Why We Are Baptists: Session Three

Regenerate Church Membership

 

And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. – Jer 31:34

  • The nature of the New Covenant: to be a member of the New Covenant, you…
    • Have had your sins forgiven (Jer 31:34)
    • Have been given a “new heart” (Ez 36:26), a “circumcised heart” (Deut 30:6)
    • You have God’s Law written upon your heart (Jer 31:33)
    • You are filled with the Holy Spirit (Ez 36:27, 37:14; cf. Joel 2:28-32)
    • You know God (Jer 31:34)
  • In short, to be a member of the New Covenant is to be “born again” (John 3:3-8)

The sign of the New Covenant (Baptism/Lord’s Supper) should only be reserved for those who give proper evidence of regeneration, hence our conviction about believer’s baptism.

But the sacraments are really just a way of providing visible shape to the Church.

“The sacraments provide the primary way in which the church is ‘knit together’, that is, given institutional form and order. Without them the church could be a ‘visible’ society, without doubt, but only a rather intangible one, melting indeterminately like a delicate mist as we stretched out our arms to embrace it. In these forms we know where the church is and can attach ourselves to it.” – Oliver O’Donovan, The Desire of Nations, p. 172

This is something all historic Christian churches and denominations affirm: baptism incorporates you into membership in the church. And the Lord’s Supper reaffirms or confirms that membership.

What is distinct about the Baptist perspective, however, is that we believe that both sacraments are to be reserved only for believers. Which implies regenerate church membership, that is: the visible church, to the best of our ability, is to be comprised of believers only.

Visible/Invisible Church

  • Invisible, Universal Church: All of the elect, throughout time and space. (eg. Eph 5:25)
  • Visible, Local Church: The visible institution of the local church. (eg. 1 Cor 1:2)
  • Shared convictions with all other churches:
    • Every genuine, born again Christian is a member of the invisible church and ordinarily a member of the visible church.
    • But, not every member of the visible church is a member of the invisible church.
  • Baptist Distinctive:
    • The presence of non-Christians within the visible Church is a bug, not a feature. Something has gone wrong.
    • Baptists agree that baptism brings you into membership in the church, but baptism is to only be reserved for those who have provided a credible profession of faith, who are born again.

Paedobaptist Critiques and Baptist Replies

  • The parable of the wheat and tares: “He put another parable before them, saying, “The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a man who sowed good seed in his field, 25 but while his men were sleeping, his enemy came and sowed weeds among the wheat and went away. 26 So when the plants came up and bore grain, then the weeds appeared also. 27 And the servants of the master of the house came and said to him, ‘Master, did you not sow good seed in your field? How then does it have weeds?’ 28 He said to them, ‘An enemy has done this.’ So the servants said to him, ‘Then do you want us to go and gather them?’ 29 But he said, No, lest in gathering the weeds you root up the wheat along with them. 30 Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, “Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.”’” (Matt 13:24-30)
  • The parable of the drag net: “47 “Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a net that was thrown into the sea and gathered fish of every kind. 48 When it was full, men drew it ashore and sat down and sorted the good into containers but threw away the bad. 49 So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come out and separate the evil from the righteous 50 and throw them into the fiery furnace. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” (Matt 13:46-50)
  • These demonstrate the mixed nature of….what?
    • Paedobaptists say “the church”
    • Baptists say “the world.”
  • 36 Then he left the crowds and went into the house. And his disciples came to him, saying, “Explain to us the parable of the weeds of the field.” 37 He answered, “The one who sows the good seed is the Son of Man. 38 The field is the world, and the good seed is the sons of the kingdom. The weeds are the sons of the evil one, 39 and the enemy who sowed them is the devil. The harvest is the end of the age, and the reapers are angels. (Matt 13:36-39)
    • The point of this parable is about the patience of God to not destroy the world in judging sin immediately (see 2 Pet 3:9-10)
    • The church is present in the world amidst the “weeds”—but is not the field.

  • Warning passages
    • Hebrews 3, 6, 10, or Romans 11.
    • Presbyterians argue that these demonstrate the mixed nature of the church, since the elect cannot fall away.
    • Baptists reply is multifaceted.
      • First, we explain that our view is not that we infallibly know that all who are baptized and brought into membership are born again. We are claiming “to the best of our ability” we are baptizing these individuals on the basis of a credible profession of faith. Only God knows for certain.
      • But fallibility in discernment is not the same thing as inability.
      • Jesus teaches that “You will recognize them by their fruits.” Matt 7:16-20
      • James teaches that we can “show our faith by our works” James 2:18
      • Jesus gives the keys of the kingdom to the church, to bind and loosen on heaven’s behalf (Matt 18:15-20; John 20:23)

The warning passages of Scripture are to be interpreted, thus, in two ways:

First, it could be describing those who were mistakenly brought into the church, but are not elect. In this sense, their “falling away” isn’t because they have fallen away from membership in the New Covenant; they never were a part of the New Covenant.

  • They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would have continued with us. But they went out, that it might become plain that they all are not of us. – 1 John 2:19

Second, these warnings are means of grace God has provided to preserve His elect. The elect hear the warnings of final destruction, and (because of their new hearts) heed them.