Question for the Baptists

[CPman2004]

I have always heard that in order to join a Baptist church you have to be baptised into it. If you leave that church, and go to another Baptist church you still have to be baptised again in order to become a full member of that church. Is this true or is it a myth?

Just wonderin'

 

[Gold Dragon]

No. Most baptist churches will accept a transfer of membership from other orthodox Christian denominations and other Baptist churches. This usually involves some signed documentation from the pastor of your old church saying you were a member and wish to transfer the membership to your new church.

 

[mafiedler]

THats how I've seen it to. I never had to fill out any transfer of membership, and I wasn't a Baptist until I joined my current church.

 

[SumTinWong]

We accept any "valid" baptism at our church. Valid is done in the name of the Trinity and it must be a believers Baptism not infant.

 

[aReformedPatriot]

the only church ive seen do this was an independant fundamentalist baptist church.

 

[ZiSunka]

Totally false. I wasn't even baptized in a baptist church and they accept my baptism just fine.

 

[doglover]

everyone above me could be true, but I was attending a Baptist church for a while, and my family looked into becoming a member. They said that we must be baptized in that church or another Baptist church in order to become a member. I feel that's cultish. Needless to say, we didn't join.

 

[ZiSunka]

That's weird and inconsistent with any baptist church I have visited. Perhaps it's the policy of that one church, since they are mostly self-governing?

 

[Gold Dragon]

everyone above me could be true, but I was attending a Baptist church for a while, and my family looked into becoming a member. They said that we must be baptized in that church or another Baptist church in order to become a member. I feel that's cultish. Needless to say, we didn't join.

I'm not surprised that there are some very strict baptist churches that have this policy. Most are not like this.

 

[theseed]

We accept any "valid" baptism at our church. Valid is done in the name of the Trinity and it must be a believers Baptism not infant.

And by immersion.

 

[labellady]

My family and I joined a Baptist church. We had to be immersed. My hubby and I transfered from a methodist, he had been immersed, I had been 'sprinkled'. My kids were baptised for the first time. Hubby did it to make it a family thing, that was nice, but he didn't have to be re-baptised. I think it varies church to church.

 

[BT]

Hey CP! I also grow carnivorous house-plants (though we both know that they are not in truth carnivorous but rather insectovorious). Nice traps in your avatar.

They are hard to grow here in Canada and I have to constantly stay on them.

I'm having a real hard time with my V-traps right now and my Asian pitcher plant is struggling. It's hard to manage the temperature and moisture for them 'specially in winter in Canada. I'm always looking for tips...

 

[RED that's ME]

Hey CP! I also grow carnivorous house-plants (though we both know that they are not in truth carnivorous but rather insectovorious). Nice traps in your avatar.

They are hard to grow here in Canada and I have to constantly stay on them.

I'm having a real hard time with my V-traps right now and my Asian pitcher plant is struggling. It's hard to manage the temperature and moisture for them 'specially in winter in Canada. I'm always looking for tips...

WOW!! BT grows CP's never would have thought that. Unique people and CP's whoa. CPman can give you some great help with your CPs he is sorta an expert on it.

 

[SumTinWong]

Feed me seymore....

 

[Heatherondo]

I know people have alwready answered i thought I'd just tell it like its done in my church.

If its from another denomination they want to baptize you intyo the church (which i dont understand baptisim is baptisim and its not salvation, but all denoms have their rituals i suppose)

if its another baptist church you "move by letter" i.e. i believe you get a letter form your old church of some sort, and join the new one, i have no idea what that letter might be lol

 

[Alexander Nissi]

I know at my church when I became a member we had to learn our specific church's history and also be baptised in any type of church. To transfer a membership though it would have to be from any type of Baptist church only.~Alec

 

[CPman2004]

Um, ok. I was asking because I believe my sister and brother-inlaw had to be baptised in order to join a Baptist Church. My sister came from the same denomination as I am (Cumberland Presbyterian), but my Brother-inlaw came from another Baptist church. So it seems like it isn't something that is grounded in Baptist overall doctrine so I guess that myth shall be kicked out of my mind.

 

[RED that's ME]

Doug on the most part most Baptists doesn't require that a person be baptized again to join a church. Most churches accept transfer of membership from another church as been previously said. If a person though wasn't immerse totally in Baptism the person would be encourage/required to do so. One other thing that Baptist do is make sure that the Baptism followed a person's commitment to Christ. A person who was Baptized like as a baby would be considered not truly baptized but they just got wet. It's getting the cart before the horse. Baptism is an act of obedience that shows what happens to a person spiritually inside. Baptism is a picture to others what happened inside a person when they committed their life to Christ that they died to self/old man and now reborn a new creature in Christ.

Baptists regard baptism as a public confession of Christian faith and a symbol of the burial and resurrection of Christ, as stated by Paul in his Epistle to the Colossians. Hence, Baptists look upon immersion as realistic symbolic, through which the life of sin is buried in baptism and the new life of faith emerges.
Immersion is limited to adults and to such children as have reached an age where they can understand the meaning of baptism. "Baptize" is a transliteration of the Greek word baptizein (meaning "to immerse"), not a translation. To say that Baptists baptize by immersion is redundant, since baptism originally was immersion.

Matthew 28:19 Go ye therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit
Mark 1:10 And straightway coming up out of the water, he saw the heavens rent asunder, and the Spirit as a dove descending upon him
Acts 2:41 They then that received his word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.

http://www.baptiststart.com/baptism.htm

 

[theseed]

Um, ok. I was asking because I believe my sister and brother-inlaw had to be baptised in order to join a Baptist Church. My sister came from the same denomination as I am (Cumberland Presbyterian), but my Brother-inlaw came from another Baptist church. So it seems like it isn't something that is grounded in Baptist overall doctrine so I guess that myth shall be kicked out of my mind.

If your brother in law was a member of your sister's church, then they may have asked him to get re-baptized because they could not confirm that he had believers baptism.

 

[Blazin4Christ]

No, that is not true, they beleive in Baptism after salvation for showing that u r saved, not 4 salvation or entry or reentry into a church as far as I know