For the past month, we have been feasting on a steady diet concerning the doctrine of “salvation”, trying to make it unmistakably clear that we can’t contribute anything to make it happen; we can’t earn God’s Favor and a spot in Glory someday on our merit. It’s the merit of Jesus and Jesus alone.
In other words, salvation is not achieved because we had been born into the “right” family as though we can be dragged into the Kingdom by clinging to the spiritual coattails of either mom or dad. Nor is it gained by amassing a pile of good works that outweigh the bad actions we’ve performed or the plethora of good works we neglected to do. Nor is it received on the basis of one other possibility: performing one or a series of religious rituals that prove our devotion to God and thereby qualify us for Kingdom admission.
Which brings us to the subject of Baptism. Now this subject, like everything else we believe at our church doesn’t emerge out of some fiercely-debated and ensuing long-held church tradition. We base all our beliefs upon what the Bible says.
But having said, we don’t go into a lot of detail regarding the doctrine of baptism in our Church Constitution. Under Art. 4 entitled, “Our Church Members’ Covenant”, our 4th Commitment reads:
“We affirm in God’s Presence our mutual desire to … to regularly observe the two ordinances of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper.” That’s all we say!