"I Used To Be A Baptist"

How many times have I heard it? I heard it again the other night.

I was recently chatting with an acquaintance of mine and, in the course of our conversation, he said, "I used to be a Baptist." He continued that he now attended a Lutheran church and furthermore declared that there is "very little difference" between a Lutheran and a Baptist.

I once called a Mormon "800 number" and requested a free gift. (I was curious.) They asked if they could send someone to talk to me, which thrilled me to no end. After several trips to my home, they brought out the big-guns and were accompanied by a couple of guys who told me, "I used to be a Baptist." I wasn't impressed.

At a store where I once shopped, a Baptist lady worked there who had begun attending the local Catholic church. She said she was really enjoying it and recommend it. I suppose she could now say, "I used to be a Baptist."

I know at least a couple of guys who became Methodist ministers who "used to be Baptist." At least one left the Methodists and joined the Charismatic movement. He later began attending a Baptist church that left the Baptists and joined the Charismatics. Sheesh! (I suppose I need a chart at this point.) I don't think he had anything to do with that. I reckon that entire congregation could say, "I used to be a Baptist."

I have friend who says, "I used to be a Baptist." He is now attending a Pentecostal church. He was raised in a Baptist church, but for some reason I've yet to discern, left us for them.

It seems curious to me, but these people seem to wear their previous Baptist experience as a badge of honor. It sort of reminds me of the guy who kept his ex-wife's picture in his pocket so he could occasionally show it off to his pals. He just wanted to prove that he once could get a real girl, I imagine. You know, like bragging, "I used to be married to her."

I don't want to be overly abrasive, but it's just more of the same: people who believe that there is little or no difference between them and us. It's like believing there's little or no difference between cars, brands of ice cream, bosses or wives or women in general. It's absurd to presume they are all the same! My Dad used to remark about people like that, "Any old port in a storm."

God's Church is definitely not "any old port." Yet, it is a shelter in the time of storm. Those who don't want to be bothered with things like study and research to find the truth may land anywhere. Like a butterfly flitting about beautiful flowers only to ultimately light on a pile of poop.

Don't misunderstand, those who will be saved are among every congregation and in every denomination and religion. There is much grace after the cross. Still, we as Baptists should be proud of our heritage and not be so quick to shrug it off. Too much blood has been spilt and, perhaps will be again, to make the mortar that founded the Church of Christ for it to be so easily and flippantly cast aside as nothing more than, to put it indelicately, one of the Lord's concubines.

I really like what one preacher said about it. "Baptist is not a denomination; it's a way of life."

1 John 2:19 They went out from us, but they were not of us; for if they had been of us, they would no doubt have continued with us: but they went out, that they might be made manifest that they were not all of us.

P.S. If you leave the Southern Baptists to join the independent Baptists, can you say, "I used to be a Baptist"?