Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09004 Infant baptism, or paedobaptism, is practised by the majority of the world’s Christians, including Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, Anglicans, Lutherans, Presbyterians, and many Methodists. Given its prevalence, it is reasonable to ask whether Scripture supports the practice. The answer, examined on purely biblical grounds, is that it does not. This is not said…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09018 The doctrine of apostolic succession is one of the foundational claims of Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and some Anglican ecclesiology. It asserts that the authority of the original apostles has been transmitted in an unbroken chain through the laying on of hands from bishop to bishop, from the first century to the present…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09017 The differences between Roman Catholic and Protestant churches are not minor variations on a shared theme. They involve fundamental disagreements about the nature of salvation, the authority of Scripture, the role of the church, and how a sinner stands before a holy God. Understanding these differences matters, not because Protestant-Catholic dialogue should be…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09016 The sheer number of Christian denominations is one of the most frequently raised objections to the faith, both by sceptics and by sincere believers who find it troubling. If Christians worship the same God and read the same Bible, why are there thousands of separate organisational structures, each with its own confession, polity,…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 09110 The Evangelical Baptist Network is not an old institution. It grew out of a very specific crisis within Baptists Together (the Baptist Union of Great Britain) over the question of same-sex marriage for ministers, emerging from what was initially called Baptist Ministers for Orthodox Marriage before rebranding under its current name. Understanding what…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09024 Few pastoral situations are more delicate or more important than the question of what the church should do when a member sins publicly. Get it wrong in one direction — moving too quickly, too harshly, or with the wrong spirit — and the church becomes a place of fear rather than grace. Get…
Reading Time: 6 minutesQuestion 9002 The word “church” is thrown around quite loosely today. People talk about “going to church” as if it were simply a building or a Sunday morning activity. But what does the Bible actually mean when it speaks of the Church? This is a question that deserves careful attention because understanding what the Church…
Reading Time: 7 minutesQuestion 1135 Few questions generate more heat in contemporary Christianity than the role of women in teaching and preaching. Positions range from complete egalitarianism, where no distinctions exist between men and women in church ministry, to strict complementarianism that limits women’s participation significantly. What does Scripture actually say? We must approach this topic with both…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 8028 The idea that angels might be present when God’s people gather for worship sounds either startling or sentimental depending on one’s assumptions. Scripture is less ambiguous than either reaction might suggest. Several biblical texts indicate that the gathered church exists in a context that is far more populated than what is visible to…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 09113 There is a version of Protestant Christianity that treats Bible interpretation as an entirely private affair between the individual believer and the text, with no mediating role for community, history, or accountability. This sits uneasily with what Scripture actually teaches about the body of Christ, the distribution of gifts for the building up…