Here is an excellent blog by Sam Waldron.
Why Baptism Must Be into the Membership of a Local Church!
Pt.1
- » Why Baptism Must Be into the Membership of a Local Church!
Pt.2
- » Why Baptism Must Be into the Membership of a Local Church!
Pt.3
- » Why Baptism Must Be into the Membership of a Local Church!
Here is point 9 in Sam Waldrons third blog concerning Baptism and Membership.
Quote:
9. Because there is no proof that any believer was not baptized into the local church.
The Ethiopian Eunuch is often cited as an example of someone who was not baptized into a local church. His baptism is then made the precedent for overturning everything else that the New Testament teaches about the coincidence of baptism and church membership. Several important objections must be made against this use of the passage. First, if the Ethiopian Eunuch indeed was not baptized into a local church, it was only because no such church existed in Ethiopia. This was clearly an exceptional circumstance that must not be made into a normative principle of the church or applied to situations where a local church does exist. Second, it is not, in fact, clear that the Ethiopian Eunuch was not baptized into a local church. This assumption on the part of interpreters is nowhere stated in the passage. It is possible and even probable given the teaching of the rest of the New Testament that he was baptized into the membership of the church in Jerusalem or that he was the first member of the church in Ethiopia. One thing is for sure this is no instance of happy-go-lucky evangelism where believers are made and then left to fend for themselves. We cannot attribute such a practice to Philip or the church in Jerusalem.
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