Thanks
for your question. It is a great question that keys in on several vital
points.
First
of all a person is saved at the point at which they are obedient to the faith
in Christ. Jesus said, "He who believes and is baptized will be saved and
he who does not believe will be condemned" (Mark 16:16). In Acts 2:38
after they heard Peter preach Jesus to them and were cut to their heart they
cried out "What shall we do?" Peter answered, "Repent, and let
every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of
your sins and you shall received the gift of the Holy Spirit." Those who
gladly received the word were baptized and there were added to their number
about 3,000 souls that day. As you read through the book of Acts those people
who heard the gospel message over and over again came to faith in Jesus,
turned from their old life of sin and were baptized to have their sins washed
away. Did they understand the full import of what was implied by their
baptism? Certainly not, since the cases of conversion recorded in the book of
Acts generally involved people who had heard only one sermon on being
baptized. But they did understand enough to know that this was the time when
they could rejoice because their sins had been taken away and they now had a
right relationship with God. They understood that baptism was an action of
their faith which stood between them and being what God wanted them to be. It
is certainly true that most of what the Bible teaches on the details of
baptism and what it meant was written to people who had already been baptized.
Can
one be a Christian and worship in the Baptist Church? First of all, I'm not in
the judging business and I thank God I'm not. There is only one judge and I'm
certainly not qualified for the task. Jesus will serve as the judge for all.
We will each stand before Him in the last day and that will be personally, not
as a church or family or any other group. When it comes to the differences
between the churches of Christ and any other group, here is what we are trying
to make those differences always be. We are striving to be the ones who are
calling folks to come out of denominationalism altogether and just be
Christians. We are not trying to say we have a better denomination than you
do. The point is, Jesus prayed for unity, that we might all be one as He and
the Father are one. (John 17:20-21) Paul pleaded for us to work for unity in
the body (I Corinthians 1:10-13; Ephesians 4:1-6). Instead we have become so
used to the divisions of our time we strived to justify them.
Denominationalism is wrong if it is inside the churches of Christ or the
Baptist church or anywhere else.
Also,
what we do and teach in worship does affect our relationship with God. In
Matthew 15:9 Jesus said, "In vain they worship Me teaching as doctrines
the commandments of men." Maybe I read something into your letter you
didn't mean, but it sounded to me like you were saying since there wasn't much
wrong there shouldn't be any problem. Consider what the problem was when Jesus
made the statement above. Some were demanding folks wash their hands in
just the right way before they ate. A little error, like a little poison can
do tremendous harm. Again, let me emphasize whether someone is saved or not is
a judgement only the Lord and an individual can make. All anyone of the rest
of us can do is study what the Bible says and strive to understand it to the
best of our abilities with the help of the Holy Spirit. Thanks again for your
question. I hope the answer was helpful.
Leon Barnes