Is Jesus a Baptist? Not reallybut he’s not a Catholic either.
In today’s On the Square , Timothy George considers the need for particularity in the service of unity and gives a thoughtful articulation of why he is a Baptist despite also believing that the church includes all the redeemed of all the ages, being the one body of Christ extended throughout time as well as space:
So why am I a Baptist? I am a Baptist because it was through the witness of a small Baptist church that I first heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. Many of the things I still believe in I first learned in that modest Baptist community of faith: that Jesus loves me and died on the cross for my sins; that the Bible is the totally true and trustworthy Word of God; that all human beings are made in the image of God and are infinitely precious in his sight. Through the loving nurture I received from that congregation, I confessed my personal faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord of my life. I was then baptized in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. When I was called to preach the gospel, it was in a Baptist church that I was set apart and ordained as a minister of the divine Word.
Read the rest here . I suppose, however, that Christ wouldn’t really be going to church, but rather to synagogue .