Baptist History and Denominational Development — Unit 3: The First Baptists: Smyth, Helwys, and the General Baptists

Key Verse

"But Peter and the other apostles answered and said: 'We ought to obey God rather than men.'" (Acts 5:29, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

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

1. Explain why English Separatists left for Amsterdam and who John Smyth and Thomas Helwys were.

2. Describe the events of 1609 in Amsterdam, including Smyth's baptism, and state the objections to it fairly.

3. Explain why Helwys and Smyth separated, and why Helwys returned to England in 1612.

4. Summarize what Helwys taught in A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612) about religious liberty.

5. Describe the main beliefs of the early General Baptists, including their view of Christ's death and of salvation.

The Setting: Separatists Under Pressure

Unit 2 told how English Separatists came out of Puritanism. They taught that a church is a covenant gathering of believers and that the king has no right to rule it. This was dangerous. The law required people to attend the Church of England. When King James I came to the throne in 1603, the hopes of many Puritans for reform were disappointed. Separatist churches met in secret, and their members faced fines, arrest and prison.

John Smyth was a gifted man. He had studied at Cambridge and had served as a minister in the Church of England. Over time he became convinced that the English church could not be reformed, and he became a Separatist. He led a Separatist congregation that met at Gainsborough, in the north of England. Another Separatist group met at Scrooby, and some of its members later became known as the Pilgrims. Thomas Helwys, a man from a well-to-do family in Nottinghamshire, joined Smyth's group. He gave it much help and strength.

Because of the pressure, Smyth's congregation, with Helwys and others, left England for the Dutch city of Amsterdam. Holland allowed more religious freedom than England did. They went in about 1608. This is how the first Baptist story begins, in exile, because believers were not free to worship God in their own land. We should remember that many Baptists in the world today still live under that kind of pressure.

Amsterdam, 1609: A Baptism and a Question

In Amsterdam, Smyth and his people met other Christians who had left England and also Dutch Anabaptists who were called Mennonites. Smyth studied the Bible again. He became convinced that the baptism of infants had no support in the New Testament and that only believers should be baptized. The New Testament shows baptism following faith, as in Acts 2:41, which we read in Unit 1.

Here the group faced a hard question. If their own baptisms as infants in the Church of England were not valid, who could baptize them? There was no church with the right to do it. In 1609 Smyth baptized himself, and then he baptized Helwys and others. Historians call this "se-baptism," which means self-baptism. It was most probably done by pouring water, not by immersion. Immersion came into Baptist practice later, in the 1640s, as Unit 4 will show.

Objections to the event

Critics at the time and since have raised several objections.

First, they said that a man cannot baptize himself, because baptism is an act of the church that someone else performs. Some even mocked Smyth with the name "se-baptist." Second, Smyth himself later doubted that he had done right. He came to regret baptizing himself, and he sought membership with the Mennonites, whom he came to regard as a true church. Third, modern writers sometimes say that the whole event shows that Baptists began in confusion and by a human invention.

The Baptist answer

Baptists answer in three parts. First, we do not claim that the first Baptists were perfect. Smyth made a decision under pressure in a strange place, and later even he questioned it. Second, there is an important point of principle. If the true church and true baptism can only be received from a human chain, then the church would be trapped when the chain is broken. But Christ's command to baptize is in Scripture, and believers who understand it are free to obey it. A Baptist does not receive his baptism because of the person who baptized him, but because of his own faith in Christ and obedience to the Lord's command. Third, the real issue here is not the method of a few people in 1609. It is the truth they recovered, that baptism belongs to believers. The method was a poor one. The principle was biblical. Later Baptists were baptized by immersion as believers under proper church oversight, and they did not repeat Smyth's step.

Smyth and Helwys Part Ways

Smyth was drawn closer to the Mennonites. He admired their zeal and their practice of baptism. Helwys did not agree. He believed that Smyth had gone too far, that a church could be established by faith in Scripture without needing a Mennonite succession, and that the Mennonites also held some doctrines that he could not accept. Around 1610 the group divided. Smyth and his followers sought to join the Mennonites. Smyth died in 1612. Helwys and those who stayed with him kept their independence.

Helwys's group published a statement of faith in 1611, called a Declaration of Faith of English People Remaining at Amsterdam. It stated their beliefs on God, Christ, the church and baptism. It also said that the civil government should not interfere with religion, because Christ alone is King and Lawgiver of the church. This idea would become the center of the first Baptist witness to the world.

Helwys Returns to England

Helwys made a brave decision. He decided that the church must not hide in exile. In 1612 he led the group back to England. They settled in Spitalfields, outside London. They formed what is generally regarded as the first Baptist church on English soil.

This was a costly choice. Helwys knew that he could be arrested, and he was. He felt that a church that believes in the truth must bear witness to it at home, even when it is dangerous. His decision reminds us that faith is not only for safe places.

A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612)

In 1612 Helwys wrote a book with this long title. It was printed in the Netherlands, and a copy was sent to King James. Helwys believed that the king should know the truth. The book is a daring defense of religious liberty.

Its main points are these. The king is a mortal man, not God. The king has power over the bodies and goods of his subjects, but he has no power over their souls. Faith must be free, because it is a matter between each person and God. Helwys did not limit this freedom to Baptists, or even to Christians. He argued that the king should not force the conscience of any person, whatever he believed. This was a rare idea in 1612. Most governments in Europe, Catholic and Protestant, thought that the ruler must make everyone follow the true religion.

