Seventh Day Baptists are Baptists who observe the Sabbath as the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as a holy day to God. They adopt a covenant Baptist theology, based on the concept of regenerated society, 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. There are countless accounts in the history of Christians who kept 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. In contrast to this, it is known that most Christians and churches in history have chosen to rest on Sunday instead of Saturday. However, there are reports of Sabbath keeping in different parts of the world, including an entire nation that rested on the Saturday. The first Christians who adopted Baptist doctrine and kept the seventh day dates back to the middle of the 17th century in England. They are made up of churches all over the world, with over 520 churches and approximately 45,000 members, having constant interaction among themselves through conferences in each country and through the Seventh Day Baptist World Federation. In general, federations maintains good relations with other Baptist churches and Protestant denominations as well as establishing links with other Christian institutions and unions worldwide. History Seventh Day Baptists date back to the 17th century dissent movement in England, in which many saw no hope of further reforming the Church of England and withdrew to form other congregations. Among these congregations were the congregation in Gainsborough whose leaders were John Smyth and Thomas Helwys. In 1607, the congregation left England and went to the Netherlands, where they were influenced by Anabaptist doctrines through the Mennonites. Soon Smyth concluded that children should not be baptized because there is no biblical account of children's baptisms and Jesus Christ ordered instruction and, only afterwards, baptism. The Smyth congregation in Amsterdam founded in 1609 is considered the first Baptist church. Two years later, the church was divided, and some members returned with Helwys to England, establishing a church in