The journal. (Caldwell, Ohio) 1934-1961, 1955-05-26
MARK 1916
BY BILL HEINSELMAN

BY BILL HEINSELMAN
In this passage, Jesus said: HE
that believeth and is baptized
shall be saved; but he that be-
lieveth not shall be damned" "
The teaching Of our Lord on this
occasion is that BOTH faith and
baptism are conditions of saliva
ton. He says that certain He"
shall be saved. Not just any He"
shall be saved, but there is a
certain EfHe" of whom the Lord
said, che shall be saved" In
other words, salvation is not
without condition! The He that
our Lord said would be saved
is, HE" that believeth and is
baptized" The Lord did not say,
He that believeth is saved and
THEN BE BAPTIZED" If our
Lord had been a Baptist preach
er or a Free Methodist preacher,
he might have said that. But He
did not say it! The fact remains
that our Lord says, 'He that be-
lieveth AND IS BAPTIZED shall
be saved"
But there was one who object
ed to this view Of what the Lord
teaches in Mark 1916, by saying,
"He did not say, He that belieV-
eth not and is not baptized shall
be damned" Now, / shall show
the readers that it was not neces-
sary for Jesus to say that, even
though he taught that water
baptism is an essential to saliva
tionl Now, I might say to a
group Of school boys: He that
cometh to my house and moWeth
my lawn shall receive d dollar,
but he that cometh not to my
house shall receive nothing"
Now, of course, in the modern
day, | would not use this kind
Of language, but, in order to
make this sentence as near like
our text as possible we shall use
Bible language. But the point is
that all of those school boys
would understand my meaning
clearly. There would not be a
ONE of the boys come to my
house and say: "Mr. Heinselman,
here / am, I came 70 your house,
now give me the dollar" TheEe
would not be ONE boy who
would say: But Mr.. Heinselman,
you did not say, He that cometh
not to my house and moweth not
my lawn shall receive nothing,
you merely said, He that cometh
not to my house shall receive
nothing Friends, ALL of the
school boys would know what |
meantl They would know that
in order to receive the dollar l
promised they would have to
come to my house AND NOV my
lawn. Just coming to my house
would not be enough, they must
NOV my lawn in addition to
coming to my house!
In like manner, any school boy
(if some Of these preachers
would let them alone) can clear
ly understand the words of
Christ in Mark 1916. He means
that there are TWO conditions
of salvation mentioned in this
verse. Belief and Baptism. But
there is only ONE condition of
damnation and that is unbelief!
The Bible says, "but he that be-
lieVcth not is condemned
already" Jno. 3:l8. It is not
necessary for man to both
refuse to believe and refuse to
be baptized to be damned. just
let him refuse to believe and he
will be condemned already. This
is the clear teaching of Jesus
Christ.
The fact that baptism is an
essential to salvation just does
not fit the creeds that some men
teach. That is why they are so
anxious to have YOU believe
that Christ was not teaching this
in Mark 1915. My dear readers
the Bible says, I'm vain they do
worship me teaching the doc
trines and commandments of
men," Matt. 1873. The doctrine
that one is saved at faith before
ana without water baptism is a
doctrine of men and not of God!
We invite. our readers to look
for and read these scriptures in
your own New Testament. Acts
2:38, Repent and baptism for
remission of sins. Acts 22:16, Be
baptized and wash away thy
sins. l Pet. 3:21, Baptism doth
also now save us. Look these
passages UP, and read them, and
compare them with the doctrine
YOUR PREACHER teaches, then
see if YOU do not need to make
a change!
We are willing to discuss these
things with any honest soul in
public or private. You may con-
tact US through any member OF
the Crum Ridge Church o1
Christ or the Main Street Church
of Christ in Caldwell. You are
invited to attend services al
these places.
Bill Heinselman
pa. Adv.