The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his106/baptism6.lzh/BAPTISM6.TXT

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STU:Acts 2:38 and Baptismal Regeneration  by Dr. Bruce Cummons

   (Preached at Massillon Baptist Temple, January 26, 1969. Released
over International Radio Ministry of the "Grace and Peace Broadcast.")

   "Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you
in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." --Acts 2:38.

   * Baptismal Regeneration

   Roman Catholicism, Greek Orthodox (Catholic), and the vast majority
of Protestantism, believes that baptism is essential to salvation. Some
groups sprinkle and call this baptism. Others pour water over the head
and call this baptism. Still other denominations immerse "for the
remission of sins, " or to "wash away sins" and they call this baptism.
Whatever the method, most people feel that baptism has something to do
with the saving of the soul.

   I would be safe in saying that ninety-nine times out of one hundred,
when I ask a person the question, "Are you a Christian?" I get the
answer, "Yes, I've been baptized," or, "Yes, I belong to the church."
Frankly, my friend, you may as well know the truth now, that you can be
sprinkled, poured, immersed, and have your name on a dozen church
rolls, and still die and go directly to Hell forever!

   Baptism does not save the soul, or wash away sins!

   Time and again I have been criticized because I wouldn't sprinkle a
baby in the hospital, or sprinkle a dying man or woman. Of course, the
critics won't show me any Bible basis for sprinkling or for sprinkling
babies and dying people; but they are much wiser than the Word of God,
you know!

   What right has any preacher to do something contrary to the Word of
God just to please the religious whims of people?

   I've gone many times to pray for the sick and the dying and to lead
the lost to Christ, but I challenge any person, religious leader, or
otherwise, to show me a single passage of Scripture that says I must
put a drop of water on their head so they will be sure to go to Heaven!

   * Sprinkling and Baptismal Regeneration Began With Rise of Romanism
in Fourth Century

   Every Bible account of baptism shows that such baptism was immersion
in water, after the person being baptized had believed on Christ.
Salvation ALWAYS preceded baptism.

   Recorded history of early churches shows a great number of adults
being baptized, but not one record of an infant being baptized until
370 A.D. Thus, historically and scripturally, it can easily be seen
that infant baptism was not in the New Testament and did not begin in
the New Testament church.

   Churches rapidly going into apostasy began to attach great
significance to ordinances of the church and felt that these ordinances
had something to do with salvation. Then they decided that the
ordinances were necessary for salvation.

   Having fallen into the error that baptism was essential to
salvation, they further reasoned that infants should be baptized to
assure their salvation.

   However, Constantine, who is credited with uniting the apostate
church and the state, making a church-state hierarchy, reasoned that
"if baptism washed away sins, what happened to the sins committed after
baptism?"

   Now that's a good question, a question that has puzzled the world of
apostate religion from that day on.

   So, Constantine, wanting to use the power of the "church" as a
spiritual bulwark for the power of the "state, " united the two but put
off his own baptism until just preceding his death so that all his sins
might be washed away at one time!

   Thus, in the rising of the apostate Roman Church-State hierarchy,
"infant baptism" and "baptismal regeneration" came about.

   Most of the religious, so-called "Christian" world hold to this
doctrine of error yet today!

   The hierarchy, organized under the leadership of Constantine,
rapidly developed into what is now known as the Catholic church. The
newly developing "church" joined to temporal government in A.D. 416
established by law, "infant baptism." By this new law, "infant baptism"
became compulsory.

   Historians state that over 50 million Christians died martyr deaths
during the period of the "dark ages" alone, mainly because of their
rejection of these two errors in the apostate church: namely "baptismal
regeneration" and "infant baptism."

   * What is True Bible Baptism?

   According to the Scriptures, Bible baptism is the immersion of the
believer in water in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost (Matthew 28:18-20).

   The person baptized thus in the Bible was always a person who had
first believed on Christ to the saving of his soul!

   Christ told us, in the commission to the church, that men should
first become disciples, then be baptized. His words were, "Go ye
therefore, and teach [literally, make disciples] of all nations,
baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the
Holy Ghost..." (Matthew 28:19).

   In another place, Jesus said, "...Go ye into all the world, and
preach the gospel to every creature. He that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned" (Mark
16:15). The emphasis is on _believing_. He that believes shall be
saved, and he that believes not shall be damned. Believing on Christ,
or trusting Him for salvation, saves the soul. Baptism is an act of
obedience, setting forth in symbol, or type, the believer's faith in
Christ and His death, burial and resurrection.

   Philip, preaching to the Ethiopian in Acts 8, said, "If thou
believest with all thine heart, thou mayest [be baptized]."

   The Ethiopian declared his faith in Christ, and the men both went
down into the water, and the Ethiopian was immersed.

   Romans 6:3-5 tells us that baptism is a picture of a burial, or a
planting. When you bury anything, or plant anything, you cover it up.
Peter tells us that baptism is a "like figure" of our salvation (1
Peter 3:20, 21). In the context Peter points out that the ark of the
Old Testament was a "figure" or "type" of salvation in the New
Testament.

   * Does Water or the Blood of Christ Cleanse Us From Sin?

   This is the great question at hand. Is it the water of baptism that
cleanses us from sin, or is it the blood of Christ that cleanses us
from sin?

   Certainly, the Bible says that, "The blood of Jesus Christ his Son
cleanseth us from all sin" (1 John 1:7).

   Again, we read, "...without shedding of blood is no remission"
(Hebrew 9:22).

   In Leviticus 17:11, we read, "For the life of the flesh is in the
blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement
for your souls: for it is the blood that maketh an atonement for the
soul"!

