The Baptist sect emerged from the English Puritan milieu. Its distinguishing characteristic is the rejection of infant baptism. The first community was esta-blished in England in 1633, while in 1639 the sect was transplanted to North America, where its center became the state of Rhode Island. At first this sect had no success, but at the end of the 18th century a “Missionary Alliance” was created with the aim of preaching a Christianity free of dogma and rite among the African Americans. This met with encouragement and financial support from wealthy Americans. Schools, hospitals, orphanages, and homes for the aged appeared, together with missionary volunteers. From that time on the Baptists found new adherents in England and Germany, China, Japan, India, Poland and afterwards in Russia. This sect was imported into Russia from Germany, where the city of Hamburg became the center of the movement.

Eventually the Baptists splintered into numerous factions. The division began way back in the 17th century, when the Baptists separated into “individualists” (who embraced Calvin’s teaching on absolute pre-determination) and “universalists” (who believed in the universality of God’s saving grace which is attracted through man’s free will). In pre-revolutionary Russia the “individualists” rejected the swearing of oaths, the military service, and the courts, but in present times they do not exhibit such a open negation of the government and civil duties.

There are Baptists with a leaning towards Judaism: these are the Seventh-day Baptists, who observe Saturday as their holy day. Christian Baptists reject the dogma of the Trinity, the teaching on hell and the devil, and the observance of Christian holidays. There are Baptists who on the basis of Jewish apocrypha teach about Eve’s two progenies, one supposedly from the devil. There are other sub-divisions of Baptists, for example: Evangelical Christians, Evangelicals, and others. Baptists tend to be hostile towards Orthodoxy. All branches of Baptists are united by a common rejection of the authenticity of infant baptism. Arguing against the baptism of children, the Baptists assert that the children of Christians are already cleansed and purified by the blood of Christ and, therefore, do not need to be baptized.

Such a teaching contradicts the Scriptures and the practice of the early Church. The Scriptures demand that all of us be baptized, including infants and children. Christ Himself says that only those “born of water and of the Spirit” will be able to enter the Heavenly Kingdom (John 3:5). “Infant baptism takes its beginning from the time of the apostles,” – testifies Origenes, a well-known writer of the mid-3rd century. Moreover, in the New Testament the sacrament of baptism replaced the Old Testament rite of circumcision, which was a precursor of baptism and took place soon after a child was born. The Acts of the Apostles mention that the apostles baptized entire families, which undoubtedly included children. In view of the fact that all who are baptized become members of Christ’s Church, the earlier a person receives baptism, the earlier he participates in the Church’s life of grace. Such a person’s spiritual development proceeds on a par with his physical development.

Like the Protestants, the Baptists do not have a clear and concrete teaching on the Church. “I am unable to formulate our teaching on the Church,” – said H. Philips, one of the Baptist leaders at the Edinburgh conference in 1937. Other Baptist leaders have also made similar statements.

The distinguishing characteristic of all sectarian preachers, primarily of Baptist and related affiliations, is their confidence in their own salvation. This springs from the conviction common to all Protestant teachings that salvation is automatically acquired through faith in Christ. However, the Scriptures distinguish between dead faith and live faith, between faith that is salvific and faith that cannot save. “What doth it profit, my brethren, if a man say he hath faith,and have not works? Can faith save him? Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone” (James 2:14-17). “Even the demons believe and tremble.” This is an example of dead faith, the kind that does not lead to salvation.

Thus, it is not enough to only believe in Christ’s redemptory sacrifice, but one must also carry one’s cross and follow Christ, for only “the one who endures to the end shall be saved.”

On a par with the Baptists, there appeared in England and Scotland a sect called the Quakers, founded by George Fox. Driven by his religious contempla-tions to a state of spiritual self-delusion, he imagined himself called upon from above to revive genuine Christianity, and in 1647 he began to preach.

A simple craftsman, dedicated to reading the Bible, he noted the diversity of interpretations abounding in the Anglican Church on major issues of faith. Being unable to obtain replies to any of his questions, he reached the point of completely rejecting the need for instructors in faith, theologians, official confessions and the Creed. Going even further, he came to the following conclusions: (1) The true interpreter of the Scriptures is solely the Holy Spirit, Who was not with any of the founders of the various religious communities and thus they do not contain true Christianity; (2) Only he (Fox) receives revelations directly from the Holy Spirit; (3) True Christianity is contained not in dogmas or theological systems, but in direct illumination of an individual by the Holy Spirit, Who enlightens him and guides him towards perfection. Moreover, the Quakers set personal direct “illumi-nation above the Holy Scriptures, and the Scriptures themselves they interpret in accordance with their personal “illumination.” With such an attitude towards the word of God, arbitrariness and distortion are inevitable.

In view of this the Quakers have rejected the apostolic teaching on the Church, they do not have a hierarchy, and they reject the sacraments, even baptism and communion. At their meetings, after reading the Scriptures, they give way to so-called “creative silence,” i.e. in silence and concentration each person awaits inspiration from the Holy Spirit, and be this person a man or a woman, educated or illiterate, – he begins to instruct the assembly and to prophesy, and these instruc-tions are taken seriously by the others as revelations from above, which should be used as guidance in faith and in life.