The pastor does not enforce the rule in a So. Baptist Church. It’s up to everyone in attendence to decide for himself whether he should take communion. The pastor just explains why we do it, what it means, etc., and we are then when we take communion, it is between us and God. If you take it and you are not saved, then you are just lying to yourself. God knows.
Thank you for your reply.
I guess my actual question was who could judge themselves worthy, or saved, as we do not know when we will backslide in the future.
Since being saved entails forever, if you are a good practicing christian for many years, as my brother in laws parents were, (baptist, not southern), were devoted, attended church every week, excellent prayer life, were very involved in the church. The dad got sick, very sick, mulitple transplants, and through it, they lost their faith in God.
No one could have seen that coming; were they ever saved? Not? I can tell you, they were as sincere as you and I in their faith, yet a catastrophic illness over several years, their faith was shaken and lost.
We cannot say it would not happen to us, we have not been tested watching our spouse die over 15-20 years, a most dibilitating and slow death.
I cannot believe for a moment they were never saved, so how does that work? BTW, I converted to the Catholic Church from the Baptist Church- once saved always saved was one of the reasons.
I could never reconcile it personally, especially when scripture pointed out we must work out our salvation in fear and trembling.
I, by no means am attacking, and it is the senario above that caused me to have those questions, to which my Baptist pastor replied, and I quote, “ Some Baptist churches believe you can lose your salvation, some do not. Go to one that teaches what you believe if you are not comfortable here.”
My answer, to which he never replied, was “There is one God, One Truth and One Spirit. If you are teaching one truth about salvation, and the other Baptist Church is teaching the opposite, that is 2 truths, or no truths. Who is right and how can you know your truth is correct?” That was the last time we spoke.
Sorry I did not mean to make this so long, and I appreciate your time. I do always like to hear how our Baptist FRiends feel about the above story, and the can/cannot lose your salvation issue.
So Baptist Churches have communion? With wine and everything?