Monday, August 20, 2007

Baptism and Church Membership (Again)

The Baptism and Church Membership debate seems to be the hot topic in the blogosphere right now. Mark Dever has gone on record to say that the paedobaptists should not be accepted into the membership of a Baptist church because they are unbaptized and are thus in sin for disobeying God's commands. But as Abraham Piper points out, there is a difference between being an unrepentant sinner and being wrong about a theological point. Sam Storms has now weighed in with this comment:

Let me be clear on one thing. I am a credo-baptist, not a paedo-baptist. That is to say, I believe that only those who believe in Jesus Christ should receive the ordinance of water baptism.... Ligon Duncan, on the other hand, is a Presbyterian paedo-baptist. Because of this, both Mark Dever and Al Mohler made it clear that if Duncan were in attendance at either of their churches they would not permit him to partake of the elements of the Lord's Supper....
This may be offensive to some, but the claim to be "Together for the Gospel" rings a bit hollow to me when some would decline to fellowship with others around the Lord's Table because of their disagreement on the proper recipients of baptism.
For church planters like me, issues like these need to be carefully considered, and even more carefully applied.

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