Day 3 Home Alone...
and I feel like the kid in the car seat!
I had a long day. It started at 7:00 AM and ended just a few minutes ago at almost 10:PM.
I would have forgone posting because I am so tired, but I read something in my devotions this morning that stayed with me.
It surrounds baptism. I firmly believe that it is something we must do as a believer. It is commanded for us to do and it should be done. But, I don't think that our salvation is contingent upon it. Let me pose a question to emphasize what I mean. If you tripped and fell on way to the baptismal and died after making your confession of faith where do you go... Heaven or Hell? A good Baptist would tell you it depended upon which way you fell! But I don’t believe that is the case. Most people use Acts 2:38 to make a case against this statement.
Acts 2:38
Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
When Peter made this statement you need to consider how he used the word ‘FOR’. As in; “for the forgiveness of your sins”. It is not a ‘FOR’ that implies ‘so that’ it is a FOR that is saying ‘because of’. Just as you make the statement; “we weep for joy”. We weep because we have joy, just like we are baptized because our sins are forgiven. There is a host of similar verses we could use to make the case… but I want to focus on what I read this morning.
In 1 Corinthians the first Chapter Paul is discussing the dissention that is occurring in the church. They were fighting amongst each other about who they followed and who was the better one to follow. Some were claiming to follow Paul, some Apollos, some Peter and some the Messiah. Paul was making the statement that He was thankful that no one could go around saying that they were baptized by him, presumably so they would not have even more bragging rights. He names off two people and one family in the list of people that he had baptized.
Doesn’t that strike you as strange? Here is a man who had started more than just a few churches and preached how many countless sermons… and at the end of all the alter calls had baptized only a handful of people. I am sure he was convinced of the necessity of baptism… but in the respect of obedience, not salvation. If he felt it was something required for salvation don’t you think he would have placed more emphasis on it as an immediate requirement?
I am spent… so I will leave the rest for you to ponder… let me know your thoughts.
Jim
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3 comments:
A friend has indicated to me that he has hit a nerve with me in what he has said concerning baptism. My truth nerve is hit any time I see information coming to me from any source, and especially when it comes to me from men who have been caught in the trap of history and have bought into false doctrines in order to justify what they teach. When I deal with these men, in love, almost without exception they soon ignore what I say to them and cease to try to defend their man-made doctrines. These men are preachers who should know better than twisting scripture to justify their teaching that is not scriptural. I have yet to have any of them respond to me with answers to my questions- that they cannot answer with scripture. They just quit communicating.(I do not judge these men-judgment is God's business.)
Now, when I find that some of my friends, those who I know personally and have had a part in their lives, have come to believe what I believe is false doctrine, that really touches my heart and mind and causes me to wish I could sit down with them face to face and go over what the Bible teaches, especially what the Bible teaches about how to be saved. I have a 16 page syllabus that I wrote to a couple that invited me to take a walk with them down the Roman Road.(The Roman Road is the "faith-only" doctrine that people follow and is the most popular doctrine in vogue today, even though it does not follow the Word of God, using only scriptures that they think teach what they believe, and ignore the scriptures that teach otherwise.) I will be glad to send this material to anyone who requests it and is desirous of knowing what the Bible really teaches and doesn't just want to defend what they believe.
Rather than trying to defend false doctrine by claiming that the Greek language says something different than the Bible versions we have today (and I have spent many an hour dealing with the Greek meanings)we need to just read the Book of Acts and consider what the Bible teaches in every recorded case of conversion. The reasons people give for baptism not being a part of being saved are as "old as the hills" and do not hold water.
Having said all of the above, I want to make it clear, again, that I am not the judge-I leave that up to God. Jesus said, "You shall know the truth, and the truth will set you free." For anyone who sincerely wants the truth, I am very willing to spend whatever time necessary to share truth with them.
John,
I appreciate your view point and agree that baptism is an absolute requirement to be a Christian… if for no other reason than it is commanded. If you would refuse baptism then in what other area of your life would you remain disobedient? Yes, it is required just as repentance is required. But, using the example that tripping, falling and dying on the way up the steps to the baptismal does not condemn you any more than making a profession, being baptized then dying on the way out of the baptismal does. In the latter case you never had a chance to be obedient by displaying a repentant life. And repentance is just as much of a conditional requirement / commandment as baptism is.
The thief on the cross is a perfect example. He was never baptized or given a chance to exemplify a repentant life. Yet, that day he was in heaven with Jesus. And no, I do not stretch the truth of that example by saying the cop out phrase… “He made an exception for him.” He did make and exception that day, but it was not to the thief, it was to each and every believer by offering him and us life eternal by believing in him.
I do believe baptism is a requirement as an act of obedience… not as a condition of salvation. If baptism were a requirement for salvation were there are too many significant verses that would need to be amended to re-read… believe “and” be baptized to be saved. (Acts 16:30,31 / Eph 2:8,9) are two primary examples.
Even Mark 16:6 the other banner held high for salvation baptism, does not complete itself with baptism as a requirement for salvation… when it has opened the door as the perfect place to set this benchmark. The first part of the verse is merely a declaration that those who believe and are baptized are saved. Any act of obedience to the Lord could be added after the expression “whoever believes” and it would remain a true statement, because salvation is the result of faith in Christ.
The Doctrine I follow is not that of one taught to me by another… it is not what I learned as a child from you and it is not what I learned from my father. When I first came to Christ in my twenties, I determined to reject all of what I had been previously taught to me as well as the living examples of what was taught by my teachers and to discover for my self what the Bible and God spoke to me. I sequestered my self for a very long time studying Gods word… and then discovered a need to go further because the translations all were crippled by bias in translation. So I went a step further and incorporated Greek and Hebrew into my discovery of God. And discovered that quite a few of the tenants of what I was taught were mired in translation.
I don’t claim to have “ALL knowledge of God, or anything close to it. But I do have Gods word taught to me by the Holy Spirit through diligent study of His word and the application of it in my life.
And I will be more than happy to verse by verse hash out with you what I believe and why I believe it.
Your Brother in Christ
Jim
Who is this JOHN character? Oh, I know, it's me. My position is not the popular position in today's world where people's minds have been clouded and where people tend to agree with the fads of today. (I'm glad that James, and I'm sure others, are giving up the bad practice of fooling our kids with Santa Claus-Surely, as Christians, we don't have to continue in the charades we foist upon our kids. My kids, at an early age were told that Santa Clause was a figment of man's imagination. It didn't hurt them in any way when they were told the truth).
Yet people will succumb to the popular fads of the day when it comes to interpreting the Word of God. The "false doctrines" that came out of the Reformation Movement (when people rebelled against the false doctrines of the Roman Church when they taught salvation by "works only")are typified by the teaching of "faith only" salvation as opposed to the false teachings of Roman Catholicism. People have been caught in the trap of history and have gone along with that teaching which is most popular. Paul told Timothy, "Timothy, the time will come when people will not endure sound doctrine, but will heap to themselves, teachers having itching ears, telling them what they want to hear and what goes along with popular, man-made views.
I plead with people to not come to the Word of God to prove a popular position that they have yielded to, but that they will come with an open mind to search out what the scriptures actually say.
The same JOHN as above...Peace!
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