WHEN IS A NON-BAPTIST A BAPTIST?
The question, “when is a Baptist not a Baptist,” may be more difficult to answer than the other question we shall ask in this message, “when is a Non Baptist a Baptist?”
Of the LEADING so called Protestant churches perhaps no denomination can rightfully claim more saved, evangelical, aggressive, spiritual members than can the Baptists. Every one of these saved, spiritual Baptists is willing and ready to admit that there are ‘saved Baptists’ and ‘unsaved Baptists.’ Therefore, they admit that some Baptists are en route to eternal glory and some are en route to eternal perdition. These saved Baptists are not on the way to heaven because they are Baptists; for they know that no member of the Body of Christ is called a Baptist in the Bible. They are going to heaven because they are saved by grace, not of themselves and not of works; for salvation is the free gift of the God of all grace to any sinner who will receive the Lord Jesus Christ and by faith appropriate His perfect work of redemption. As a denomination, perhaps none emphasize the sovereignty and grace of God in salvation more than do the evangelical Baptists. (Ephesians 2:5 to 10 . . . Romans 4:4 and 5 . . . II Timothy 1:9 and 10). And of course the unsaved Baptists are not going to miss heaven, because they are Baptists, but because they are lost, religious sinners, even church members, who have not believed God’s saving gospel, unto the saving of the soul. (Hebrews 10:39). Saved Baptists cannot truthfully say that the unsaved Baptists are not Baptists, but they can say that they are not Bible Christians.
All of the adults of this world, with respect to salvation, are divided into two groups, ‘living saints’ and ‘dead sinners.’ In Ephesians 2:5 to 9 and Colossians 2:13 and I Corinthians 6:9 to 11 and Titus 3:5 to 8 and Colossians 1:12 to 14 we are told how a ‘dead sinner’ becomes a ‘living saint.’ From these Scriptures, and others, we learn, as every person on this earth should learn, that a ‘dead sinner’ does not become a ‘living saint’ by what man does for God, but by what God does for man. Then, as God’s workmanship, the ‘living saint,’ alive unto God and righteousness, should walk in newness of life. He is dead to sin. He should walk in the good works unto which he was ordained. (Ephesians 2:10).
Every ‘living saint,’ whether a Baptist saint, or a Presbyterian saint, a Lutheran saint, a Plymouth Brethren saint, or just an ordinary undenominational Bible saint, is a member of the one true Bible Church described in Romans 12:4 and 5 and Ephesians 4:1 to 6. If a rational adult has not been baptized by one Spirit into the one Body, according to I Corinthians 12:13, he is not a saint, although he may be a moral, religious, cultured sinner, a church member in good standing in some church organization; but lost. If there is any truth clearly, definitely and dogmatically taught in the Bible, it is the all important truth, that there is in this age and dispensation of grace one and only one true Bible Church, the Body of Christ; in Which no church officials or leaders can induct a believer. This is a Divine reception. Every member of the Body of Christ should be identified with a company of redeemed saints of like precious faith; but this is not ‘joining the church.’ All saints are members one of the other, as we learn in Romans 12 and I Corinthians 12; and every member should pray for every other fellow member, whether or not they bear the same unscriptural, sectarian name. This we learn in Ephesians 6:16 to 20.
CHRIST AND THE BELIEVER BAPTIZED INTO DEATH
Meditate carefully and prayerfully on the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, in the shadow of Calvary’s cross, as recorded in Luke 12:50; “I have a BAPTISM to be BAPTIZED with”; “how am I straitened until it be accomplished.” Christ’s death on the cross was His BAPTISM. It was His THIRD BAPTISM; for we read in Luke 3:21 and 22 of His other two. If we would think of Christ’s death as His THIRD BAPTISM when we read Romans 6:3 and Colossians 2:12 and Ephesians 4:4 and 5, we might be delivered from sectarian baptism and tradition. Every member of the Body of Christ was baptized into the THIRD BAPTISM of Christ at the time he became a member of that Body, and at that same moment he passed out of death into life. (Colossians 2:13 . . . Ephesians 2:5 to 7 . . . John 5:24). Body members are alive from the dead. (Romans 6:13). They are new creatures in Christ (II Corinthians 5:17), raised to walk in newness of life. (Romans 6:4). They are to constantly put off the old man and put on the new man. (Colossians 3:8 to 17 and Ephesians 4:22 to 32) . . . SPECIAL NOTICE . . . “Wherefore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor; for ye are members one of another.” (Ephesians 4:25).
According to Romans 6:3 and Colossians 2:11, every person must have Christ’s baptism and Christ’s circumcision to be saved and get into heaven. All who received this baptism and circumcision of Christ are joined to the risen, glorified Christ is an inseparable and eternal union, all joined together, all members one of the other; and all the members together, ‘CHRIST.’ (I Corinthians 12:12). Therefore the Church, in Ephesians 1:20 to 23, is called the Body, “the filling up of Him that filleth all in all,” and, in Ephesians 3:6, “THE JOINTBODY” (not the same Body). “Fitly joined together.” (Ephesians 2:21).
God’s plain Word is, “that there should be no SCHISM (split or division) in the Body.” (I Corinthians 12:25). Perhaps, the Holy Spirit was not referring to this ‘schism’ when He said, “mark them which cause divisions” (Romans 16:17). But certainly God has marked all who are responsible for sectarianism, no matter how much they may have rehearsed or proved their spiritual or denominational achievements.
Who has escaped God’s marking? God raised Christ far above all heavens and there the glorified Christ gave gifts unto men, for the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the Body of Christ, until the perfect man and unity of Ephesians 4:13 is reached. Then Christ and the Church will be one flesh (Ephesians 5:31 and 32). Then God, Who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will, will have accomplished His eternal purpose (Ephesians 1:11), and will have completed ‘THE ONE NEW MAN’ of Ephesians 2:15. Then Christ will present to Himself, the glorious, holy, spotless, blameless Church of Ephesians 5:25 to 27. Then we, as members of His Body, will know that the highest truth in ‘THE MYSTERY,’ is what God and Christ have in the saints as well as what the saints have in Christ (Ephesians 1:15 to 19), because Ephesians 1:4 and 5 and II Timothy 1:9.
