To be or not to be – That is the question.
Shakespeare captured this well-known question in his works, where Hamlet questioned the value of life and asked himself whether it was worthwhile to hang in there. He was extremely depressed at this point, fed up with the world around him. To some extent, I can also relate to his words – being fed up with the immorality, the corruption, the false teachings, inside the Church!
It is quite depressing when God’s salvation plan through Christ is being distorted and making the Biblical commands of Christ cheap! Does the Bible not explain the Gospel as Christ’s crucifixion, burial and resurrection? (1 Cor 15:3-4)
If your doctrines ignore or contradict His salvation plan, then you are taking up a very dangerous position, which will not be defendable with any solid scripture in context. It might just reveal a complete lack of knowledge and insight in the Word of God, or at most reveal the spirit of the anti-Christ at work.
Apostle Paul, writing to the church in Rome speaks about his people (Israel) who were ignorant of the righteousness of God and were seeking their righteousness. They were stubborn to accept full salvation and righteousness through faith in Christ.
For I bear them witness that they have a zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. For, being ignorant of the righteousness of God, and seeking to establish their own, they did not submit to God’s righteousness. Rom 10:1-3
Numerous denominational preachers and disciples proclaim exclusive ‘biblical truth’, but when tested against Scriptural context, the only conclusion to be reached is that they are promoting “another Gospel”. Paul warned us against this:
I am astonished that you are so quickly deserting him who called you in the grace of Christ and are turning to a different gospel— not that there is another one, but there are some who trouble you and want to distort the gospel of Christ. But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed. (Gal 1:6 -8)
So what am I talking about? About water baptism!
“To be baptized; or NOT to be baptized – that is the question!”
More and more voices have emerged in the past few years promulgating that you do not have to be baptized to be saved, by applying a few scriptures or scenarios to strengthen their doctrines, such as;
- “Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. Rom 10:9-10
- For “everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.” Rom 10:13
But the question remains: Are they correct, or are they busy with “another Gospel” or only half of the Gospel?
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