There has been a lot of debate lately, including Southern Baptists, on whether or not Christians should sign this declaration.

For instance:

Dr. Albert Mohler has signed and said why.

Frank Turk has not signed and said why.

What are your thoughts? Would you feel comfortable signing this declaration? Why or why not?

What do the gay people in your church look like? Do you spot them by their flamboyant clothing . . . their mannerisms . . . their declarations?

When a brother or sister in your church came to you to ask you for your help and support in their personal struggle against homosexuality . . . what did you do to walk with them? How did you respond the last time this happened to you?

“Oh . . . we don’t have that problem in our church,” you say?

If you are a typical Southern Baptist Church in Oklahoma, you do. If it is not a problem for Southern Baptists, why did Jimmy Draper lead in the creation of “The Way Out,” SBC’s Task Force on Ministry to Homosexuals, now led by former Texas SBC minister, Bob Stith?

Statistics show that one out of every five church members has a family member or close friend who struggles with homosexuality. We all know someone who is “gay.” If not at church, then at work. If not at work, then where we shop or bank or eat.

So, again . . . what do the same-sex attracted people in your church look like? Could they sit there looking like you, dressed like you, acting like you, worshipping in the pew with their spouses and children, or moms and dads, Bibles open, faces forward, smiles on, handshakes offered, singing alongside you in quiet despair? Are they hiding their pain and confusion behind their Sunday smiles?

Like me.

I’ve been a Christian for more than 40 years and a Southern Baptist. I was the little boy in the pew whose mother dented his arms with her brightly colored fingernails when he refused to sit still . . . I met David and Goliath in VBS . . . was the middle-schooler who bounded off the church bus and came home from the revival with a new life . . . the teenager in training union quizzing the teacher over parfaits at the Dairy Queen . . . the emerging young man finding his voice on youth choir trips. . . the determined BSU summer missionary to Bangladesh. And then, as an adult, I was the Sunday school teacher . . . the chairman of the deacons and the elder, all in Southern Baptist churches in Oklahoma.

I am a husband and a father of five children who are: a business owner, a graduate student, an Army Ranger, a police officer, a college student. I have four daughters-in-law and six grandchildren.

And yet I struggle with unwanted same-sex attraction, have engaged in homosexual behavior in the past and must be on constant guard against the temptation. I have wanted to die . . . but more often I just wanted to live . . . without this pull towards sin. I am your brother in Christ.

Hidden as I was, I knew others in church battled wrongful desires for satisfaction and fulfillment through homosexual relationships, pornography or other forms of sexual brokenness. Single and married, with or without children, they were maintaining the secret, living in fear, praying for a way out. We did not know each other, but struggled in isolation, praying no one would ever find out and that we would overcome in private. I’m sure they feared as much as I did the prospect of being condemned, ridiculed and ostracized.

I sculpted the double-mind, fenced in the soul, projected the persona, erected the image, avoided the reality, and fed the brokenness of the past. It bled into the present and projected into the future. Still, God knew me in my destructiveness and deception, just as he knew me when I was productive in service to Him.

Deception Leads to Discipline

Had I been ushered to a supply closet, I would not have selected addictive sexual brokenness as my identifying sin. Though temptation is not a sin, engaging in homosexual behavior is, not because the SBC voted to recognize it as such, but because the Bible makes it clear. It separates one from God, and, in cases like mine, can separate the person from his church family.
Church discipline is one of the most difficult things a man or woman will ever endure. It can lead to being declared unrepentant and removed from the fellowship of the church. So strong was the pull of same-sex attraction on my life that I experienced this twice. Evidence presented; recommendation made; vote cast.

Church discipline should always seek the repentance and restoration of the offender. If a church member is expelled, church members regard him as a nonbeliever. If enacted in error, this judgment leaves a Christian on the outside struggling against his sin without the support of a church family. For men and women overcoming homosexuality, a pivotal part of healing and restoration is the need to be included . . . to be a part of the body of Christ.
After being confronted with my sin by church leaders, I stood in my church confessing my sexual brokenness and looking out into the congregation knowing there were others like me sitting there and listening to what I truly believed at the time would be my final confession as I walked into freedom. Some of them knew I knew about them; others did not, but it must have been a terrifying time for them to see me in that position. And it must have been truly demoralizing for them when they heard later of other falls.

