This is the question Cain, very arrogantly, asked God as He investigated the murder of Abel. More than a retort, it raises a very important question, ‘am I responsible and how should I exercise that responsibility’?
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GENERAL
In a general sense, all of humanity are our brothers. We have a responsibility to ‘love our neighbour as ourself’(GC) and “to do good to all people.” (Gal 6:10). Especially, we have the obligation to be faithful in evangelism, not shying from sharing the Gospel with them and generally in truth pointing them toward a better way by word and deed.

Important Considerations
It is impossible to care for or share with all people. That is why Galatians says “as you have opportunity.” We are most responsible for those God has placed within our immediate sphere. This likewise follows for evangelism with the additional caveat, to do so “with gentleness and respect” (1 Pet 3:15b), just as God spoke to Cain.

PARTICULARLY
Gal 6:10 further says, “especially those who are of the household of faith.” Our ‘brothers’ are those who are so in the Lord. We have an obligation within the redeemed community to care for each other’s physical needs as evidenced by Deacons and other pictures in Acts. We begin to practice the 2nd great commandment and learn how to care for others in the church.

But life is not simply physical and so there are spiritual considerations. Positively we’re to carry out instructive discipline (discipleship) and negatively corrective discipline. Both aid the spiritual well-being of fellow believers.

We all should be disciples helping to make and grow disciples (though there always remains a role for official leaders). With the truth we know we should instruct and live as an example to fellow believers and those newer in the faith. Important Considerations: This we do in truth, humility and love always desiring what is best for the brother, to be conformed into Christ’s image.

In love, we all have a responsibility to guard our brothers and sisters from the calamity of sin ruling over them just as God did with Cain (Gen 4:7). The Bible commands us to admonish one another (Ro 15:14), watch out for one another (Eph 4:32),  speak to those who’ve sinned against us (Mt 18), even pluck them from destruction (Jude 22).

Important Considerations
Lest we come to see ourselves as the Christian Gestapo there are a number of items that make for wise counsel here:

1. The spirit. Any correction must be done in love, which includes a spirit of gentleness (Gal 6:1) and humility that addresses one’s own sin first (Mt 7:5). God lovingly spoke to Cain with great concern.
2. Be Discerning. We need great discernment to know how, when and where to speak to someone.
3. First Things First. To nitpick on tertiary matters is unproductive. We are all imperfect. As the Gospel takes root and we are sanctified in the heart the lessor things will resolve as the bigger things are addressed. So matters of first and second importance should be of greater concern to us. The lessor things will resolve as the primary matters are addressed. If an occasion came up to address them is one thing, springing upon these is another.
4. How well you know someone. If you are concerned about someone you know you have stronger relational grounds to approach them. If not, it might moderate how you speak to them or you might even share (not gossip) with a trusted brother who knows them better.
5. Keep it Local. Our first responsibility begins within the membership of the local church. This is always the front line. If a brother is not from your church, as part of the universal church, we may still approach them, however, it may be best to inform (not gossip) their local church leadership instead.
6. Leaders. If the sin isn’t directly against us or we feel uncomfortable raising it with a brother, it may be appropriate to bring it to the attention of one of the Elders or leaders.

Our brother is first responsible for himself. Yet, we do have a responsibility to others. However, how we exercise that makes all the difference. 

“My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” (Ex 33:14)
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“You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.” (Ps 16:11)
 
It is a wonder we were created to relate to our Creator. We were designed for His presence in our life. His presence means life and light and peace. It is therefore the longing of every human soul that we find rest in the presence of Him who made us. God’s presence, unsurprisingly, is a great theme of the Bible.

Presence in the Garden
The LORD God was present in His garden. He walked in the cool of the day and spoke with Adam & Eve. There was abundant life in the Garden because God was there. This was symbolized in the tree of life.

Presence After the Fall
One curse of the Fall is that the Couple were driven from God’s presence. They would know death and decay. However, there remained small ways for God’s people to experience God’s presence: Remembering His Word, prayer, worship and the visitation of Angels. These were all ways in which God’s presence could be mediated. Occasionally God’s Spirit would come upon an individual for a special purpose. All of this was founded upon faith.

