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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Ordered by Verse | ||||||
Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | Is baptism a work? | NT general Archive 1 | cwade | 66331 | ||
Teacher, I assure you I do not take our Lord's words lightly! But beloved, the doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration, is like eating a chittlin’. The more we chew it the bigger it gets! The best way I know to clarify this issue is by simply saying this: BAPTISM WITHOUT FAITH SAVES NO ONE!! I just want to get that said! Baptism does not save the unbeliever. Baptism does not in any way exempt him from Hell. He may be baptized, or he may not be baptized, but if he does not BELIEVE, he will be damned. It doesn’t matter if he is baptized by immersion or sprinkling, in his infancy, or in his adult age, if he is not led to put his trust in Jesus Christ — if he remains an unbeliever, then this terrible doom is pronounced upon him — “He that believeth not shall be damned.” So it is the belief in Christ that saves, period. Furthermore, I respectfully submit to you that people are not saved by baptism, because it would be totally out of character with the spiritual religion which Christ came to teach, if we made salvation depend on mere ceremony! Charles Spurgeon said it best: “The false religions of heathens might require salvation by a physical process, but Jesus Christ claims for his faith that it is purely SPIRITUAL, so how and why would he require regeneration with water? I can’t see how baptism could be a spiritual gospel, but I can see how it would be mechanical. If anyone teaches that regeneration goes with baptism, I say it’s false doctrine, a craftily invented mechanical salvation to deceive ignorant, sensual, and grovelling minds, rather than the teaching of the most profoundly spiritual of all teachers, who rebuked Scribes and Pharisees for regarding outward rites as more important than inward grace.” My brother, if we proclaim that Baptism is a requirement for salvation I fear that we are opening that door to the belief that Baptism saves. Let's not regress to the 15th century and argue that all over again!In Christ's Love,cwade |
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2 | Is baptism a work? | NT general Archive 1 | Emmaus | 66353 | ||
cwade, If baptism is a "work" it is certainly a work of God, working through His Church. The person being baptized does not baptize him or herself. Because of the Incarnation and Resurrection of Christ Jesus, the spiritual and physical are not mutually exclusive. Otherwise, why should we look forward to our own resurrections? Jesus in healing the blind and deaf on occassion used spit and mud and physical touch or the spoken word. The fact that physical matter such as water is used in baptism does not by any means deny the spiritual reality of the transmission of grace. Jesus came to redeem all creation, spiritual and physical. In the Old Testament what was holy and set apart was contaiminated by contact with the unclean, hence the concept of ritual impurity. But in Jesus, under the New Covenant when the Holy comes into contact with the unclean, the unclean is made clean, as when Jesus touched lepers and the when the woman with the issue of blood touched the hem of His garment or when Jesus used His physical touch to raise a dead child or His voice to Lazarus back from the dead. This is what was so shocking to the Pharisees, that the pattern of corruption was reversed. God's creation was found by Him to be "good" and Jesus came to restore that goodness and raise it to an even higher level by redeeming man and all creation. Emmaus |
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