Repentance is not easily measured; the fruit may grow slower than we would hope. With the help of First Stone, an Exodus ministry in Oklahoma City, I learned that overcoming homosexual temptation is a journey, replete with stumbling in most cases. You pick yourself up and move forward. Such “falling” may resemble non-repentance, despite the personal pain and remorse that tears away at you inside. Often, when the struggler falls, the patience of those who are watching finds its limit.

“Is this man willfully sinning and covering it up?” or “Is this man struggling and falling, but continuing to seek repentance and restoration?” In my case, the two Southern Baptist churches which removed me from membership did what they thought was best, acting on the information they had at hand, declaring me non-repentant.

What is Man?

“What is man that You are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” – Psalm 8:4.

We are who we are in part because of where we’ve been and the experiences that may have triggered the development of same-sex attraction. For me, childhood sexual abuse and father abandonment were certainly factors that had to be dealt with and have been. Still, I struggled, and put myself in places I should never have been, as others have done. In all those places, God was “mindful” of us. We hid; we paused; we ran; we rejected grace; we fell again in sin. Sometimes we ran to Him; sometimes we fell on our faces before Him; sometimes we cried out to Him; sometimes we pled with Him. In all ways, He was always mindful. He never leaves.

I accept responsibility and the consequences for the harm I caused, but my regrets cannot become a barrier to my repentance, even if those I drove away choose never to return.

Why Not Just Give Up?

Giving up and giving in is not an option for a Christian. It denies the reality of God’s transforming power and negates the promise that He can create in me a new heart and a new mind. My problem is my very stubborn soul.
I can’t imagine it was the Lord’s will for me to spend the years in the dark. I can believe it was the Lord’s will for me to find my way into the light. If I was so stubborn that public revelation and embarrassment was the only way to get there, then that was the path He had to establish for me. But, I don’t believe it’s a dead-end, so, even in this there is joy about what God can do with a repentant soul.

Why Not Walk Away?

A “struggler” does not choose his sin. None of us wrote an essay in the fourth grade saying that what we want to be when we grow up is a same-sex struggler who lives a lifestyle that guarantees anger, frustration, isolation, loss and detachment. Some see the struggler as using the life he shows — church, family and career — to enable the life he hides. This is not true
We can put the past in perspective and see what is gone. What is difficult is to see what the future holds. I had it laid out so neatly in my prideful days when I thought I could juggle the struggle – develop a double life — with everything else. Pride not only goes before the fall, it lingers to bury you in the debris. Digging out and dropping the double life for one of transparency has been painful, but has opened the door to help others who struggle.

Can You Really Be Healed?

Romans 10:15 says “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news.” The good news of salvation, yes. But the good news for the Christian who struggles with an addictive sin is that you can be free. Free of domination at least. Free to choose not to act out. Free to overcome the temptation, even when it begs you to take that turn at the next corner and walk just a little out of the way.

God’s grace keeps the struggler grounded in his or her darkest hours. A friend shared some simple reminders that have helped me and may be useful to you in sharing with someone who is burdened with homosexuality.

O God made them male and female. (I am a man and intrinsically capable of being drawn to, reaching out for, and experiencing loving feelings and attractions for a woman rather than constantly fixating on my own sex.) Gen 5:2

O His commandments are not grievous. Christ’s yoke is easy and his burden light. (a Godly, heterosexual mindset is in the long run easier to bear, less painful, and more rewarding than homosexuality.) 1 John 5:3 and Matt. 11:30

O Love seeks not its own way. (Homosexuality is never a genuine expression of love toward another human being.) 1 Cor. 13:5

O God rewards those who diligently seek Him, and patience has its perfect work. (God will not forget my labors.) Heb. 11:6 and James 1:4

Forgiveness plays a big part in the overcoming: forgiving those who may have set you on the path . . . forgiving yourself for having lengthened the journey . . . even forgiving others you are angry at for not forgiving you. Unforgiveness is an open door for Satan.

It’s tragic what we do in life in hope of love and acceptance. We stumble around, yet Someone loved us and accepted us from the moment we were conceived to the moment we no longer breathe and then beyond. In sorrow we yearn for someone to really know us and yet Someone has always known the very number of hairs on our head. To avoid solitude, we search the wrong and very dark places; yet we have Someone who said He would never leave us.

