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THE NORTHERN KENTUCKY SEARCHER VOLUME 7, NUMBER 16, APRIL 22, 2007 AN ANSWER TO A FALSE
TEACHER This week we will continue to answer the questions set forth by David Martin, a preacher at the Solid Rock Baptist Church in Bartlett, Tennessee, in his short tract, “Common Sense Questions a ‘Church of Christ’ Preacher Cannot Clearly Answer.” By the way, he still hasn’t returned my phone calls. “2. If a ‘Church of Christ’ elder refuses to baptize me, will I be lost until I can find one who will? Do I need Jesus and a Campbellite “preacher” in order to be saved? If I do, then Jesus Christ is not the only mediator (1 Timothy 2:5) and the Holy Spirit is not the only administrator (1 Corinthians 12:13) of salvation – the ‘Church of Christ’ preacher is necessary to salvation for he is performing a saving act on me when he baptizes me! Is this not blasphemy against Jesus Christ and the Holy Ghost?” That’s as fine a construction of a straw man as I have ever witnessed. I do not believe that an individual must be baptized by an elder of the Lord’s church or an evangelist in the Lord’s church in order to be saved. And I know of no one else who believes that or teaches that. It is true that the Bible teaches that Jesus Christ is the only mediator. But for the life of me, I do not believe that the Bible teaches that the Holy Spirit is the only administrator of salvation. Mr. Martin references 1 Corinthians 12:13 to make that point, but that is absolutely not what 1 Corinthians 12:13 teaches! This verse does teach that the Holy Spirit is involved in our salvation, in that the Holy Spirit was the agent of revelation Who has revealed the need to be baptized for the remission of sins (Acts 2:38). When we are baptized in water to have our sins washed away, as per the revelation of the Holy Spirit (Acts 22:16), it can then be said that it is by One Spirit that we are all baptized into one body. That is the teaching of 1 Corinthians 12:13. If Mr. Martin is saying that any man, “Church of Christ preacher” or not, is the administrator of salvation, he is barking up the wrong tree! I repeat, I do not believe that and neither does anyone else that I know, except perhaps Mr. Martin. “3. If the water pipes broke and the baptistery was bone dry, would my salvation have to wait until the plumber showed up? If I were to die before then, would I go to hell? If obedience to water baptism is the means of forgiveness of sins, then I would.” First of all, forgiveness of sins takes place in the mind of God and is made possible by the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. I almost don’t know how to answer this because it’s just silly. You don’t have to be baptized in a baptistery. You can be baptized anywhere where there is sufficient water for people to live. Let me give a parallel. What if the Bible taught that an individual was saved at the point of belief (which it clearly does not)? Let us suppose that a preacher is teaching someone about Jesus Christ, and just before he finishes talking about the resurrection of Christ and the need to believe, he gets laryngitis. Would the person have to wait until he could talk again in order to learn the truth? Of course not. That individual could find any number Bibles to teach him or her. In just the same way, a person can find any number of sufficient pools of water in which to be baptized. “4. If my past sins are forgiven when I am baptized in water, and it is possible for me to ‘lose my salvation’ and go to hell after being baptized, then wouldn’t my best chance of going to be heave be to drown in the baptistery?!!—before I had the chance to sin so as to be lost again? If I wanted to be absolutely sure of heaven, isn’t that my best opportunity?” If this were not such a serious matter, I would find this question almost funny. As it is, it’s just sad. Mr. Martin asks additional questions dealing with the possibility of so sinning as to lose one’s salvation, so I won’t answer that question here. But I will tell you a little story. When I was a young preacher, oh so many years ago, I was baptizing a young man at the Lockland church building. In the baptistery there, there used to be small gates that held the blackboard in place, and when someone was being baptized, the blackboard was lifted and those gates were swung inward. As I was taking this young man backwards into the water, I hit his head on one of those gates. His whole body went limp, and the thought went through my mind, “I’ve killed him!” So I guess that’s as close to Mr. Martin’s scenario as I’ve ever come. “5. If as a Christian I can so sin as to ‘lose my salvation’, just what sin or sins will place me in such danger? Is it possible to know at what point one has committed such a sin, and become lost again? Please be specific and give clear Bible references.” The biblical answer to this question is so simple that one has to embrace a false theology to miss it. Any sin that a Christian commits, of which he absolutely refuses to repent, is the sin that will place him in danger. How do I know this? When Simon the Sorcerer, a Christian, thought that he could purchase the ability to impart the gifts of the Holy Spirit by giving Peter and John money, Peter said to this Christian, “Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” This was a Christian who had sinned and was said to be “in the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity.” If he did not repent, he would remain in that condition. In 1 John 5:16 John writes, “There is a sin unto death.” The sin unto death is any sin of which an individual refuses to repent. While we are in 1 John, a letter written to Christians, chapter 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” My question to Mr. Martin would be, “What about the Christian who refuses to confess his sins?” According to Mr. Martin’s theology, those sins would have been forgiven even as they were committed, making John’s statement meaningless. More to follow….
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