{"id":1448,"date":"2026-02-26T10:22:32","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T10:22:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baptisten.at\/about-baptists\/"},"modified":"2023-01-13T13:40:09","modified_gmt":"2023-01-13T13:40:09","slug":"about-baptists","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/baptisten.at\/en\/about-baptists\/","title":{"rendered":"About Baptists"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Baptists are among the oldest evangelical free churches. We have a lot in common with the Protestant churches, such as Luther’s principles: through Faith alone, by Scripture alone, in Christ alone, by Grace alone! One difference is that membership is a voluntary decision: anyone who answers God’s unique offer with a personal, freely-given response of faith becomes a member.<\/p>\n

That is why we only baptize those who have a personal faith relationship with Christ and want to consciously live their daily life with God as part of the church community. A decision like that leads to an active worship and community experience in the local church. Children are welcomed into church life as beloved ones of God and are blessed as infants.<\/p>\n

Since when do Baptists exist?<\/h2>\n

A little over a decade ago, the Baptists celebrated their 400th anniversary. The Baptist movement started in Amsterdam in 1609. We Baptists evolved from the left wing of the Reformation, the Anabaptists. The first congregations formed in England in 1612. One of the two founders, Thomas Helwys, postulated in a manifesto that the king cannot and must not determine everything. He demanded freedom of speech, freedom of belief, freedom of religion and freedom of conscience for everyone. “Let them be heretics, Turks, Jews, or whatsoever,” His Manifesto is the oldest English-language testimony to the demand for such human rights. In 1639 in Rhode Island (USA) Baptists wrote down the famous principles of religious freedom.<\/p>\n\n

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In 1834 the first German Baptist Church was established in Hamburg and in 1869 the first Baptist Church in Vienna was founded (whose history dates back to 1846). The congregations in Graz, Pressburg\/Bratislava, Prague, Budapest, Neusatz\/Novisad, Bucharest, Agram\/Zagreb and Trieste were planted from Vienna.<\/p>\n\n

NEXT<\/a><\/div>\n\n
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The Baptists are among the oldest evangelical free churches. We have a lot in common with the Protestant churches, such as Luther’s principles: through Faith alone, by Scripture alone, in Christ alone, by Grace alone! One difference is that membership is a voluntary decision: anyone who answers God’s unique offer with a personal, freely-given response … <\/p>\n

Read more “About Baptists”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1512,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"inspiro_hide_title":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1448","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"yoast_head":"\nAbout Baptists - Bund der Baptistengemeinden in \u00d6sterreich<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Our ancestors were supporters of the radical Reformation. 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