Baptiști
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Baptismul este o variantă a Protestantismului evanghelic. Baptiștii pretind că au 90 de milioane de adepți în lumea întreagă, dintre care aproximativ 70% trăiesc în Statele Unite. Trebuie evidențiat că membrii baptiști sunt doar acei care au atins "vârsta rațiunii" și au fost botezați. Printre baptiști nu sunt numărați bebelușii și copiii. Prima deosebire teologică dintre Creștinismul Baptist și cel Ortodox este autonomia fiecărei biserici, fără supervizare episcopală, o respingere a natura sfinte a tuturor celor șapte taine ortodoxe (Botez, Mirungerea, Spovedanie, Sfânta Euharistie, Căsătoria, Ordinele preoțești și Maslul (și, în consecință, nici Mirungerea și nici Spovedania și nici Maslu nu sunt practicate de baptiști, nici măcar simbolic), și, mai mult, aderarea lor la erezia "Botezului Credincioșilor", în care doar adulții (și copii care au atins "vârsta rațiunii") sunt botezați, ca simbol, dar în majoritatea convențiilor baptiste, de asemenea o condiție obligatorie pentru a lua parte la "Masa Domnului" (de asemenea pur simbolică și o imitație non-sacră a Euharistiei). Aceste credințe vor fi explicate pe larg în continuare.
Origini istorice
Baptiștii nu își pot trasa începuturile denominațiunii la un singur fondator. Majoritatea istoricilor reputați învață că John Smyth și Thomas Helwys, doi englezi asociați mișcării separatiste față de Biserica Anglicană, sunt cei care au dat acestui grup direcțiile principale. Smyth and Helwys disagreed with the Church of England on doctrines such as infant baptism (hence the name Baptist), ecclesiastical authority, and church-state relations, among other things. Since the separatist movement was persecuted by the English government, Smyth exiled himself to the Netherlands and established the first Baptist church there in 1609. Helwys, however, stayed in England and started the first English Baptist church two years later. Today, this schismatic group is referred to as the General Baptists. Years later, though, the Particular Baptists, who shared a more Calvinist theology, arose. They offically emerged in 1644 with their London Confession of Faith.
Some also believe the Baptists got their start from the Anabaptists. However, this is unlikely, due to the fact that Baptists and Anabaptists disagree on many issues (such as practices and doctrines relating to church discipline and pacifism).
Another view known as Landmarkism teaches that the first Baptists were the discples of St. John the Baptist. This, however, is extremely unlikely as Baptism espouses many doctrines that developed either in post-schism Catholicism or in other Protestant sects, more than a millennium after Christ. The most notable denomination that holds this view is the American Baptists.
Credințe
Since there are at least sixty-five Baptist bodies with no structured ecclesiology, it's hard to precisely define their doctrines. Nevertheless, there are some points common to all Baptists. For example, most adherents place strong emphasis on the independence of the individual person ("individual soul liberty"), independence of each church, affirmation of believer's baptism, and distinctively American concepts such as freedom of religion and separation of church and state.
Slujbe de rugăciune
Baptist services are substantially less formal than the Orthodox Divine Liturgy; at traditional Baptist churches, one may sing hymns, accompanied by an organ, there may be a traditional choir, and this might be followed by The Lord's Supper, as they refer to the Eucharist, Bible readings, and as the main event, a long sermon. At less traditional Baptist churches, the traditional hymns, choir and organ are disposed of and replaced by a "Praise Band", which performs blasphemous "Christian Rock" music and other acts of impiety. Another feature of less traditional Baptist churches is the Altar Call, a blasphemy in which worshippers are called to the front of the church to confess their sins and proclaim their faith. Churches where this occurs usually lack a traditional "Lord's Table" as it is referred to in Baptist parlance.
