Baptism and Rebaptism

June 13, 2007 8:34:51 AM GMT+07:00 sing wrote:

Dear Brother,

My sincere apology for not responding earlier.
Thanks for sharing with me your situation with the Bible Baptist Church.
I do commend you and dear wife for the sincere desire to practice biblical churchmanship. I am sad that such desire has been rebuffed by the BBC. May the Lord bless you both for wanting to do right even though others have unwisely put obstacles in your path. Being part of a God-fearing and Christ-honoring local church is essential to our well-being (NOT 'being') as God's children, and making our journey through this wilderness world to our eternal home and glory.

Concerning the demand to be baptized again before admission into church membership, this is not unusual with some churches, each having their various and weird reasons. Many of these reasons are whimsical and unscriptural. The Scriptures do speak of the need of 're-baptism' when the previous baptism, for various reasons, did not constitute a valid or scriptural baptism - see Acts 19.

So, the parties involved need to come to an agreement of what constitutes a biblical baptism, and what constitutes an alien invalid baptism. The Scriptures speak of the ONE Lord and ONE baptism. What constitutes the ONE baptism commanded, and accepted by the Lord Jesus Christ? Different people will give various number of reasons... all claiming to be biblical. It is one thing for a church to claim biblical authority to her practice, it is another to prove it from the plain statements of Scripture. Scripture is, and must be the ONLY authority for our faith and practice.

From the Scriptures, we can discern without doubt that the ONE baptism spoken of is the baptism of (a) believer (b) by immersion, and (c) a valid administrator.

(a) A valid administrator is an officer of Christ representing a local NT church. He is delegated by Christ to administer the authority which Christ Himself has invested in the church; it is not invested in the administrator! (Some pastors claim that the power is invested in them, and become tyrannical and lording over the Lord's heritage.) The administrator performs baptism in the name of Christ, baptizing in the name of the Trinity, by the authority of Christ vested in the local church, and the baptized are added into the membership of the church.

(b) Immersion is the only mode specified by Christ, and from every consideration the only mode that adequately expresses and portrays a person's union with the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. I have never seen a dead person buried with a handful of soil sprinkled over him. Such is no burial at all! In such case, it is imperative that another burial, a proper one is performed. No immersion, no baptism, no matter what. No one will dispute that sprinkling a handful of dirt on a dead person constitutes NO burial!

(c) Only a believer is a valid candidate for baptism. But a believer in/of what? Various churches insist that unless a person believes this or that doctrine of their churches, e.g. Pre-millennialism, Dispensationalism, Calvinism, church-ism (we are the true church), or this 'ism' and that 'ism', etc, etc. he is not a suitable candidate for baptism. All these have gone beyond the Scriptures. They are adding to Scriptures. Believing in the Person of Jesus Christ as the Lord and Saviour is all that the Scripture requires of a person to be a fit candidate for water immersion - that is all the requirement of the Scriptures upon a repentant sinner. These believers may only have minimal knowledge of the Person and Work of the Lord Jesus Christ - they may be ignorant of the deep doctrines of the person of Christ - that's what we see in the Scriptures again and again. They heard the gospel, believe, and were baptized. Teaching and instructing and grounding them in sound doctrines and training them in practical godliness FOLLOWS AFTER their baptism. All the epistles were written to churches to establish them in the sound doctrines and practical godliness, to reprove and to correct them of their errors and practices. If these people had known and agreed with all the doctrines before they were baptized, there would be no more need of these apostolic epistles to them!!!

'Believing in/on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ' qualifies a sinner as a biblical candidate for baptism, and makes his baptism a biblical baptism.

So a believer in Jesus Christ who is immersed by a biblical officer of a NT church in the blessed name of the Triune God is one who is biblically baptized. Such baptism should be recognized and received by all church who honor Christ as the Head of the Church. One who have not undergone biblical baptism should be properly baptized - let the old man be properly buried by immersion by a lawful administrator.

Biblical baptism is in the name of Christ; it is not in the name of a church or a denomination. Some churches believe that only baptism administered by their churches and in the name of their churches are valid. This is presumptuous at best, and self-conceited at worst. They elevate themselves above Christ. I fear that the BBC in Cheras that requires you to be baptized in order to be admitted into its membership belongs to this category.

To reject and despise a biblical baptism that Christ has received and approved is no small offense. I think repudiating what Christ Jesus, the alone Head of the Church, has received and approved is a serious matter. It is putting themselves at odd against Jesus Christ, arbitrarily setting up human standards in the house of God, the church of Christ. But many only give lip service to Christ Headship and Lordship. In reality, they usurp Christ's authority by legislating and imposing their own whims and fancies upon His redeemed people. It amounts to adding to Scriptures, and despising Christ's authority as the ALONE head of His church.

For a believer, who have been baptized biblical, to submit to another baptism is not a small offense either. Such act is an affront and insult to Christ. It is to despise the valid baptism one already received. It is liken to have your old man that had been properly buried being dug up so that another burial may be performed upon it! That's what demand for re-baptism of a properly baptized child of God amounts too! It is a great offense to the dead that had been properly buried to be dug up and be buried again. Do people ever consider what their demand amount too?

In light of these follies, it is a matter of comfort and assurance to know that our place in eternal glory in the presence of God is all by the mercies and grace of God... "For whom He did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that he might be the first born among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."

Going to heaven DOES NOT depend in any way anything we do or fail to do. It is all by the grace of God... no one contribute or assist God in anyway in the work of predestinating (predetermining his eternal destiny) him to eternal glory... no one assist God in calling him out of death and sin and condemnation to eternal life and righteousness and forgiveness... none assist God in declaring them just... and none assist God in glorifying them in Christ.
But our wellbeing here on earth depends much upon our active obedience - we are to work out our own salvation here - corporately as a church, as well as individual child of God.

Take care note of all the sovereign and unilateral acts of God - our eternal salvation is guaranteed by the free and sovereign acts of God... even though the foolishness of some churches may deprive us of the temporal blessings! Churches of Jesus Christ on earth are EMBASSIES of HEAVEN on earth... and they are here to minister to the needs of ALL Christ's people, NOT just some class of Christ's people. I don't think Christ would be pleased for churches who turn away His people for whimsical reasons. This does not mean that I don't believe in biblical ex-communication.

Brother I have rambled... Please know that you would find a home among the Lord's humble saints in Sungai Dua Church here in Penang.
We love you in the Lord.
His people are precious in our sight, whatever defects they might presently have.
We ourselves have plenty to rectify.

you brother and servant of Christ,
sing