How many baptists worldwide

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In the Baptist movement everyone is equal. There is no hierarchy of bishops or priests exercising authority over members. Baptists reject the idea that authority flows down from previous church leaders who can be traced back to the apostles in apostolic succession.

Baptists are congregational: each church is self-governing and self-supporting, made up of members, each with a role to play. The churches encourage those attending to become church members through baptism. This entitles them to vote at the church meeting where all decisions are made. Final authority rests not with the minister or deacons but with church members at the meeting. It appoints ministers, elders, deacons and others who take a leadership role, agree financial policy and determine mission strategy.

Despite their autonomy, local Baptist churches have always come together in regional, national and international associations for support and fellowship. Baptists believe that churches should not live in isolation but be interdependent. Technically there is no such thing as a Baptist denomination. The organisation has a 'bottom up' rather than 'top down' approach. This isn't a central authority but a central resource for assisting churches.

Baptists share the Trinitarian tradition of all the major Christian denominations. However, there are several features that mark them out from other traditions, although none of them is exclusive to Baptists alone:. This is perhaps the most obvious difference between Baptists and other denominations. Baptists reject infant baptism, thinking instead that baptism is for believers only - those who can personally declare Jesus as Lord.

Some churches will re-baptise those who were baptised as infants in another Christian tradition, others respect that various denominations do things differently. The baptism is carried out by full immersion. Most Baptist churches have a baptistery, which is more or less a pool about 4m by 3m in the church. During a baptismal service the minister and the person being baptised enter the water.

The minister, holding the person, will lie them back in the water so they are totally immersed, and then bring them back up again. Baptists believe this practice is in line with the New Testament practice of baptism, as carried out by John the Baptist.

They believe God created every individual as competent, with the skills to be a priest for themselves and others. That means that in Baptist churches which appoint a minister, he or she is an equal member in the church meeting but with special responsibilities as outlined by the congregation.

One of the most notable early schisms, the Arian controversy in the early fourth century, divided the church on Jesus' relationship with God.

Arius, a priest from Alexandria, Egypt, claimed that because Jesus was "begotten," or brought about by God, he was a lesser divinity than God. But Athanasius, an Alexandrian theologian, claimed that Jesus was God incarnate. But despite the church's official view, Christians continued to be divided on the subject for more than a century.

The two groups disagreed on the taking of the sacraments — religious symbols believed to transmit divine grace to the believer.

Furthermore, the Eastern Orthodox Christians disagreed with the Roman beliefs that priests should remain celibate and that the Roman pope had authority over the head of the Eastern church, according to Encyclopedia Britannica.

There was even a temporary schism, known as the Western Schism, within the Catholic Church itself in , when two men, and eventually a third, claimed to be the true papal heir.

The division lasted almost 40 years, and by the time it was resolved in , the rivaling popes had significantly damaged the reputation of the papal office. Despite this handful of schisms, the Catholic Church successfully suppressed other potential Christian offshoots "partly by sustained persecution [including] actual military expeditions against some labelled heretics, but then also a new system of enquiries into people's beliefs, called inquisitions.

With the backing of secular rulers, heretics might be burned at the stake or forced into denying their beliefs," MacCulloch told Live Science via email. Related: What led to the emergence of monotheism?

But after the Protestant Reformation in , the number of denominations really began to multiply.