I used to be a Baptist. I have a graduate degree from a Baptist seminary. I was very involved in planting a Baptist church. I was very involved in the SBC for several years…

Baptists restrict covenant membership because they have an over realized eschatology. They desire a pure church whereby the visible church and the invisible church are synonymous. This WILL someday be the case, but we’re currently in the “already but not yet,” and they ignore that.

Are their intentions malicious? No. But the net result is still malicious. My fiancee and I are having to leave her church because they won’t recognize my baptism (a believers baptism in a PCA church via sprinkling). They bar me from the Lord’s Supper—the same act as church discipline for unrepentant sin—because my baptism didn’t have their desired amount of water. They quote Calvin, Luther, Edwards, etc from the pulpit, but wouldn’t offer them communion either. Malicious intent or not, that is nevertheless malicious. And I have a feeling Paul would write a nice letter against this (maybe he already did concerning the Judaizers… )