people. The work grew slowly. Nigerian evangelists and pastors soon led much of the growth, and the Nigerian Baptist Convention was organized in 1914. Today the Baptist community in Nigeria is large. Baptists in many other African countries have likewise grown through national leaders, schools and hospitals.

Africa shows us the pattern again: missionary seed, national harvest. We believe the gospel is not the property of one race or one continent, and that African, Latin American and Asian Baptists are as much heirs of the Baptist tradition as Baptists in England.

Baptists in Asia and Europe

Burma (Myanmar). Adoniram Judson, an American, sailed for India in 1812. On the voyage he studied baptism and became convinced that believers alone should be baptized. He and his wife Ann were baptized by Baptist missionaries in Calcutta. Their change of conviction led to the founding of Baptist missions in America, which Unit 6 described. Judson arrived in Burma in 1813 and spent his life there. He translated the Bible into Burmese. The Karen people responded especially, and Baptists in Myanmar today are a notable part of the Christian community there.

Northeast India. American Baptist missionaries worked among the peoples of the northeast from the nineteenth century onward. In Nagaland, a state in northeast India, Baptists are the largest group of Christians. This is one of the clearest examples of a whole people embracing the gospel and the Baptist way.

India and elsewhere in Asia. William Carey's pioneering work in India was told in Unit 6. Baptist churches are found in many other Asian countries as well, and we cannot describe them all here.

Germany. In 1834 Johann Gerhard Oncken and a small group of believers were baptized at Hamburg, and a Baptist church was formed. Oncken faced opposition from church and state authorities for his convictions, but German Baptists grew and spread the gospel in many parts of Europe.

The Baptist World Alliance

In 1905 Baptists met in London for the first Baptist World Congress, and the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) was formed. It is a fellowship of Baptist conventions and unions from many countries. Its purposes include fellowship, the sharing of news, relief of suffering and the defense of religious liberty.

It is important to know what the BWA is not. It is not a church, and it has no authority over any church or convention. It cannot command any member. It is a voluntary alliance, like the associations and conventions of Unit 9, but on a world scale.

Baptists are not all agreed on how to view it. Its member bodies hold a wide range of doctrine, from conservative to liberal. Some Baptists, concerned about this breadth, think the BWA cannot stand for the full authority of Scripture. In 2004 the Southern Baptist Convention voted to end its membership. Others answer that the BWA's value lies in fellowship among Baptists of different countries and in common action for religious liberty, and that its members remain free to teach what Scripture says. As conservative Baptists, we wish to keep doctrinal faithfulness first, and we are glad to cooperate where the gospel is not compromised.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: Baptist work abroad was foreign, even a form of Western influence, and it does not belong in Latin America, Africa or Asia. Some say that Baptists brought a "foreign religion."

Our answer. Christianity is not Western. It began in the Middle East, and the gospel has always crossed borders. Foreign missionaries, like all of us, made mistakes. But the Baptist church in each land is now led by its own people, in its own language, and it is a church of local converts. Mexican, Cuban, Nigerian and Burmese Baptists did not borrow a religion. They heard the Word and believed. Paul preached to Greeks and Romans and was also a stranger to them, yet the gospel became theirs (Romans 1:16).

Objection 2: Baptists in Catholic countries cause division and show disrespect. Some Catholic neighbors say that Baptists should not "convert" people who are already baptized.

Our answer. We should speak of others with honesty and love and never with scorn. But we believe that salvation comes by repentance and faith in Christ alone, that the church is made of believers, and that baptism follows faith. These convictions drive our witness. We seek the free consent of each person, never pressure, and we claim for others the same liberty of conscience that we claim for ourselves.

Objection 3: Baptists should join every broad fellowship for the sake of unity. Others warn against any alliance.

Our answer. There is no single answer in the New Testament, and faithful Baptists differ. The test is whether the fellowship asks us to give up the gospel or the authority of Scripture. Where it does not, cooperation can bless the churches. Where it does, we must refuse.

The Challenges and the Future

Baptists face real challenges worldwide.

Leadership training. Churches have grown faster than the number of trained pastors. Pastors need sound teaching in the Bible. This is the purpose of schools like this seminary.

Doctrinal faithfulness. Teachings that promise health and wealth, as well as the pressure to water down the gospel, trouble churches in many nations. The remedy is the same as in Unit 8: a church that knows its Bible.

Persecution and pressure. In some countries Baptists suffer harm for their faith. Others face laws that limit churches. We should pray and work for religious liberty for all.

Unity and cooperation. Baptists must learn to work together across countries, languages and differences, without surrendering the truth.

A new generation. Young people must hear the gospel and be taught to love the church. Women, men and young people all have places in the service of Christ, and the pastoral office, in the view of most conservative Baptist bodies, belongs to men.

Missions from everywhere. The future of Baptist missions lies with churches in every land that send workers to every other land. Carey's vision has become worldwide.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a Mexican town hears a young man in his church say, "Baptists are a gringo religion. Why should I stay?" Others in the room are listening.

First, the pastor does not become angry. He thanks the young man for saying openly what others may think.

Second, he tells the story. Baptists in his country include Mexican pastors and families who heard and believed, and who have carried the gospel to their neighbors. He also tells how Cuban Baptists held the faith through hard years.

Third, he turns to the Bible. The Baptist faith is not an American custom. It is the teaching of Christ and the apostles, such as in Matthew 28:19-20 and Romans 1:16.

Fourth, he asks the young man to read the New Testament with him for several weeks and to see whether the church is built on the Word.

Fifth, he prays with him and invites him to serve in the church in a task suited to his gifts.

Summary

Baptists now live on every continent, and most live outside Britain and North America. The story of their spread includes missionaries, national believers, translation of the Bible and cooperating churches. In Mexico, Baptist work began in the second half of the nineteenth century, and since 1992 churches have had legal recognition. In Cuba, Baptist work began in the late nineteenth century, grew in two conventions, and endured decades of restriction. In Brazil, Baptist work began in 1871 among settlers, the first Brazilian church was formed in 1882 and the convention in 1907. Baptist work in Nigeria began in 1850. Judson reached Burma in 1813, and Baptists are the largest Christian group in Nagaland. Oncken was baptized at Hamburg in 1834. The Baptist World Alliance, begun in London in 1905, is a fellowship without authority over churches. Objections about foreign influence and unity are answered by the Bible, local leadership and liberty of conscience. Baptists today need trained pastors, doctrinal faithfulness, religious liberty, and a vision for missions from every land.

Further Reading

• David Bebbington, Baptists Through the Centuries (2010).

• Anthony L. Chute, Nathan A. Finn and Michael A. G. Haykin, The Baptist Story (2015).

• Bill J. Leonard, Baptist Ways: A History (2003).

• H. Leon McBeth, The Baptist Heritage (1987).

• William Carey, An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to Use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens (1792), a primary source.

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