Is baptism the door of the church?

This is the third in a series of blog posts in which we are seeking to answer one overarching question—is a properly qualified administrator essential to valid baptism? The first post introducing the series can be found here, and the second post can be found here.

We are now addressing the question, is baptism the act which inherently unites a believer to a particular local church? Although many Baptists today would say that baptism is what joins a believer to a local church, this is a proposition that must be tested by scripture. To begin with, we’ll consider the two primary biblical arguments that have been advanced in favor of this view.

One biblical argument which is often made in support of the idea that baptism is the “door of the church” is based on the experience of the church at Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost. In Acts 2, after Peter’s powerful preaching, we read:

Then they that gladly received his word were baptized: and the same day there were added unto them about three thousand souls. (Acts 2:41)

At first glance, it’s easy to read this verse as saying that the three thousand believers who were added to the church at Jerusalem became members of this local church by the very act of their being baptized. Indeed, some Baptists have pointed to this verse as irrefutable proof that baptism is what effectually adds believers to a local church. However, if we look carefully at what the verse explicitly affirms, it actually makes two distinct statements joined by the conjunction and (Greek kai).

The first statement affirms that those who gladly received the word preached by Peter were baptized. The second statement affirms that on the same day, three thousand believers were added to the church. Of course, Luke intends for us to understand that in both statements, he is speaking of essentially the same group of people. Nevertheless, there is nothing in the text that requires us to understand that these believers became members of the church at Jerusalem by the act of baptism. This supposition is not a necessary inference from the text, and therefore it is not something that scripture affirms, at least not in this passage.

Although the idea may sound strange to many today, understanding baptism and addition to church membership in this passage as two separate actions is not a new interpretation among Baptists. The eminent Baptist theologian John Gill draws out this distinction in his discussion of baptism in his Body of Practical Divinity, first published in 1770. He writes:

[Baptism] does not make a person a member of a church, or admit him into a visible church; persons must first be baptized, and then added to the church, as the three thousand converts were; a church has nothing to do with the baptism of any, but to be satisfied they are baptized before they are admitted into communion with it.

(Gill, A Complete Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity, Vol. 3, 1796, p. 288, https://books.google.com/books?id=HYtQAQAAMAAJ)

We’ll have more to say about Gill’s views as we move forward, but clearly he sees the baptism of the three thousand converts on the day of Pentecost and their admission into church membership as two distinct actions.

In spite of what is often heard today, we believe a careful reading of Acts 2 reveals that it actually lends no support to the view that baptism is what adds believers to a particular local church.

Another biblical argument in favor of the view that baptism is the “door of the church” is based on a statement that Paul makes in 1 Corinthians 12. He writes:

For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit. (1 Corinthians 12:13)

The phrase commonly translated into English as “baptized into one body” has been understood by some Baptists as indicating that believers are united to a particular local church by baptism. Nevertheless, there are good reasons to reject this interpretation.

First, the preposition translated here as into (Greek eis) is used in many different senses throughout the New Testament. In fact, Paul on more than one occasion uses this preposition in in contexts where it obviously must not be understood as making baptism the effectual means of union:

Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into (eis) Jesus Christ were baptized into (eis) his death? (Romans 6:3)

For as many of you as have been baptized into (eis) Christ have put on Christ. (Galatians 3:27)

Should we understand Paul’s phrase “baptized into Jesus Christ” as teaching that it is the act of baptism which effectually brings believers into union with Christ? Certainly not! The preposition eis in these verses is rather to be understood in its legitimate sense of in reference to or with respect to. In these passages, Paul is simply saying that believers are baptized in connection with Jesus Christ and his death. In like manner, Paul’s use of eis in 1 Corinthians 12:13 may be understood in the same sense—that believers are baptized with respect to one body.

Another important factor that refutes the idea that Paul is here representing baptism as the effectual means of uniting with a particular local church is his use of the first person. However we may understand the shared reality being described in this verse, it is clear that Paul is including himself as a participant in it right alongside the Corinthian believers.

Paul writes that in one Spirit, “we all” have partaken of baptism with respect to one body and have “all” been made to drink of one Spirit. He uses the first person plural pronoun “we” with two first person plural verbs. He uses the word “all” twice and the word “one” three times. It would scarcely be possible to place more emphasis on the concept of unity in a single verse than Paul does here.

But was Paul baptized into the same local church as all of the Corinthians? Of course not. Paul was baptized in Damascus (Acts 9:18). One might reply that Paul was baptized into the same kind of local church as the Corinthians, but the text simply will not support this. Both Paul and the Corinthians were baptized with respect to one and the same body.

We therefore conclude that Paul’s phrase “baptized into one body” really furnishes no support to the view that baptism is the “door of the church”.

Having critically assessed the two main biblical arguments that have been put forward in favor of the view that baptism is the act which joins a believer to a particular local church, our next post will consider the scriptural evidence against this view.