I grew up attending the Baptist Church. My parents were not church-going folks when I was young, but my little sister and I attended the Baptist Church very often in our youth. Our grandmother took a special interest in our spiritual training, instilling a love for God, and respect for His Word, and a desire to go to Heaven in us while we were quite young. I remember being dropped off at Sunday School or riding a church bus on Sunday mornings. I drove myself to services when I got my driver's license. When I was in my mid-teens I was baptized into the Baptist Church. I was very active in the church's youth group and was very happy being a member of the Baptist Church.
Why did I leave the Baptist Church? It was not because I was upset at the pastor, the deacons, or any of the members. I had a number of good friends in the Baptist Church. I did not leave because I married a member of the church of Christ and, as a compromise, decided to go to her church. I was converted several years before I ever met my spouse. I did not leave because I felt the need to rebel against my parents or my family's religious tradition. Such expressions of rebellion have never been a part of my nature. So, why did I leave?
On August 4, 1988, I had a Bible study with a friend from school. He had just graduated, and I was entering my senior year of high school. He and I had a summer job together, and spent a lot of time talking about spiritual things. I finally agreed to have a study with him. During this study he asked me how I knew I was saved. I gave him the typical Baptist response, "I have accepted Jesus Christ as my personal savior." For the first time in my life I heard this answer challenged. He did so by asking me to show him where the Bible said one was to just accept Jesus as their personal Savior. I thought for a moment and responded, "I can't. I don't think it is in there." He proceeded to show me what the Bible says one must do to be saved. Within a few hours, I was baptized into Christ for the remission of my sins, and the following Sunday morning I was introduced as a new member of the Downtown church of Christ in Rogers, Arkansas.
Although my conversion occurred very quickly, there are some important truths I realized during that brief time which have had a drastic impact upon my life. These are the reasons I left the Baptist Church.
1. The Baptist Church Does Not Teach the Gospel Plan of Salvation. While it is true that some fringe Baptist groups teach water baptism is necessary for salvation, the mainstream Baptist Churches certainly do not. All I ever heard in my years in the Baptist Church was "faith only" salvation. Every Baptist preacher I heard, including some of my relatives, told people to just believe in Jesus and you will be saved. This is a very popular doctrine. I believed it was the truth, and I tried to teach it to others. However, I have learned this is a false and soul-damning doctrine.
The New Testament does not teach "faith only" salvation. In fact, according to James 2:26, "a man is justified by works, and not by faith only" (NKJV). In addition to a belief in Jesus (John 8:24) the Bible teaches one must repent of his sins (Luke 13:3), confess his faith (Rom. 10:9-10), and be baptized in water for the remission of his sins (Acts 2:38).
While my grandmother was a Baptist, she hadn't taught me to be a Baptist. She taught me to believe what the Bible says. I had been baptized into the Baptist Church, but when I was shown from the Scriptures that baptism was essential for my salvation, I obeyed the Lord's command and was baptized in water for the remission of my sins.
2. The Baptist Church Does Not Follow the Bible. It wasn't until I became a member of the Lord's church that I realized how much of a burden it was being a member of a denomination. Like all other denominations, the Baptist Church has a creed. It has a set of doctrines which are taught and defended as truth. However, sometimes these doctrines contradict the Bible. When this happens, a member of a denomination must undergo some mental gymnastics in order to interpret the Bible in light of the creed. It is like fitting the proverbial square peg into a round hole. When you are first told what the Bible says, then encounter a passage which teaches differently, you have to find a way to have the Bible teach something it does not actually say. This is very frustrating, but it has to be done if one is to continue to uphold a denominational creed.
Passages which teach the necessity of water baptism for salvation, the possibility of apostasy, and the need for works are reinterpreted to accommodate Baptist doctrine. For instance, I vividly remember a Baptist commenting on James 2:14-26 and saying, "If you didn't know any better, you would think James was teaching we are saved by works!"
It wasn't until I left the Baptist Church that I discovered how refreshing non-denominational Christianity really is. Bible study became a lot easier when I was free to let the Bible speak for itself.