I am healing, rejecting society’s claims of inevitability, shaking off the weight of judgment, refusing to surrender to others’ genetic wishful thinking, accepting the reality of choice and embracing the simplicity of surrender . . . to the God who always knew me. Who was always there.

When I was knit in my mother’s womb . . . God was there.
When my dad drove away forever . . . God was there.
When the sex abuser crawled into my tent . . . God was there.
When I married my best friend . . . God was there.
When my children were delivered . . . God was there.
When they turned away from me . . . God was there.
When I was hurt . . . God was there.
When I hurt others . . . God was there.
When I was redeemed . . . God was there.
When I fell . . . God was there.
When I was restored . . . God was there.
When I fell again . . . God was there.
When I got up this morning . . . God was there.
When I lay down this evening . . . God was there.

He always IS.

So, I ask one more time. What do the gay people in your church look like?

###

Note:  This article was written for The Baptist Messenger, Nov.  12, 2009 and also appeared in The Baptist Messenger.com. The second article in the series will appear in the Nov. 19 issue of The Baptist Messenger and will also be on line at The Baptist Messenger.com.

Article Two: How can your church help those who struggle with homosexuality? A look at First Stone, Exodus Church Association . . . and how the local church can walk with someone into restoration.

Thom Hunter, former chief of staff for AT&T in Oklahoma, is now a full-time writer. His blog, Signs of a Struggle, offers hope and help to those who struggle with all forms of sexual brokenness. It can be found at http://thom-signsofastruggle.blogspot.com/

Alright people, I am needing resources:

What are the best books you have read on Leadership?

What books have you found to be the most helpful?

Today while meeting with my Pastor and Sunday School director, we observed that our church is not good at welcoming new faces. At times, people visit us and they do not feel welcome.

I suggested this is a symptom of not having a heart for the lost. When by the grace of God a lost person shows up at our church, every member should be concerned for the soul of that visitor. That concern should reveal itself in many ways, none of which result in the person feeling unwelcome.

Focusing on developing a heart for the lost is a far better focus that training people in kindness. Not only will this help make disciples of those that enter our church, but will help us have a heart for the whole world. Our hearts must be broken for the lost so that we can become a great commission church.

I’d like to open up the comments here to hear what you think a church should do help their members develop a heart for the lost.

-Jason Smathers

Jason Smathers’ blog, twitter, and Facebook.

I have been praying for the GCR and I had to remind myself of something.

The GCR is not a magic bullet for the current problems in the SBC, nor is it a magic bullet for the future.  It is one piece of a long, hard process.  I believe it is a step in the right direction, but that is all.

The GCR is not a magic bullet.

This is the end of a post I wrote late last night…

Here are a few ways God has specifically challenged me with missional living:

1) To be an example to my small group about what it means to live on mission for Jesus.

2) To engage the Mormons in my own community. I have been here since February and I haven’t heard one story of a particular group of people, or church, or whatever that has intentionally engaged the Mormons. I hope to help change that.

3) To take God at his word. Yes, this is missional living. If we actually take him at his word our lives will look radically different. They will look like we believe he can and will actually save and transform those we encounter.

4) To believe that through obedience God can and will do far more abundantly than I can even think or ask.

5) To study even harder, but now its not purely for intellectual knowledge. When you study missionally, you study out of a heart and mind that only wants to learn more for the sake of intimacy and transformation. I want to learn all I can about God so I can know him more deeply and so I can better grasp his beauty and worth. This is the only way we can make his beauty and worth known to our communities, if we know it ourselves.

6) To begin to pray and seek guidance for God’s call on my life to church planting. This has been heavy on my heart and I am desperately seeking God’s calling…

My challenges to you:

1) Examine your own life to see if you are living missionally. Does your life scream gospel? When people come in contact with you is the gospel what stands out?

2) Ask yourself- Is my day to day life forcing me to depend on the power of the gospel?

3) If your answers are no, please join me through repentance. Repent of believing the gospel and God’s word intellectually, but not to the point that you can’t but help to preach the gospel to those you come in contact with.

I don’t know about you, but I want to be as authentic as I possibly can. In my journey with God, the most recent step of authenticity was repenting of living as a Christian who only believed God’s word intellectually and moving onto missional living.

