The full title of the group of churches to which we belong is ‘Strict and Particular Baptists’. Baptists are a broad Christian grouping that baptise only believers and only by immersion. ‘Strict’ stands for ‘Restricted Communion’ and ‘Particular’ for ‘Particular Redemption’.
- ‘Restricted Communion’ means only those that have been baptised by immersion upon public profession of their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and received as church members either at Bethesda or another church of the same faith and order will be allowed to partake of the Lord’s Supper or Communion.
The Lord’s Supper is the ordinance of Christ where believers together partake of bread and wine as emblems of Christ’s body and blood. At this ordinance they remember His sufferings and death to save them from their sins. - ‘Particular Redemption’ as opposed to ‘universal redemption’ is the doctrine that salvation procured by Christ through his death and resurrection was for a specific number of people chosen by God and was not for the whole of mankind. It follows that all who the Lord chose to save by grace, will be saved because he is all-powerful and cannot fail. It also follows from the doctrine of the total depravity of mankind that if any part of salvation depended on the will or power of men and women, none would be saved.
The doctrines of ‘Particular Redemption’ and ‘Election’ are not an encouragement to fatalism. The Scriptures exhort us to pray for the blessings of the Elect and to search the scriptures.
Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you
Matthew 7:7