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Originally Posted by PuritanCovenanter  Quote:
Originally Posted by Pergamum Baptism must be INTO the membership of a local church?
This completely ignores the initial stages of church planting when the church planter baptizes to creates a local church, the first set of local believers which then gather together. I.e. baptims precedes the church rather than occurring in the midst of the church. | I am not so sure about this......
Pentecost was in the midst of the Church. When the New Testament records new congregations it is usually at the hand of someone who is already in the midst of the Church as an outreach of another local congregation. Just like Paul and Barnabas were sent by the Church in Antioch. |
Okay,
Then what happens when there is no church to baptize into?
Like this ethiopian?
Or in new foreign works?
It appears that we would then have extra-church baptisms, even before a local body is incorporated (or this baptism being part of the process of forming the initial body).