Where Do Baptists Come From?
Today’s Baptist movement in Great Britain has its origins in the 16th and 17th centuries with people who, in conscience and concern for religious liberty, refused to be members of the Church of England; believing that Christ alone, and no monarch, could be head of the church. This belief led to persecution, fines, imprisonment and even deportation to the then new states of North America. It is believed that the first Baptist church in England met in 1612 in Spitalfields, London under the leadership of Thomas Helwys. He argued that the church and the state be kept separate in matters of law, so that individuals might have a freedom of religious conscience. Thomas Helwys was an advocate of religious liberty at a time when to hold to such views could be dangerous: indeed he died in prison, a consequence the religious persecution of Protestant dissenters under King James I. The struggle continued until 1689 and the Act of Toleration. Immanuel is part of the Baptist Union of Great Britain w
