What does Jesus mean by the “keys of the kingdom,” and to whom does he give them? Jonathan Leeman joins me on What in the Word? to discuss the Matthew 16:19.
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Marks of a Church
Who Can Take the Lord’s Supper?: Understanding Close Communion (with Dallas Vandiver)
Who ought to be allowed to partake of the Lord’s Supper? Maybe this question has never occurred to you, or you’ve always assumed the answer was obvious! Well, in this episode, Dr. Dallas Vandiver joins me to talk about a historic position known as ‘close communion,’ that the Lord’s Supper ought to be reserved for baptized members in good standing of a gospel-believing church.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Dallas Vandiver’s book, Who Can Take the Lord’s Supper?: A Biblical-Theological Argument for Close Communion.
Dallas Vandiver’s shorter article summarizing the arguments of the book:
Why Baptism is Required for Church Membership (with Bobby Jamieson)
Why does our church, and churches like ours, require people to be baptized before we will admit them as members of our church? Today Kirk is joined by Bobby Jamieson, associate pastor at Capitol Hill Baptist Church in Washington, D.C., to discuss the Biblical and theological reason for this practice.
Access the episode here. (Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and more.)
Marks of a Church (Diagram)
The following is a chart that seeks to capture the logic of the following confession from Article 29 of The Belgic Confession:
“The true church can be recognized if it has the following marks: The church engages in the pure preaching of the gospel; it makes use of the pure administration of the sacraments as Christ instituted them; it practices church discipline for correcting faults. In short, it governs itself according to the pure Word of God, rejecting all things contrary to it and holding Jesus Christ as the only Head. By these marks one can be assured of recognizing the true church—and no one ought to be separated from it.“
Marks of a Church
Preaching the Gospel – What creates the church, a community of those who believe the gospel.
Administration of the Ordinances – What marks out and makes known the boundaries of that believing community.
- Baptism = the initiating rite to mark off those who belong to Christ and his church.
- The Lord’s Supper = the ongoing rite which continually marks off those who constitute the church.
Exercising Church Discipline – What maintains the proper boundaries of the church, i.e., those who demonstrate lives consistent with their profession of faith in Christ.
Kirk E. Miller 