3. Denominationalism Does Not Exist By the Will of God. As a member of the Baptist Church I had bought into the idea that "everyone is going to Heaven, we are just getting there different ways." Other people were happy to worship God in their own churches, and I was happy to be a Baptist. The things that separated us into different groups were unimportant; what mattered was that we all agreed on the important things.
This view was challenged on the night I became a member of the Lord's church. I could see the need to be baptized for the remission of my sins, but I struggled for a moment regarding why I would need to leave the Baptist Church. I was gently made aware of the fact that if the Baptist Church was not teaching the gospel plan of salvation, then the people who made up that church were not really Christians. It took me a minute to swallow that truth, and it was hard to swallow. Those people in the Baptist Church were not a group of "nameless" people to me. I knew them and I loved them. However, the fact is that these people had not been baptized into Christ. I needed to be where God's people were.
While denominationalism is celebrated in the world today, it does not exist by the will of God. People say, "Join the church of your choice, and thank God for the choices!" The Bible tells us we are not allowed to divide ourselves according to doctrinal differences or personal preferences (1 Cor. 1:10-13). Jesus only built one church (Matt. 16:18) and He will only save one church (Eph. 5:23). Jesus prayed for our unity, not our celebrated division (John 17:20-21). The Lord taught that all things which were not planted by the Father will be uprooted (Matt. 15:13). Why would I want to be a member of a church that the Lord does not recognize as His own and will not survive the Judgment?
4. God Cannot Be Worshiped in Spirit and Truth in the Baptist Church. Soon after becoming a member of the Lord's church I was impressed with the teaching of John 4:23-24. "But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth" (NKJV). For the first time in my life I was confronted with the reality that God will not accept anything I want to do as worship and service. God is seeking true worshipers, and not just any kind of worship is true worship.
The Baptist Churches of which I was familiar did not worship God according to the pattern set forth in the New Testament. They sang spiritual songs, many of the same hymns we sing in the Lord's church, but they were always with musical accompaniment. I remember one time the music director asked us to sing one verse of Amazing Grace without the piano. We pulled it off, but we wouldn't have won any prizes for our singing ability. We had a sermon every Sunday, and to the surprise of some members of the church of Christ, these sermons were usually full of Scriptures and practical applications. We passed the collection plate every Sunday - at least once. It was not uncommon for the collection plate to be passed a number of times to finance different projects. The Lord's Supper was observed quarterly (once every three months). It was done so rarely that most of us younger people had no idea what we were doing. It took extra time and thus was looked upon as a chore or a burden rather than the memorial Christ intended it to be.
How refreshing it was to become a member of the Lord's church where the memorial of His death was the centerpiece of every Lord's Day worship service. We all focused on the words of the songs we were singing, not on the sound of the piano, or listening to the choir. It mattered how one worshiped God, and for the first time I was giving attention to offering worship unto God which pleased Him and not myself.
Conclusion: Sometimes those who were "raised in" the Lord's church have a hard time appreciating what a convert has to give up in order to become a Christian. Many people come to stand at the same crossroads where I stood on that August evening. We have a choice to make. We can either ignore the truth and stay where we are comfortable, or we can take a brave step of faith into the unknown, caring only that we are doing what the Lord has told us to do in order to be saved.
Was it easy to leave the Baptist Church? In some ways it was not; and still isn't. I love my family and friends who are Baptists. They are good, sincere people who love the Lord. Like Paul, my heart's desire and prayer to God is that they may be saved (Rom. 10:1). I have tried my best to teach them and be a good influence upon them, and thus far have had little success. This is hard for me.
However, the choice to obey the Gospel and become a part of the Lord's church was actually very easy. As far back as I can remember I can hear my grandmother's voice reading the Scriptures to me. She was not teaching me how to be a Baptist. She was teaching me to love the Lord, to fear His Word, and to have a desire to go to Heaven when I die. My decision to leave the Baptist Church was one that she had actually trained me to make. I thank God I was shown the truth at a time in my life when I was ready to see it. My prayer is that you would see it too.