When membership requirements become unrealistic

 Posted at Reformation Scotland:

It is a joyful time when new members are added to a congregation, formally identifying themselves as believers in Jesus and committing to live as one of His disciples. All churches have some kind of admission process which allows them to decide whether somebody can be accepted as a new member. However, what criteria should a church use? Robert Baillie (1602–1662) served as a minister in Kilwinning, an army chaplain, and Professor of Divinity (later Principal) at Glasgow University. He was also one of the Scottish commissioners to the Westminster Assembly. In his writings he interacted with some who believed that people were obliged to provide evidence that they were truly regenerate before they could be accepted as church members. Robert Baillie argues in the following extract that this sets the bar for church membership too high. We cannot see into each other’s hearts, so how can we know whether someone is genuinely saved or not? Also, the Lord Himself has organised His church in the world in such a way that it will never be composed entirely of the truly regenerate. Baillie’s position strives for the highest standards for church members to live up to, while relieving us of the burden of deciding whether each individual church member is genuinely born again.

This is not a question of open profaneness in church members, but whether they have or lack true grace — i.e., whether they can show convincing signs of regeneration. The argument is not only that the church has a power and responsibility to discipline profaneness, but that there is a power in every member of the church to exclude from membership all who do not satisfy them that they are truly saved by grace.

I grant that it is earnestly to be wished that all the members of a church were most holy and gracious, and that all lawful means should diligently be used, both by pastors and people, to attain this.

I grant also that it is the duty of the church leadership to prevent every person who causes spiritual stumbling from profaning the holy things of the Lord to their own damnation. It is the duty of the church leadership not only to suspend from the Lord’s table all persons who cause stumbling, but further, if those persons are obstinate, and cannot be brought to repentance, they are to be excluded from the church, without respect of persons. I grant also that when church leaders are deficient in these duties, they ought themselves to be disciplined with church censures. These things are beyond dispute.

But the question is, Is a church essentially defective because it admits to church membership some who have not given satisfaction to every member of the church in the point of their real regeneration?

I argue that the answer to this question is No, for the following reasons.

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