One of the things that the Church of Christ teaches is baptismal regeneration, they teach that baptism is part of salvation, that it’s a requirement of salvation. This is a false teaching, a perversion of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I had mentioned in an earlier post this evening that I would be addressing some of the comments made by a Church of Christ preacher that commented here on my blog. Here is one of the comments he made about baptism:
” then I would have to say that the Scriptures firmly support baptism as essential to salvation. Just as Hearing, Believing, Repenting, Confessing….. being baptized is essential.”
He was referring to “He who believes and is baptized shall be saved, he who does not believe shall be condemned” in Mk. 16:16.“ Notice the verse he used here doesn’t claim that he who is not baptized will be condemned, no it states that he who does not believe shall be condemned, this verse does not back up his claim that baptism is essential to salvation. This is classic scripture twisting. Any time you add anything to grace you no longer have grace. Romans 11:5-6 5 Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace. 6 And if by grace, then it is no longer of works; otherwise grace is no longer grace.[a] But if it is of works, it is no longer grace; otherwise work is no longer work.
For more on this topic listen to the sermon I have posted below.
Is Baptism Part of the Gospel? ~ 1 Corinthians 1:17 ~ Pastor Jeff Arthur Sr. ~ Elizabeth Baptist Church ~ SermonAudio.com
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Why is it so hard for people to understand the fundamental easiness of the Gospel of Jesus!
That ones easy, they haven’t been enlightened by the true gospel of Jesus Christ. When you are truly saved He gives you and understanding of His gospel until that happens it is foolishness to them.
It’s because of pride and waning faith.
Most people think there is no way someone unseen can do such things as save a soul. So they hafta put their own hands to it also to make themselves believe and other delusional people such as themselves to believe it.
Hey Eric Stobel!! Welcome to my blog! Amen! People do think they have to put their own hands in it because God is just not big enough or powerful enough to save us all by himself.
Wow, this sounds like a loving bunch of people wanting to rightly divide God’s word. Let’s see if these words show the love of Christ…not enlightened, foolish, prideful, waning faith and delusional. The Christ-like qualities that God wants to produce in our lives: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” — Galatians 5:22-23
D.Rich, I know each of these people personally and I know that all of them including myself have a desire to rightly divide the word of truth. Each of these people are loving Godly people that love Jesus Christ with all their hearts. These people are also very passionate about standing for the truth.
You guys are so right. But you both have to remember, I used to believe there was something I had to do to receive salvation and more i had to do to keep it. Praise Jesus that the Holy Spirit of God has reveled to me otherwise!
Amen Fom! And howdy Eric.
Seems like people really have a hard time trusting God, especially with keeping them saved and saving them in the first place. It takes a lot less faith and trust to think you can do it yourself. Kind of like flying, lots of folks, myself included always think I could handle flying a lot easier if I was the one in the cockpit. Pretty scary thought when I think of my life and eternity that way….Praise God He explains all that in His word!
He who believes and is saved shall be baptized, he who does not believe shall be condemned. Notice the verse used here doesn’t claim that he who is not saved will be condemned, no it states that he who does not believe shall be condemned, this verse does not back up his claim that being saved is essential to salvation. This is classic scripture twisting.
D.Rich, I hope you will listen to some of these sermons and examine the scriptures while praying and asking God to show you if these things are true or not. I haven’t always adhered to the doctrines of grace and election, it was very hard for my human brain to wrap around, but I prayed and studied and asked God to show me if they were true or not that I didn’t want to believe in something that wasn’t so. The more I studied and prayed about it the more clear it became to me that the bible clearly teaches the doctrines of grace and election, to say that it doesn’t teach these we would have to throw out a large portion of the bible. I just hope you will consider these things. God bless!
Yes D. Rich you are correct. It says, “he that does not believe shall be condemned”, It doesn’t say “he who has not been baptized is condemned”. We have to believe (trust) the gospel to be saved. Baptism comes after we have trusted in the Gospel of Jesus, trusting in the gospel is the point of salvation. It is by the atonement of the blood of the Lamb (Jesus that saves us. There are 150 text in the New Testament that say how we are saved. All say we are to believe or trust in the Gospel Message.
1 Corinthians 15:1 Moreover, brethren, I declare to you the gospel which I preached to you, which also you received and in which you stand, 2 by which also you are saved, if you hold fast that word which I preached to you—unless you believed in vain.
3 For I delivered to you first of all that which I also received: that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures,
Notice: this doesn’t say you have to believe and be baptized to be saved,
it says you have to believe or trust the gospel to be saved. This is just one of many scripture. (1 Corinthians 1:17,1 Corinthians 1:17)
Acts 2:41:41 “Then those who gladly[a] received his word were baptized; and that day about three thousand souls were added to them.”
Again “those who received the word (gospel message)”, they received or were saved by it and then, after they were saved, they were baptized.
I am in NO way saying that we shouldn’t be baptized, because. our Master did it and so should we But what I am saying is that it is Not essential for our salvation as scripture plainly states. Look at the thief on the cross, very good example! Baptism is just an outward confession of the transformation that has already taken place within your heart (your conversion, salvation). It is picture of the death, burial and reselection of Christ. The water does Not cleans you of your sins, the BLOOD of Jesus does!
Anyway I love you all, I Jesus name we pray, Amen!
amen fom!
Here is a really good article on Baptism and a loving approach to defending the truth that I found very helpful.
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-library/sermons/what-is-baptism-and-does-it-save
D.Rich in this article the author, John Piper explains how we must rightly divide the word of truth, and how often that can sound unloving or controversial. We are to never be mean or hurtful or unloving but we are to defend and contend for the truth in Scripture. In fact it’s cost many their very lives….I would highly recommend you take a look at it. I hope it helps
If baptism is not part of the gospel, why was the Ethiopian eunuch baptized immediately in a puddle at the side of the road? Why did Peter who was given the keys to the kingdom of heaven say repent and be baptised? Why did Peter say baptism saves you also? Why is baptism in Acts 22:16 said to wash your sins away? Why did Jesus get baptised? Are we not supposed to walk as he walked? Why were the men in Acts 19:5 baptised again? Why is it so hard to get into the water but so easy to go on with endless debate? Is it not easier to just obey and get baptised? I was immersed at age 14 and that day my life changed forever, I have felt a connection with the Almighty ever since. I am 45 now and I have given up on belonging to any 1 church denomination, I float from church to church and I am having the time of my life and learning so much, feeling unity by interacting rather than divided by isolation.
Martin, If baptism were part of the gospel then the thief on the cross would not be in paradise with Jesus and that would make Jesus a liar which he most certainly is not! Jesus told the thief he would be with him in paradise that day, he didn’t say to him that he couldn’t be with him in paradise because he couldn’t follow him in baptism. Salvation is by grace through faith, if it isn’t all Jesus it isn’t Jesus at all, anything added to the gospel is a works based salvation and we are not saved by our works. We do works because we love him and yes baptism is important and believers are called to be baptized but water can not wash away sin, only the blood of Christ washes away sin and if we could be saved by our works baptism included then there would have been no need for our savior to shed his blood. I have been baptized but when I went into the water I was already saved by grace through faith. Baptism is a picture of the gospel.