PAUL WAS NOT A BAPTIST
Paul instructed saints to follow him. (I Corinthians 11:1 and Philippians 3:17). Paul called himself a pattern of believers. (I Timothy 1:15 to 17). Paul declared himself to be the wise masterbuilder who laid the foundation, and instructed other saints to build together with him. Just how far shall we follow Paul? He said, “forbid not to speak with tongues.” (I Corinthians 14:39) . . . He said, “I thank God I speak with tongues more than ye all.” (verse 18). Shall we follow Paul and speak with tongues? Do Baptists? Paul healed diseases with blessed handkerchiefs and aprons. (Acts 19:10 to 12). Shall we? Paul was directed by trances and by the angel of the Lord. Should we be? Paul was delivered from jail by an earthquake. Should we expect such an experience? Paul circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews (Acts 16:3) and became as a Jew, as one under the law, to reach the Jews. (I Corinthians 9:20 to 23). Should we? He said, “follow me.” Where shall we begin and stop? Paul said, “Christ sent me not to baptize, and I thank God I baptized none . . . but a few.” Do Baptists thus thank God? The last record of water baptism in the Bible is in Acts 19:2 to 6. Should we follow this order, water baptism, laying on of hands, Holy Spirit baptism, speaking with tongues? Is this a Baptist program? It was Paul’s program in Acts 19. Now, really doesn’t it sound very much like a Pentecostalist program? We must acknowledge that the greatest of all Christians (Paul) was not a Baptist.
During the three years that Paul was preaching at Ephesus he preached day and night publicly and from house to house and much of his preaching was with tears. (Acts 20:20 and Acts 20:31). Paul was willing almost to be accursed from Christ to get his fellow Israelites saved. He was a debtor to the idolatrous heathen. He travailed in birth until Christ was formed in them. (Romans 9:1 to 3 . . . Romans 1:4 . . . Galatians 4:19). Paul became all things to all men that by all means he might save some. (I Corinthians 9:20 to 24). No messenger of the Lord ever agonized for lost men and women, whether Jews or Gentiles, as did Paul. Of course, the Lord Jesus is excepted. Paul labored, by the grace of God, more than all. (I Corinthians 15:10). Paul shaved his head and took vows, and circumcised Timothy, becoming as one under the law, to win the Jews for Christ during the transition while there was one order for believing Jews, another for believing Gentiles. (Acts 15:19—Acts 21:24 to 28).
If what the Church of Christ teaches were true, that water baptism helps to save the believing sinner, Paul would have thanked God that he baptized day and night publicly and from house to house every one he could get his hands on. If what some Baptists teach concerning water baptism, as a door of entrance into the local organization, were true, or if it were true that water baptism in Romans 6:4 is the believer’s ‘burial’ witness of salvation and identification with Christ, Paul, in I Corinthians 1:14 to 17, said in so many words, that he thanked God he personally helped very, very few to join the church or witness to the world.
Just imagine, if you can, a Baptist preacher or a Church of Christ preacher, remaining for eighteen months in a large city where many were saved, and then writing back to those saints that he did not remember of baptizing more than five or six of the great number who were saved. If what the Church of Christ preacher teaches were true, regeneration in or by water, Paul would not have permitted five minutes to lapse between the exercise of faith and the water baptism. Neither should any Church of Christ preacher wait a minute. Thus we see that water baptism, with Paul, was not even important enough to be included in the ‘all things’ that he became to save some.
If Christians would only use their God given faculties, enlightened by the God given, infallible Holy Spirit, they would certainly know that there was no saving value or efficacy in water baptism after Christ sent Paul forth with the gospel of the grace of God. (Acts 20:24). (Galatians 1:11 and 12). There is not one Christian practicing water baptism today who gives a sound Scriptural reason for his ceremony. Behold what the devil has done to Christian unity and fellowship with the 20 varieties of this so called Christian ordinance.
I am reminded of some lines I penned a short time ago; We’ve been taught it all the time; it must be right; No, we haven’t searched the Scriptures for the light; Tradition’s been our guide: and we are satisfied: We’ve been taught it all the time; it must be right. We’d better search the Scriptures, so we’ll know If what our preacher says is really, really so: Like Bereans who first heard, then daily searched the Word, We too will search the Scriptures, so we’ll know.
‘ONE BAPTISM’ is one of God’s requirements for Christian unity. (Ephesians 4:1 to 5). When the Lord Jesus gave Paul the truth of Ephesians, for members of His one Body, surely He knew all about the utter confusion and disunity and strife that twenty different modes and interpretations and significations of man’s religious water ceremony would cause, and surely He never intended that His ministers, who are supposed to be faithful stewards of the mysteries of God (I Corinthians 4:1 to 4), should read their religious water ceremony into Ephesians 4:4 and 5, Romans 6:3 and 4, Galatians 3:27 and Colossians 2:12.
What must the sinner on the outside think when he beholds the religious feud that has been going on for years between Baptist preachers and the Church of God preachers, with anything but Christian unity, because the Baptist preachers say, “be buried in water to get into our Baptist church,” and the Church of Christ preacher says, “be baptized to get into God’s heaven:” Is Christ divided? “Endeavouring to keep (not establish) the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace:” (Ephesians 4:3).
Surely tradition and sectarian prejudices keep the great majority of God’s people from being Bereans and from obeying II Timothy 2:15, “rightly dividing the Word of Truth:”
WHAT SECTARIAN CHURCH WOULD RECEIVE PAUL AS A MEMBER?
