Testimonials
Why I was baptised?
My journey to baptism to become a member of the Church of Christ began two years before I had ever seen or contacted anybody from the Lord’s church. Being brought up in the doctrine of the Seventh Day Adventist church I had always questioned how could I have been so fortunate to be brought up in the right church? It bothered me deeply, given how many different churches there are out there. A quick google search would tell you that there are at least forty thousand different church dominations or organisations and that number grows daily as they so often divide, for instance due to disagreement of worship and doctrinal matters. So again, I asked myself how could I have been so “lucky” to be brought up in the right church. Even if you nail the amount of different churches to a definitive number, the odds of one being brought up in the right church are at 40,000+ to 1. Even given that statistic there will be some who may be that fortunate but nevertheless it still remains a mind-blowing statistic, the odds are not even remote at best. Is God asking us to find a needle in a haystack I often asked myself? My mum during my childhood years had often wandered from different dominations from her mother’s religion. She had moved from being brought up an Adventist to a Baptist to a Salvation Army worshiper back to her birth domination church the Seventh Day Adventist and that’s where we had stayed for the last twenty plus years. Had she come back to that one church spoken of in the new testament? Another question I asked myself.
During my teenage years and up until my 30’s I had never questioned what I believed nor was I entirely comfortable with some of the doctrine I was presented with. For a long time I had put these so called problems down to the fact that maybe I should have studied my Bible more often and then perhaps one of the pastors or elders would give an explanation for the questions I had or had struggled to understand, doctrines such as the Sabbath and tithes. During my search for answers on the web after leaving the Seventh Day Adventists I came across many answers from many churches. Some answered the questions to my biblical question with great clarity but when I dug further into their beliefs they had other things that I did not agree with like faith only saves which stopped me from visiting their church.
And then the days came when it all made sense. I had watched a YouTube video of Jarrod Jacobs preaching from the Caneyville Church of Christ about why he was a member of the Church of Christ based on the foundations of first century church. The Churches of Christ reasoning with one verse in particular, Matthew 16:18 “And I say also unto you. That you Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church and the gates of hades shall not prevail against it” (New King James version) . The reasoning was given if our Lord founded a church then by definition all other churches could not possibly be correct because they were either founded at the wrong time or by the wrong people. So why the Church of Christ one may ask? Romans 16:16 reads “Salute one another with a holy kiss the Churches of Christ Salute you” (NKJ) and Acts 20:28 “Take heed therefore unto yourselves and to flock, over which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood” (NKJ), describes as the Church of Christ being one that was started with Christ and belongs to him (purchased with his blood) and that settled it for me.
I can honestly say my experience of studying the Bible through first century eyes was much more like the nuts and bolts coming together rather than a light blub moment. As for church practices and worship they all fell into to place. I looked for the nearest Church of Christ and attended. After several visits I was baptised again not out of an obligation to join a church, which I had done previously, but the for forgiveness of my sins, understanding at the same time that one does not join a church, he or she gets added to “The Church” upon baptism and both happen simultaneously. Acts 2:41, Acts 4:4."
Kevin Garcia
I got baptised for the forgiveness of my sins. I believe that God is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. I believed it was the right time for me to get baptised and to be a proper Christian."
James