Church Discipline

Put Away… That Wicked Person

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I wrote unto you in an epistle not to company with fornicators:  Yet not altogether with the fornicators of this world, or with the covetous, or extortioners, or with idolaters; for then must ye needs go out of the world.  But now I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner; with such an one no not to eat.  For what have I to do to judge them also that are without? Do not ye judge them that are within?  But them that are without God judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves that wicked person.
1 Corinthians 5:9-13

The Church at Corinth had problems that the apostle Paul had to deal with.  One of those problems was sexual immorality.  Some man’s son was going to bed with his father’s wife.  What was the Church at Corinth doing about it?  They were doing nothing about it.  Rather they seemed to be applauding their love and toleration of the immoral behavior.

The purpose of putting away this young man, was to get him to the place of repentance, and to return to the Church cleansed and forgiven (1 Corinthians 5:5).  The Lord Jesus Christ will not tolerate sin among His Body, which is the Church.  He will purge it, and make it clean.  That includes putting away from us that wicked person.  So that they might be tormented by the devil, and they return repentant of their deed or deeds.

Does the Church today need to practice this discipline?

Do the rules of the Church of Corinth belong to the Church today?

Do we do harm by practicing this rule, or does it do good for both the Church and the immoral person?

Jesus Christ died on the cross for all our sins, He was buried, and He rose again.  Because He has died for us we are free from the bondage of sin.  Not freedom to sin; but rather, freedom to live a righteous life.

 

L. R. Scarborough and Non-Baptist Baptism

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The following is a quote from L. R. Scarborough.  I received it from the Landmark Southern Baptist Group and Ben Stratton whom I thank for sending this.

2. Another way by which the fountains of truth and life of our churches can be poisoned is by doing violence to the ordinances of Jesus Christ, in depreciating their value and emasculating their testimony. This is done when a Baptist church receives baptism administered at the hands of some other organization than a Baptist church. If a Baptist preacher admits into the fellowship of his church Christians who have received baptism at the hands of pedobaptists, without requiring them to be baptized by a Baptist church, he violates the truth of God and is guilty of a heresy in ecclesiology which will eventually ruin the testimony of the ordinances and vitiate the witness of Christ’s churches. Such practice eats at the very heart of the life of Christ’s churches. Such a practice will not only injure the life of the church practicing it, but will eventually poison the fountains of truth in all of our churches

A pastor of one of the leading churches of Texas told me recently of a member from another Baptist church in Texas seeking admittance on a letter from this church, but when questioned as to her baptism she reported that she came to this other church on the baptism from a certain Campbellite church and had not been required to be baptized by this Baptist church. This pastor tells me that he promptly refused to admit this woman into the fellowship of his church. I think he did right.

There lies at this point a great danger and we should guard the fountains of truth from the poison that will come by the emasculation of the ordinances of Jesus Christ.  L. R. Scarborough
(L.R. Scarborough [1870-1845] was president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1914-1942 and president of the Southern Baptist Convention from 1938-1939.  You will notice that Scarborough believed that baptism was only valid when it was administered at the hands of a Baptist church.  The quote is from his article “Poisoning the Fountains of Truth” which was published in the January 1922 Southwestern Journal of Theology.  I am also glad to hear that this article was republished in the most recent Southwestern Journal of Theology, “Baptists and Unity.”  A special thanks to the good folks at http://sbctoday. com for making us aware of this quote.)
It is of the utmost importance in the day which we live to continue to maintain doctrinal integrity in our preaching, polity and ecclesiology
-posted by Tim A. Blankenship

Baptists Distinctives

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The following is from the teaching of John A. Broadus concerning Baptists Distinctives.  Baptists have always been accused of being different, and these distinctives are what sets us apart from others.

It may be well to state briefly what I understand to be the leading distinctive views of the Baptist churches. The fact that certain of these are more or less shared by others will be remarked upon afterward.

(1) We hold that the Bible alone is a religious authority; and in regard to Christian institutions the direct authority is of course the New Testament.

