24 Dimensions of Baptism
barrier to evangelical fellowship might be removed if such churches were
to interpret their foundational documents as laying down the necessity for
'baptism according to the scriptural pattern' rather than to expose them-
selves to the danger of accepting as binding a human interpretation of
Scripture which appears to be unsupported by the evidence of Scripture
itself, where no specific emphasis is laid on the mode of baptism or the
amount of water? It is when we go beyond the clear teaching of Scripture
that we begin to raise ecclesiastical barriers.^43- Cf. K. Roxburgh, 'Open and Closed Membership among Scottish Baptists', in
Porter and Cross (eds.), Baptism, pp. 430-46, esp. pp. 444-46.