Baptism required for church membership

[BrotherTony]

1 minute ago, SureWord said:

So I need references?

I think a profession of faith in the blood of Christ should suffice.

Anything else is Baptist Briderism.

I disagree. I've seen other denominations baptism being accepted into Baptist churches, and vice versa, but only after investigation into the doctrinal closeness to what Baptists preach and believe. I've also gone from one church to another by just a statement of faith because the former church didn't like losing another family to another local church. Nothing nefarious about the practice.

[MikeWatson1]

13 minutes ago, BrotherTony said:

That shouldn't happen when transferring from one Baptist Church to another.

 

Yeah... People should do a letter of transfer from one to another

[BrotherTony]

5 minutes ago, MikeWatson1 said:

 

Yeah... People should do a letter of transfer from one to another

True. Most do. But some are just being hard to get along with when they refuse to do so.

[Jim_Alaska]

49 minutes ago, SureWord said:

So I need references?

I think a profession of faith in the blood of Christ should suffice.

Anything else is Baptist Briderism.

A profession oi faith is and has been acceptable in Baptist churches if a letter of good standing is not available from your previous church. So-called Briderism has nothing to do with it.

[Joe Chandler]

1 hour ago, SureWord said:

So I need references?

I think a profession of faith in the blood of Christ should suffice.

Anything else is Baptist Briderism.

First of all, I realize that you are responding to BrotherTony and not to me, so I hope you will forgive my intrusion. I personally belive that there are other saved people that are not members of Baptist churches. I have met some Church of God folks in the prison ministry whose profession in Christ seemed genuine. They had the same concern for souls that I have, etc. I have met Free Will Baptists that also profess to trust Christ for salvation, yet both believe that someone could lose their salvation under certain conditions. Could some of these be saved? I don't see why not. Can they visit my church? Yes. Could they join my church while believing that they can lose their salvation? No.

My original purpose in espousing believers' baptism as a prerequisite to local church membership is a question of purity of doctrine not as a condition of salvation. My thought process goes something like this; baptism ensures a regenerate membership, the Lord's supper (self examination) ensures a godly membership, and church discipline (external examination) removes the leaven from the membership. Since we are dealing with real people in an imperfect world, all of the above named biblical practices can be abused by individuals or churches or certain church leaders.

I already gave my reasons and thinking on baptism, so I will not reiterate here. I hope that I am not opening up a whole new can of worms!  

Self examination.

2 Corinthians 13:5 Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?
1 Corinthians 11:27-32 Wherefore whosoever shall eat this bread, and drink this cup of the Lord, unworthily, shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 28 But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of that bread, and drink of that cup. 29 For he that eateth and drinketh unworthily, eateth and drinketh damnation to himself, not discerning the Lord's body. 30 For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep. 31 For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged. 32 But when we are judged, we are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world.
 

External examination.

1 Corinthians 5:7-13 Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our passover is sacrificed for us: 8 Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth. 9 I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators: 10 Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world. 11 But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat. 12 For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? do not ye judge them that are within? 13 But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.

[TheGloryLand]

On 5/18/2023 at 4:19 PM, Joe Chandler said:

I don't know how your church practices baptism, but in every church that I have joined, the candidate must present a public profession of faith. Then the pastor says, "Upon your profession of faith in Christ, I baptize you, my brother, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Buried in the likeness of his death and raised to walk in newness of life."

Baptist churches have always admitted only regenerate members. Other institutional and state churches killed Baptists for this practice. Church discipline handled the problems and the restoration of ill-behaved members. This is the way to ensure that unregenerate people cannot become members with voting rights. This is only one of the Baptist distinctives that I agree with.

Hello, I believe a person who Wants to become a member of a Baptist Church should be saved and baptized for membership, now when it comes to the voting. I believe that many Baptist churches are doing this incorrectly. You’re voting for something that has been already decided on, and approved, Which does not make any sense to the person that is a member, to vote at all. I remember one time in a meeting asking why vote, if the decision has been already made by some?

[BrotherTony]

30 minutes ago, TheGloryLand said:

Hello, I believe a person who Wants to become a member of a Baptist Church should be saved and baptized for membership, now when it comes to the voting. I believe that many Baptist churches are doing this incorrectly. You’re voting for something that has been already decided on, and approved, Which does not make any sense to the person that is a member, to vote at all. I remember one time in a meeting asking why vote, if the decision has been already made by some?