Paul spoke in tongues and wrote, “forbid not to speak in tongues.” Paul circumcised Timothy, because of the Jews; and then restrained other apostles from having Titus circumcised. (Galatians 2:1 to 6). Paul shaved his head and took vows. (Acts 18:18 and Acts 21:24 to 28). Paul raised the dead. Paul laid his lands on disciples, who thereby received the Holy Spirit. (Acts 19:3 to 6). Paul healed with or without handkerchiefs and aprons all manner of sickness. Paul said that Christ sent him not to baptize. Paul declared that he was preaching God’s mercy to Gentiles because of Israel’s unbelief. (Romans 11:30). Paul claimed that he received from Christ in heaven a special revelation of God’s great Secret, not before revealed to man. (Colossians 1:24 to 26 . . . Colossians 4:3 and 4). He called this ‘MY GOSPEL.’ (II Timothy 2:8). Paul called himself the wise ‘masterbuilder’ (architekton), ‘chief builder.’ (I Corinthians 3:10)
Paul would find it just about impossible to adjust his creed and practice to be acceptable as a member in any sectarian church today. Paul taught that members of the Body of Christ were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world, predestinated to Divine sonship and glorification. (Romans 8:28 to 31 . . . Ephesians I:4 and 5 and 1:11). He taught that God’s grace was given these Body members before the world began (II Timothy 1:9); that eternal life was promised them before the world began (Titus 1:2), and that this great truth was committed to him. (Titus 1:3 . . . II Timothy 1:11 . . . Colossians 1:23 and 24). This doctrine of ‘predestination’ would exclude him from most denominations.
The Church of Christ would rejoice in his testimony in Acts 22:16, stating that the Lord told him to arise and be baptized and wash away his sins. But they would immediately turn against him when he testified, “Christ sent me not to baptize,” which would mean to them, “Christ sent me not to do both things necessary for regeneration,” preach the gospel and immerse in water. Then they would ask him to agree with James (James 2:21), who wrote that a man is justified by works. According to the Christian Church, their members can lose their water regeneration, if they do not do good works and refrain from works that are not good. Their only hope of security and holding out to the end is life in a submerged submarine.
CORNELIUS ALSO A MISFIT
As the apostle Paul would have to change much of his doctrine and practice to be acceptable for membership in sectarian churches today, Cornelius would also be somewhat of a misfit. Cornelius was a just, God fearing man, who gave money to the Jews and prayed to God very much before he was saved. (Acts 10:1 to 4—Acts 10:22). The Holy Spirit directed Peter to preach to Cornelius, that he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted by God. The prayers and alms of Cornelius had already gone up to heaven before he heard words where by he should be saved. All of this we read in the tenth chapter of Acts. In the gospel of grace this is not the order. (Romans 4:3 and 4). Then of course Peter preached what Jesus of Nazareth did in the land of the Jews, the Word which had been preached to Israel, the death and resurrection of Christ. (Acts 10:34 to 43). As Peter began to preach, before he could say, “be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Sprit,” the Holy Spirit fell on Cornelius, as the Holy Spirit had fallen on the Jews on the day of the Pentecost. And then Cornelius spoke in tongues. And then who could forbid him water baptism?
Now, let’s see: whose program is this? The Church of Christ preachers would all throw in and raise a considerable amount of money, if they could get Cornelius and his experience off the Record. No baptismal regeneration there; they must admit. Only saved people receive the Holy Spirit. Cornelius received the Holy Spirit while the gospel was being preached to him. Then again to eliminate himself from membership in the Church of Christ Cornelius spoke in tongues. If Cornelius could and would give his testimony before the receiving committee of the Baptist church, and rehearse all the events and factors and the program in his salvation and water baptism and tongues speaking, they would not take him in. The Pentecostalists would hesitate to receive him, because he received the Holy Spirit without a second blessing or the imposition of hands: they would like the ‘tongues’ and they would not object to the prayers and money giving coming before salvation. Poor Cornelius, he was a misfit. Although few could measure up to the morality of this splendid man, no one wants him. Some might receive him, if he would keep silent as to some of his experiences.
But the Pentecostalists invite the Church of Christ preachers and the Baptist preachers over to their assembly in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, and these other preachers refuse the invitation. They can’t make that program fit into their programs; water baptism, then imposition of hands, then Holy Spirit baptism; then tongues; then healing with blessed handkerchiefs and aprons. The Pentecostalists like this; and say others should be convinced they are right, especially since in Acts 19:3 to 11 we find the last Bible record of baptizing with water of a disciple. This was at Ephesus. Then Paul spoils everything for them, by writing to Ephesian saints, “there is one baptism.” There was certainly more than one baptism in Acts 19:2 to 5.
Then as we turn to the last verses of Acts 16 and read of the experiences of Paul, Silas and the Philippian jailer and his household, the Church of Christ preachers and the Baptist preachers and the Pentecostalist preachers all wish Paul had omitted, “and his household,” because they have had such a difficult time trying to get all that household immersed between midnight and morning. Moreover they choose to forget the ‘miracle’ earthquake. And the Church of Christ preachers are sure they will not get in jail for casting out an evil spirit, for that ceased when water baptism did. They go together as we learn in Mark 16:16 to 18.
JOHN THE BAPTIST WAS A BAPTIST
John the Baptist was indeed a Baptist. But in the closing verses of Acts 18 we learn that a splendid student of the Scriptures (Apollos) had to be led from John’s message and taught the Word of God more perfectly. Comparatively few Baptist churches would today receive into their membership a man believing and teaching what John the Baptist believed and taught, or what Apollos believed and taught before Aquila led him more perfectly into the up to date truth. The premillennial, grace preachers in the Baptist denomination are sure that the majority of the Baptist preachers need to be led more perfectly into the truth, especially if they are ignorant enough to believe that John the Baptist was a member of the Body of Christ, or that the Body had its historic beginning before Christ died on the cross.
