Bible Question: Let me see if I'm understanding you correctly, The book of Galatians, ;1,2Cor.;Eph;Col;Phil;Romans;etc. were written to baptized believers or unbaptized believers? You put what Jesus tells us to do to be saved, (to be baptized) in the same category as the Law of Moses! 1 John 2:4 "He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a lair, and the truth is not in him". How can John say this about believers, and you say Paul in his writing is excluding baptism, when Jesus is the one who told his disciples to preach and teach men what to do to be saved. Jesus told Ananias to tell Saul to "arise and be baptized and wash away his sins" Acts 22:16. 1 John 5:4-12 mainly vs.6-8 "This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood, And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth. vs.7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Spirit: and these three are one. vs.8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. vs. If we receive the witness fo men, the witness of God is greater: for this is the witness of God, which he hath testified of his Son. From the above passages what do we learn, We need to have faith in what God tells us to do, and do it without questions! Why do you look for a way out of what Jesus said? Do we as men dictate the terms of salvation or does God dictate the terms? |
Bible Answer: Greetings Grace and Truth! Dear brother, I love you, but I have to say that you have consistently misunderstand the position of 'faith only'. We believe that Christians must obey the commands of Christ - all of them. We don't believe that obeying the commands of Christ saves us; rather, we CAN obey the commands of Christ ONLY because we HAVE BEEN saved. This is exactly what 1 John is saying. No where does 1 John say that we are saved by obeying Christ's commands. It simply says that anyone who doesn't obey and claims to be a Christian is a liar, because a Christian will obey Christ's commands. Notice also that 1 John doesn't deal with occasional acts of sin or disobedience, but continual lifestyles of sin or disobedience. This is indicated by the present tense used in all of these verses. No Christian will or can live in continous sin. Under your intepretation, not only must someone do 'works' in order to be saved, but the must also continue do 'works' in order to continue to be saved. In other words, under your view, salvation is gained and maintained by works. Please refer to Eph. 2:8-9 once again! :-) As most on this forum know, I an Arminian in theology. So, I do believe that a person can willfully reject salvation, even after they have been saved. However, even Arminians don't believe that a Christian loses their salvation after committing one sin or being disobedient one time. This is why there has been such a large response to your's (and a few others) teaching that one must be baptized in order to be saved. In our view, it is another 'gospel', which is not a gospel at all. (Gal. 1:6-7). Until you can demonstrate how your teaching doesn't contradict Acts 10:45, Eph. 2:8-9, Galatians, Rom. 4-5, ect..., no one will be convinced by your arguments! Your Brother in Christ, Tim Moran |