Won’t you join me?

My prayer is that we live lives that scream the Gospel.

Read the whole post, Coram Deo.

The phrase “engaging your culture” is often used and in my opinion, misused.  We aren’t trying to engage a culture, but rather a people within a culture.  I know I am somewhat arguing semantics, but I think rephrasing it to “engage your neighbor” helps put things into perspective.  We are trying to win people.  We are not, or at least should not, be trying to “win a culture.”

With that being said…  What are some things that you and/or your church is doing in order to engage your neighbors, your community?  Is it more than inviting them to your church to hear your “awesome band” and “practical preaching?”

Seriously, I would like to hear some things that are being done by SBCers and SBC churches in order to engage your communities for Christ.

How are you and your church living missionally?

Here are some debate topics that I am looking for some people to partake in.

1) The place of Calvinism in the SBC

2) Tongues: A Private Prayer Language?

And I believe Dave Miller and I are going to debate Dispensationalism or more generally, Eschatological Hermeneutics… But I might have to wait until he gets done celebrating the Yankees World Series win.  Disgusting.

Happy Reformation Day everyone…

To celebrate, I read Galatians and my wife made a Happy Reformation Day cake.

Did you do anything to celebrate the Reformation?

Another great post from Dr. Russell Moore:

A Word to Young Preachers

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This was a tweet that I read from Jared Wilson… I’m not sure what I think about it.

“Vision is overrated”

From what I have seen, many in the Reformed camp tend to shy away from words and topics such as “vision,” while other camps-such as Andy Stanley, Craig Gross, etc. spend a little(maybe a lot) too much time on “vision.”

In my mind when the Bible talks about leadership, which is a lot, “vision” is included.  Vision is in fact part of leadership and it isn’t something we can ignore, at least if we are to be good leaders.

To have a productive conversation about this I would like to get a working definition from you all… Hopefully this will be the first of several posts on “vision” and leadership.

So to start, how would you all define “vision” in the biblical leadership sense?

Here is a little something for bloggers. I’m doing an over-the-top giveaway on Devotional Christian to promote our site relaunch and format change. For the next few weeks, you can win an amazing set of 22 devotional books.

Click here to read the details.

I know the journey seems so long.
You feel you’re walking on your own.
But there has never been a step
Where you’ve walked out all alone.

Troubled soul don’t lose your heart,
Cause joy and peace he brings.
And the beauty that’s in store,
Outweighs the hurt of life’s sting.
There will be a day with no more tears, no more pain, and no more fears.
There will be a day when the burdens of this place, will be no more,
We’ll see Jesus face to face.
But until that day, we’ll hold on to you always.

– Jeremy Camp, “There Will Be a Day”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=le-TG4sRRiQ

But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” – James 4:6

It seems like I have always worked, from walking neighborhoods door-to-door after grade school selling donuts, to roller-skating as a Sonic carhop, to re-writing a cattle-breeder’s guide, to teaching school, to publishing newspapers, to two decades in management at AT&T, to the current borderline-starvation plan as a freelance writer. Work. It’s what we do as people.

God worked. He created the heavens and the earth, and in Genesis, it says His work was “very good.” Adam and Eve worked. They tended the garden before the Fall and then worked a bit harder on the outside afterward, so I guess we can’t blame “work” on “the fall,” Noah worked hard building the Ark. Moses worked like crazy and, more than once, probably thought “and this is the thanks I get?”

I’ve had a lot of jobs. I think one of my favorites will always be as the onion ring maker at the Sonic. I still have the recipe and I still make those rings at home, the old-fashioned Sonic way. I remember the backbreaking work of hauling the huge bags of onions out of the pantry, sorting them out, peeling away the outer inedible layers, slicing the onions into just the right widths and then separating each layer of the ring, dipping the rings in the coatings, stacking them in neat rows on the trays, placing the trays in the walk-in cooler . . . dozens of trays, thousands of rings. By the next morning, all would have hit the deep-fat fryer and then the waistlines of the frequent indulgers, and we’d start all over again.

