{"id":22406,"date":"2023-02-16T15:27:42","date_gmt":"2023-02-16T15:27:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22406"},"modified":"2023-02-16T15:28:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-16T15:28:07","slug":"the-church-no-2-how-people-become-members","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=22406","title":{"rendered":"The Church\u2014No. 2 (How People Become Members)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Views: 0<\/p>

[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-2<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Jesus built His church on the first Pentecost after His resurrection. How did people become members of it? This is an all-important question for those truly interested in being in His church today. If one ignores New Testament teaching on this issue, he may as well ignore it altogether. The only way one can be a member of Jesus\u2019 church today is to do what people did in the first century to become members. What does the New Testament say about it?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 On Pentecost, the apostles preached a powerful sermon on the Deity of Christ, convincing the Jews they had crucified the Son of God (Acts 2:22\u201337). When the Jews asked what to do about their terrible mistake (indicating their faith), Peter said, \u201cRepent and be baptized, every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins\u201d (Acts 2:38). Verse 41 tells their response: \u201cThey then that received His word were baptized: and there were added unto them in that day about three thousand souls.\u201d This historic chapter ends by stating, \u201cAnd the Lord added to them (to the church, KJV) day by day those that were saved.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Please observe:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. They were saved and<\/strong> added simultaneously, not saved one day, joining a church of their choice several days later (v. 47).<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. They were added after <\/strong>they received (obeyed) the Word (v. 41).<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. Since they were added when they were saved (v. 47), and they were not added until after they were baptized (v. 41), they could not have been saved before they were baptized.<\/strong><\/span><\/li>\n
  4. If they were saved before they were baptized (as many erroneously teach), then they were saved before they received remission of sins, because baptism is clearly an act preceding remission or forgiveness of sins (v. 38; Mark 16:16; Acts 22:16; Rom 6:4, etc.).<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Being saved and being in Jesus\u2019 church are the same thing. The church is simply the people who are saved.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Faith, repentance, and baptism for remission of sins is the way to become a member of Jesus\u2019 church.<\/span><\/p>\n

    [Note:<\/strong>\u00a0I wrote this article for, and it was published in the \u201cBible Thoughts\u201d Column for the Hood County News<\/em>, Granbury, Texas, January 30, 1977.]<\/span><\/p>\n

    Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Views: 0[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-2 page.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Jesus built His church on the first Pentecost after His resurrection. How did people become members of it? This is an all-important question for those truly interested in being in…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading… The Church\u2014No. 2 (How People Become Members)<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,708,84,36,40,326,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22406","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-baptism-purpose","category-the","category-faith","category-plan-of","category-remission-of-sins","category-repentance","wpcat-37-id","wpcat-708-id","wpcat-84-id","wpcat-36-id","wpcat-40-id","wpcat-326-id","wpcat-38-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22406","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22406"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22406\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22407,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22406\/revisions\/22407"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22406"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22406"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22406"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}