   Christ our Saviour died upon Calvary to atone for our sins. He was
buried and was raised again the third day. According to the Bible, He,
as the Lamb of God, shed His precious blood to atone for our souls.

   * How is a Soul Saved?

   Again, the Bible answers, "By faith!"

   The Word of God only presents one way of salvation, whether in the
Old Testament or in the New Testament. People of all ages have been
saved by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ and His finished work on
Calvary. The Old Testament saint looked forward to the coming Christ
and His work of atonement. Thus, the many offerings and sacrifices of
blood. From the time of the death, burial and resurrection of Christ,
the Christian looks back to Christ and His finished work of redemption
on Calvary. The saved person trusts completely in the finished work of
Christ as the atonement for his sins and gladly obeys Christ by baptism
as a testimony of his faith in Christ.

   Jesus said that believing, trusting, or having faith in Him was the
way of salvation.

   He said in John 3:36, "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the
wrath of God abideth on him." (Nothing said about baptism.) Jesus said
in John 5:24, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word,
and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not
come into condemnation, but is passed from death unto life." (Nothing
said about baptism.)

   In fact, the words "believe," "receive," and other words meaning to
trust Christ for salvation, appear over one hundred times in the Gospel
of John alone, and in not one case are they even remotely connected
with baptism!

   Would Christ tell us how to be saved by faith, or by trust in Him,
and state this one hundred times, then contradict all He said by giving
us one text of Scripture from the lips of Peter? Christ is not so
inconsistent as this!

   Paul told the jailor at Philippi a clear-cut way of salvation. The
jailor cried out, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?"

   Of course, the jailor and his household were later baptized, but it
still remains that Paul told them how to be saved, and they were thus
saved, then baptized.

   Paul also stated in the book of Romans that "the gospel" was "the
power of God to salvation, to every one that believeth" (1:16). He said
that this salvation came by FAITH (1:16, 17). Then, he further made it
very plain that this Gospel was the truth of the death, burial and
resurrection of Christ, and that faith in Christ was the way of
salvation. Paul said that the Gospel and faith in the Christ of the
Gospel was the way of salvation and made it plain that the Gospel did
not mention baptism.

   Study carefully the Gospel (1 Corinthians 15:1-4).

   Study carefully faith in the Christ of this Gospel as the one way of
salvation (Romans 1:16, 17; 10:9-13).

   Study carefully the truth that baptism is not a part of the Gospel
and is therefore not essential to salvation (1 Corinthians 14-18). Paul
said that Christ "sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel..."
(vs. 17). The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, but evidently
Paul stressed the truth that baptism was not part of the Gospel.\

   * What About Acts 2:38?

   First of all, Peter said, "Repent!" This brings salvation.
Repentance and faith are inseparable graces. You can't repent without
believing, and you can't believe, or have faith, without repenting.
They go together. When you've done one, you've also performed the other.

   Paul stated this very well when he spoke of salvation as the result
of "repentance toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus Christ..."
(Acts 20:21).

   Peter preached the same thing in Acts 10:43 in the words, "To him
give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever
believeth in him shall receive remission of sins."

   In fact, getting down to the basic meaning of words in the
Scriptures, the word "repent" is the word _metanoia_ in the Greek
Scripture, which means "to repent unto salvation."

   When these Jewish people had "repented unto salvation, " they were
then ready to be baptized "for, " or because of, the remission of their
sins. Comparing Scripture with Scripture, think of all the hundreds of
passages that give the way of salvation as a way of faith, without
works and without baptism; then consider Peter's words, as mentioned
before, that baptism was a "figure" and the answer of a good conscience
toward God.

   Consider another passage of Scripture where the same word "for" is
used in a similar way. Read carefully Luke 5:12-15.

   Christ healed a leper of his dread disease. Since this was before
Calvary, the healed man was still under the law; and Christ was
faithful in fulfilling the law. Jesus said to the man, therefore,
"...go, and show thyself to the priest, and offer for thy cleansing,
according as Moses commanded, for a testimony unto them..." (vs. 14).

   Notice the language carefully: "Offer for thy cleansing...." Did
Christ heal, or did the offering heal? "Why," you may say, "that's
ridiculous! Christ healed! The offering was only a testimony of the
truth that had taken place in the life of the man healed!" You are
right!

   Furthermore, the same language is employed and the same purpose is
set forth in Acts 2:38. "Repent, " as I have shown to mean, biblically,
"Repent unto salvation," then "...be baptized for the remission of
sins, " or as a testimony that your sins have been remitted. If the
offering did not cleanse but was only the testimony of (or for) "thy
cleansing, " then by the same Bible truth, baptism does not save but is
a testimony of the truth that your sins have been remitted; or to be
baptized "for the remission of sins, " or actually as a testimony that
your sins have been remitted.

   Christ alone is the Saviour and not the baptistry or the water in
it! Thus, the purpose of baptism is to show forth the salvation that
has already taken place in the heart and life of the believer.

   If the blood of Christ was shed for the remission of sins, then
baptism cannot bring about, or be the means of remitting sins. You
cannot have two ways of salvation.

   If you want to set this verse against the hundreds of passages in
the Bible that declare salvation to be by faith and make Acts 2:38 say
what Peter never intended it to say, then that is up to you.

   Remember when you do, however, that the verse that answers the
question, "What must I do to be saved?" stated dogmatically, "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved...."

   Trust Christ to save you, then obey the Lord by being obedient to
Him by baptism.

   May the Lord bless this truth to your hearts.