Helwys's argument stands on the teaching of Jesus. Christ said that His kingdom is not of this world (John 18:36). He also taught in the parable of the wheat and the tares that the wheat and the weeds are to grow together until the harvest (Matthew 13:30). That is, the final judgment belongs to God, not to the magistrate. And the apostles themselves, forbidden to preach, said that they ought to obey God rather than men (Acts 5:29).

Helwys was imprisoned in Newgate in London for his boldness. He died about 1616, though the exact date is not certain. His book was not accepted by the king, but its idea lived on. It is often called the first plea in English for full religious liberty, and Baptists remember it with pride. In Unit 5 we shall see how it bore fruit in America.

Objections and the Baptist answer

An objector may say: "Is it wise to give freedom to error? Did not God command the kings of Israel to remove false worship?" It is a fair question. Baptists answer that Israel was a special nation under a covenant with God in a unique period. The church of the New Testament is not a nation. It spreads by preaching, not by the sword. Our Lord refused to use force even to defend Himself (John 18:36). A person who is forced to join a church has not been converted, and a forced faith has no value to God.

Another objection is political: "Surely Romans 13 teaches that Christians must obey the government." Baptists agree that Christians should honor the government and pay taxes. Helwys himself said that the king should be obeyed in civil matters. But the same Bible shows that when rulers command what God forbids, believers must obey God. This is not rebellion. It is the loyalty that the apostles showed. Baptists have always been among the most law-abiding of citizens, and among the first to suffer for conscience.

The General Baptists

The church at Spitalfields and others like it became known as the General Baptists. The name came from their teaching about the death of Christ. They taught general atonement. This means that Christ died for all people, and that the gospel is to be offered to everyone. The early General Baptists also stressed the free response of the sinner. Many of them held that a believer could fall away from grace. In this they were closer to the teaching of the Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius than to the strict teaching of John Calvin on election.

Other beliefs were shared by all Baptists: the authority of Scripture, baptism of believers, a church of the converted, congregational government, and religious liberty. In the next unit we shall meet the Particular Baptists, who also held these things but taught that Christ died effectively for the elect.

Not all conservative Baptists today agree with the early General Baptists on every point. Most conservative Baptists today believe in the free offer of the gospel to all, with the General Baptists, and in the eternal security of the believer, which most early General Baptists did not teach. Free Will Baptists, who come from the General Baptist stream, still hold that believers can fall away. Course 2 will present these views fairly. The Baptist student should honor the General Baptists for their love of the lost, their evangelistic zeal, and their courage in religious liberty.

The General Baptist churches spread across England in the following decades. Another early writer for religious liberty, Leonard Busher, wrote a book called Religious Peace in 1614. The first Baptists suffered, but they did not stop praying or preaching.

Why These Early Years Matter Today

It is easy to read about Smyth and Helwys as a story from another age. But the questions they faced are still with us. What should a church do when the law presses it to conform? How can believers hold firm convictions without hating those who disagree? How can a small group of people trust that the Lord is with them when they have no wealth, no powerful friends and no protection?

The first Baptists answered by going back to the Bible, by joining together in covenant, and by asking for freedom for everyone. They were not always wise, and they made mistakes. But they believed that the Lord Jesus is the Head of His church, and that He is able to build it. Every Baptist pastor today, in a big city or a small village, stands in that same line of faith.

Pastoral Application

Pastor Andrés leads a small Baptist church in a village where the local leader expects every family to give money for the yearly festival of the patron saint. The church members refuse. The leader is angry and warns that the Baptists may lose their right to use the road to their meeting place. A young member asks, "Should we fight this? Or should we ask the government to punish him?"

Pastor Andrés uses what the first Baptists taught. First, he asks the church to pray and to stay calm. Second, he opens Acts 5:29 with them and reminds them that believers obey God before men, but without hatred. Third, he explains that Baptists ask for liberty for all, not special favors for themselves, and that they do not wish to use force against their neighbors, even in return. Fourth, he asks two deacons to visit the leader in peace and explain that the church respects the village and its families but cannot take part in worship it does not believe. He also helps the church to find out what the law says about freedom of worship in their country. He does not promise that the problem will be easy. He tells them that Helwys and his friends suffered much more.

Summary

The first Baptists came from English Separatists who fled to Amsterdam about 1608 to escape pressure. John Smyth led the group, with Thomas Helwys. In 1609 Smyth concluded that only believers should be baptized, and he baptized himself and then others. Critics call this se-baptism. Baptists answer that the principle, baptism of believers, is biblical, even though the method was flawed. Smyth later sought Mennonite membership, and Helwys led the rest in a separate path. In 1611 they published a Declaration of Faith. In 1612 Helwys brought the group back to England and founded the church at Spitalfields. His book, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612), argued that the king has no power over the soul and that liberty belongs to all people. He was imprisoned and died about 1616. His followers were General Baptists, who taught general atonement and a free offer of the gospel to all. Most conservative Baptists today share their evangelistic concern but hold eternal security.

Further Reading

• Thomas Helwys, A Short Declaration of the Mystery of Iniquity (1612), primary source.

• The Declaration of Faith of English People Remaining at Amsterdam (1611), primary source.

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

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

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

• Chute, Finn and Haykin, The Baptist Story (2015).

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