John the Baptist preached baptism into repentance for the remission of sins. (Luke 3:3). This is the message of Acts 2:38. The Baptist preachers do not preach Luke 3:3. They think they preach Acts 2:38; but they do not. John the Baptist did not baptize with water to admit penitents into the local church. Those who received John’s water baptism did not receive it as a witness to the world that they, having died with Christ by a Divine baptism, were being buried with Him in water. Read Luke 18:31 to 34 and John 20:9. No, John came baptizing with water, that Christ might be made manifest to Israel. (John 1:31). This is not why Baptist baptize with water. Comparatively few Christians are interested in making Christ manifest to the Jews. The Baptists, or any other Christians, who obey II Timothy 2:15, know full well that Christ never instructed any one who was a member of the Body of Christ to baptize with water some other believer who was already a member of that Body. And they know that if any laymen has the right, by the great commission of Matthew 28:19 and 20, to disciple nations, or to evangelize individual sinners, that layman has the right to finish the work and baptize with water. Hence they know they have no Scriptural right to tell the laymen to do the evangelizing and let the clergymen do the baptizing. This too is tradition and sectarianism.
The message of the twelve apostles, in Acts 2:38, “repent and be baptized for the remission of sins and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit,” sounds very much like the message and baptism of John the Baptist (Luke 3:3 . . . Matthew 3:11 . . . Mark 1:4 . . . John 1:31). Compare John 1:31 with Acts 2:36 and note that the message of Acts 2:38 was for the nation Israel. If Christian baptism by water began on the day of Pentecost, the twelve apostles never received Christian baptism. The Baptists would give quite a sum, if Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16 and the message and program of Acts 8:5 to 15 were not in the Bible for they certainly do revise the messages in these verses, changing them beyond recognition; and they do the same with Paul’s testimony concerning his own baptism (Acts 22:16).
Thus we see that John the Baptist, like Cornelius, could not get into an evangelical Baptist church in 1948. We may be more than positive that the apostle Paul would get a very cold reception in a Baptist church, unless he would agree not to mention Ephesians 4:4 and 5 and I Corinthians 1:14 to 17 and many other truths he taught. By all means he would have to remain silent on the mystery. But, of course, Paul would let the saved Baptists into the Church of which he was a member; in fact they got into that Church at the moment they were saved, for only The Father, Son and the Holy Spirit can receive believers into God’s one and only true Bible Church, the Body of Christ.
THE BAPTISTS SHOULD STAY OUT OF MARK 16:14 TO 18
Baptists, who are determined to continue under this unscriptural, sectarian name, should get out of Mark 16:14 to 18; for they do not believe or teach the message and program recorded in those verses. Christ’s message in those verses is, “he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved . . . and these (four) signs shall follow those who believe.” The Baptists fix this all up to suit their convenience and necessity. They have it read, “he that believeth and is saved should witness the salvation by a burial in water; but no signs following.” The Church of Christ can use the sixteenth verse; but they balk at the next two verses concerning the signs.
Just about the best Bible teacher the Baptists have produced was Dr. I. M. Haldeman, pastor of First Baptist Church of New York City. Dr. Haldeman was a Baptist to the end, a zealous immersionist, and proud of his affiliation with the Baptist denomination. He remained too long in Mark 16:16 to 18. In his closing days he spoke and wrote that God had joined together ‘believing’ and ‘water baptism,’ in the matter of salvation. He said, “what God had joined together, let no man put asunder.” He went just about far enough to please some of the Church of Christ preachers, but too far for some of the evangelical Baptists. Then when one of the outstanding ‘healing’ evangelists went to New York and taught Mark 16:17 and 18, the signs, as a part of Christ’s commission, Dr. Haldeman went after him publicly in no uncertain language; but not with the Word of God, rightly divided. The ‘healing’ preacher used Dr. Haldeman’s own language, when he proved, or attempted to prove, that he was laying hands on the sick for their healing on the authority of the Lord Jesus, in obedience to His commission of Mark 16:18. This ‘healing’ preacher replied to the criticism of Dr. Haldeman in the very same language Dr. Haldeman had used to defend water baptism, “what God hath joined together let no man put asunder.” God joined faith, water baptism and signs together, in Mark 16:14 to 18. Also with the gift of ‘faith,’ in I Corinthians 12:7 to 11, God gave the gift of healing, tongues and miracles. See what God put in the Church in I Corinthians 12:28; and then tell who put them out. Any Scriptural exegesis, approved by the Holy Sprit, for the elimination of ‘signs’ and ‘sign gifts’ from God’s grace program, will likewise eliminate water baptism. They remain or go together. Dr. Haldeman was consistent in linking faith and water together, because he worked under Mark 16; but inconsistent when he ridiculed signs.
THE SIXTH CHAPTER OF ROMANS NOT BAPTIST TERRITORY
By carefully reading the sixth chapter of Romans we learn that a great transformation has taken place in the position and spiritual condition of the believer, and that God expected a great change in his walk and behavior. The believer had been baptized into the death of Christ (into Christ’s THIRD BAPTISM), and raised to walk in newness of life. He was now dead to sin and alive from the dead. He was now righteous, no longer unrighteous. All of these radical changes had been brought about by ‘baptism.’ The believer had been baptized into Christ. He had passed out of Adam into Christ. The Church of Christ preacher dogmatically declares that water baptism is absolutely essential to make the unrighteous sinner a righteous saint, that without water baptism no person can pass out of Adam into Christ, out of death into life. Therefore, water on the outside performs a miracle. Along with their water regeneration teaching they teach that a baptized saved believer can lose his salvation, and they are strong on justification by works (James 2:24). This means that a living saint can again become a dead sinner, pass back out of Christ into Adam; for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus. (Romans 8:1). After a dead sinner becomes a living saint, by faith and water, if the living saint becomes a dead sinner, he will either be eternally lost or he must again become a living saint by faith and water. This is why we say that his only hope of eternal security is to live in a submerged submarine.
But it is certainly true that the Church of Christ preacher, with his favorite verse, Romans 6:17, “ye have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which was delivered unto you,” should read water regeneration into the chapter, if it is true as we are told by the Baptist Baptists and the Non Baptist Baptists that there is water in Romans 6:4.
We are truly sheep like in many respects when it comes to our Bible thinking, if we can really call it thinking. Some one calls a church building, ‘the house of God’; the Lord’s Supper and water baptism, ‘sacraments’; Sunday, ‘the Lord’s day’; an assembly place, ‘the church’; the preacher, ‘reverend’; and the sheep forget to be Bereans to see how unscriptural are all of these blunders, and they use the same terms. For the same reason we have at least twenty different theories concerning water baptism.
