A Brief Book Notice from Books At a Glance
Setting the Stage (from our summary of chapter 1)
The topic of this book is not about a primary issue like the doctrine of the Trinity, but neither is it about something inconsequential that can be ignored. “In one sentence: in this book I argue that according to Scripture baptism is required for church membership and for participation in the Lord’s Supper, membership’s recurring effective sign.” Paedobaptists can accept people who have been baptized as believers into their churches, but it is problematic for Baptists to accept those who were sprinkled as infants (since they have not been truly baptized). As a result, the topic of this book is really only of practical relevance to credobaptists. Every church has an implicit position about whether to accept unbaptized people as church members.
Open membership (i.e., membership for those who are unbaptized) stands against the consensus of the whole church throughout history. Closed membership seems wrong at a cultural and social level, but open membership creates big problems for the function of the church later on. This is highly relevant for church polity, and although polity is not the gospel, it protects and preserves the gospel. Historically, Baptist debates about open and closed communion were also about membership, since the terms for participating in communion were the same as for being a church member. Today, there are many churches that have open communion but closed membership. The open membership position rests on the idea that the church should not exclude anyone who is a brother or sister in Christ. We often think of baptism and the Lord’s Supper in individualistic terms, but there is an ecclesial, corporate shape to them.
Table of Contents
Introduction
Part 1. Getting Our Bearings
1. Setting the Stage
2. Clearing Ground
Part 2. Building a Case
3. Where Faith Goes Public: (Most of) a Theology of Baptism
4. The Initiating Oath-Sign of the New Covenant
5. The Passport of the Kingdom
6. One Bread, One Body: The Lord’s Supper and the Local Church
7. Badges of Belonging: Church Membership and Its Effective Signs
Part 3. The Case Stated, Defended, Applied
8. Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership: A Summary
9. Answering Objections
10. Turning the Tables
11. Practicing Baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and Church Membership
Appendix: Explaining Why Baptism Is Required for Membership in Three Minutes
Selected Quotes
- What is baptism? Baptism is where faith goes public. More specifically, baptism is a public profession of faith and repentance which signifies cleansing, forgiveness, union with Christ, new life in Christ, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the new creation. (49)
- Baptism is the initiating oath-sign of the new covenant, and this makes baptism necessary for church membership. (56)
- Baptism constitutes Christians as publicly authorized, passport-carrying kingdom citizens—the same kingdom citizens whose mutual covenant constitutes a church. As a social reality created by the kingdom of God, the local church is a visible, political institution, and baptism defines its shape by marking its entrance. (105)
- Baptism binds one to many, and the Lord’s Supper binds many into one. (122)
- Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, therefore, are both effective signs of church membership. For a new convert, baptism confers membership, and then the Lord’s Supper ratifies and enacts membership. (138)
- If something is optional for church membership, it’s optional for the Christian life. A church may verbally insist that all believers must be baptized, but if they accept unbaptized persons to membership, they tear down with the left hand what they’ve built up with the right. Here actions do speak louder than words. (206)
- If Jesus requires believers to be baptized, our churches should too. (206)
- By constituting a gospel polity, baptism, the Lord’s Supper, and church membership make visible a gospel people. They gather up all our flickering little candles into one roaring flame of witness to Christ. Tracing out a biblical theology and practice of the ordinances isn’t a distraction from the gospel but a service to the gospel. (225)
Buy the books
GOING PUBLIC: WHY BAPTISM IS REQUIRED FOR CHURCH MEMBERSHIP, by Bobby Jamieson