Incompatibilitatea cu Creștinismul Ortodox
Autoritatea Bisericii
Baptists are part of the "congregationalist" heresy, meaning that they don't have bishops or any traditional ecclesiological structures. Instead, Congregationalist church governance gives autonomy to individual local churches in areas of policy, polity and doctrine. Baptist churches are not under the direct administrative control of any other body, such as a national council, or a leader such as a bishop or pope. Administration, leadership and doctrine are usually decided democratically by the lay members of each individual church, which accounts for the variation of beliefs from one Baptist church to another. Such a system allows for each person to decide independently to believe whatever they wish, making it effectively impossible for a single Tradition or the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church to be preserved. The various Baptist conferences set guidelines for membership, which include systems of belief, and other requirements, that member churches must maintain, however, since each individual congregation is independent, the only penalty the conference can impose on a congregation that drifts from its official doctrine is to expel it, which is not a very compelling ecclesiastic penalty given that no one owns the rights to the word "Baptist", and thus, a Baptist church that is separated from its former conference can continue operating as before, without any substantially visible changes. One interesting fact that one might observe, would be that if Baptists were in fact, the true form of the ancient Church, as is claimed, the Council of Nicea would never have occurred, and Arius would have been completely unrestrained in spreading his heresy, as there would have been no Pope Alexander of Alexandria to take action against him.
The Baptists also have an anti-sacerdotal interpretation of "The Priesthood of All Believers", and in theory grant each individual the right to read and interpret the Bible for themselves, without reference to Church tradition. In fact, the majority of Baptists in a given congregation typically accept without criticism the Biblical interpretation posited by "the Preacher", essentially admitting an inability to interpret the scriptures on their own. The danger, from an Orthodox perspective, of Baptism, compared to Orthodoxy, is that, especially in light of the fact that Baptist services center around the Sermon, which can be up to an hour in length, as the main event, it is easy and possible for the congregation to be led radically astray by a rogue pastor, who is not kept in check by any form of episcopal supervision. In contrast to an Orthodox Priest, whose primary responsibility is to lead the congregation in the celebration of the Divine Liturgy, of which the Eucharist is the main event, while at the same time, guiding the Orthodox life of the congregation through the hearing of confessions, and other forms of pastoral care, the role of a Baptist Pastor or Preacher, as they are usually called, is primarily to preach an interesting or elucididating Sermon; these tend to be substantially longer than the Orthodox homilies, and are generally unregulated by any fixed lectionary; some Baptist preachers engage in "expositional preaching", where they offer their own hermeneutical interpretation of each book of the Bible, whereas others take a different approach, condemning what they perceive to be the moral failings of modern society, or indeed their own congregants.
Scriptura
Baptists firmly believe in sola Scriptura (Scripture alone). Properly understood, this is the concept of Scripture as a unified whole, utilizing literary criticism called "historical Biblical scholarship," which was pioneered in the late 19th century, while rejecting the previous two millennia of commentaries by the Holy Fathers. Orthodoxy, however, knows Holy Tradition to hold and interpret the Bible within itself. Like all Protestants, Baptists reject the deuterocanonical books of the Old Testament, considering them to be less than divinely inspired. Biblical inerrancy is yet another common heresy among fundamentalist Baptists. This has lead, in various Baptist communities, to the proliferation of unpleasant heresies that stem from a literal and uneducated interpretation of selective bible passages, most prominently, Pre-Millenial Dispensationalism, which is popular in the Baptist community. Because each Baptist church is independent, however, the particular heretical interpretations vary from church to church.
Botezul
Baptism, commonly referred to as "believer's baptism" among Baptists, is an ordinance that according to Baptist doctrine plays no role in salvation. That is, the act of baptism does not actually save a person or cleanse him from all his sins. Instead, it is merely an outward observance, properly performed only after salvation, which occurs when a person professes Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. This completely opposes Orthodoxy, which regards baptism as a real supernatural transformation, through which the believer dies and rises again with Christ in a very real manner.
Through Anabaptist influence, Baptists reject the practice of pedobaptism, or infant baptism, because they believe parents cannot make a decision of salvation for an infant. Related to this doctrine is the disputed concept of an "age of accountability" when God determines that a mentally capable person is accountable for their sins and eligible for baptism. In contrast, reason and mental capacity are not essential factors in either Orthodox baptism or Holy Communion. This "tradition" arose from the legalistic, overly rationalistic theology of the Roman Catholic Church, which puts the rational intellect above all else, whereas Orthodoxy places the noetic faculty above all.
