Going Public: Why Baptism Is Required for Church Membership

by Bobby Jamieson

Yet to allow paedobaptists to join a church on these terms is to grant infant baptism a status other than “not baptism.” This grants infant baptism sufficient theological weight to qualify a person for membership who would not qualify if they had never been “baptized” at all. Thus, in these circumstances, infant baptism is allowed to stand in for a valid baptism. The church counts a person as baptized on the basis that the person considers him- or herself baptized. But a church can’t have it both ways. If baptism isn’t required for membership, then any professing believer should be admitted with no questions asked about baptism. Yet if baptism is required for membership, then when the church admits a paedobaptist to membership, it effectively declares infant “baptism” to be true baptism—whatever their statement of faith may say to the contrary.