“That is not what he wanted!”

Sunday, June 25, 2017

I had a gentleman call last week after watching our TV program. He wanted to let me know that he agreed with what we taught about Bible baptism. He went on to tell me about what he did after reading in the Bible that he needed to be baptized into Christ (Rom. 6:3) to be converted to Him (Acts 3:19).

After reading the Bible and realizing what he needed to do, the man called a Baptist preacher and asked if he would baptize him. The minister said to him, “Do you plan on coming to the church here?” He said no. Then the Baptist preacher told him, “I will not baptize you because you are to be baptized into the church.” The man eventually found someone to baptize him into Christ.

The point of this article is not to slam the Baptists. Like so many other religious sects, the Baptists teach a form of baptism that is not God-approved. Is that even possible? Yes, because it happened in New Testament times too. When you read Acts 19:1-6, you find that a group of people realized they were taught wrong about baptism. They were told that their previous baptism did not profit anything.

Does it really matter whether someone is baptized into the church? If the church is the body of Christ and a person is baptized into the church, are they not also inherently being baptized into Christ? The scriptures show that this is incorrect. We must understand why or else we might go through life thinking we are saved when we are actually still in our sins!

People are not baptized into a church because no person has the spiritual authority to do this. Closely read Acts 2:47. After the people were baptized into Christ for the remission of their sins, then the Lord added the newly-saved to His body, the church. The scriptures are also clearly showing that the Lord added them to His spiritual body, not a denominational church or a local congregation.

When you study these verses with most people, it becomes clear that they are confused about the idea of being baptized into a church but also about whether salvation comes before baptism. It is vital that we think this through. Again, Acts 2:47 depicted people being baptized into Christ for salvation, and then Christ added those saved to His church. The Baptist preacher believed that the man on the phone was already saved but wanted to baptize him into the church.

You might be scratching your head right now. If a Baptist was going to compare what they do with what Christ does, they would realize that trying to baptize “the saved” is essentially trying to save the already-saved. Remember, the Lord added the saved to His church. The Baptists are also trying to add the saved to their church. Since baptism now saves us (I Pet. 3:21), the Baptist teachings regarding baptism, salvation and church membership become a circular argument.

As the phone conversation came to a close, I commended the gentleman for seeking out proper baptism. However, I did not want him to think that becoming a Christian meant he did not need to belong to a local church. Again, he was not baptized into the church – rather, the Lord added him to His church (Matt. 16:18). Having become a Christian, the man now has an obligation to assemble with other Christians so they could come together as a church (Christ’s) and worship (I Cor. 11:17-18; Heb. 10:25).

A person who was baptized properly cannot say, “I am a Christian but not a member of the church.” Being part of the church of Christ is not to be overlooked (Rom. 16:16).

                                                                                              Chuck

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