I remember the big knife I would use to slice the onions and, more than once, my fingers, which would then burn from the onion juice. I remember the flour and milk and water and cracker meal that would build up on my hands and apron and coat the table and everything nearby, making an incredible mess. I remember a few burns from grease splashing as we’d toss the rings into the hot oil, turning mushy cold nothings into golden, brown, crunchy, addictive, near-perfect onion rings. I remember trying to scrub the onion smell out of my hands at night, knowing it would still be faint in the morning when I went to school.

But I remember most of all the tears. You can’t peel and separate the layers of hundreds of onions without crying a few tears in the process. I would try. I thought I might develop some immunity, but it never happened. The sting of the onion’s odor would bring me to tears every time.

My life is like one of those onions. It has a lot of layers. It has really smelled. It’s produced a lot of tears . . . and it’s really hard to clean up the incredible messes. I more often resemble the un-assembled and unattractive ingredients — the mushy cold nothings — and fall far short of the golden rings.

When an order of rings arrives at the window of the car, the diner doesn’t know or think or really care about the process that went on to create the finished product, beginning with peeling of that first layer of dead, dry, flaky onion skin. And I realize that when God completes His work in me that few will know of the painstaking process. Some will because they will have personally partaken of it. They will have experienced the tears that came with the peeling away of the layers.

I don’t feel too golden today. I feel a little bit like the little middle part of the onion that is too small to be an onion ring and gets chopped up and tossed on a burger instead, slimed with mustard and ketchup, buried beneath a pickle and a tomato, producing bad breath. No oohs and aahs. No one fights over the last bit of chopped onion.

I would rather be an ice cream sundae, but I turned out to be an onion. Doesn’t mean I can’t be sanctified. Our position on the menu doesn’t determine our significance in God’s plan.

Within our churches, we should look at each others’ lives day-to-day for evidence. Evidence of repentance. Evidence of true faith. Evidence of obedience. Evidence of eradication. Evidence of resistance. Evidence of a changed heart. Evidence of His presence in our lives. Evidence that we love God more than we love the world. Evidence that we truly love each other.

Evidence convicts . . . and evidence frees. Evidence can be uncovered one layer a time, as life is peeled away and we are revealed as we truly are. It’s a painful process, but there seems to be no other way to become than to first be pulled apart, at least for me.

Peel away the past. Peel away the excuses. Peel away the justifications. Peel away the anger. Peel away the blaming. Peel away the neediness. Peel away the self-absorbed reflection. Peel away the woefulness. Peel away the emptiness. Peel away the desires. Peel away the stubbornness. Peel away the hate . . . the fear . . . the self-loathing. Gee whiz . . . no wonder it takes so long to get down to the bare inner onion. A lot of layers before have to be tossed into the bag for processing.
We need to create an environment in our churches where people can fearlessly and in humility set aside pride and peel back their layers without condemnation, and find healing.

Maybe I’m just hungry and that’s lead me to all these tasty metaphors. Or maybe, just maybe, I still hope and pray that God will take this mushy mess and make something golden out of it, building new layers out of repentance and redemption and restoration and truth and hope and faith and love and self-control and joy and peace and patience and kindness and goodness and faithfulness and gentleness. I don’t know . . . can an onion be a fruit?
His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and goodness. Through these he has given us his very great and precious promises, so that through them you may participate in the divine nature and escape the corruption in the world caused by evil desires. — 2 Peter 1:3-4

God truly has provided everything we need. And many of the things we have given away through sinfulness, He may yet restore.

I am hungry . . .

I’ll always remember the tears.

Is the belief in eternal security necessary to perform a valid, biblical baptism? Do the doctrinal beliefs of the church or administrator of baptism contribute to the validity of that baptism? Should a person who wishes to join a Baptist church and was baptized by immersion in a church that believes salvation can be lost be re-baptized in a Baptist church? This debate has raged in blogs for years, often creating as much heat as light. In our last debate we focused on church oversight of baptism. Now, we tackle this thorny issue in hopes that we can take one step toward greater understanding on the issue.

Defining the Debate

It is dangerous to speak for Robin, but I believe I am on safe ground as I make these assertions. I am open to correction if I have erred.

