The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1955-05-19
FAITH and
BAPTISM!
BY BILL HEINSELMAN

There have been severa
articles and letters in the
Journal recently concerning the
subjects of Faith and Baptism
We are glad TO see such gooc
interest in these very important
subjects. Yet, we are anxious fol-
men to know the truth on these
subjects. For, no matter how
important a subject may be, anc
no matter how much we are in.
terested in it, we are in dark.
ness on that subject unless we
know the truth. Jesus said
"Sanctify them through thy
truth; thy word is truth" He
was, of course, referring to the
Word of God. The Word of GOO
then is the truth on all religious
subjects. The Bible says, eyes
let God be true, but every man
liar" This does not mean that
every time man opens his
mouth he is telling a lie, but, il
does mean that whenever a man
is guilty Of opposing God on any
subject, that man is liar and
Gods word is truth. See Jno
l7:17 and Rom 3:4.
The Bible states that we are
saved by faith. This is found in
SO many places in the New Testa-
ment that we do not even feel
it necessary to mention them
Yet, there is a question we would
like to ask about this. By WHAT
KIND of faith are we saved?
Since the Bible speaks of more
than ONE kind of faith, it is
JUST AS IMPORTANT TO
KNOW BY WHAT KIND OF
FAITH WE ARE SAVED, AS IT
is TO KNOW THAT WE ARE
SAVED BY FAITH!
If you will search the scrip
lures you will find the Bible
speaking of little faith" Matt
1926, weak faith" Rom. al,
vain faith" l Cor. 1872, and
"dead faith" Jas. 2:26. Now,
what preacher is there who will
tell a person that they could be
saved by little, weak, vain or
dead faith?
Well, I'll tell you what preach
er it is that would tell you that!
The very preacher who says one
can be saved by faith before and
without obedience to the gospel,
He is the one who would tell
you that you could be saved by
dead or vain faith!
Someone has said recently in
this paper, that faith means "to
give ourselves over into His
hands to do whatever He asks
us to do, and trusting Him in
it" We are willing to accept this
definition of faith. BUT, since
He has told us to be baptized
to be saved and wash away our
sins, does this not force us to
the conclusion that true faith
demands baptism? See Nix. 1916
and Acts 2:38 and Acts 22:16.
And, if true, saving faith de-
mands that we do what He has
told US to do. CAN WE BE saw
ED IF WE DO NOT OBEY HIS
COMMANDS? / answer with an
emphatic mo-, but / know a
preacher who sometimes writes
in this paper who would answer
yes!
Read Acts 8:12. 1t says "When
they believed they were
baptized, both men and women. +"
The natural implication is that
it could not be said of them that
they truly believed until they
gave themselves over to do
what He said for them to dc"
which was, of course, to be bap-
tized.
One has objected to the use of
Acts 2:38 to prove that baptism
is an essential by saying that the
word for" means because of
and therefore we are to be bap-
tized because our sins are
already forgiven. The error of
this argument may be seen
clearly, however, without even
consulting the Greek. The pass
age says, Repent and be bap-
tized for the remission of sins.
Baptism and repentance are
joined in this verse by the word
"and" which joins two articles
of equal rank. In other words,
whatever is true of one is also
true Of the other. Therefore, if
baptism is because" our sins
are already forgiven, then rep
enhance is also because" our
sins are already forgiven. But,
this will not work for the man
from Dexter City who made this
argument believes that repent
ance comes before faith, there
fore man would be saved be-
fore he even believed! The truth
is that both baptism and repent
ance is ''in order to obtain" the
remission of sins! In later arti-
Gle we wish to answer the objec-
ton used by some that Christ did
not say "He that believeth not
and is not baptized shall be
damned" watch for this article
in this paper.
We STILL are willing to dis
cuss these matters in public or