Presence Under the Old Covenant
When God rescued Israel from Egypt He was present with them, leading them by the pillar of cloud and fire. When the Tabernacle was built His glory rested upon the place. This was where God’s people could come to meet with the Lord. Much of the imagery (menorah and artwork of plant life) were reminiscent of the Garden. This was later reflected in the Temple.

Presence in the Incarnation
God’s people longed for God to be present with them. This longing was finally realized when God became flesh and dwelt among us. The Incarnation or Immanuel, “God with us.” Whoever met Jesus was in the very presence of God and had a taste of life (e.g. healings, etc).

Presence in the New Covenant
Jesus had said it was to the disciples’ advantage that He return to Heaven for He would send the Helper (Jn 16). They could only be with Jesus if He were with them. When the Helper came, Jesus would be with His followers 24/7/365 and wherever they went. He would come to dwell in their hearts by faith (Eph 4).

The Temple was no longer needed for God’s New Covenant people as Christ was our temple (Jn 2:19) who is building us into a spiritual temple (2 Pet 2:15). God’s presence goes wherever the Church goes! (This is why the early Christians forsook the physical Temple; believing its destruction as prophesied by Jesus was a judgement for Jewish unbelief).

Presence in the New Heavens and New Earth
As wonderful as the Spirit’s help is, we still pine for Jesus to return and physically be with His people. We await Jesus’ return and the New Heavens and the New Earth (a restored Eden) where Rev 21:3 says,

And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God.

Believers will spend eternity with the Lord! Come Lord Jesus, come!

Did God save Adam and Eve or in the curse did they ultimately perish in hell?
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The Bible isn’t overly clear but there are some hints to suggest they were saved:

1. In His Judgement, God remembered Mercy. As God cursed the couple and the snake God also gave the first glimpse of the Gospel. There was hope through trusting this promise. (Gen 3:15).
2. Adam's Seems to Have Repented. By naming Eve Adam restores the Creation order of gender and seems to 'bears fruit in keeping with repentance.'
3. God provided a covering for them. To point to Christ, an animal substituted its life so their shame could be covered. (Gen 3:21).
4. Eve seems to have exercised faith. Imperfectly fulfilling the creation mandate to be fruitful, Even conceived. Given the curse maybe she didn’t know if it would be possible? She said, “I have gotten a man with the help of the LORD.” She was trusting the Lord and His promise Gen 3:15.
5. Some of the Couple’s Children Believed. While Cain became a murderer Abel worshipped God (Gen 4:4) and Seth became known as a godly line (Gen 4:26 & ch. 5). From this we gather Adam & Eve discipled their children.

We can be grateful that even though we are cursed sinners God makes a way for those who trust in the Gospel.

Externals
If we surveyed ‘Baptists’ merely externally it would be very difficult to answer this question. Some reach to tradition to create an common denominator acrostic of historic Baptist beliefs to answer this question (e.g. baptism, autonomy of local church, priesthood of all believers, etc). Those who claim the mantle differ so widely (and wildly) in their belief and practice (e.g. Arminian & Reformed, liberal and conservative, open and closed communion, conventional and societal, etc) that at minimum we might define Baptist as a loose movement of visible Christians who embrace baptism by immersion (‘believer’ cannot always be assumed because of liberalism). Such tradition or man centred approaches fail to strike at the heart of Baptist identity. For this we must turn to the plumb line of God’s truth and the Baptistic convictions that men and women have derived from it.
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Internals
There are three types of Baptists. Those who are born into Baptist families, those who attend a Baptist church out of expedience and those who are Baptists by conviction.[1] The latter is the only type to be for we don’t want to base our lives on the traditions of men but the doctrines of God (Mk 7:7). What does the Bible teach?

