Bible Question:
Please excuse my ignorance here, but do you have to be baptisted to enter heaven? - What of those who repent on their deathbeds to fellow Christians at the last minute of their lives, and hence are not Baptisted due to circumstances? Is not Baptisim just a symbolic gesture to the rest of the world that you are a follower of Christ, not the thing which allows you to enter heaven? |
Bible Answer: Dear Oz - Being baptized, i.e. immersed in water, is considerably more than "just a symbolic gesture." It is a command of our Lord (Matthew 28:19); therefore, it should never be dismissed lightly or considered as trivial and unimportant. But is is an act of obedience on the part of the believer who has already been saved by grace through faith in Jesus Christ (cf. Ephesians 2:8) and not by works (v.9). This immersion in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 2:38) or the Triunity (Matthew 28:19) neither saves nor contributes to salvation in any way. Christ commanded His disciples to be baptized, making baptism essential to obedience, and this witness to salvation is testimony of the believer's obedience to the command of Christ. Only immersion (in contrast to other forms of applying water to the body, such as sprinkling or pouring on the head) fulfills the symbolism of (1) pointing back in history to the death, burial, and resurrection of Christ, (2) emphasizing the present in showing the believer's death to sin and resurrection to walk in newness of life with Christ Jesus, and (3) looking to the resurrection of the body when Christ comes again (cf. Romans 6:3-5). ..... The term "baptism" in Scripture does not, of course, always refer to immersion in water. It is used in reference to the coming of the Holy Spirit into the life of the believer at the point of regeneration (see 1 Corinthians 12:13). ..... While there are some groups who hold to baptismal regeneration, neither this writer nor the communion of which he is a part does, believing instead that salvation is solely the work of God and not of man, and that man is saved by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone. --Hank |