Providence Reformed Baptist Church

Reformed Baptist Church in Remlap, Alabama

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Self-Feeders?

We’re living in a day and age where the New Testament doctrine of the church is fast becoming an antiquated idea for many professing Christians. In fact, the most popular trend among American evangelicals, is being what is called, “a self-feeder.” One of the biggest cheerleaders for this idea is the leading evangelical marketing consultant, George Barna – who, in 2005, wrote a book entitled, Revolution: Finding Vibrant Faith beyond the Walls of the Sanctuary.

In this book, Barna’s main objective is to make the case that the “revolutionaries” have found that in order to pursue an authentic faith they had to abandon the church. Who needs the church when you have an iPod? Thus, for Barna and his revolutionaries, Christians cannot survive in the 21st century if they retain any commitment to the local organized church. Christians must find their intimacy with God and growth in Christ in their own ways and by their own methods, without depending on the church to aid them and hold them accountable to such growth. Hence, the Christian of the 21st century, according to Barna, is a self-feeder.

Sadly and tragically, in our American culture of rugged individualism, the Christian as a self-feeder appeals strongly to the flesh. It caters to that gravitational pull of wanting freedom and independence without having to answer to anyone for what we think, feel, say, or do. It recoils against submission to authority and resists the very notion of personal accountability. And for many professing Christians in this American culture, they see the local church – as designed by God – with its leadership, order, and discipline as the greatest threat to their liberty.

The New Testament doctrine of the church therefore is under siege – by self-serving, self-centered, self-feeders who have been deceived into thinking that their maturity as Christians has grown beyond their need for the church. But what they believe is the answer to a greater walk with God, will only prove in the end to leave them in spiritual infancy with all the hang-ups and hindrances that come with those who never truly mature (see 1 Corinthians 3:1-3; Hebrews 5:11-14).

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United in Christ as the Body of Christ

When God saves us there are many wonderful and remarkable things that happen to us as individuals. First of all, we’re born again with a new principle of life which we never had before (John 3:1-8). Second of all, with the new birth, we receive a new nature – a new heart – that pulsates with new affections and drives that are centered on Christ and wanting to follow Him in full obedience (Ezekiel 36:26-27; Luke 9:23; Colossians 3:5-10). Third of all, our personal standing with God has radically changed. While before we were under condemnation and wrath due to our sin, now we are forgiven, declared righteous, and forever accepted by God because of everything Christ achieved by His life and death in our place (Romans 3:21-28; 8:1-2; Ephesians 1:7).

But not only has God justified us in Christ, we have also been united with Christ in spiritual union, where He is now our life (Romans 6:1-6; Colossians 3:4). In fact, what the apostle Paul writes to the Galatians as his own testimony, is true of every Christian: “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me”(Galatians 2:20). These words of truth speak to the reality of spiritual union all Christians have with Jesus Christ our Lord. They testify to the life transformation that God has brought to every sinner He has chosen to save.

In addition to these blessings though, a Christian has become someone who is supernaturally indwelt by the Holy Spirit (Romans 8:9). And through the power of the Holy Spirit working in a believer, they are being sanctified in the very image of Christ Himself (2 Corinthians 3:18). Needless to say, the point of all these examples is simply to give proof to the fact that when God’s saving grace comes to us as individuals, there are an astounding number of personal blessings we receive (cf. Ephesians 1:3)

However, while God saves us as individuals, yet He does not leave us in our individualism. What does this mean? It means that the Christian and the life he lives is not as one who is isolated from other Christians. To put it in the vernacular: God does not save sinners to live as “lone rangers.” He redeems us and gives us a new life to be lived with fellow Christians (Hebrews 10:24-25). In other words, our personal walk with God is not a private walk but a corporate, collective, public walk with other believers in Jesus Christ.

This is why, for instance, when you read in Acts 2:41 and following, about the three thousand sinners God saved on the day of Pentecost – it says, proceeding their conversion, they collectively “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers” (Acts 2:42). They did not separate from each other but united together as the church of Jesus Christ. Acts 2:44 states this with more plainness: “And all who believed were TOGETHER and had all things in common” (emphasis mine).

If you might be wondering why all these people stayed together, who before their conversion were strangers – 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 gives us the theological and spiritual reason: “For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we are all baptized into one body – Jews and Greeks, slaves or free – and all were made to drink of one Spirit.” Based on this passage, here is another remarkable blessing God brings when He saves us in Christ. By the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit we are all placed TOGETHER in the spiritual body of Jesus Christ. No matter our cultural background, our ethnic distinctions, or our social class – when God saves us He unites us, not only with Christ, but with the body of Christ – who is the church.

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Why do Baptists not baptize infants?

Why do Baptists not baptize infants? Answering this question in 1853, Patrick Hues Mell (1814-1888) wrote very bluntly: “Infant Baptism finds no warrant in God’s Word. No precept enjoins it – no inspired example sanctions it, and no analogy suggests it…The Scriptures furnish, in precept and example, no baptism but that of a believer, upon a profession of his faith in Christ.” So then, based on what P.H. Mell contends, infant baptism is an unbiblical baptism and thereby, what we might call, a pseudo-baptism. With neither a divine command nor a biblical example to support its practice – as Mell points out – it ends up falling under the indictment of being labeled a false church ordinance.

But P.H. Mell’s strong words against infant baptism were merely an echo from the Baptist Catechism of 1693 – where question ninety-nine reads: “Are the infants of such as are professing believers to be baptized?” The answer follows: “The infants of such as are professing believers are not to be baptized, because there is neither command or example in the Holy Scriptures, or certain consequence from them to baptize such.” 