Sfânta Comuniune
While denying the sacramental nature of the Eucharist, the Baptists do consider it to be one of two quasi-sacraments, referred to as Ordinances in Baptist terminology (the other being Baptism itself). Referring to it as the Lord's Supper (and likewise, the Altar or Holy Table becomes the Lord's Table, in the more formal congregations), Baptists deny the transubstantiation of the elements into the very body and blood of Christ, instead interpreting it as a purely symbolic act, one which is nonetheless reserved for believers.
Soteriologie
Baptists, like nearly all Protestants, hold a sola fide soteriology. This is an interpretation contrary to the Fathers, placing central emphasis of a Calvinist reading of Ephesians 2:8 ("For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God"). Their interpretation states that a person must only willfully repent of sin, accept the substitutionary payment of his own sin by faith in Christ's death, and declares that Jesus is Lord in order to attain salvation. Like most Western Christians, there is a dichotomy placed between "faith" and "works." Thus, any mention of the necessity of "works" such as fasting, prayer, or charity being necessary or even helpful for the soul are anathema. However, it should be noted that most Baptists, like other evangelical Christians, believe that a reformed life and continued spiritual growth following conversion are important proofs that one's conversion was genuine. When an individual claims to have placed faith in Christ but does not show spiritual and moral growth, the sincerity of that individual's conversion is doubted. Baptists, like other Western Christians, do not speak of theosis like the Orthodox. Like other evangelical Christians, most Baptists do speak of sanctification, a process whereby the saved individual is gradually reformed by the interior action of the Holy Spirit to become more and more like Christ.
Riscul și beneficiul Relațiilor Ecumenice
Having occupied an extreme theological position largely driven by anti-Catholicism, the Baptists have made themselves, from a theological and ecclesiological perspective, the denomination most removed from Orthodox Christianity. Their church polity, their views on the nature of the Sacraments, and their views on the interpretation of Scripture, are completely incompatible with Orthodox theology; the Baptist churches do not recognize the validity of baptisms other than the "believer's baptism", and thus while a Baptist baptized using the trinitarian formula might be accepted into some Orthodox churches via chrismation, a cradle Orthodox could not be accepted into membership or communion at a Baptist church without rebaptism. This fundamental incompatibility is difficult to resolve, and ecumenical discussions of any theological nature are thus most likely fruitless, however, an individual Baptist church could in theory vote to disassociate itself from its membership, ascribe to all Orthodox doctrines, submit itself to the jurisdiction of an Orthodox Bishop, and be received into Orthodoxy in that manner; stranger things have happened, such as the epic Journey to Orthodoxy of the New Covenant Apostolic Order, see Evangelical Orthodox Church.
That being said, there is possible ground for cooperation between some Baptist groups and the Orthodox on social issues. The Southern Baptist Convention in the United States is the largest non-Catholic denomination to forbid the ordination of women, oppose homosexual marriage, abortion, and other practices that are anathema to Orthodox Christians. Thus, political cooperation between that convention and the Orthodox churches could be highly fruitful. However, it is important that such cooperation be coordinated purely between the Orthodox episcopacy and the Baptist leadership, and that co-mingling of any sort between the congregations be avoided.
It should be noted that some aggressive, modern, Evangelical Baptist or ex-Baptist churches (of the "praise band and altar call" variety) are known for actively proselytizing against traditional "ethnic Churches", including all of the various Eastern and Oriental Orthodox jurisdictions, and the Assyrian Church of the East, as well as various ethnic Catholic congregations. Their strategy typically involves sending congregants who have a particular ethnicity, who grew up in an "ethnic church", back to that church, to attempt to recruit away from that church its parishioners. In the use of this strategy, they are following similarly aggressive and reprehensible tactics also used by the Mormons, the Seventh Day Adventists, and other Heretics.