Seventh Day Baptists

Seventh Day Baptist Church
Seventh Day Baptist Church in Milton, Wisconsin
AbbreviationSDB
OrientationBaptist
ScriptureBible
TheologySabbatarian
AssociationsSeventh Day Baptist World Federation
RegionAt least in 20 countries and on all continents
FounderJames Ockford, Peter Chamberlen, William Saller, among others
Origin1650
England
CongregationsJust over 520 churches
Members45,000 approximately
Official websitehttps://www.seventhdaybaptist.org/

Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who observe the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as a holy day to God. They believe in conscious baptism of believers by immersion, congregational government and the scriptural basis of opinion and practice. They profess a statement of faith instituted on fundamental precepts of belief. Seventh Day Baptists rest on Saturday as a sign of obedience in a covenant relationship with God and not as a condition of salvation. Many, have adopted a Baptist covenant theology, based on the concept of regenerated society.

Most Christians and churches in history made Sunday their principal day of rest instead of Saturday. Nevertheless, there are countless accounts in the history of Christians who resisted that innovation and preserved the seventh day of the week as a day of rest and worship to God as instituted by God in the creation of the world, affirmed as a fourth commandment and reaffirmed in the teaching and example of Jesus and the Apostles. There are reports of Sabbath keeping in different parts of the world, including an entire nation that rested on the Saturday. In England, the first Christians known to have adopted Baptist doctrine and kept the seventh day only dates back to the middle of the 17th century.[1]

Seventh Day Baptists consist of churches all over the world, with over 520 churches and at least 45,000 members.[2] Many have constant interaction among themselves through conferences in each country and through the Seventh Day Baptist World Federation. Other groups are independent. In general, federations maintain good relations with other Baptist churches and Protestant denominations as well as establishing links with other Christian institutions and unions worldwide.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference :0 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "Online Journal". SDB World Federation. August 2017. Archived from the original on February 1, 2022. Retrieved February 9, 2021.