The Biblical Case for Baptism Preceding Church Membership

VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

Benjamin Kreps

Hey, everyone, and welcome to the podcast, where our aim is to connect our global family of Sovereign Grace churches with our Executive Director. On the podcast last episode, we talked about the sacraments of baptism and communion, and you sought to make a biblical case for baptism preceding communion. And on this episode, we're going to revisit this area, and this time we're going to talk about baptism as it relates to church membership.

Mark Prater

I think it's an important topic. And where we're headed is I want to make a biblical case for baptism preceding church membership. But, you know, that's a debate in the evangelical world. There are a couple of phrases that are used. "Closed membership" — those that believe there's a biblical case for baptism preceding church membership — and then "open membership," which basically means they're convinced that someone is a believer but not yet baptized. And maybe in a lot of those cases, someone has been baptized as an infant, or baptized before they were a Christian, and then they're born again and they're still wrestling through a credobaptist view of baptism — whether they need to be baptized again or not. So those are sort of the two camps: closed membership and open membership, and they all sort of hinge on this issue of baptism.

Benjamin Kreps

All right. Well, let's break it down a little bit before we formulate the case from Scripture. We are not paedobaptist in Sovereign Grace — we hold to believer's baptism. Talk about the importance of believer's baptism and talk about the importance of church membership.

Mark Prater

Obviously baptism is one of the two sacraments the Lord gave the church — baptism and the Lord's Supper, which we talked about last week. He commands us as his disciples to baptize new disciples in the Great Commission in Matthew chapter 28, verse 19. And so when someone is baptized, they are publicly declaring their identity with Christ. They're saying, "Now I belong to him." You see that identification with Christ in passages like Galatians chapter 3, verses 26 through 28. I'm just going to read verse 27 in Galatians 3: "For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ." So obviously there's an identity that happens — you're identifying with Christ when you publicly declare your confession of faith and are water baptized.

You also see in Acts chapter 2 that when someone is baptized, they are identifying not only with Christ, but with the people of Christ. You see that in Acts chapter 2, verse 41. On the day of Pentecost, Peter preaches this wonderful gospel message, they respond to the gospel, and this is what's recorded in verse 41: "So those who received his word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls." So they were added to the people of Christ on that day. So at baptism, we are with Christ — it's a public identification with Christ and the people of Christ.

So you might ask, what about those who were baptized as infants? Well, I think keep in mind, at least for our pastors, our statement of faith. This is what it says: "Baptism is an initiatory, unrepeated sacrament for those who come to faith in Christ that pictures their remission of sins and union with Christ in his death and resurrection through immersion in water. In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, the believer publicly proclaims his faith in Christ and signifies his entrance into the body of Christ."

So obviously someone who was typically baptized as an infant by sprinkling — we believe in immersion and water baptism as credobaptists. Our statement of faith is clear that if someone was baptized as an infant and sprinkled before conversion, it would be good if they were baptized. Of course they have to — you want to be patient with them and wrestle through that with them. And also, someone who maybe was baptized when they were older but truly weren't converted — and then later they were born again — they should be baptized as well, because they're truly making their identity with Christ and the people of Christ.

So that's a little bit about baptism. Church membership is just a wonderful privilege we've been given, and it starts with Jesus saying in Matthew chapter 16, verse 18 that "I will build my church." Jesus comes and establishes the New Testament church, saying the gates of hell will not prevail against it. And one of the reasons Jesus came to this earth was to establish the church, and we honor that when we become members of a local body.

One of the metaphors you see throughout Scripture is the flock — that describes the local body of Christ. You see that in Acts chapter 20, verse 28, where Paul is saying to the Ephesian elders, "Pay careful attention to yourselves and to all the flock, the flock in Ephesus, the church in Ephesus, in which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers, to care for the church of God which he obtained with his own blood." So there's a clear delineation that these Ephesian elders were to care for a specific group of people — that people is the church in Ephesus. So a church, a shepherd, a pastor knows his flock because they are people who have committed to that local church. They become members.