In 1812 three Congregationalist missionaries, Adoniram & Ann Judson and Luther Rice, set off for India. They knew they would meet William Carey and the other Baptist missionaries there. They had to defend infant baptism and so studied their Greek New Testaments. It is a great danger studying the Bible for they were all convinced of believer’s baptism by immersion! Upon disembarking they were all baptized.

The Christian denomination called Baptist arose during the English Reformation, a time of religious tumult when people were trying to search the Scriptures (sola scriptura) and rediscover NT Christianity. What was the faith and practice of the early Church? Baptists emerged as a reform movement. Baptist historian David Bebbington puts it this way: “They adopted the same principles of punctilious loyalty to God’s word, of passionate desire to worship the Almighty correctly, and of willingness to restructure the church in accordance with God’s precepts. Their biblical, liturgical, and ecclesiastical priorities drove them through Puritan loyalties into separatism and, eventually, to the further step of repudiating infant baptism. Baptists were the people who took Reformation principles to their ultimate conclusion.”[2]

Baptist belief and practice flow from the Bible and the Gospel (sola fide) to form their identity:


[1] M. Haykin et al, The Baptist Story (2015), 325‒26.

[2]D. Bebbington, Baptists Through the Centuries (2010), 23‒24. 

A BAPTIST: A believer in the biblical Gospel, who has been baptized by immersion as the New Covenant sign and has covenanted together with an autonomous local church under its officers and the Lordship of Christ to fulfil their place in the body; who participate in the Lord’s Supper; who seek to live a holy life for Christ’s sake/God’s glory in accordance with the Word and by the Spirit; and to make the name of Christ known.
 
Secondarily Baptists believe in religious liberty (no one can be forced to believe) and separation of church and state (the Kingdom of God is not the kingdom of this world) because of Scripture and their experience.

Summary 

One of the most famous Baptists, Charles H. Spurgeon, grew up in a godly Congregationalist family. He was converted in a Primitive Methodist Chapel. Soon after he became a Baptist. The following is his recollection of a conversation with his mother:

​Baptists do not hold a monopoly on salvation but are convicted as to the biblical nature of their central beliefs and practices. The name does not matter but rather standing for what one believes the Bible teaches. 

This is a subject of importance for prospective members and current members. 
The answer isn’t because we’re worldly or traditionalists or masterminds. It comes down to the Gospel and the Bible, the Christ ordained nature and design for Christ’s people in local congregations.

The Church is A Believing Church (Nature) (Acts 2:41)
The Church isn’t made up of those who visibly associate with it. It is made up of those who’ve believed the Gospel. This is true both universally and locally.

Given the nominalism of nominal Anglicanism in the 1600s Baptists were doubly sure that the visible Church would only be made up of those with credible confessions.

Membership is for believers.

The Church Has Christ-given Authority (Design) (Mt 16:18, 18:18)
Those called out from the world and united to Christ in faith are His representative body on earth. Believers have the responsibility to seek out visible entrance/association with local congregations. To churches He has given the authority to “bind and loose.” It is the body and not prospective member who ultimately affirms who it believes may enter. To apply and be admitted to the Church is an important matter. It is the skeleton that gives shape to the body. The structure that sustains, enables and guides all of the ‘one another’ relationships and activities within the body (not unlike baptism and marriage).

Early Baptists rigorously applied this in welcoming new members and in discipline. Great solemnity was observed in covenanting together to form the local body. Local Christians were seen as “brothers and sisters,” those with whom one had a unique relationship.

Membership identifies who represents Jesus.  

Church Membership is Biblical (Authority)
From the emphasis on local congregations, the selection of Deacons, discipline to the submission to leaders, numerous verses bespeak membership in the local church.

Early Baptists didn’t invent membership, they observed what they saw in Scripture and applied it to their reformation of the church.

Membership is biblical.

Church Membership Works
Aside from biblical warrant it is difficult to conceive of any other way of defining/organizing, objectively, who and what the church is.

The Baptist practice of membership has remained an effective means of ensuring the world knows who represents Jesus for 400 years.

Membership works and so we practice it.

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