Babtism is not essential or is it?

UNION GROVE CHURCH OF CHRIST, CLEVELAND TN.

BAPTISM IS NOT ESSENTIAL OR IS IT? (1)

Is it true that, "Baptism is in no wise essential to salvation?"

I received an e-mail letter from an unidentified person who stated that for at least a year he has been giving thought to what I had said about baptism. I am not sure just what he read or heard that came from me, but in his letter to me he gave what he considered to be convincing proofs that baptism is not a condition of salvation.

Contrary to what this person and many others affirm, the scriptures do teach that water baptism indeed is necessary in order to receive the remission of sins. Acts 2:38 states, "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." In Acts 22:16 it is further written, "And now why tarriest thou? Arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." There is ever a need for us to frequently repeat this truth, both as part of what those who are lost outside of the Christ need to hear, as well as a reminder to members of the church. As we constantly teach the truth about baptism, it is also important for us to understand the arguments that people use to try and show why they believe that baptism is not essential for man’s salvation. We need to be prepared to show wherein such arguments are in error. With this in mind, in this article I share with you the first portion of my response to the baptism-is-not-necessary-writer. Lord willing, two more articles on this topic will follow. In each case his statements are in italics, followed by my answer.

"That baptism is in no wise essential to salvation, that it does not form one of the conditions which God requires the sinner to meet, is clear from many considerations. First, if baptism be necessary to salvation then no one was saved before the days of John the Baptist, for the Old Testament will be searched from beginning to end without finding a single mention of ‘baptism.’ God, who changes not, has had but one way of salvation since Adam and Eve became sinners in Eden, and if baptism is an indispensable prerequisite to the forgiveness of sins, then all who died from Abel to the time of Christ are eternally lost. But that is absurd. The Old Testament Scriptures teach otherwise."

Roger’s A: Before considering your statement that "baptism is in no wise essential to salvation," I want to consider your reasoning that causes you to make such a conclusion. First, it is true that the Old Testament does not mention baptism. And, Hebrews 11 mentions a number of individuals from the Old Testament era (Abel, Noah, Abraham, and others) that pleased God by their obedient faith, and none of them were baptized.

Baptism was not a part of the Law of Moses, nor was it a part of God’s message to mankind for those that lived before the Law of Moses was given. However, baptism is a part of the Great Commission of Jesus Christ that applies to all men living now. So, when I speak about water baptism as a condition of man’s salvation today, (Mark 16:16), I have reference to what is required of those people that live(d) after the ascension of Jesus back to heaven – i.e., baptism is required for salvation for those living in the Christian era.

You stated, "God, who changes not, has had but one way of salvation since Adam and Eve became sinners in Eden . . ."

Roger’s A: In every age of mankind’s history, what God has required of man is trust in Him and obedience to His will – faith plus loving obedience pleases God. That is a principle that has been true in every age, and in this sense it is true, as you said, that the Lord "has had but one way of salvation." But are you willing to say that one is saved today in exactly the same manner that Noah was? If so, then confession of faith in Jesus as the Son of God is not required. There is certainly no evidence that Noah, in order to please the God of heaven, was required to believe in Jesus as God’s Son. In fact, it was impossible for Noah and others to believe in and confess their faith in the fact that God raised Jesus from the dead. Yet, such faith and confession is surely required for one that wants to be saved now (Romans 10:9). Therefore, what Noah and other righteous people of the pre-gospel era were required to do in order to please God is not the standard by which men living today must act.

Remember, God commanded Noah to build an ark (Genesis 6:14), and if God has in every age of man’s history always required the same exact actions by men in order to please Him, then you and I would be required to build an ark out of gopher wood! But, such is not required for anyone’s salvation today. We know this because we are to observe/obey all that Jesus commanded (Matthew 28:20), i.e., to abide in His doctrine (2 John 9). Building an ark is no part of the blessed gospel of the Christ.

Also, the Israelites were obligated to obey the Law of Moses, which law was abolished when Jesus died on the cross (Ephesians 2:14,15; Colossians 2:14). We are not obligated to keep the Law of Moses, and the Jews under the Old Testament system were not obligated to follow the teachings of the new covenant of the Christ, including the instruction to be baptized in water.

"In the second place, if baptism be necessary to salvation, then every professing believer who has died during this present dispensation is eternally lost, if he died without being baptized. And this would shut heaven's door upon the repentant thief, as well as all the Quakers and members of the Salvation Army, the vast majority of whom have never been baptized. But this is equally unthinkable."

Roger’s A: It is important for us to look at and accept what the Bible says about salvation (and every other topic) without "running ahead" in our minds and saying, "But if that is true, then so and so would not be saved." We have to avoid the temptation to begin with the assumption that the members of a particular group are saved, then reason backwards that since they are saved and they don’t practice such and such, then that eliminates such and such as a condition of salvation. That which determines whether something is or is not a condition of salvation is not what some group practices or teaches, but rather what the Bible says. If the Bible’s teaching on salvation shows that one person or five billion people are not in a saved state, then we still have to accept the Bible’s message, because it is God’s truth ("Thy word is truth," John 17:17).

The Bible declares that Jesus is "the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him" (Hebrews 5:9). Any person living today that is in a saved relationship with the Lord, is one that obeys Jesus from the heart (Romans 6:17,18). This truth also implies that the person that does not obey Jesus cannot be saved. Consider our topic of baptism. Does Jesus command people to be baptized? Hear Him: "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19). On the Jewish Day of Pentecost the apostle Peter, acting as Jesus’ ambassador, commanded those present, "Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ. . ." (Acts 2:38). Jesus, through Peter’s response to the question, "Men and brethren, what shall we do" (2:37), commanded those people to do two things: He commanded them to repent and to be baptized. Was repentance a command of Jesus? Yes. Was baptism also a command of Jesus? Yes. If repentance is required because Jesus commands it, then baptism is also required for the same reason.

If one can be saved only by obeying what Jesus commands (Hebrews 5:9), and Jesus commands baptism, as we have seen, then being baptized is a command of Jesus that cannot be laid aside. It is true that some religious people do not recognize baptism as a command of the Christ, but this does not change the fact that baptism is, indeed, a command of the Lord.

Again, it is written, "And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord" (Acts 10:48). Do we propose that Peter (the "he" of this verse) made up this command, or that it came from Satan? God forbid. The command to be baptized was the command of God. If God commands it, then we must submit to it. It is unfortunate that some who believe in Jesus as God’s Son give little or no attention to baptism. But again, our plea ought not be to appeal to what some particular religious group teaches or practices. Rather, we need to open the Bible and see what the Bible has to say. [To be continued]

-- Roger D. Campbell