Poll: Would You Accept A Church of Christ Immersion as a Valid NT Baptism?

Regardless of what is correct or not when it comes to baptism, I have never, ever met even one CofC member that accepts me as a "brother in Christ" because they think that they are the only saved folks on earth. the rest of us are lost because we werent baptised for the right reason and in the right way.

We may call them "brothers in Christ" till we are blue in the face, but they will never accept us as such.

AJ

 

When in college we had a theology prof that invited in men from all sorts of churches to interact with us on different topics.

The CofC man (topic of baptism got right down to business in his opening prayer mentioning that he was there to save us from Hell and he asked god to open our eyes to our false doctrine and to save us.

I can't quote the man but he was there to dunk us and get us saved very definitely.

 

Hey Bro. Tom,

No problem. We all get a little tense on here sometimes, but iron sharpens iron.

Bro. Les

 

Sounds like he was tactless, yet insensitive...

 

You are right. Excellent article!

 

Well I guess that leaves it up to us to set a good example.

 

"Sounds like he was tactless, yet insensitive..."

True but certainly showing his true commitment to what he believed :thumbs:

 

This is the other point I was making with the links I posted that give clear evidence of the CoC cultic beliefs. They do believe they are the true restored NT church and no other church is. This is part of their history and teaching, even if some CoC ministers may not reject it, it remains part of their official teaching. And you are not saved if you have not been baptized by them.

 

check these guys out:

http://www.edwardfudge.com/home.html

http://www.freedomsring.org/

http://www.unity-in-diversity.org/

http://www.leroygarrett.org/

While these folks and the people like them may not be the majority, there is a strong movement in the coC to be more accepting.

Kind of like Baptists I guess, where the majority is not as accepting as the minority. ;-)

 

This explains your confusion with true biblical doctrine today.

AJ

 

No matter how many CofC you consider to be "brothers in Christ"....I have never, ever met even one that would consider any person outside the CofC as a "brother in Christ".

If they dont consider me a brother, then are they really my brother?

AJ

 

I believe this to be the most biblically accurate post I have seen in this thread.:thumbs:

AJ

 

Sorry to argue with you, but every single one of the CofC that I have ever met (including some family members) state that baptism is required for salvation and that they are the only true church, and I am going to hell because I am not one of them.

AJ

 

I wrote Mac Lynn, pretty much one of the most well respected CoC theologians in the world. He actually wrote me back. We talked about other things, besides Baptism, but here are the snippets...

And....

And...

Not exactly "We are the only way"...

 

What we are discussing here, I thought, was the historical and official views of the CoC, not some who may disagree.

It could be that some want to depart from some of the CoC teachings, and I do believe this is true, but that does not change what the CoC officially teaches.

This happens all the time with groups likek, for example, the Mormons. You can find BYU professors who disagree or don't believe some of the official Mormon teachings, but that does not change what the Mormon church teaches officially. Of course, these professors can't go outright against the Mormon church, but they disagree in subtle or minor ways.

Same with the SDA church. You can always find some SDA pastors or teachers who, for example, do not hold Ellen White as a prophet or who do not focus on her teachings, but that is not the official teaching or view of the SDA church.

Until the CoC makes official changes in their doctrine and teachings, it remains that salvation is applied at the moment of water baptism.

 

As far as the original question, I voted "no".......and wanted to relate this particularly sad (to me) story about such a situation.

In my previous church I worked closely with the pastor in visitation and so forth since he was a one-man staff. We had a couple move to town, visit regularly and express interest in joining the congregation.

One evening in their home, the man of the family related the story of his baptism. It was at the hands of a Church of Christ minister who was a personal friend. Our prospect did not actively become a member of that minister's congregation or any other. He was simply baptized and went on about his business.

Now he had a convincing testimony of conversion; I have no reason to question that. But he was insistent that he would not be baptized again. He saw no need for it. He stated emphatically that if baptism was required, he would never join our congregation.

My pastor, driven by the urgency to "grow the church' relented, actually side-stepped the issue when presenting the prospects to the deacons and again when introducing the couple to the congregation.

I thought it was an outrage. Not just theologically unsound, because of the Church of Christ theology tying water baptism to salvation, but because of the disingenuous behavior of the pastor who thought more of increased numbers than Biblical doctrine.

 

I really don't see the problem, as long as they see faith as the active agent in conversion and not some kind of magic in the water. We are talking about a difference in the timing of salvation not the "cause" of it. Seems like that wouldn't invalidate the baptism.