And he said unto them, 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 16:15-16).
BAPTIST ARGUMENT:
“Christ said ‘He that believeth and
is baptized’ …. in that order!”
(I)
Rev. Ronald
Hanko
(a)
[Source:
Sprinkling, Infant Baptism and the Bible]
The
Baptist argument [on this text] is based on the assumption that the order
in these passages is in fact the order in which these things must take place. That assumption is not only unproved by the
Baptists, but is false.
Mark 16:16 (Faith and Baptism)
This
verse reads:
He that believeth and is baptized shall be
saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned.
The
fact that faith is mentioned before baptism is taken as proof that it must precede
baptism. Thus, too, Baptists speak of
the rite as “believer’s baptism.”
The
first thing that must be said here is that the Baptist position is an impossibility. They can, at best, only baptize those who
make a profession of faith. Because no
one can know the heart, there is no way of ensuring that all baptized persons
are indeed believers.
The
usual Baptist response is that they baptize “far fewer unbelievers than do
those who practice family baptism.”
This, of course, is beyond proof, but the fact of the matter is that if
a Baptist church baptizes even one hypocrite or unbeliever, they are no
longer practicing “believer’s baptism.”
That,
however, is not the main point. The
words of Jesus in Mark 16:16 also need to be explained, especially as they are
the command and warrant for the New Testament church to be baptizing. There are several things that need to be said
about this passage.
First,
the passage does not say (though every Baptist reads it that way), “He that
believeth and then is baptized shall be saved.” It only says that both faith and baptism are
necessary for salvation.
Second,
just because faith and baptism are listed in that order does not mean
that they must necessarily happen in that order. II Peter 1:10 lists “calling” before “election,”
but calling does not come before election, as every Calvinist knows:
Wherefore the rather, brethren, give
diligence to make your calling and election sure: for if ye do these things, ye
shall never fall.
The
order in Mark 16:16 is simply the order of importance. Faith is listed before baptism because it is
far more important. We see this in the
last part of the verse where baptism is not even mentioned again, though faith
is.
Indeed,
if the order in Mark 16:16 is the temporal order, i.e., the order in which
things must actually take place, then the order is faith, baptism, salvation:
“He that believeth, and is baptized shall be saved”! No Baptists, certainly not those who are
Calvinists, want that order! