PURE CHURCH:
Recovering God’s plan for local churches
Edited by David Skull, Andrew King
and Jim Sayers
Grace Publications. 221 pages. £8.99
ISBN 978 1 912 154 159
Let me ask you a question: because you know you will never be sinless in this life, is there any point talking about holiness in the Christian life?
Of course there is, you say, indeed it is vitally important. Yet there is a surprisingly widespread cynicism among confessing evangelicals which says that there is little point talking about a ‘pure church’ because you will never achieve a completely ‘pure church’ this side of Heaven.
Eleven pastors from Grace Baptist churches have written a powerful apologetic for the local church as a gathered community of converted and baptised believers adhering to a clear basis of faith, with baptism as the doorway for the believer into committed local church membership, with members who regularly celebrate the Lord’s Supper, are committed to mutual discipleship, ready to discipline errant members; convinced of the independency of the local church without isolationism, and committed to godly, plural leadership and gospel unity between gospel churches.
Compelling case
One of the standout chapters for me was Mike Gilbart-Smith on independency. He makes a compelling biblical case for congregational government. Church order may not be a primary gospel issue like the incarnation, but it is clear in the New Testament and should not be ignored. Even an Anglican leader like John Woodhouse, one-time Principal of Moore College, came to this conclusion some years ago, based on rigorous exegetical study of Scripture; though his views were too radically biblical to have had much impact on evangelical Anglicans.
Small quibbles
I have one or two small quibbles; for example, the use of the words ‘ratify’ and ‘seal’ to describe what happens when we celebrate the Lord’s Supper. I think these are the wrong words, which owe more to Calvin than the New Testament and fail to give sufficient weight to the rich connotations of ‘remembrance’ in biblical theology.
Also, there is no addressing of the issue of open membership – allowing into membership, as an exception, someone now supportive of believer’s baptism but themselves only baptised as a baby who is convinced in good conscience that this, with confirmation at their own request, constitutes their obedience to the Lord. Like it or not, there are many converted men and women who were only baptised as babies. Are they always to be required to be baptised as believers if they want to join a baptistic church even if they are converted for decades and are now fully supportive of believer’s baptism?
We are told that each chapter in the book is going to be expanded into a book, so I hope this and other issues will be addressed.
This is an excellent, challenging book, a timely reminder of the vital importance of purity and order in the local church. My fear is that the church leaders who most need to read this book are the least likely to do so. Ideally it should be read not only by leaders but by every Christian in an evangelical church. Even, perhaps especially, by those from churches with a different churchmanship but a Berean spirit who want to examine what the Scriptures say about the local church.
