WHEN IS A BAPTIST INDEPENDENT?

Taken from, “The Local Church is God’s Way,”
by Norman H. Wells
http://www.baptistpillar.com/ 

The church was established by Christ in the days of His sojourn in the flesh and the work of its construction was begun with the material prepared by John the Baptist. This church was in existence at the close of His earthly ministry. 

This church, that Christ established, was a local sovereign body, responsible only to God and acknowledging no other authority than Jesus Christ, the Head of the church. 

Churches, after the order of the one Christ established, have existed in every age and are in existence now! 

The only organization presented in the New Testament is the local church, a pure democracy, self-owned, sovereign and autonomous. 

A true church, after the New Testament order, will possess those characteristics that will identify it with the New Testament model, the church that Jesus built. May we submit the claim that only a true Baptist church possesses those characteristics!! That only a true Baptist church can make the claim of being a pure democracy, self-owned, sovereign, autonomous and of presenting pure New Testament doctrine. May we hasten to add that any Baptist church that finds itself a part of any outside organization loses these characteristics. 

Apostasy grips the land! Spiritual foundations are crumbling! The Word of God is being deserted! Men and women are stumbling blindly into hell!! Never has the work of the churches faced such a challenge yet never has the New Testament organization of the local church been so ignored and neglected as today! If we are to have real New Testament revival it will come through real New Testament churches! Religion and so-called Christianity are set to destroy the local church. 

Man has never been satisfied with God's way and the local church is God's way. Man has always desired to organize something greater than the local church, something that would glorify man!! The evidence is on every hand. Note the efforts of Catholicism to bring all men into one huge church they call Catholic. Can anyone make the claim that any single Catholic church is a pure democracy, self-owned, sovereign and autonomous? Of course not!! Instead of the pure democracy of the New Testament church they have an autocracy with absolute authority centered in an alleged infallible Pope. No Catholic church is self-owned, autonomous or sovereign. Their purpose is to build a super organization with absolute powers over the people and over the churches. How, in the wildest stretch of the imagination could this monstrous hierarchy ever claim to be a New Testament Church? 

Protestants seek the same thing as the Catholics. The main purpose of united Protestantism is to build one Super-Church. This is the declared purpose of the National Council of Churches.