Saturday, March 24, 2012

Praise God for those Who Don't Join

Acts 5:13 KJV
And of the rest durst no man join himself to them: but the people magnified them.

I have read that in the old Anabaptist churches the policy was to make it difficult for a person join and easy for a person to leave. The policy was meant to preserve the purity of the congregation. While no church is perfectly pure while on this earth, after all the work being done is to present her chaste before the Lord, still part of that purifying process will include refusing to admit those whose motives and spiritual inclination is not for spiritual advancement and then to allow for the removal of those who choose not to advance in the graces of purity.

This policy seems to be supported by the baptism of John which became a clear gatekeeper, distinguishing between those who did or did not produce evidence of repentance. It is also supported by this passage that, though followed with a verse that says believers were the more added, tells us that many would not join with them because of the account of Ananias and Sapphira.

We want to see believers added.

We don't need to see just anybody added.

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