The Church Part 8

E. It should be noted here that once a child of God has been properly baptized into a local church, he need not be re-baptized if he should seek membership in another legitimate N.T. church. 1. His baptism has shown he has a part in the redemptive and regenerative work of the Lord Jesus Christ. a. Baptism requires faith in Christ and repentance. b. Penitent believers have a regenerated nature, everlasting life, justification and a heavenly inheritance in the heavenly church. 1JO 5:4; JOH 6:47; ACT 13:39; 1PE 1:3-4; HEB 12:23. c. As Christ only once died, was buried and resurrected for sinners, believers who identify with that saving work in the figure of water baptism only need do so once. d. A loose analogy of this would be that once an individual has acquired a certificate of United States citizenship (and all that implies) in one state, he need not go through the process again if he seeks residency in another state of the union. He may have to convince the state that he indeed has certification already but submitting proof of certification is not the same as recertification. e. The case in ACT 19:1-6 is not of a re-baptism, but rather a real baptism. (1) This was in later Christian history the argument of various dissident churches which did not accept unbiblical baptisms as real baptisms. (2) Thus, they affirmed that they were not rebaptizing converts to their churches: they were baptizing unbaptized people who had been deceived into faulty anti-baptisms or “baptisms falsely so called.” (3) Multitudes in history have thought they were baptized but weren’t. 2. A properly baptized genuine believer has been graft into: a. the organizational structure of the local church by the minister of Jesus Christ performing the ordinance in obedience to Christ’s command to baptize instructed believers. MAT 28:19-20 c/w ACT 8:35-38. b. the inward reality of the fellowship of the Spirit by God Himself. 1CO 12:13 c/w ACT 2:47. 3. As long as such a one remains faithful to the word of God, he may simply seek membership in another valid church by transfer, as the Apostle Paul did in ACT 9:26-28. a. If proof of a person's standing and fellowship with God can be satisfactorily established, a church should be willing to receive him into membership. b. Again, “...What God hath cleansed [and accepted into fellowship], that call not thou common” (ACT 10:15). c. Contrast the above with Diotrephes. 3JO 1:9-10. The Church 6-9-24 Page 16  4. If there are sufficient doubts as to the legitimacy of a person's previous baptism (especially if the candidate himself has doubts), it would be wise to play it safe and baptize him since a good conscience should attend all faith. ROM 14:22-23; 1TI 1:19. a. Some might argue that examining the propriety of a membership-seeker’s baptism is nitpicking: if he has confessed Christ as Lord and Savior, why strive over details? b. But such reasoning could dispense with the ordinance of baptism altogether: why even baptize if confession of Christ is all that is important? c. This folly could even be pushed further: why be concerned about a person’s beliefs concerning Jesus Christ if he wills to become a church member? “So he doesn’t believe Jesus rose bodily from the grave. Is he a nice person? Is he wealthy? Let him join!” d. This boils down to a basic question: Whose will determines the receiving of one into the membership of a church: God’s as revealed in Scripture, or sinful man’s will according to his own bright ideas which are the way of death? See PRO 14:12. F. The model for the building of N.T. churches is the Jerusalem church. It, and no other, is the “mother church” of Christianity. ROM 11:16-18; 15:25-27; 1TH 2:14. 1. That church was built by penitent believers’ baptism in water. ACT 2:38-41. 2. Thus, however much doctrine is necessary for a scriptural baptism must also be necessary for a legitimate church. G. The proprieties of a scriptural baptism are as follows: 1. A proper administrator: a validly ordained male minister. MAT 28:19-20; TIT 1:5-6; ACT 21:8 c/w ACT 8:38. a. If valid ordination is not a necessity, could a child baptize someone? b. If valid ordination is not a necessity, could a woman baptize someone? Could a pedobaptist who holds that “baptism is come in the room of infant circumcision” use Zipporah to justify women performing baptisms? EXO 4:25. 2. A proper recipient: a penitent believer. MAT 3:6-11; MAR 16:15-16; ACT 2:38- 41; 8:12, 36-37; 16:14-15, 31-34; 18:8. a. Someone who is an involuntary subject (like an infant) does not qualify. b. Someone who ceases sinful ways but does not believe on Christ does not qualify. c. Someone who believes on Christ but continues in unrepentance does not qualify. 3. A proper belief: that Jesus Christ is the Son of God as revealed in the Scriptures. ACT 8:36-38; MAR 16:15-16 c/w 1CO 15:1-4. a. Remember: there are other Jesuses and Christs. 2CO 11:4; MAT 24:24. b. A Jesus Christ not conceived by God and born to the virgin Mary, or who sinned, or who did not die and rise bodily from the grave is not the true Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 4. A proper mode: immersion in water. ROM 6:4-5; JOH 3:23; ACT 8:38. a. Why not oil, blood or acid as the fluid, maybe steam-cleaning? b. Sprinkling or pouring do not depict burial in the heart of the earth. MAT 12:40. c. Luther referred to “John the Baptist” as “John the Dipper.” d. “...it is evident that the term baptise means to immerse, and that this was the The Church 6-9-24 Page 17  form used by the primitive Church.” (John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion, p. 524) e. “St. Paul alludes to the manner in which Baptism was ordinarily conferred in the primitive church, by immersion. The descent into the water is suggestive of the descent of the body into the grave, and the ascent is suggestive of the resurrection to a new life.” (Saint Joseph Edition of the Holy Bible, Confraternity Version, re: ROM 6:3) 5. A proper result: prompt addition to a biblically constituted local church. ACT 2:37-41, 47. a. It is not a matter of A+B+C+D will = E but A+B+C+D+E = a proper baptism. b. This guards against the notion of “free-range dunkees” not joined to the body of Christ, the church. This is a very popular error. c. There are some things in Scripture where the result of certain factors validates the factors. Example: (1) Faith in God’s words is the means of overcoming Satan, the flesh and the world. 1JO 5:4. (2) But unless that faith is validated by accordant action, the faith is dead. JAM 2:17-20, 26; 4:17. e. As Christ’s minister, I only baptize people to make them part of an existing church or if sufficient numbers are being baptized to form a church that same day. H. If a church does not have these skeletal criteria for its construction, can it even be a true church of Jesus Christ, for it is by this means that a church is “...built up a spiritual house...” (1PE 2:5)? If a legitimate church ceases to be built after the model of the Jerusalem church, how long shall it be before it loses its identity? At the latest, it could only last until the last generation of properly baptized members pass away. The Church 6-9-24 Page 18