The very word in Romans 6:4 that the evangelical Baptists use to prove their watery grave witness theory is the death blow to their teaching. They teach Romans 6:3 is a baptism without hands, ‘baptized into death of Christ,’ and Romans 6:4, ‘buried with Christ by baptism unto or into death,’ is a baptism with hands, a human, physical, religious water ceremony. In so many words they say to the new creature in Christ, “by a watery grave you are to witness to the world that your old man has been crucified; you are dead and raised and seated in the heavenlies in Christ; you are alive from the dead: so put on some old clothes and some old shoes and bury your old man in water.” But they forget to tell them where their new man is while the old man is under water.
If the very moment the believer receives Christ and eternal life he is crucified, dead, risen and seated in the heavenlies, without water, how can you get a ‘water’ burial’ in between the instantaneous death, resurrection and ascension? The burial takes place at the same time.
The ‘THEREFORE’ of Romans 6:4 means the very opposite of what the Baptists claim: the very Divine power, or baptism, that places the believer into the death of Christ, raises him to walk in newness of life. Therefore, by that Divine power he is buried with Christ into death. Think of the ‘ego’ of a man who thinks he can bury a fellow saint into Christ’s death by immersing him in water. One dear man of God, who has this ‘ego,’ has contended earnestly for, this doctrine in a book, “What Saith The Scriptures About Baptism?” In this book we read this plain contradiction of his other statements:
“IT IS NOT OF COURSE THAT THE UNIMMERSED ARE NOT BURIED WITH CHRIST, IF BELIEVERS. ALL SUCH HAVE DIED WITH HIM, BEEN BURIED WITH HIM AND RAISED WITH HIM.”
How true is this statement? Then think of the folly of demanding that the believer buried by God’s baptism should submit to man for man’s water burial. If the unimmersed have been buried, why try to improve on, or supplement, God’s perfect work by man’s imperfect work? Water baptism has made many religious people more religious, but never has it made a believer more spiritual. Little wonder this brother has lost the light on ‘The Mystery.’
For a witness to the world of the believer’s death, burial and resurrection with Christ, the immersionists use the wrong ‘THEREFORE,’ when they use the ‘THEREFORE’ of Romans 6:4 to explain their water ceremony. The ‘THEREFORE’ of Colossians 3:5 tells why the believer should witness and how he should witness. He has been raised up into the heavenlies (Ephesians 2:5 and 6) . . . Prove it. How? By a water ceremony? Certainly not. By seeking those things where Christ is in heaven. By putting to death the members of sin on earth. Then the unbeliever will believe that God in Christ hath wrought a great change in the believer; that the believer is spiritual rather than religious. Think of the inconsistency of making the circumcision of Colossians 2:11 spiritual, and the baptism of Colossians 2:12 physical.
HOUSEHOLD IMMERSION . . . CROSSING THE RED SEA
In I Corinthians 10:7 to 3 we read how the Israelites passed through the Red Sea and “were all baptized unto Moses in (by) the cloud in (by) the sea.” Although God had given Israel many signs by Moses they were slow to accept his leadership; so God performed by Moses two other great miracles. Then they believed and followed Moses, at least until they needed some more signs. It was by signs in the midst of Israel that God approved Jesus of Nazareth. (Acts 2:22). The Egyptians passed into the Red Sea after Israel, but not through it. They were certainly immersed in water, but they did not rise to walk in newness of life or any other kind of life.
Think, if you will, of men, claiming to be ‘grace’ preachers, who teach that because the little Israelites were with their parents in the Red Sea the little children of Christians should be baptized with their parents. One of these preachers today, who is the ungracious enemy of other ‘grace’ preachers believe that God’s one Divine baptism is altogether sufficient without man’s ‘water’ ceremony, puts little children in bath tubs filled with water, quoting I Corinthians 10:1 and 2. Little wonder this man, who is far above the average as a Bible teacher, is blind to God’s great truth for this age, “The Mystery.”
We do read in the Book of Acts that several households of Gentiles were baptized. It is interesting to hear the explanations of the immersionists as to how the Philippian jailer and his household were immersed between midnight and day light. (Acts 16:31 to 34). These brethren know, or should know, that after the close of the ‘Acts’ period God did not deliver Paul miraculously from jail as He did at Philippi; that in Paul’s Epistles written after the close of Acts (Titus, Philemon, I Timothy, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians and II Timothy) we find no record of miracles, signs, tongues, angelic visitations, the sign¬gifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11; but we do find that which abideth, ‘faith,’ ‘hope’ and ‘love.’ We find in these Epistles no water ceremony, but the abiding one (Divine) baptism of Ephesians 4:4 and 5 and Colossians 2:12. The household immersionist, who baptizes little babies in bath tubs, is no more unscriptural than is the immersionist who ridicules this practice but reads water into Ephesians 4:4 and 5. As long as a Christian’s eyes have ‘water’ in them they will not have the eyes of their understanding opened to see the great truth of Ephesians 1:14 to 23 . . . and Ephesians 1:11 and Ephesians 3:9. But apparently they care little about the knowledge of this wonderful truth, preferring to cherish their water ceremony which appeals to their religious flesh and mind.
It is a well known fact that some loyal, evangelical Baptists have remained as members in the Northern Baptist Convention and have been unequally yoked together with unsaved Baptists (Liberals), in disobedience to God’s Word, while they positively refuse to have fellowship with members of the Body of Christ, who contend earnestly for all evangelical truth but who believe that water baptism has no place in God’s present ‘grace’ program. Do they not thus show that man’s water ceremony means more to them than the precious blood of the eternal Son of God? We must admit there are Baptists who are ‘water’ worshippers.
The evangelical Baptists say that the Liberal Baptists are not Baptists at all. Surely they are Baptists, though they may not be Christians. There are members of the Body of Christ in many Baptist churches. Unbelievers, unsaved persons, may join some Baptist churches. But no unbeliever is a member of the Bible Church. A believer can get into the Bible Church without Baptist baptism.
