Bible Talk > Sound doctrine

Separatists, or Independents

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Zant Law:

--- Quote from: britannica.com ---Separatist, also called Independent,  any of the English Christians in the 16th and 17th centuries who wished to separate from the Church of England and form independent local churches. They were eventually called Congregationalists. Separatists were most influential politically in England during the time of the Commonwealth (1649–60) under Oliver Cromwell, the lord protector, who was himself a Separatist. Subsequently, they survived repression and gradually became an important religious minority in England.
One group of Separatists left England for Holland in 1608, and in 1620 some of them, the Pilgrims, settled at Plymouth, Massachusetts. The Plymouth Separatists cooperated with the Puritans (nonseparating Independents) who settled Massachusetts Bay (1630). In England the Puritans had hoped to purify the Church of England, but in New England they accepted the congregational form of church government in which each local church was independent. Thus, the churches of the Separatists and the Puritans became the Congregationalists of the United States.
A fundamental belief of the Separatists was the idea of the gathered church, which was in contrast to the territorial basis of the Church of England whereby everyone in a certain area was assigned to the parish church. Separatists believed that the foundation of the church was God’s Spirit, not man or the state. Those who were definitely Christian believers, therefore, should seek out other Christians and gather together to make up a particular church. This belief was the basis for the autonomous local church of the Separatists, which became a principal tenet of Congregationalism.

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/285064/Separatist
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--- Quote from:  u-s-history.com ---
The Separatists, or Independents, were English Protestants who occupied the extreme wing of Puritanism. The Separatists were severely critical of the Church of England and wanted to either destroy it or separate from it. Their chief complaint was that too many elements of the Roman Catholic Church had been retained, such as the ecclesiastical courts, clerical vestments, altars and the practice of kneeling. The Separatists were also critical of the lax standards of public behavior, citing widespread drunkenness and the failure of many to keep the Sabbath properly.
Referring to themselves as the Saints, the Separatists believed that they had been elected by God for salvation (see Calvinism) and feared spiritual contamination if they worshiped with those outside of their congregations, often referred to as the Strangers.
In 1608, a community of English separatists decided to escape persecution by moving to Holland, an area long known for its toleration. Dutch society was so welcoming that the Pilgrims, as they had come to be known, eventually feared that they were losing control over their children. In 1620, they set out for a more remote location that would allow them to protect their community. This effort resulted in the founding of Plymouth Colony.
Other contemporary religious dissenters, the Puritans, believed that the Church of England was badly in need of reform, but could be salvaged.

http://www.u-s-history.com/pages/h575.html
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The modern Separatists I have run into have the philosophy of not mixing with other outside Christians so to keep their church clean from the influence of the world.

Fat:

--- Quote from: Zant Law on January 14, 2014, 06:16:39 pm ---The modern Separatists I have run into have the philosophy of not mixing with other outside Christians so to keep their church clean from the influence of the world.

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Some people will say that the fundamental Baptist and separatist Baptist are the same thing. This is not so, we had both churches on the same block here where I live, they were different once they left the church. Inside the church they pretty much alike including the music and the Bible translations they use. The separatist Baptist seem to be more likely to carry-on their doctrine outside the church as opposed to the fundamentalist who seem to leave it inside the church.

I'm only basing this on two local churches so it maybe not really correct across the nation.

Zant Law:
Yeah brings up a whole different question my mind about the different types of Baptist we have up there. Not only do you have a large diversity in the types between, say Southern Baptist and American Baptist, but it seems like each individual church sets up its own doctoral even within something like the Southern Baptist convention.

The only real problem that makes for me is that every time I go to a Southern Baptist Church I have no idea what kind of church I'm walking into.

Hal:
You can hang that separatist title on any organized religion, Jehovah's Witnesses would come under that definition.

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