1) Robin and I agree on the key markers of valid biblical baptism. Dr. Thomas White has identified six key markers of valid baptism. He admitted that they were of vary importance. A valid baptism has a proper subject (a believer), mode (immersion only), meaning (symbolic, not saving or sanctifying), and a Trinitarian formula. I believe that Robin and I are in full agreement on these primary issues. A valid baptism must be of a believer by immersion, in the name of our God symbolizing, but not procuring salvation. Our only disagreements are over the last two markers. White says a valid baptism must be connected to a local church (which we debated last time) and have a proper administrator (the subject of this debate). White admits that the administrator of baptism does not hold the same level of importance as the other issues.

2) Robin and I agree that baptisms that do not meet one of these four key standards are invalid. If one was baptized before conversion, it is not valid. If one was baptized as a requisite for salvation, that is not biblical. We both understand that the Greek word baptism implies immersion, and therefore sprinkling and pouring are not valid methods of baptism. We disagree whether the administrator’s belief on security matters for a valid baptism.

3) Robin and I agree that salvation once given is never rescinded by God. We both believe in the perseverance of believers in God’s grace.

4) Robin and I agree that the belief that one can lose his salvation is a false interpretation of scripture and a serious error of doctrine. I will not be arguing that this interpretation is correct, only that it does not nullify an otherwise valid baptism.

Does Security Matter in Baptism?

1) I believe that the only theology essential to a valid baptism is that which is essential to the symbolism of baptism. Baptism symbolizes the death of Christ for our sins and his resurrection to bring us new life. So, as long as one is baptizing by immersion a professing believer and believes in salvation by grace through faith alone, recognizing that baptism symbolizes but does not provide salvation, the baptism is valid. The nature and meaning of baptism determines which doctrines are essential. How does a belief in losing one’s salvation invalidate the symbolism of baptism? Water baptism can symbolize these key truths regardless of one’s view of security.

2) If we designate security as a validating doctrinal belief for baptism, what other doctrines do we include as invalidating? Should we make issues of other soteriological doctrines (particular atonement, election, etc.)? Why make a big issue of security?

3) There is little biblical evidence regarding the issue of the administrator of baptism. 1 Corinthians 1:10-17 is weak evidence, but at least it indicates that Paul thought that the administrator of baptism was a minor issue at best. He argued that there should be no division in the church based on who performed a baptism.

4) Can we not accept that there are practices that are not ideal, but are also not invalidating? It seems pretty clear that the ideal for communion would be one loaf and one common cup. Few of us use those anymore. We may not fulfill the ideal completely, but do not, by that, declare that the communion is invalid. I would prefer people be baptized in fellowship with churches of clear Baptist doctrine. But, the fact that a baptism is not ideal does not necessarily negate the baptism.

5) When we demand rebaptism, we risk demanding that which we believe scripture prohibits. A person is saved once and baptized once. If the first baptism was valid, we are demanding that someone be baptized twice, in opposition to scripture. That should only be done if the original baptism was clearly invalid (of a believer by immersion to symbolize salvation). Since there is no direct biblical evidence on this issue, we are on shaky ground to invalidate such baptisms. We could actually be demanding disobedience to Christ by doing so. It should only be done on strong, direct evidence, which simply does not exist here.

At best, this should be an issue decided church by church based on local convictions, and should not be encoded in our confessions. There is just not enough biblical evidence, in my opinion, to invalidate baptisms on this basis or re-baptize previously baptized believers.

Again, let me emphasize that I believe in security and think it is a crucial doctrine. But, I also believe that someone can perform a baptism by immersion of a believer that fully and properly symbolizes the death and resurrection of Christ, while holding the belief that one can lose salvation. It is a false doctrine, but not one that would invalidate a baptism.

If the baptism meets the four key criteria, I do not believe it is biblically justified to make an issue of doctrines such as eternal security when determining the validity of a baptism.

Dave Miller

Eternal Security is a Must for Valid Baptisms

Should a church that holds to eternal security/perseverance accept baptisms done in churches that do not hold to this doctrine?  My answer is no and one area I will explore is Paul’s understanding of baptism in Romans 6:3-11.  To hold to a “conditional” salvation perverts the gospel itself and the complete totality of Christ’s vicarious death on the cross.  To also hold that one can lose their salvation contradicts the symbolic meaning of baptism as explicitly taught in these aforementioned scriptures.