THE NON BAPTIST BAPTISTS
There is a new organization of Baptists within the Baptist church. They prefer not to be called ‘Fundamentalists’; for they are rather ashamed of some of the wild fanatical healers and religious people in the ‘tongues’ movements, who call themselves ‘Fundamentalists.’ Dispensationally, the ‘fanatics’ agree with these Conservative Baptists. Some one recently said to one of their leaders, “if you are ashamed of the ‘fanatics,’ who agree with your dispensationalism, you should have changed your dispensationalism while you were changing your name; then you might help the ‘fanatics’.”
Any intelligent, spiritual student of the Scriptures should know that, if this present ‘grace’ dispensation and the Church of the Mystery began on the day of Pentecost, and if God has not changed His dispensation or program, and if Mark 16:14 to 18 gives us God’s commission for this age of grace, and if we have no intelligent exegesis to show that all of the program during the Acts period is not for the obedience and practice of members of the Body of Christ, the Baptists have no Scriptural right to criticize the program of the Pentecostalists, who are in full agreement with the Baptist’s dispensationally. No; but rather these Baptists should confess that the Pentecostalists are right.
In the matter of water baptism, the Plymouth Brethren Baptists who teach ‘believer’s baptism,’ teach what is taught by evangelical, premillennial Baptist Baptists. So do the undenominational immersionists, who are identified with the premillennial Fundamentalists, men who claim to be ‘grace’ preachers. Certainly these undenominational ‘Non-Baptist’ Baptists put over the Baptist’s ‘water’ program with many people that the Baptist Baptists can not reach. Just take an inventory of the presidents and leaders and Bible teachers in most of the Bible Schools, supported by the premillennial Fundamentalists, and of the Fundamentalists’ associations, organizations and fellowships. These undenominational ‘Non Baptists’ Baptists are the ‘front’ for the premillennial, evangelical Baptists who reward their ‘Non Baptist’ Baptists by inviting them to their pulpits.
The president and other leaders of I.F.C.A. are Baptists, although they claim to be undenominational. This is true of the archbishop of fundamentalism. There is no more zealous Baptist than he, in the matter of Baptist doctrine of water baptism: for he even goes beyond some of them, seeing water in Colossians 2:12, Galatians 3:27, Ephesians 4:4 and 5, as well as in Romans 6:4. This dear brother is truly a religious man, when it comes to water. .
We might mention many undenominational Baptists such as the leaders of ‘The Youth For Christ’ movement, the Grand Rapids Bible Class broadcaster and pastors of hundreds of undenominational churches. Zealous immersionists are truly the men who aggressively (and some viciously) oppose the most wonderful truth in the Bible, truth acknowledged by the archbishop of fundamentalism to be ‘the lost precious gem.’ Perhaps no one man is doing more to hinder the recovery of this glorious truth, which he states was lost in Judaism, than is he, especially with his pamphlet, well named judged by its contents, ‘Wrongly Dividing The Word Of Truth.’ These Non¬-Baptist Baptists not only ungraciously, and without mercy, attack the messengers of the Lord, who are obeying Ephesians 3:9, Ephesians 4:1 to 6 and II Timothy 2:15; but they intimidate, bluff and ridicule and threaten others who would like to be faithful in this matter. They have succeeded in influencing some to change conviction for convenience. And so ‘the lost precious gem,’ remains lost.
No man teaching water baptism for this dispensation and age of grace obeys Ephesians 3:9. But those of us, who believe in one (Divine) baptism for this age and who are obeying Ephesians 3:9, are told that these ‘Non Baptist’ Baptist Fundamentalists agree with us 95%; agreeing 100% on all of the fundamental, evangelical truth of the Bible. To this we reply that those who disagree with us only 5% are our real enemies, or real enemies of the truth of God called ‘The Mystery Of God’s Will.’ When we say this we know that it is in connection with this glorious truth, for which Paul was in jail at Rome, he wrote that we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against spiritual wickedness in the heavenlies. The truth called ‘The Unsearchable Riches of Christ,’ ‘The Mystery of The Gospel,’ is God’s answer to the fanaticism that is abounding and ever¬ increasing as a rebuke to the leaders among the Fundamentalists, who are supposed to be ‘grace’ preachers. These leaders ridicule, boycott, condemn (frequently resorting to verbal attacks both ungracious and untruthful) other ‘grace’ messengers who are presenting God’s antidote for every ism and ill with which the Body of Christ is doctrinally afflicted.
The fanatical Pentecostalists and other fanatical groups all over this land attempt to prove their ‘Second Blessing, Holy Spirit Baptism’ fanaticism by holding before their audiences a book written by the late Dr. R. A. Torrey, who, like Apollos, was mighty in the Scriptures, but who exceedingly erred when he magnified a certain experience that he had above the Word of God rightly divided. In that book he claimed that he received Holy Spirit Baptism as a Divine work separate from, and subsequent to, the Divine work at the time He was saved and was baptized by one Spirit into one Body. So the people who have visions and speak in tongues tell their audiences that this wonderful man of God, accepted by all Fundamentalists, received his ‘BAPTISM’ after salvation. Friends tried to persuade Dr. Torrey to repudiate this false teaching before he went to be with the Lord; but he refused.
Now all over the country the same fanatics and others, who follow the blind leaders of the blind and teach that ‘the dispensation of the grace of God for Gentiles’ (Ephesians 3:1 to 4) began on the day of Pentecost of Acts Two, support their faulty dispensationalism and other unsound teaching by quoting from the pamphlet ‘Wrongly Dividing The Word of Truth. In this pamphlet the archbishop of fundamentalism says that ‘the dispensation of the mystery,’ ‘the dispensation of the grace of God,’ ‘the One Body of Ephesians 4:4 and 5,’ began when Peter and the Eleven stood up to address devout Jews on the day of Pentecost. In this pamphlet he says that the apostle John had the revelation of the mystery before Paul received it, even before Christ died; that Peter received it on the housetop, in Acts Ten. In this pamphlet he says there is not even a transition period in the Book of Acts. In other writings the same man of God says, in plain contradiction, that the risen Lord made known His mystery to Paul alone; and this was not until Israel had been given every opportunity to receive Christ after Christ was raised from the dead. He plainly states in several other writings that the mystery was not made known while Christ was on earth. Then he states that when he wrote his ‘Wrongly Dividing’ he had not changed his mind concerning the contradictory statements in his other books.
