| | The Priesthood of All BelieversNumber 1 -- August 30, 2007
Experienced Religion
Baptists have always believed in experienced religion. That is, Baptists have always believed that people must encounter Christ for themselves and make their own profession of faith. This belief, which is one of the patches that forms the beautiful quilt of the priesthood of all believers, leads us to affirm a regenerate church membership and believers baptism by immersion.
A regenerate church membership simply means that in order to be a member of a Baptist church you must've made a profession of faith in Christ and be baptized. It is important to note that you must make the profession of faith before you are baptized. This leads me to my next point. Baptists affirm believers baptism by immersion. What that means is that we only baptize those who have made a profession of faith in Christ, which arises from the Baptist understanding that baptism is a public proclamation of the fact that you have accepted Christ as your personal Lord and Savior, a very private thing. We also baptize by fully immersing the person being baptized, as this is the method that most captures the symbolism of baptism. That is dieing to your old self (being lowered into the water) and raised to new life in Christ (being raised from the water). What beautiful symbolism!
So, in short, we believe that each person must accept Christ of their own free will, and that they must then be baptized in order to join the membership of the church. |
| | Posted 8/30/2007 10:09 PM - 2 comments
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