The other metaphor you see in relation to a church is the metaphor of body. So Ephesians chapter 1, verses 22 and 23: "And he put all things under his feet and gave him as head over all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all." Think about this metaphor of body and the analogy to the human body — your body isn't disconnected. We don't take our ears off and lay them on the dresser and only put them on when we want to hear, right? We are connected. Our body parts are connected. We are united together as one body.

And that's why Donald Whitney says so well that the local body of Christ should be like this also — those joined to Christ, who are members of his body, express that relationship in a visible membership. It's that public identity with a specific group of believers in a local church.

I just want to mention one very sobering verse for pastors: Hebrews 13:17 says, "Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they — the pastors, the leaders — are keeping watch over your souls as those who will have to give an account. Let them do this with joy, not with groaning, for that would be of no advantage to you." So pastors are going to stand before the Lord and give an account for people's souls. Whose souls do they give an account for? I believe they give an account for those who have made a commitment to that church through membership.

And let me just say one other thing. In Acts chapter 2, when someone is baptized, they are not only identifying with the universal body of Christ, as we saw in Acts chapter 2, verse 41 — they're identifying with a specific body of believers as well. So church membership is that identity. Bobby Jamieson says this in his book Going Public: "Church membership is a public affirmation of someone's public profession of faith in Christ. And Jesus appointed baptism as the means by which his followers publicly profess their faith in him. A church can't affirm the profession of someone who hasn't yet made that profession." So he's linking church membership and baptism there, and begins to build a case for baptism preceding church membership.

Benjamin Kreps

Well, I think we're pretty much on the same page on this one. With all due respect to our faithful Presbyterian brothers and sisters whom we love. But even in Sovereign Grace, there can be a variety or a spectrum of practices in this area that remain faithful to the statement of faith. Just last Sunday, we had a bunch of baptisms — including two adults who had been baptized as babies — walking through what can be an uncomfortable experience of getting to a place of wanting to do that, because all kinds of questions arise. So like you said earlier, pastoral care and wisdom applied is necessary in all of this, along with patience and so forth.

But I'm with you. We at Living Hope would say that one must be baptized as a professing believer — not as an infant — in order to come into membership. We always have our baptism before a membership Sunday to give opportunity for people who have gone through the class and are pursuing membership to get baptized so they can become members. But why don't you make the case for this from Scripture?

Mark Prater

That's the case I want to make. It's not like a rule, so to speak — or at least these are my thoughts, Ben. I just think Scripture makes a compelling case. So let me go back to Acts chapter 2. Let me read verses 41 and 42: "So those who received this word were baptized, and they were added that day about 3,000 souls." Then verse 42: "And they devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." So people were born again, they were baptized, they were added to a specific local body of believers where they benefited from teaching, fellowship, the breaking of bread — and I think that's obviously speaking about sharing communion together as well.

We see that similar pattern in 1 Corinthians 12. Paul addresses those he's writing to as Christians in chapter 1, verse 2, calling them "saints who call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ" — so they've identified with Christ. He goes on to address those who had identified with Christ and his people through baptism. You see that in 1 Corinthians 1:13–17 and in 1 Corinthians 12:13, where he writes, "For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body." And those members of the church — those are members of that specific local church. You see that in 1 Corinthians 12, verses 12 through 30, which talks about that body metaphor.

So what you see in 1 Corinthians 12 is really the same pattern that you see in Acts chapter 2. People are born again, they respond to the gospel, repent of sins, place their faith in Christ, they are baptized identifying with Christ — and that precedes them being added to a local church. Whether it was the church in Acts 2 in Jerusalem or the church in Corinth, you see this very similar pattern.

Benjamin Kreps

Yeah, it's interesting as well — I appreciate the clarity that those pictures in Scripture show us. Including at the end of Acts chapter 2, verse 47: "The Lord added to their number" — this defined group. So people are continuing to be added to this defined group — what we call membership in a local church — as people are coming to faith and being baptized and so forth.

So I'm with you. And the wonderful thing is we can exist together as brother pastors in Sovereign Grace and share different kinds of perspectives and learn from one another. Hopefully there are some folks out here who learn some things from you today. So thanks for sharing your thoughts, and thank you all for checking out the podcast. We'll see you here next week, Lord willing. Bye for now.