Every intelligent, spiritual student of the Scriptures, who is a faithful steward of the mysteries of God, should write this dear brother to repudiate his faulty dispensationalism in ‘Wrongly Dividing’ and apologize for ever have written this pamphlet in the flesh, as he did. God’s Truth is more important than any man and his pride. This pamphlet is very largely responsible for keeping fanatical, deluded Christians in their fanaticism, and he should do something about it before he goes to be with Christ, acknowledging that he wrote the pamphlet because he was angry with ‘grace’ messengers whom he believes to be troubled with spiritual hydra-phobia, because they believe ‘one Baptism’ means ‘One Baptism,’ which is not water.
So while this dear brother, who is considered an outstanding leader among Fundamentalists, rejoices that he discredits and disqualifies men of God who are obeying Ephesians 3:9 and Ephesians 4:1 to 6 with those who blindly follow his faulty dispensationalism ‘THE LOST PRECIOUS GEM’ remains lost and the Baptist enemies of ‘THE MYSTERY’ cheer him on and open their pulpits to him because he certainly ‘out Baptists’ most Baptists in his love for water. This dear brother once knew the truth of Romans 16:25. Let us pray that he will again as clearly (even more clearly) declare himself before he leaves for heaven.
WHAT RELIGION DID GOD GIVE TO MAN BEFORE SINAI?
God has definitely marked a period in His dealings with the human race called, ‘FROM ADAM TO MOSES.’ (Romans 5:12 to 15). That period covered about 2500 years, when there was no law (the ten commandments and carnal ordinances). The law was added at Sinai. (Galatians 3:19). A religious program too was added. (Hebrew 9:10). The law (at Sinai) entered that the sin that entered by Adam might abound. (Romans 5:20). When God added the law He added ‘meats and drinks,’ ‘carnal ordinances’ and ‘divers washings’ (baptismos). Some of these ‘BAPTISMOS’ were sprinklings, some pourings, some immersings. In describing these ‘BAPTISMOS’ in Leviticus, Exodus and Deuteronomy we read much about water in God’s religious program. There were ‘BAPTISMOS,’ in which there was no water. All of these began with a new covenant, the law covenant, at Sinai, with Moses as the mediator. The beginning of the new ‘law’ covenant at Sinai is recorded in Exodus 20 and Jeremiah 31:31 to 37. At that time Moses was 80 years old. (Exodus 7:7). At the time God gave to Moses the new ‘law’ covenant. Abraham had been dead 330 years. (Galatians 3:17 . . . Genesis 12:4, Genesis 15:6 . . . Genesis 25:17). In Galatians 3:19 and Galatians 3:17 we learn that God added the ‘law covenant to the Abrahamic covenant 430 years after Abram (the uncircumcised heathen) believed God and was thereby declared righteous. (Genesis 15:5 to 8). So we learn in Romans 4:2 to 11 and Galatians 3:6 to 8 and Galatians 3:17 that God preached the gospel of the uncircumcision unto uncircumcised Abram 430 years before He gave the ten commandments and a very complicated system of religion to circumcised Israel.
At Sinai something new was added; something very new and radically different. It was certainly not at that time ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT.’ Moses spent his last 40 years, under the law and the religion of Hebrews 9:10, but not his first 80 years. If we had been Moses on that burning mountain when he received the law which worketh wrath (Romans 4:15), the ministration of death and condemnation (II Corinthians 3:7 and 9), we would have known that God was giving a new testament, which was added to the promise and gospel given to Abram. In Hebrews 9:15 we learn that Christ is the Mediator of the New Covenant, but that He died for redemption of the transgressions under the first covenant (given at Sinai). That first covenant (testament) was made ‘OLD’ after the death of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary. (Hebrews 8:7 to 13). If on that cross the eternal, sinless Son of God, took out of the way, nailing to the cross, only the ceremonial part of the law given to Moses, we are a condemned, doomed, helpless race. (Colossians 2:14 and Hebrews 12:20 . . . Romans 6:14 . . . Galatians 3:13).
No man from Adam to Noah and the flood was under the law, except the law of sin and death (Romans 8:2), with a law written in their hearts, called ‘conscience.’ After the flood Shem, Terah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob (Israel), Levi, Judah, Joseph, Ephraim and others were not under the law, and upon them God did not impose the religious program of Hebrews 9:10. If we call the ‘law’ covenant, entered into between Jehovah and Israel at Sinai when Moses was 80 years old, ‘THE OLD COVENANT’ or ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT,’ and learn that this was recorded in Exodus 20 as having taken place several months after Jehovah led Israel out of Egypt, about 1500 B.C., why are Christians so foolish as to speak of Genesis as ‘THE OLD TESTAMENT SCRIPTURES,’ when that ‘TESTAMENT’ did not begin until Exodus 20, about 330 years after Abraham had died?
So we learn that Abraham was not an ‘OLD TESTAMENT’ character; but that God preached the gospel to Abram (in uncircumcision) (Galatians 3:8 and Romans 4:7 to 11); and that Abram was a pattern of the uncircumcised heathen, to whom the apostle Paul preached the gospel of the uncircumcision (Galatians 2:7 to 9). As Abram (in uncircumcision and not under the law or a system of religion) believed God and his faith was counted for righteousness, so the believing heathen, to whom Paul preached the gospel of the uncircumcision, were justified without the deeds of the law, without religion, without any water ceremony or any ordinance whatsoever. (Romans 4:20 to 25 . . . Romans 4:1 to 5 . . . Romans 3:28 . . . Romans 3:24 to 26).
