hello Jerry Shugart, and HopeofGlory
I would like to share this with you and other on this thread because this came from the church that Kevin comes from, and maybe you can help them to see the truth abiut the ritual water baptism is not salvation.
Here check this letter out that they tryed to teach me.
My Part 1:
People say that they believe baptism is a work! They do
well! And they also say that because of God's grace they
believe that a person does not have to do anything outside of
having faith and/or belief in God to be saved, and especially
they don't believe that baptism which they call a work is
necessary to be saved. The problem we have in our discussion
is that there is a conflict between a faith and belief only
supporter's definition of work and God's definition of work.
Let me tell you some things that God tells us about work.
However, in order to understand work we first need to talk
about grace.
Dictionaries describe grace as "God's unmerited favor bestowed
on sinful mankind!" Many have heard this definition of grace
as it is often quoted in commentaries, and by many speakers,
preachers and teachers. God's grace is not just an attribute
of God as some would have it, and God's grace is not
powerless; God's grace is perpetually active, demonstrating
itself to mankind in countless ways. However there are many
people who depend on grace, with no effort on their part
beyond faith and belief, to take them to a blissful eternal
home when they die; but these people are blind to the true
design and eternal purpose of God's grace. And of course
there are those others who have never even given a thought to
the existence of an afterlife much less to God's grace.
James pointed to God as the source of all good things, James
1:17, a portrait encompassing every good thing on earth is a
portrait of God's grace. Mankind's life without God's grace
is illusion, not reality. If a human being is ever to be
saved it will be by the grace of God. And Paul tells us we
are "justified freely by His grace through the redemption that
is in Christ Jesus," Romans 3:24; "For the grace of God that
brings salvation has appeared to all men," Titus 2:11.
Salvation by human effort and merit is unthinkable. Without
God's grace the presence of just one sin in a person's life
will forever seal their doom to an eternal home in hell with
Satan. And so to gain salvation and an eternal home in heaven
with God mankind must look only to God and His grace, not to
one's own merits, and certainly not to some perceived
entitlement, or any other deviation from the Truth.
Human beings owe their very existence to God's grace! Did
mankind deserve to be created? If it were a world of
perfection and innocence could mankind, the created, deserve
even a solitary gift from the hand of God, the Creator? Even
in that perfect world of the Garden of Eden the first man and
woman were recipients of the grace of God. Prior to sin that
was brought into the world by Adam and Eve, could that first
human pair have looked toward heaven and described even their
smallest blessing as owed to them? God forbid!
God is not in debt to mankind. God does not owe humanity
anything, the very nature of grace brands mankind as the
eternal debtor. If a human being could live trillions of
years one could never perform enough work and good deeds so
that God would be in their debt. In spite of all the notable
works that an individual might accomplish in their lifetime
the term unprofitable is irrevocably attached to everyone's
name, Luke 17:10. And so whatever God does for a human being
is based on His grace, not on merit, not on works.
Genesis 3:6 tells us about the introduction of sin into the
world by that first man and woman, and the moment sin became a
reality, God's grace that is eternal took on it's destined
purpose, the purpose of salvation for lost sinful mankind. At
the first appearance of sin, as God planned before creation,
our Lord and Savior headed toward Calvary. When sin became a
reality, the cross became a necessity! Sin rendered a human
being's eternal habitation with God terminally helpless.
Without the work of Christ on Golgotha's mound a human being
is as helpless as a grain of sand. If mankind were severed
from the work of Christ and His death on the cross, every
single step taken by anyone would be a backward step. Without
our Lord and Savior Christ Jesus, mankind is eternally lost
from God, lost yesterday, lost today, lost tomorrow, and lost
forever!
Our protection of God's grace is boundless, it is as vast as
eternity. But we must understand that it is not from the work
of God's grace alone that we receive God's gifts. Mankind
must do their part! Now that sin has come into the world
human beings must work in order to benefit from God's rich
provisions of grace, this work encompasses both the physical
and the spiritual; the cost of the physical gift of grace is
manual labor and the cost of the spiritual gift of grace is
obedience.
Physical sustenance - to live on earth - is a gift of grace
that can't be bought, just as it was with Adam and Eve in the
garden. But now that sin has come into the world a tremendous
amount of human effort must be exerted by mankind in order to
receive this gift and live a comfortable, pleasing life while
here on earth. The physical gift of grace is simply not free
as some would have it. Humanity must work with sufficient
effort in order to harvest the necessary materials that they
need for their livelihood, they must either work for the
harvest or they must work for others so that they may
accumulate the funds necessary to purchase their food,
clothing and shelter from the harvesters.
