What is in a Name?

He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. (Mark 16:16 NKJV) Jesus Himself spoke these words to His apostles and to us before He ascended into Heaven to sit at the right hand of the Father. Jesus put no other requirements on the Salvation that He purchased for us. We in the New Testament church have always prided ourselves on “speaking where the Bible speaks and silent where it is silent with love in all things”. But some are adding a new requirement to baptism. It now matters WHERE you are baptized and by WHOM, as much or more than WHY you are baptized. Let me explain what I mean.

I have recently encountered some brethren that are questioning my baptism because it was not performed in a church of Christ or by a “member” of the church of Christ.

Let me preface what I am about to write by saying that there is only one Church, and that is the Church that Christ purchased on the cross of Calvary. I am a New Testament Christian, nothing more, nothing less. I firmly stand on the statement that Paul makes in Ephesians 4:4-5 KJV There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; One Lord, one faith, one baptism. However, this one baptism Paul writes of in this passage, according to some brethren, must take place in a “church of Christ” performed by a “church of Christ member”.

This is in DIRECT contradiction to what Paul wrote above by Inspiration from God. One baptism means one baptism. I was baptized according to the Plan of Salvation. I believed that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I repented of my sins and asked God to forgive me. I confessed that I was a sinner and I believed that Jesus Christ was the Son of God and He died on Calvary for my sins, and I was baptized (fully immersed) for the remission of my sins and at that time I was added to the Body of Christ, His Church.

My baptism was not like the baptism of John as some have tried to allude to. And I was baptized TO BE SAVED and added to the Lord’s Church, not baptized because I was saved.

The reason I ask “What’s in a name?” is that some have said that because my baptism did not occur in a “church of Christ” it is invalid, and I should have been “re baptized” when I was restored and placed membership with my local congregation. This is found nowhere in Scripture, nor in any of the writings of the great preachers that have proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ for many years.

Let us look at how many times the “church of Christ” appears in the New Testament- NONE. The “churches of Christ” appears once- in Romans 16:16. I was baptized in a “church of God”, which appears by name 8 times in the New Testament in Acts 20:28, 1 Co 1:2, 1 Co 10:32, 1 Co 11:22, 1 Co 15:9, 2 Co 1:1, Gal 1:13, and 1 Ti 3:15. In Acts 20:28 KJV Paul states: Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Now is this the “church of God” named in Scripture, the same church of God that Paul mentioned by name the “church of God” where I was baptized? No it is not. But nowhere in Scripture did Christ command that anyone be baptized in the “church of Christ”. Just the opposite, He told us we must be baptized to be added to “the church” in Acts 2:47, not to the “church of Christ”.

In conclusion, I want to ask are we not skirting on a precarious position close to denominational ism here if we allow this. Are we not allowing “man made doctrine” to be imposed within the Lord’s church? Remember the words of Paul to the church in Rome “For if we live, we live to the Lord; and if we die, we die to the Lord. Therefore, whether we live or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ died and rose and lived again, that He might be Lord of both the dead and the living. But why do you judge your brother? Or why do you show contempt for your brother? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: "AS I LIVE, SAYS THE LORD, EVERY KNEE SHALL BOW TO ME, AND EVERY TONGUE SHALL CONFESS TO GOD." So then each of us shall give account of himself to God. Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather resolve this, not to put a stumbling block or a cause to fall in our brother's way. “(Romans 14:8-13 NKJV)

Is this not them same type of legalism that was addressed during the Jerusalem council in Acts 15? Peter in response to the Judaizing teachers said “And when there had been much dispute, Peter rose up and said to them: "Men and brethren, you know that a good while ago God chose among us, that by my mouth the Gentiles should hear the word of the gospel and believe. So God, who knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit, just as He did to us, and made no distinction between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith”. (Acts 15:7-9 NKJV)

There was a Restoration movement slogan from years past that said “we are Christians only, but we are not the ONLY Christians”. Have some forgotten this? I pray not.

Therefore if there is any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love, if any fellowship of the Spirit, if any affection and mercy, fulfill my joy by being like-minded, having the same love, being of one accord, of one mind. Let nothing be done through selfish ambition or conceit, but in lowliness of mind let each esteem others better than himself. Let each of you look out not only for his own interests, but also for the interests of others. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 2:1-5 NKJV)