Twenty four years after Abram was justified in uncircumcision God instituted ‘the covenant of circumcision.’ (Acts 7:8 . . . Genesis 17:9 to 27). Isaac was born when Abraham was l00 years old. Abram was circumcised at the age of 99 and at that time became ‘ABRAHAM.’ (Genesis 17:5 . . . Genesis 17:24 . . . Genesis 21:5 and 4). The descendants of circumcised Abraham by physical birth, under the covenant of circumcision, were promised all the land of Canaan as an everlasting possession. (Genesis 17:8). But this promise is not for the heathen who received the gospel of the uncircumcision from Paul. Of these heathen, Abram, justified in uncircumcision, was the pattern. So as we read from Genesis 12:1 to Genesis 17:27, we learn that the gospel of the circumcision was added to the gospel of the uncircumcision. We learn from Galatians 3:19 and Galatians 3:17, that the law (the ten commandments and the divers baptisms), was added to the gospel of the uncircumcision which God preached to uncircumcised Abram 430 years after Abram was justified in uncircumcision. Surely from now on we will not call Abram an ‘OLD TESTAMENT’ character.
THE TWO PHASES OF THE INHERITANCE
Let us not confuse the two aspects or phases of the inheritance God gave to Abram and Abraham; the one for circumcised Israel (including Canaan), and the other given to uncircumcised heathen (not promised Canaan); but both given before the law and not under the law. Then we shall better understand why Christ, as the Minister of the circumcision with a ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry for Israel in their land (Romans 15:8), was circumcised and baptized (that He might be made manifest to Israel . . . John 1:31); why before going back to heaven the resurrected Christ committed to the Twelve the gospel of the circumcision with a ‘RESTITUTION’ and ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry (Acts 3:19 to 21 . . . Hebrews 2:1 to 4 . . . Galatians 2:7); and why He later from heaven instructed another man (Paul) to preach to heathen the gospel of the uncircumcision, ‘the unsearchable riches of Christ,’ (Ephesians 3:8), God’s eternal purpose (the unprophesied Mystery) to make a Joint Body, while Israel would remain out of the promised land, out of God’s special favor, while the rest of the ‘CONFIRMATION’ ministry to Israel would be held in abeyance until the glorious consummation of Ephesians 4:13 and Titus 2:13
From Abram to Sinai we read of no water washings, no religious water ceremonies, no sabbath keeping. From Sinai until after the death of Christ God demanded that His people should be both righteous and religious. Their obedience to, and practice of, God’s religious program was not optional; it was mandatory. From Calvary to the full revelation of ‘THE UNSEARCHABLE RICHES OF CHRIST,’ ‘the dispensation of the mystery,’ there was a transition, during which time God’s order was, ‘to the Jew FIRST, . . . (Mark 7:27 . . . Acts 3:26 . . . Acts 13:46). During that temporary period God demanded righteousness by faith in Christ and permitted certain religious practices, including circumcision for believing Jews; and the preaching of the gospel to both Jews and Gentiles was accompanied by signs. (Romans 15:18 and 19). During that same period even the least spiritual of all saints exercised the signgifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11 and I Corinthians 12:28, because they were included in God’s program for a limited time.
Then in I Corinthians 13:8 to 13 we read of things that would pass away and that faith, hope and love would abide. The Book of Acts came to a sudden ending several years before the end of the earthly career of the apostle (Paul), whose sayings and acts occupy the prominent place in the last half of the Books of Acts, although the human author of the Book of Acts (Luke) remained with Paul unto the end. (II Timothy 4:11). In the last chapter of Acts we find the record of the healing of a number of heathen, ‘sign’ healing by Paul. (Acts 28:8 and 9). In the last chapter of Paul’s last Epistle, in connection with his farewell message, we read that he left a faithful saint sick. (II Timothy 4:20). Why such a radical change? In Acts 16:25 to 31 we learn of Paul’s miraculous deliverance from jail at Philippi, but after the close of the Acts period, when Paul was in jail at Rome, we do not read of any such experience. The sign gifts and ‘sign’ miracles and ‘sign’ judgments, angelic visitations and tongues ceased, so far as we can learn by reading Paul’s prison Epistles. God’s religious and ‘sign’ program ceased after God cast way His religious nation, Israel. (Romans 11:15).
So after that casting away of Israel God demanded righteousness, but withdrew religion and signs from His spiritual program of unmixed, unprophesied grace. Any intelligent exegesis showing that signs and sign gifts ceased with the close of Acts will also show that with them water baptism ceased; for miracles and water baptism are linked together in the Scriptures. Water baptism and the Lord’s Supper are not linked together and are not called ‘sacraments’ in the Bible. The Lord’s Supper is a memorial, which the risen Christ gave by revelation to Paul for the members of His Body. (I Corinthians 11:23). This is the same way that Paul received the gospel from Christ. (I Corinthians 15:3 and Galatians 1:11 and 12). During the Book of Acts ‘sign’ blessings. and judgments accompanied Paul’s ministry: there were several baptisms, including water baptism. Some received water baptism, during that period, before they received the Holy Spirit; some, after. Some received the Holy Spirit by imposition of hands; other, without. After the close of the Acts period we find the Divine record, ‘ONE BAPTISM.’ (Ephesians 4:4 and 5). In the matter of the exercise of the seven or eight sign gifts of I Corinthians 12:7 to 11 we learn by reading I Corinthians 3:1 to 5, I Corinthians 6:1 to 9 . . . I Corinthians 11:29 to 34 that the Corinthians were not especially faithful or spiritual, but rather the opposite. Therefore, they did not exercise those gifts, because they were super¬-spiritual for many of them were carnal.
Have you answered the question asked in a Moody Bible Institute pamphlet, which they have printed (with a strong endorsement by Dr. C. I: Scofield) and distributed for more than 20 years, “Is it the Holy Spirit or Satan who turns the eyes of sincere Christians back to Pentecost instead of onto Paul’s prison Epistles?” Then the author added “In Paul’s last Epistles we find a new order and the normal course of the Church.”
" My heart overflows with a good theme; I address my verses to the King ; My tongue is the pen of a ready writer." Psalms 45:1
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