Spiritual sustenance - to live an everlasting life with God -
is a gift of grace that can't be bought. But now that sin has
come into the world a tremendous amount of human effort must
be exerted by mankind in order to be saved and live with God
eternally. The spiritual gift of grace is simply not free as
some would have it. God cannot bind grace by saving those who
refuse or neglect to submit to His will, we know this for a
certainty because we are told in God's Word that God cannot
lie, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18, or change His mind, Malachi 3:6,
Romans 11:29. God's unchangeable will demands obedience,
Jesus clearly identified the saved as those who, "do the will
of my Father which is in heaven," Matthew 7:21. The Son
Christ Jesus is the source of eternal salvation, but only for
those who OBEY God, "and, having been made perfect, He became
the source of eternal salvation for all who obey Him," Hebrews
5:9. We cleanse our souls by obedience; purification from
sin by grace through Christ's blood is the result of OBEYING
the Truth, "Since you have purified your souls in obeying the
truth," I Peter 1:22.
Therefore salvation is "by grace through faith," Ephesians
2:8, now made known "for obedience to the faith," Romans
16:26, and that "faith works through love," Galatians 5:6. Of
course we must have faith and belief in God to be saved; but
it is imperative that we understand that the Word of God makes
it very clear that we must have the gift of God's grace to be
saved, and that God's grace does include obedience on our
part, and that obedience is commanded by God, "According to
the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the
faith," Romans 16:26.
The words "work, works, worked, working, worker, workman,
workfellow, workmanship," is used over 600 times in the
Scriptures, and in the passages where they appear God tells us
about all kinds of work, including physical and spiritual
work, and merited and unmerited work. So what does God make
known to mankind about work in these passages? From the very
beginning we can know that God demands work from humanity, He
tells us that He works; God is our pattern for work, "And on
the seventh day God ended His work which He had done; and He
rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had
done," Genesis 2:2. Why God even tells us about the work of
that old devil Satan, "the work of Satan displayed in all
kinds of counterfeit miracles, signs and lying wonders," II
Thessalonians 2:9. God works, the devil works, and so must
mankind work. We human beings must do the work God has
commanded us to do if we want to live with Him in heaven for
eternity; otherwise Satan will welcome anyone who doesn't do
God's will with open arms to live with him in hell for
eternity, and that old devil doesn't require work or anything
else from mankind, he just lays in wait for the disobedient to
die.
It looks like we've found the problem! Definition! Grace
defines work as obedience to God. And those who believe in
faith and/or belief only salvation define work as "merited
favor," the labor by one's own self for a prize. Let's look
at some of the things the Word of God tells us about work.
James makes this so very clear, "But someone will say, you
have faith, and I have works: show me your faith without your
works, and I will show you my faith by my works, You believe
that there is one God; you do well: the devils also believe,
and tremble. But will you know, O vain man, that faith
without works is dead? Was not Abraham justified by works,
when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? See that
faith was working together with works, and by works faith was
made perfect? And Scripture was fulfilled which said, Abraham
believed God, and it was accounted to him for righteousness.
You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by
faith only. For as the body without the spirit is dead, so
faith without works is dead also," James 2:18-26.
The Holy Spirit reveals God's grace through the inspired
writers of God's Word. God's grace teaches. Grace teaches
mankind regarding things to do and things not to do, Titus
2:11-12. Grace teaches humanity how to enter God's presence.
Grace has provided a pattern whereby we might be saved, and we
must be saved or we cannot approach God. Grace entreats
sinful human beings to wash in the fountain of Christ's blood
through water burial into Him and His church, and only then
may a person come with trembling awe and reverential fear into
the majestic presence of God.
We read throughout Scripture that if we want to be saved by
God's grace we must work, some of the works we must do include
hearing, Romans 10:17, Acts 16:32; believing, Mark 16:16,
Hebrews 11:6, John 8:24, 20:31; repenting, Acts 2:38, 17:30,
Luke 13:3; confessing, Romans 10:9-10, Acts 8:37; baptism,
Acts 2:38, Mark 16:16, I Peter 3:21, Romans 6:3-4; obedience,
Hebrews 5:9, James 2:18; faith, Romans 5:1-2, Acts 26:18;
faithful christian living, I Peter 2:11-12, Revelation 2:10.
As we've discovered all of these take effort, all of these are
works, all of these demand our obedience, obedience to God
that is according to His will and His commands for our works,
Matthew 7:21, Romans 16:26, Hebrews 5:9,13:21, I Peter 1:22.
