“Salvation is by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. Church membership requirements must match that.” – Pastor Glem Melo
The Catechism, painting by Edith Hartry
By Pastor Glem Melo
In some Reformed congregations and denominations, full subscription to the Reformed Confessions (i.e. the Three Forms of Unity and/or the Westminster Standards) is required for church membership.
I always had a problem with that because, according to the Bible (i.e. John 3:16 and Ephesians 2:8-9), I was saved in 1988 by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone, without works, without Protestant church membership, and definitely without the Reformed Confessions. I was not perfect, had lots of doctrinal and ethical deformities, and was still in the Roman Catholic Church with no Protestant contacts, but I was truly converted, saved and growing in Christ.
Codex Manesse, fol. 292v, “The Schoolmaster of Esslingen” (Der Schulmeister von Eßlingen), between 1305 and 1340
In membership classes, I teach the following “Basic Essentials of the Christian Faith”:
- The Bible is the perfect and authoritative Word of God for faith and life…
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