The first question that comes up in this scripture is whether Paul is talking about spiritual or water baptism?  Yet this question is unnecessary as Dr. Thomas Schreiner rightly comments, “…. any attempt to distinguish between Spirit baptism and water baptism in the Pauline writings goes beyond what Paul himself wrote.”[1] So, since the physical represents the spiritual, what does baptism represent?

First, we are united with Christ in not only His death, but also His resurrection (6:5).  The word, “united” (NASB) is the Greek word ????????.  While this word has various meanings (planted together, united, at one with, fused), as used in this scripture it means that we identify ourselves with Christ’s death and resurrection.  When believers experience salvation, not only does uniting with Christ mean we die to our sins in that sin is no longer our master, but also we also now live (because of our uniting with Christ) never to die again (6:9).  Dr. Akin provides an accurate understanding of our uniting with Christ’s resurrection as symbolized in baptism:

“In other words, is there within the act of baptism, a declaration of my eternal security, of my preservation in this resurrection life?  I believe the answer is yes.  United with Christ in baptism, I too died to sin once for all.  United with Christ in baptism, I too emerge from the realm of death unto a new life both in quality and quantity, a new life that will not and cannot end!”[2]

Schreiner also states:

“The presupposition for the whole argument is that believers are already incorporated into Christ.  Thus what is true of Christ as their representative is also true of them.  Believers will live together with Christ, because now that Christ has been raised from the dead, he cannot die again.  Those who belong to Christ will share in his triumph over death.”[3]

Therefore, in these scriptures, Paul declares that our uniting with Christ that is represented in our physical baptism shows our eternal security or perseverance in Christ; that no matter what, Christ is the author and finisher of our faith (Heb 12:2).  Notice one other item.  Paul does not speak of the individual believer uniting with Christ, even though that is true, but he speaks of the collective “we” being planted or fused together with Christ.  While I don’t believe this should be pressed too far as to negate the salvation each one receives individually, there is an understanding that baptism is not done in isolation, but with others who have preceded them.  There is a connection in not only mode, but doctrine also as the individual comes together with the church uniting themselves to Christ.  This, of course, is symbolized in the ordinance of baptism by the local New Testament church.

In the past, I have heard objections that this argumentation requires one to also deny baptisms done in churches that do not hold to other doctrines of grace like the doctrine of total depravity.  Yet, this is illogical for the simple fact that the doctrine of total depravity speaks of humanity’s condition, not the condition of Christ.  Remember, Paul was talking about believers uniting with Christ and the benefits of His atonement, not Christ uniting with our depravity and us.  When believers are raised out of the water, they are not raised to conditional life, dependent upon their ability to stay saved, they are raised to eternal life based on the truth that Christ was raised, never to die again.  Believers identify with Christ in the act of baptism.

So, what if the individual believer held to the conviction of their eternal security (without conditions, never to lose it) when they were baptized and the church they were baptized in did not?  Does that mean his baptism should be accepted by a church holding to eternal security even though he was baptized in a church that held to “conditional” salvation/security?  Before I answer, let me ask the question in this manner.  Should a church accept a baptism that is done in another church that believes in baptismal regeneration even though the believer may not have held to that view when they were baptized?  Some may say yes on both accounts, as they believe that baptism is only between the believer and God and the church’s role is minimal to non-existent. Yet, that logic will accept baptism on those who truly believed even though they were baptized in a Jehovah Witness or Mormon assembly.  This relates to the last debate of church oversight I had with Bro. Dave.  To remain consistent, those who deny church oversight must accept baptism done anywhere regardless of belief.  After all, what does it matter who sanctions the baptism (Baptist, Assembly of God, Mormon, Jehovah Witness) if the one being baptized is truly a believer?

Yet, it does matter for Paul because during our spiritual baptism certain doctrinal truths happened to us that are proclaimed in the physical manifestation of baptism as performed by the church.  These doctrinal truths are so important that Paul related them to the Roman Church, by illustration of baptism, in his effort to curb any accusation of antinomianism against his view that we are saved, not by works but by God’s declaration of us as righteous upon our profession of faith.   As I have previously stated, the church is the “pillar and ground” of truth.  To affirm by accepting the baptism of another church that holds to “conditional” salvation or baptismal regeneration is to simultaneously pervert the gospel.

[2] Akin, Restoring Integrity in Baptist Churches, 77.

[3] Schreiner, 320.

Robin Foster