 

(2) We hold that a Christian Church ought to consist only of persons making a credible profession of conversion, of faith in Christ. These may include children, even comparatively young children, for God be thanked that these do often give credible evidence of faith in Christ! But in the very nature of the case they cannot include infants. The notion that infants may be church-members because their parents are seems to us utterly alien to the genius of Christianity, not only unsupported by the New Testament, but in conflict with its essential principles; and we are not surprised to observe that our Christian brethren among whom that theory obtains are unable to carry it out consistently — unable to decide in what sense the so-called “children of the church” are really members of the church and subject to its discipline. The other notion, that infants may be church-members because so-called “sponsors” make professions and promises for them, seems to us a mere legal fiction, devised to give some basis for a practice which rose on quite other grounds. Maintaining that none should be received as church-members unless they give credible evidence of conversion, we also hold in theory that none should be retained in membership who do not lead a godly life; that if a man fails to show his faith by works, he should cease to make profession of faith. Some of our own people appear at times to forget that strict church discipline is a necessary part of the Baptist view as to church-membership.

From The Duty of Baptists To Teach Their Distinctive Views by John A. Broadus, and from the section Distinctive Views of Baptist Churches # 1 & 2

You may read this whole study at Baptists Distinctives.

-Tim A. Blankenship

Resolution On Regenerate Church Membership

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It has been reported for several years that the SBC has over 16,000,000 million members, and we know that just over 6,000,000 are faithful attenders.  This may be because the majority of those whose names are on church rolls have never truly been born again, or have not been properly discipled.

The following is the resolution recently passed by majority vote of those present at the annual SBC meeting in Indianapolis, IN..  There is one thing for sure.  The Church of Jesus Christ is made up of only those who know Jesus and are known by Him.  I am one who is happy that this resolution has passed.  It is not the answer to the problem, but it is an encouragement.

Here is the resolution in its entirety from the BaptistPress blog:

Complete text of amended membership resolution
Wednesday, June 11, 2008 – 4:43:00 PM

Following is the amended version of the resolution passed this morning, “On Regenerate Church Membership and Church Member Restoration.” Messengers passed two amendments to the original resolution. (See previous post in this blog.) Additions are in bold here:

 

WHEREAS, The ideal of a regenerate church membership has long been and remains a cherished Baptist principle, with Article VI of the Baptist Faith and Message describing the church as a “local congregation of baptized believers”; and

 

WHEREAS, A New Testament church is composed only of those who have been born again by the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the Word, becoming disciples of Jesus Christ, the local church’s only Lord, by grace through faith (John 3:5; Ephesians 2:8-9), which church practices believers’ only baptism by immersion (Matthew 28:16-20), and the Lord’s supper (Matthew 26:26-30); and

 

WHEREAS, Local associations, state conventions, and the Southern Baptist Convention compile statistics reported by the churches to make decisions for the future; and

 

WHEREAS, the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention annual Church Profiles indicate that there are 16,266,920 members in Southern Baptist churches; and

 

WHEREAS, Those same profiles indicate that only 6,148,868 of those members attend a primary worship service of their church in a typical week; and

 

WHEREAS, The Scriptures admonish us to exercise church discipline as we seek to restore any professed brother or sister in Christ who has strayed from the truth and is in sin (Matthew 18:15-35; Galatians 6:1); and now, therefore, be it

 

RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana, June 10-11, 2008, urge churches to maintain a regenerate membership by acknowledging the necessity of spiritual regeneration and Christ’s lordship for all members; and be it further

 

RESOLVED, That we humbly urge our churches to maintain accurate membership rolls for the purpose of fostering ministry and accountability among all members of the congregation; and be it further

 

RESOLVED, That we urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention to repent of the failure among us to live up to our professed commitment to regenerate church membership and any failure to obey Jesus Christ in the practice of lovingly correcting wayward church members (Matthew 18:15-18); and be it further

 

RESOLVED, That we humbly encourage denominational servants to support and encourage churches that seek to recover and implement our Savior’s teachings on church discipline, even if such efforts result in the reduction in the number of members that are reported in those churches, and be it finally

 

RESOLVED, That we humbly urge the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention and their pastors to implement a plan to minister to, counsel, and restore wayward church members based upon the commands and principles given in Scripture (Matthew 18:15-35; 2 Thessalonians 3:6-15; Galatians 6:1; James 5:19-20).

 

That which is in bold print are ammendments which were not part of the first presentation, and were passed by the body.

-Tim A. Blankenship