What is most significant to highlight from both the Baptist Catechism and the pen of P.H. Mell, is the larger doctrine driving Baptists in their refusal to baptize the unconverted infants of Christian parents. It is the doctrine known as “The Regulative Principle of Worship.” This doctrine simply states that true worship is only that which is commanded by God in His Word. False worship is anything other than what is commanded.

Expanding further on this principle, Ernest Reisinger (1919-2004) wrote: “The regulative principle flows from the fact that humanity’s ability to approach God was barred as a consequence of the fall, and that it was impossible for man on his own to renew the fellowship that he had enjoyed with God in the garden. Thus, the way of communion with God could be opened again only by God’s determination. Not only that but the very terms of a renewed communion, intercourse and fellowship with God had to be determined by God and God alone.”

Now for our Baptist forbearers, the regulative principle was applied exclusively to church ordinances, church government, and acts of worship. Hence, in Chapter 22 of the 1689 Baptist Confession, this principle is expressed as follows: “But the acceptable way of worshiping the true God, is instituted by Himself, and so limited by His own revealed will, that He may not be worshiped according to the imagination and devices of men, nor the suggestions of Satan, under any visible representations, or any other way not prescribed in the Holy Scriptures.”

This confessional statement makes it unmistakably clear that the only “acceptable way” to worship God is determined by God and not man. Moreover, this statement implies the obvious fact that if extra-biblical practices are enjoined to what God has commanded for worship, then such unscriptural elements will actually undermine what God has appointed. Furthermore, the sufficiency of the Scriptures themselves are called into question by the addition of unwarranted sanctions in worship. Is not God’s holy infallible Word enough to instruct us and reveal to us what He has commanded for worship, without adding what we believe would perhaps enhance the worship experience? The question answers itself.

Therefore, when it comes to rejecting infant baptism, Baptists are only being faithful and obedient to what God has appointed in His Word. Infant baptism is a practice introduced by man and sanctioned by man and thereby established as a tradition according to man. God does not approve it because He has never appointed it as a divine ordinance to be carried out in His church. Thus, to carry out this practice as an integral part of sanctioned worship in the church, is the equivalent of Nadab and Abihu’s “strange fire” offering before the Lord (Lev. 10:1-3). While God did not forbid the sons of Aaron from offering their “strange fire”, yet He did not authorize it. In short, God did not command the offering given by these young men. Hence, their offering was condemned by God because it was not commanded by God. And for infant baptism, it’s no different.

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Is there anything good in a divided church?

Have you ever wondered, “Can anything good ever come out of a local church that’s divided?” I would imagine that many, if not most, professing Christians would answer such a question with an emphatic, “No!” Such a response is certainly understandable.

For one thing, the unity of a local church is commanded as a divine mandate. In Ephesians 4:3, believers are urged to be “eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The significance of this passage is that it reveals a unity which already exists between all Christians – a unity that is created by the Holy Spirit Himself. Hence, it is not a unity manufactured by the church. Yet, the believer in Christ is strongly exhorted to make every effort to guard or keep this unity at all times. This is done by what Ephesians 4:1-2 describes as a “worthy walk.” Such a “walk” or way of life is characterized by relating to one another in humility, gentleness, patience, and with fore-bearing love. When these graces are cultivated by fellow believers, then they will in turn support and preserve the unity of the Spirit.

So then, needless to say, the Spirit’s unity, which binds all Christians together in peace, is a unity that can be severely harmed and stifled. When Christians are not walking in a manner worthy of the calling to which they have been called by God in Christ (see Ephesians 1:3-3:21) – then division will erupt and the Spirit’s unity will go underground. This is why diligence must be given by the church as a whole, to maintain the unity we have in Christ by the work of the Holy Spirit.

But even in the face of such a clear biblical command, local churches suffer seasons of division and strife, that in some cases, have left church fellowships forever marred. However, as hurtful as this is to a local church, can there be any good that could come out of a divided church? The answer from God’s Word is surprisingly – yes!

In the first place, there is the overarching promise of Romans 8:28, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.” The “good” to which this promise is referring is what’s revealed in verse 29, as being “conformed to the image of [Christ].” God, by the works of His providence, is ruling and governing “all things” to work in behalf of all His people, as a means of shaping them more into the image of Christ. This would include even horrid church divisions! That is, a divided church is used by God to transform His children more into the image of Christ.

But next to the promise of Romans 8:28, there is also the more specific teaching of 1 Corinthians 11:19. In this passage, the apostle Paul asserts – on the heels of affirming the reality of division in the Corinthian church – that, “there must be factions among you in order that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” The principle point being made by this statement concerning church division, is that God uses such adversity to prove the true character of His redeemed people – “that those who are genuine among you may be recognized.” In other words, in the same way that precious metals are tried in fire to certify their purity; so division in the church is permitted by God, to test and bear out the authentic faith of genuine believers. Observing this fact, Charles Hodge (1797-1878) wrote:

By the prevalence of disorders and other evils in the church, God puts his people to the test. They are tried like gold in a furnace, and their genuineness is made to appear. It is a great consolation to know that dissensions in the church are not matters of chance, but are ordered by God’s providence and are designed as storms for the purpose of purification. 

This is why Paul qualifies the presence of “factions” in a local church as necessary. He says, “There must be factions among you.” The necessity is grounded in God’s specific purpose. The Lord therefore overrules the damage caused by church division, to bring to light those who are valid converts to Christ and those who are not. So, when thinking about or dreading the potential of division rising up in the church, may we recall that even this is working toward a greater good for God’s people by God’s plan. This truth will fortify us whenever church division shows its ugly head.