What it Means to Be a Baptist: Seven Distinctives - Michael W. Mcdill

Descriere What it Means to Be a Baptist: Seven Distinctives - Michael W. Mcdill

Despite (or perhaps because of) the deluge of new church groups which poured upon the scene of history after the Reformation, the question of how to define the church still hovers in the atmosphere of our times and causes confusion and discomfort for those who claim the name Christian. Although Protestants seized upon a new theology of salvation founded upon faith, it could be argued that they failed to clarify or debunk the idea that salvation is received through the church. Exhibit A in this argument would be infant baptism. A baby who is baptized is a member of the church and thus, being inside the church so to speak, is granted salvation. Inseparable from the practice of infant baptism is the idea that entry into the church is, in some sense, entry into salvation. The great reformers not only retained infant baptism, but also embraced the medieval devotion to the state-supported church. To be born and baptized in Lutheran or any other Protestant territory was to receive salvation and also to be registered as a citizen. The question arises: are these biblical ideas? Baptists, on the other hand, have always believed that one must be saved to be in the church. Believer's baptism is the baptizing of those who have made a conscious decision to follow Christ and, according to His word, have received salvation. Baptism is thus the public and symbolic expression of having already accepted redemption, reconciliation, and rebirth by faith in the promise of God accomplished by Christ's death, burial, and resurrection. The result is that to be in the church, one must be saved by faith. The church, then, is simply composed of those who are reconciled to God through Christ and publicly demonstrate this relationship through baptism. Baptists name this arrangement, which they claim is derived from Scripture, a believers' church or a regenerate church. Without a commitment to believer's baptism, the scriptural concept of a church of believers is not possible. Any mixture of infant baptism into the formula introduces unscriptural ecclesiology and with it the questionable notion that salvation is through the church instead of through faith in Christ alone. The New Testament idea of church is that it is made up of those who have already trusted Him and are His disciples. Faith in Christ, therefore, is the groundwork for the establishment of the organic edifice He founded called the church (as Peter likened the church to a building made up of living stones). The temporal i

Detalii

Brand

Northeastern Baptist Press

Categorie

ENSTK

EAN / GTIN

9781953331366

Magazine

1

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in stock