"Denominational" Baptism. "Church of Christ" Baptism. We come up with lots of adjectives before the word baptism that are not found in Scripture. This often leads us away from the simple truth of the Gospel. It leads to labeling, party system, and sectarianism.
The temptation to implement our judgments on a person's baptism is strong among God's people. We want to know who baptized them. We want to know who the teacher was. What church they were in. And other factors to decide if they are like us. All of those are factors. But be careful. Anyone, anywhere, anytime, can read the Scripture and obey it, without asking your permission or using your local church's baptistry.
We want to know: have you submitted to God in the One Baptism:
- Full Immersion in Water - John 3:23. Acts 8:35-39
- To Follow and Obey Jesus - Matthew 3:15; Mark 16:15-16; Matthew 28:18-20
- For the Forgiveness of Sins - Acts 2:38; Acts 22:16
- Uniting with Christ's Power - Romans 6:3-7
- To be Added by God to the Body - Acts 2:47
- To Begin a New Walk in Faith - Acts 2:31-47
How much did they know beyond this?
- Some say a whole bunch - Acts 2:40
- But Scripture argues differently - see Acts 8 and Acts 16
- But what about the Baptizer?
- And what about the Teacher?
- Or the Church they came from?
- How will our Church handle that?
Let's dig in - cutting through sectarian and denominational thinking and getting back to the Word and the simple connection between and Individual - the Gospel - and God.