“A person must repent of his sin and profess faith in Christ as his Saviour in order to become a child of God. Then he attests his salvation by being baptized – immersed in water – by one who is authorized by a church to baptize him. This establishes initially his identity with a fellowship of children of God. Should he seek to join another Baptist church, the church which initially authorized his baptism verifies to the receiving church that the person has professed faith in Christ, and has been baptized. Subsequently, each Baptist church which one might seek to join receives verification to its satisfaction from the church where the person was a member just previously. ” J. Carey Wood

(The above is from a Southern Baptist tract entitled “What Is a Baptist Church?”. This small tract was published by the Sunday School Board of the Southern Baptist Convention in the 1970’s. Notice the author of the tract teaches that baptism is an ordinance of the local church and that baptism identifies an individual with the church that baptized him. This is the reason the vast majority of Southern Baptists have always rejected alien {non-Baptist} immersions. This tract also shows where the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention stood on this issue even in the 1970’s.)

Water baptism [immersion], is the public testimony of the believer in Christ to his trusting faith in Jesus Christ as His crucified, buried, and risen Savior. This public testimony by immersion makes him the member of the local church. It is a picture of what Jesus has already done, baptizing each one who has trusted Him into His Spirit, making us a member of the body of Christ. The local church is the physical representation of the body of Christ.