Our church is still very strong in living, teaching, and sharing the Gospel although there have been various administrative and sacramental changes in the church. In the past, Baptisms have taken place on Lord's Day afternoons after the main Public Worship services. The Elders have very rightly made changes to include Baptism in Public Worship because the Sacraments set the Gospel visibly before our eyes (as Paul said, our old self buried with Christ in Baptism and raised to newness of life as a new creation). Not only are the Sacraments a visible representation and seal of the Gospel, they are an expression of unity with other believers in the church. To strengthen the Unity of the Church as a local expression of God’s family, the Elders are now requiring all future member to go through Believers-Only Baptism and will eventually require all current members to do the same as a Term of Membership (not to be confused with Terms of Communion). The error of Believers-Only Baptism notwithstanding, the Elders requiring that as a Term of Membership is indeed right and Scriptural since it builds Church Unity (as Paul said, being of the same mind and walking by the same rule of faith).
Also, the Elders of CLC have chosen to think more about hedging the Table more than their current practice of Latitudinarian Communion, that is, where any repentant Christian may approach the Table without an examination/interview by the Session/Elders. As long as CLC continues to preach Christ and Him crucified (as it has done since 1977 and DV will continue to do), it is and will continue to be my strong testimony that CLC is a true church (and hence, its members my dear brethren) that both believes, teaches, and passionately lives the Gospel.
Also, the Elders of CLC have chosen to think more about hedging the Table more than their current practice of Latitudinarian Communion, that is, where any repentant Christian may approach the Table without an examination/interview by the Session/Elders.
Since I am a Covenanter (Covenanted Presbyterian), I cannot submit to my Elders and be ana-baptized since I, having been baptized as an infant, will not and dare not dishonor God and His Gospel by being baptized again through Believers-Only Baptism. Obviously, the implication of that relative to the Elders’ Terms of Membership would be eventually having to relinquish my membership.
Now, to be clear, Baptism is one of several factors of my leaving my current church home. Other things being worship, holy days, church government, hedging the table, CLC's supposed "Discipleship Group(s)", and a few others. The eventual Term of Membership is the capstone.
My contrasting beliefs:
1. Public worship is exclusively prayer, Scripture songs, reading of Scripture, and teaching of Scripture. The songs are only from Scripture and are sung without instruments.
2. There is no holy day or season other than the Lord's Day or extraordinary days of Fasting and Thanksgiving prescribed by the Session.
3. The Lord's Day is to be kept holy without any worldly entertainment and without any unnecessary work, business, or commerce. This would exclude professional work, laundry, carwashing, grasscutting, playing games or sports, watching sports or other noble entertainment, shopping, staying at a commerical boarding place, and eating at a restaurant. (The last two are circumstantial since if you are on travel, staying at a hotel and eating are obviously works of necessity unless there is a kitchenette/microwave and refrigerator in the hotel room.)
4. Baptism is for Infants born to a Christian parent and for Christian believers not born to a Christian parent. If the infant is not born to Christian parent, then that infant is not to be baptised until (s)he makes a credible, examined profession of faith in Christ. Hence, Reformed Baptism is Infant Baptism AND Believers Baptism.
5. The form of Church Government is the Presbyterial form. Elders are not appointed. Their calling is affirmed by examination of the Session and a vote of the local church's Christian members. The final court in the church family/denomination is the General Assembly (or in some circumstances, Synod), not the Session.
6. The Lord's Supper is Close Communion, that is, only repentant Christian members of a local church are admitted to the Table at that church. Non-members, regardless of their salvation or penitence, are not admitted to the Table.
7. Discpleship starts when the person is saved, not when the person has attained a certain level of maturity or shows potential of leadership.
8. Prophecy is an extraordinary gift, not ordinary gifts, that ceased with the close of the Canon except at occasional times in history when God was pleased to raise them. Tongues is not a supernatural language but a human language.
9. All church officers and communicant members of a local church should subscribe to and own their respective church's Subordinate Standards or Statement of Belief as a Term of Ordination (officers) and as a Term of Communion (officers and members).
10. All churches and civil governments within the UK and her current and former colonies and confederations(the Covenanted lands) should subscribe to the National Covenant of Scotland and the Solemn League & Covenant (and the latter Auchensaugh Renovation of the Covenants and the Acknowledgement of Public Sins & Breach of the Covenant), to which the said states and colonies have been bound since 1649.
I have dialogued with my Session on most of these things. As long as CLC continues to preach Christ and Him crucified (as it has done since 1977 and DV will continue to do), it is and will continue to be my strong testimony that CLC is a true church (and hence, its members my dear brethren) that both believes, teaches, and passionately lives the Gospel.
Starting the first Lord’s Day in October, I will be seeking membership in the Free Church of Scotland – Continuing (FCoS-C). Though it is not a Covenanter church, it is the one closest to Covenanted Presbyterian Christianity and more importantly, Scripture in the Washington, DC, region. The FCoS-C is not the same as Ian Paisley’s FPC or the Free Church of Scotland – Residual. The FCoS-C’s statement of belief is the original and unaltered (1647) Westminster Confession of Faith, Larger Catechism, and Shorter Catechism. My personal belief encompasses the entirety of Westminster Standards, part of which are the three mentioned above this sentence. (We Covenanters do not subscribe to or follow the Ulster Covenant.) Though the FCoS-C is small in both the UK and USA and a strict branch of the Presbyterian churches, it is a godly church that encourages and challenges people in their walk in the Lord and has missionary activities in South America.
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