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Baptism Rebuttal & Reply (Part 2) Let’s start with a
story: After a long talk on
the computer with you, I agree to sell you my computer (that’s worth about
$1,500) for a dollar. You were shocked with the deal and asked me over and over
again “Are you sure that you want to sell me this for only one dollar?” And
I confirmed every time that the computer is yours for only one dollar. You drive
across many states and show up at my door with the dollar in your hand, ready to
buy my computer. I now refuse to sell it to you. I now want a dollar plus a
candy bar. You are extremely mad at me because I lied to you. (End of story) I like your above story and will rest my case. You say that a $1,500 dollar
computer sold for $1 is a bargain and a sign of grace. No argument there but
wait you are actually saying that I must pay a dollar to receive the computer.
Therefore, you did set a condition and that was a dollar. Now let’s go to the
Bible and our salvation. Are we saved by grace? Yes, see Ephesians 2.8, “For
by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves;
it is the gift of God.” I really like this passage because it establishes the
fact that we are saved by grace. What is the grace in Ephesians 2? It is God
sending His Son to die on the cross for our sins. Without the sacrifice of Jesus
there would be no hope for mankind. I want to make sure you understand that I
acknowledge we are saved by grace. The question is are we saved by grace only or
grace alone? Paul said we are saved by grace through faith. This is not
grace only but grace in connection to faith. Does obedience to God’s word
negate God’s grace? That is the point you are taking. I deny it. We are still
relying on the blood of Jesus in our obedience to His will. Hebrews 5.9, “And
having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey
Him.” The Hebrew writer was not negating the grace of God by mentioning
obedience he was simply telling us how to receive that grace. Through obedience
to the Gospel of Christ we receive the grace of God. Just as through your
illustration of giving $1 does not negate the grace shown to the purchaser of
the computer. It is a condition in order to receive the grace.
In the above story, did
I lie to you? Yes, yes, yes!!! There is no question that I lied!!!!! Could this
really happen in real life? Yes, people lie all the time. Can this happen with
God? No!!!!!!!! (See Titus 1:2; II Timothy 3:16. I am not the one accusing Jesus, or Paul, or the Hebrew writer of lying or
being wrong. I am simply telling you what the scriptures say. I do not doubt for
a moment that God can not lie and all scripture is give by inspiration. I am
just pointing out the scriptures that you seem to be overlooking. Let’s apply this
story with God’s Word: Acts 16:30, 31 And brought them out, and said, Sirs,
what must I do to be saved? And they said, BELIEVE on the Lord Jesus
Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house. Go on down to verse 33 which you so conveniently stop before getting to and
you will see that this man and his household were baptized. The jailer wanted to
do know what do to be saved. He was told to believe on the Lord Jesus (verse 31)
and “immediately he and all his family were baptized” (verse 33). This is
consistent with Mark 16.16 and Acts 2.38. At this point the writer gives John 3.15-18. I am not arguing if faith is necessary to be saved but if faith only is
necessary to be saved. See my earlier response in this article for the faith
only argument. However, if what you say is true then John 3.16 is the total plan
of salvation and nothing else the Bible says matters. Yet we are told to repent,
confess Jesus, and be baptized for the remission of our sins. (At this point the other party lists a number of passages that speaks of
believing and faith. They content that none of those passages speaks of baptism
and therefore baptism is not essential to our salvation. The following is the
list of passages they give: JOHN 3:36; 5:24, 38; 6:40, 47;
8:24 ; 10:25-27; 11:25; 12:47; 16:7-9;
20:31. Your argument is not proved by simply going to numerous passages that uses
the words; faith, believe, or believing. We agree that faith is essential to
salvation. Or at least I think we agree because you say that our salvation is
not by works and yet the Bible says faith is a work. Ephesians 2:8, 9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of
God: 9 Not of works, lest any man
should boast. I had already mentioned this passage earlier so you can re-read what I
wrote. To what was Paul referring in Ephesians 2.9 when he used the word
“works.” We are not saved by our own merit but by doing what God said to do.
The Jews thought they could be saved through the Law of Moses but they were
wrong. Some people believe they can be saved by being good and doing some
“good work” but they are wrong. We can only be saved by coming to Jesus and
obeying His word. 1 Corinthians 1:17 For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of
none effect. Curious
you would use this passage because it actually points out they had been baptized
into Christ. Acts 18.8b “And many of the Corinthians, hearing, believed and
were baptized.” Not only that but Paul baptized some of those folks. He
baptized Crispus, Gaius, and the household of Stephanas, 1 Corinthians 1.14,16.
The point Paul was making in verse 17 was that they had placed undue importance
upon who immersed them. They were then calling themselves after those that
baptized them. Paul was glad no one was saying they were following Paul. Looking
at this passage points out that denominational baptism is wrong. Denominations
generally baptize people into their denomination or fellowship. They then call
themselves Methodist, Presbyterian, etc. How is this different from what Paul is
condemning in 1 Corinthians 1? Now, in these verses, you see that the ONLY
criteria for salvation is by believing. If I trust that, by believing on Jesus,
and I die, and God says that I can’t go to heaven because I didn’t get
baptized, then God would have LIED to me!!!!!!! He told me in these many verses
that all I must do is believe, but now I’ve got to get baptized too? He never
told me that in those verses; He only told me half of the truth!!! God would be
doing the exact same thing in the story above! God told me that ALL I need to do
is BELIEVE!!!!!! But God can’t lie!!! There are literally over 500 verses in
the Bible that says all you must do is believe on Jesus with no other criteria.
I’ve only listed a few. Interesting
last paragraph. You only go to those verses that use the words faith, believe,
believing and ignore the rest. Then claim that we are accusing God of lying if
we teach what the Bible teaches in Matthew 28.18ff, Mark 16.15-16, Acts 2.38,
and so on. If you want to play “battle of the concordances” then how about
this: Baptize used 10 times in the New Testament, Baptism used 22
times, Baptizing used 9 times in the New Testament. By itself the number
of times a word is used in the Bible does not make it more or less important. We
must rightly divide the word of God. Many of the passages talking about
believing in Jesus were before His death and before the Great Commission was
given. They lived under the Law of Moses. We are under the Law of Christ. From
the Book of Acts on every person converted was baptized into Christ. A doctrine
is not proved true by the number of times taught in the Bible but to whom, when,
why, where, and how it was taught. If Mark 16.15-16 was the only passage that
talked about baptism it would still be true. However, there are many passages
that teaches a person to be saved must be baptized. — Dennis Tucker |