What has happened to Baptism? Somehow it is being ignored as a way of being saved. I was watching a TV evangelist the other night and he said "Pray these few words which we call the Believers prayer, and you have been saved from all your sins and have been saved by God's grace." What? I don't think that is what my Bible says. It seems these new churches that are popping up everywhere have passed on baptism. Especially these mega congregations they all say the same thing also, just say a prayer and that's it. Maybe they are just being lazy with all the gazillions they are making off these desperate believers and feel it's to much work to baptize the thousands in their congregations. Talk about leading the sheep in the wrong direction!I remember having a discussion with one of my former bosses one time about church and we got to talking about baptism. His church doesn't do it. I asked why, his answer didn't make sense to me at all, but mine did make sense to him. I said Jesus was baptized, do you all think your are better than Jesus? Do you feel like it's not important? He asked why I was baptized.
1) To show my obedience to God's will
2) To be "SAVED"
3) Because Jesus did it. Aren't we supposed to live like him and imitate Him?
He said that is a good point and we left it at that. He was my boss and I didn't want to get into a battle and lose my job. But it bothers me when churches out there don't do what the Bible says and change it to their own liking. Baptism is the most important thing to do. If you aren't immersed in the waters of Christ then I don't consider people to be a Christian. Do you?
So many of these new Bible based churches are leading many in the wrong direction, it's scary to our youth who are being sucked into this kind of teaching. Another thing that bothers me is churches that don't take the Lord's supper every week. Me personally I need it. I need to think about my rough week and the stupid things I have done or said and remember my Lord who was brutally beaten, spat upon and nailed to a tree for my sins. I know once a month wouldn't do it for me, of course working at Lowe's I have to work a lot of Sunday mornings and it's killing me. Lowe's considers it more important to make money than to allow it's employees to go to church. Which is wrong! That's another blog!
Christians are just like children we need repetition, we need to do Christian things (like the Lord's supper ) to keep us going. Baptism needs to be taught to our kids as the most important thing to being a Christian. You need a mouth to eat, and you need baptism to become and be considered a Christian.
Matthew 3: 13 - 17 Then Jesus came from Galilee to the Jordan to be baptized by John. But John tried to deter him, by saying " I need to be baptized by you, and do you come to me?" Jesus replied, " Let it be so now; it is proper for us to do this to fulfill all righteousness." Then John contested.
As soon as Jesus was baptized, he went up out of the water. At that moment heaven was opened, and he saw the spirit descending like a dove and lighting on him. And a voice from heaven said, "This is my son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased."
Mark 16:16 Whoever believes in me and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. - Jesus
4 comments:
Hi, just came across your blog while surfing the net. I am a Christian and have been baptised, but I have some thoughts about your idea of baptism. While I agree with you that baptism is very important and also very much encouraged and essential to our Christian walk, it is not the determining factor that we are saved.
It is written clearly in Eph 2:8-10 “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith-and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God- “not by works”, so that no one can boast." It is our faith in Jesus that He came to die for us and that He is God that we are saved, not because of a prayer nor baptism, this are just outward expressions of our faith. Without the faith, these are merely, in the words of Paul, 'works'. Another example is that of the criminal whom died next to Jesus, Luke 23:40-43 “But the other criminal rebuked him. "Don't you fear God," he said, "since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong." Then he said, "Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom." Jesus answered him, "I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise." He clearly also didn't have the chance to get baptised, but Jesus acknowledge that He will be in paradise, or heaven. So, in conclusion, while i applaud your enthusiasm in trying to encourage baptism, i think that salvation is not a result of baptism but rather baptism is the outflow of salvation.
The criminal on the cross has always been a question for all of us. And I don't really have a answer to the criminal on the cross situation. But baptism I know is your special badge to getting to heaven. I know it's not the final step or the determination to getting there. I don't believe in the once saved always saved theory either. I know faith till the end is another determining factor also, then there is the grace of God and judgement. But my posting is about following the Bible and obeying his word. Churches not baptizing are not following the scriptures. Thanks for your comment, i'm going to study about the criminal on the cross.
I want to add my 2 cents worth concerning baptism. First of all, Jesus commanded us to preach the gospel to all nations and to baptize them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit for the remission of sins. That should settle all questions. Besides if we read the book of Acts, we are shown time and again that baptism was carried out by the early church. As far as the thief on the cross, we tend to assume quite a bit. My questions are 1)how do we know he wasn't already baptized and fell away? 2)why do some think that Jesus couldn't just forgive this man because he had the authority to do so? and 3)have we forgotten that paradise is merely a "waiting room" for departed souls?
I enjoy your blog Clint. Keep up the good work and may God bless you and your family and give you the perseverence that you need.
Thank you. I thought about the criminal on the cross and I can't use that for an excuse to not baptize. Jesus was in his greatest moment of his life and why not make it even greater by showing he was a loving person that we can never be or imagine. He was able to do all things through the father and he gave that poor soul his final act of forgiveness. Because he could. Thanks for the encouragement on the blog.
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