Yes, faith and belief are works, two of the number of works
that God commands us to do along with baptism; many fight
against having to do works, but that is the very thing that
they are doing if they declare faith and belief in God. So
you see, if we don't work as God has commanded us to do that
old devil is waiting there with open arms. You do well to
believe that baptism is a work, because without baptism and
all of the other works that God commands us to do, including
the works of faith and belief, we cannot enter Christ's church
and God's kingdom.
Human beings hate rules, people do not like to be told what to
do, consequently they continually question those who remind
them of the rules, but that is human nature. And so to defy
the rules, the obedience that God demands of them, the Faith
and/or Belief Only Salvationists teach a counterfeit grace.
But the imitation grace of Faith and/or Belief Only Salvation
is fallacy and alien to the grace of God. Let's look at some
of the fallacies that are championed by the supporters and
defenders of Faith and/or Belief Only Salvation:
* Faith and/or Belief Only will not listen to God's grace.
* Faith and/or Belief Only will not learn what it disputes.
* Faith and/or Belief Only is too busy marching to the
beat of it's own drum to want to know the Truth.
* Faith and/or Belief Only is the worldly pointing to God's
commands and arrogantly saying, "It's no big deal."
* Faith and/or Belief Only is mankind arrogantly promoting
what God hates.
* Faith and/or Belief Only is humanity attempting to
nullify God's laws and commands.
* Faith and/or Belief Only is the arrogance of self will
replacing the church for which Jesus died with a
Counterfeit Denominational Church or some other
religion.
* Faith and/or Belief Only is the arrogance of worldly men
and women making Christ's true church for which
Jesus died a target of ridicule and mockery.
* Faith and/or Belief Only falsely teaches the destruction
of the New Testament pattern, and even denies the
existence of the pattern.
* Faith and/or Belief Only falsely teaches fellowship with
the false teachers and change agents of the world.
* Faith and/or Belief Only falsely teaches a grace that it
does not understand.
Faith and/or Belief Only Salvation is the spirit of Cain's
receiving the grace of God in vain, II Corinthians 6:2, at the
altar of self will, Genesis 4:5; Nadab and Ahihu's nullifying
grace with strange fire, Leviticus 10:1-2; Jereboam's sinning
against grace with a perverted pattern of worship devised of
his own heart, I Kings 12:33; and the Pharisees' spurning
grace with humanly contrived vain worship, Matthew 15:9.
To summarize this study I'll repeat the following two
paragraphs from one of my earlier messages:
God cannot have made it any clearer that it is through Christ
that we are saved by God's grace. From the first chapter
through the last chapter of the Bible God tells us that it is
our response of submission and obedience to His grace whereby
we may be saved. Grace is God's loving planned gift to
mankind, planned by Him before the creation of the world, a
gift God tells us throughout the Scriptures that He planned
with a purpose and an intent. The purpose, to save mankind;
the intent, that it is mankind's response of submission and
obedience to God's gift of grace that we may receive salvation
and gain eternal life in heaven, and that a part of God's plan
includes punishment of eternal life in hell if we disobey Him.
ALL the things that God tells us in the Scriptures about
salvation as a whole are vital to being saved, NOT JUST ONE.
We cannot seek out certain passages and stop there. We cannot
say, "Believing sounds fine, I'll just take John 3:16." We
cannot say, "Faith sounds easy, so Romans 3:28 is for me." We
cannot say, "Confessing and belief sounds like all I need,
I'll take Romans 10:9-10." We cannot even say, "Baptism for
remission of my sins sounds like all I will ever need, so I'll
just take Acts 2:38 and do no more." We must not say that
baptism is the only thing that is needed to be saved, although
without baptism we cannot be saved at all, without baptism we
cannot enter Christ's church and God's kingdom. God tells us
in His Word that if we pick and choose only one or a few of
the commands that He has given to us and think that we are
saved, we are wrong. In other words if we try to stand on
anything less than all of God's commands we have believed in
vain and we will be eternally lost, James 2:10. You see God
doesn't give us a menu of commands to choose from, we cannot
say I'll do these two, or I'll just take that one, and think
we are saved, we must obey every command on the menu! Yes,
we must submit to God and obey His every command in the New
Testament in order to be saved, Hebrews 2:3.
Gene LittleJohns, <1cor118@flash.net>
The above comments and answers are my own understanding of the
Scriptures, II Timothy 2:15, 3:16. God's Word teaches us that
it is not the duty of the church to make laws, but to obey the
laws and commands in the New Testament of the Scriptures which
are made by God and the Head of the church, which is Christ
Jesus, Matthew 28:18, Colossians 1:18,24.
Copyright 2002, by Gene LittleJohns, reproduction and
distribution of this writing is encouraged, it may be freely
distributed.
this is so dogmatic I had to pass it on, and this is only part1
God Bless you