Though a person may be baptized by a certain church doesn't already equate to membership. I've been a member of a church that had several people who were baptized but decided not to join the church they were baptized in. I've also witnessed a church baptize a person and then declined to accept that person for membership. There are varying reasons why this could happen which I will not go into here. But then there are churches I have been a member of that accepted a person into membership upon their baptism. It's up to each autonomous assembly to decide on the way they accept members. We should leave it to their discretion. 

[BrotherMichaelJ]

On 5/19/2023 at 8:54 PM, Joe Chandler said:

Thank you for your reply. I see what you are saying now. I'm not a universal church guy either. I believe as you do, which is why I asked for an explanation. I was espousing believers' baptism for membership in a local church.

Acts 2:41   Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls.

So being saved is a prerequisite to being baptized into a local assembly. Ideally, this would lead to a regenerate congregation. Church discipline/the Lord's supper should ensure that we live our faith. I also know that some make false professions, but I don't know what to do about that except to pray for folks that don't seem genuine and continue to preach the Word.

Brother Joe,

     I appreciate your post's and at the same time I would like to suggest that a New Testament Church which is "a body of Christ," be referred to as just that, without having to describe it as "local" since it is implied in what it stands for and the redundancy only creates confusion as if there really is a "Universal Church or Body".  For instance, what if I referenced a verse of Scripture like this: 

(Matthew 3:11, King James Bible)

“11 I indeed baptize you with [WET] water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with [HOT] fire:”

The Scriptures are clear on what makes an assembly, "called together in one place," whether it is a Jewish assembly called a synagogue, a Roman assembly called a church or Jesus's assemblies called His Church.

Hope my two cents helped!

Brother Michael

 

(1Corinthians 11:20, King James Bible)

“20 When ye come together therefore into one place,..."

[Joe Chandler]

On 8/11/2024 at 9:02 PM, BrotherMichaelJ said:

Brother Joe,

     I appreciate your post's and at the same time I would like to suggest that a New Testament Church which is "a body of Christ," be referred to as just that, without having to describe it as "local" since it is implied in what it stands for and the redundancy only creates confusion as if there really is a "Universal Church or Body".  For instance, what if I referenced a verse of Scripture like this: 

(Matthew 3:11, King James Bible)

“11 I indeed baptize you with [WET] water unto repentance: but he that cometh after me is mightier than I, whose shoes I am not worthy to bear: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with [HOT] fire:”

The Scriptures are clear on what makes an assembly, "called together in one place," whether it is a Jewish assembly called a synagogue, a Roman assembly called a church or Jesus's assemblies called His Church.

Hope my two cents helped!

Brother Michael

 

(1Corinthians 11:20, King James Bible)

“20 When ye come together therefore into one place,..."

I use the term "local church" as a matter of clarity, not redundancy. I do not want to be associated with the universal church folks. I'm glad that you recognize that the church is a local assembly.

[BrotherMichaelJ]

I understand both your desire for clarity and to also not be associated with the Universal Folks.  At the same time, to be Biblical, it is really Christ's New Testament Assemblies that differentiate themselves from both the Jewish Assemblies (Synagogues) and Roman Assemblies and he never uses the word local to describe that which has always been understood to be called out assemblies that gather together in one place at one time.  

[MikeWatson1]

In 1 Corinthians 12:13.. it is most commonly seen as salvation. 

That 'the body' here is all redeemed. 

The thing though.. that i have seen very few get.. is that the body in question in this passage is the church AT Corinth. 

The body here is a congregation. It's not all redeemed. 

So here is where we get baptism for membership to a congregation. 

A common objection I see to this is people then think I'm saying the church of Corinth is the ONLY body..seeing they think of 'there is one body..' In Ephesians 

What this isn't taking into account is the English grammar of referring to numerous things as one entity.  

'The horse'... is that one universal horse?

'The bar' is that one universal public bar'?

'The horse is a magnificent animal' .. is the way 'the body' is used in scripture. 

So... there is one body at Ephesus..one at Corinth...one at Phillipi etc 

'The body' as the institution of God's congregations/assemblies. Singular standing for plural.

Standard English grammar.

If you are going to make 1 co 12:13 about the Spirit giving salvation.. then you have the church at Corinth being what that salvation enters into. 

The church at Corinth is the body in 1 co 12. With application to other church bodies plural.

 

 

Edited November 3 by MikeWatson1
Punctuation out