The Need to Excommunicate Wayward Members in the Christian Churches
Here's the truth I can uphold, "One can be physically a member of a local church but they are not part of the true Church." That can be very true. Jesus had warned in Matthew 7:15, "Beware of false prophets which come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly they are ravening wolves." In 1 Corinthians 5 we read the possibility of a false conversion. First, let me be clear that I believe Christians can fall into the state of carnality but there are NO carnal Christians in the sense that they continually live to be carnal like there are no adulterous Christians in the sense that there are no Christians who are habitually adulterous. In fact 1 Corinthians 5:1 we read the incident of fornication and nominal incest (with one's stepmother) which was brazenly immoral. Looking at it, you might consider the reality that such a person may not be saved because of the statement "But them that are without God's judgeth. Therefore put away from among yourselves THAT WICKED PERSON." which could be specifying that the person was not saved to start with. In fact, I don't like using 1 Corinthians 5:5 to justify my belief of eternal security, I'd rather use 1 John 2:19 which has a clearer picture of once a Christian, always a Christian.
So what happens when we refuse to excommunicate wayward members? Looking at it, not all the wayward members are unsaved, some have backslid and need to be suspended but others need to be excommunicated. The problem can be this that in 1 Corinthians 5:6, the Apostle Paul writes, "Your glorying is not good. Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump?" It just takes a little yeast to make the bread leavened. So the problem is that allowing wayward members to keep staying with the hope that they will change will be very detrimental to the Church, it will affect the true members. Some may backslide to a certain extent while it will also at the same time, allow false converts to come in. It greatly concerns me how I am seeing some Baptist churches despite their written articles written that "We are a fundamental Baptist Church..." however, has had failed to practice excommunication. If they are to know this, excommunication of wayward members is part of Church tradition that was written by the Apostolic letters. Do these people really read their Bible or are they relying on trustee decisions? That's also another reason why I don't support trustee-led churches these days.
It just sickens me to see how a Baptist assembly I knew not only preaches a watered down message but has really refused to excommunicate a lot of wayward members all in the name of inventory ministry, all because of the money and as a result I can see a lot of their members are pretty wayward in lifestyle while starving to death the true Christians in them. I really am amazed to how they still refuse to excommunicate one of their church members who dresses in very worldly clothing, flirts with men and even sleeps with them, likes the bad kind of men and still they let her in? That's plainly a tolerance of wickedness which is no better than Roman Catholic parishes that keep allowing wayward members to attend the damnable heresy of the Mass. Christians are called to be different from the worldly viewpoint and the Bible gives the standard to follow but why are some Christian assemblies now becoming consenting to sin like the Roman Catholic parishes? Maybe they have some Jesuit infiltration in it or are afraid of what people will say - either way they are not doing a good job driving away infiltrators. That is very serious as to think of it, we are to be wary of wolves trying to behave like sheep and NOT sheep behaving like wolves. All I can say is that unless Christians will cry out against these false members, there can't be a revival and the flock will be continuously devoured because such people didn't lose their salvation, they aren't saved to start with.
For guidelines on excommunication you may want to read this article by my brother-in-Christ, Atty. Gerrly Galacio.