Introduction

‘Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’ Acts 2:38

If you were to ask some Christians, are the churches of Christ, the ‘ONLY’ ones who baptise for the forgiveness of sins? I’m fairly sure they would answer ‘yes’ to the question.

But those of us who’ve been around for a while and have studied other religious doctrines, know that this isn’t the case, there are other groups who practice full immersion baptism for the forgiveness of sins.

The last I heard, even some in the Baptist church are going back to baptising ‘for the forgiveness of sins.’

I’m sure we all know the scenario when someone walks into our assembly and wants to be a part of the ‘church’, they tell us they have been immersed for the forgiveness of their sins, but we know that the group they came from doesn’t practice baptism for that reason.

What do we do?

I personally think it’s nonsensical to debate with a person who tells us that they were baptised into the Lord Jesus as the New Testament teaches. We could just as easily argue that we hadn’t truly repented. The point is, they KNOW they have repented in the same way they KNOW they were baptised into life in union with Jesus.

I know of a Christian who was immersed by another group and when I informed her that the group, she belongs to doesn’t practice baptism for the forgiveness of their sins, she told me, ‘I don’t care what they practice and teach, I understood why I needed to be baptised because she had been studying baptism with someone else’.

So, what do we do in scenarios like this? We studied with her some more and we discussed baptism in detail, but she still insisted that she was baptised for the ‘right reasons’ and in ‘the right way’.

I went on to explain to her, that if at any time, she feels different about her baptism, she should feel free to talk to me about it again. I wasn’t at her baptism, but she was and if anyone should know why they were baptised and how they were baptised it is her.

I remember a good friend of mine told me that a lady was coming to worship for several weeks and the topic of baptism came up, she had a religious background with the Baptist church. My friend explained to her that this particular Baptist church didn’t teach baptism for the forgiveness of sins but her reply took my friend by surprise. She told him, ‘she didn’t care what that Baptist church teaches, she believed she was baptised for the forgiveness of sins’.

I believe there are times when we must leave things for God to judge. Genesis 18:25.

Is it possible that God added her to His church, but she became a member of the wrong church?

Remember, Acts 2:41 / Acts 2:47, the Lord added them to the universal church because there was no local church at this time. In scenarios like this, if they were added to His church but find themselves in a church which teaches the wrong doctrine, they then have the responsibility of teaching that church the truth or leaving and finding the church which does practise New Testament Christianity.

Who decides who is saved?

There are way too many ‘church doormen’ who try to make the decision as to who is a Christian and who isn’t but God is the only One who makes the decision. John 3 tells us that the Spirit goes here and there but we do not know.

There are times when someone walks into our assemblies and the very first question some people ask them is, are you baptised Christian?

You would think this question would come up, as time went on after we have built up some kind of relationship with them. How sad!

Is there such a thing as an unbaptised Christian?

The Bible doesn’t teach such a thing!