One In Jesus

We’re working our way through Leroy Garrett’s book: What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved? The paperback is $7.95, but it’s also available in Kindle edition for $0.99. For $0.99, it’s really an offer you can’t refuse!

Now, by “saved” Garrett doesn’t mean that he questions the salvation of the individual members of the Churches of Christ. Rather, he is concerned to save the Churches of Christ as a “viable witness to the Christian faith. What must it do to escape extinction in the decades ahead …?”

Everyone — the readers, me, Garrett — all agree that faith in Jesus and repentance are boundaries of the Kingdom. We further agree that baptism is a boundary marker, but disagree as to just how scrupulous someone’s adherence to the practice of baptism must be in order for God to save.

So we now need to consider the salvation those who have genuine faith, repentance, and a sufficient baptism — however that may be defined. At this point, nearly all would agree that someone meeting those three tests would be saved. But what happen after he steps out of the baptistry? What if an organ is playing? What if communion isn’t served for another 90 days? What if his congregation doesn’t wear a “scriptural” name? Is he damned, faith, repentance, and baptism notwithstanding? Many would say so. Indeed, many would argue that worshiping God with an instrument casts one out of the Kingdom and into the realm of Satan. Continue reading →

Anne asked,

I’m kind of wondering why we don’t just cut baptism out of the Bible since it evidently isn’t necessary for anything.

I’m responding to Anne’s question here because it reaches to the core of what grace means. The same questions have been asked going to back to Paul, who repeatedly had to explain why his view of grace doesn’t lead to lawlessness and license, that is, antinomianism.

And this is one of the key forks in the road between conservative and progressive theology — the conservatives insisting that the progressives repeal commands when they find grace for violating those commands. Continue reading →

We’re working our way through Leroy Garrett’s book: What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved? The paperback is $7.95, but it’s also available in Kindle edition for $0.99. For $0.99, it’s really an offer you can’t refuse!

Now, by “saved” Garrett doesn’t mean that he questions the salvation of the individual members of the Churches of Christ. Rather, he is concerned to save the Churches of Christ as a “viable witness to the Christian faith. What must it do to escape extinction in the decades ahead …?”

The comments in this series have largely focused on the baptism question — which is inevitable given that Garrett is urging us to fellowship denominations other than the Churches of Christ. The comments follow very much along the traditional lines, and I’d urge us to think of the question in some different ways. After all, people have long-ago stopped listening to the traditional arguments — on both sides. Continue reading →

We’re working our way through Leroy Garrett’s book: What Must the Church of Christ Do to Be Saved? The paperback is $7.95, but it’s also available in Kindle edition for $0.99. For $0.99, it’s really an offer you can’t refuse!

Now, by “saved” Garrett doesn’t mean that he questions the salvation of the individual members of the Churches of Christ. Rather, he is concerned to save the Churches of Christ as a “viable witness to the Christian faith. What must it do to escape extinction in the decades ahead …?”

The comments in this series have largely focused on the baptism question — which is inevitable given that Garrett is urging us to fellowship denominations other than the Churches of Christ. The comments follow very much along the traditional lines, and I’d urge us to think of the question in some different ways. After all, people have long-ago stopped listening to the traditional arguments — on both sides. Continue reading →