Baptists View of the Church: Baptists Task because of misunderstanding about the Church Part 8 by Dan Nelson

Dan Nelson 03/19/21  Baptists View of the Church: Baptists Task because of misunderstanding about the Church Part 8

These are difficult days to teach the correct interpretation of the church Baptists have believed through the centuries. Baptists have always struggled to teach this doctrine and stand in the free church tradition. Catholicism and rulers have used the teaching of the universal and state church to besmirch and persecute Baptists for their stand on a free church in a free state correctly constituting as a New Testament church. A lack of understanding has existed because of wrong ideas taught from much of Christian TV, people’s failure to explore the Bible and study the history of Baptists, plus biblical illiteracy through many venues. Today there is even a lack of understanding of biblical morality against the immorality that has led to a moral mudslide in entertainment, news reporting and everyday life. The errors coupled with many stating what they think is a non-denominational church free from any affiliation with denominations, history, and doctrinal understanding of these matters. The typical minister in these congregations will constantly preach against these trademarks they believe they are free. They tout their independence, but all the new contemporary music comes from a few main groups and sounds the same. Their break from all this stuff is a smoke screen because they align themselves with so many things, they have common with other groups like theirs.Add zoom church and staying home because of the pandemic to do church on your own and you do have a confusing time. How do we confront such difficulty to be true to the Scripture and our historic Baptist faith? We must deal with how we view the church as an important matter. God’s Word has not changed what the church is. 1-It is a Discipleship Matter: Many would say, “What does the correct view of the church have to do with me today”? We are told to accommodate other groups and let people grow in their faith. The sad reality is: You will not grow in your faith unless you are involved as an active member of a New Testament church. Church involvement is not window dressing but a commitment to the Lord in His body. Saying you are a member of a denomination or non-denominational group does not make you an active church member. How many names on most Baptist church roles are inactive members? You see in the New Testament new converts actively involved in local congregations. Why did Paul seek to join himself with the local Jerusalem congregation with Barnabas in Acts 9:27? Church membership through baptism is not a preference it is a command. You don’t sleep at the front door of the church. You follow the Lord through involvement and accountable membership in it. William Estep shared, “Baptist’s theological convictions demanded action despite clear knowledge of its bitter consequences. Immediately, baptism became the burning issue of the hour and the symbol of Anabaptist discipleship.”1 William Estep, The Anabaptist Story, Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 150.2-It is a Doctrinal Matter-The New Testament teaches membership in an accountable group of believers. There were no Christians standing outside the local congregation saying they were in the “Big Church.” It says in Acts 2:41 new converts were added to them at Pentecost through baptism. I Cor. 12:13 says into one body are we baptized by one spirit. Does Christ have an invisible body in His church? Littell defines the Anabaptist movement solely in terms of ecclesiology. “The Anabaptists proper were those …who gathered and disciplined a ‘True Church’ (Rechte Kirche) upon the apostolic pattern.2 Franklin Hamlin Littell, The Anabaptist View of the Church (Boston: Starr King Press, 1958), 45-47.Baptism and Church Membership are not secondary doctrines. Local congregations were active, thriving and visible, and challenged by Christ in the message to the seven churches of Asia. To rob New Testament churches of their importance is to pervert what the church is and what it is supposed to be. The First London Baptist Confession of 1644 in Article 33 affirms the church, “…is A company of visible Saints, called & separated from the world. by the word and the Spirit of God, to the visible profession of the faith of the Gospel, being baptized into that faith and joined to the Lord. and each other by mutual agreement.”3 Michael Haykin, Kiffin, Knollys, and Keach, Rediscovering our English Baptist Heritage, (Leeds, England: Reformation Today Trust, 1996), 35.We don’t believe in baptismal regeneration, but we do believe in baptismal initiation and that new Christians are under the command of God to be baptized as a belief into a New Testament Church for involvement in that congregation and growth as a believer.3-It is a Defendable Matter: We are not just left to what Baptists have suffered and died for in history. We find from logic and Scripture the necessity of involvement in a congregation. One body cannot have two meanings. A family only becomes a true family by local participation. Scripture always indicates local, independent congregations who help members accountable in Acts 8:1, 9:33, 14:23, I Cor 1:2, I Cor. 14:33, Rev 1:4. Christ’s body of believers can only be understood in a local, visible, functional sense. We need to correct the error that out there about what the church is and require baptism for believers into that local congregation who have followed the Lord in the same manner. In doing so we stand for the truth that will correct misunderstanding and challenge New Christians to be obedient followers of Christ in His churches.

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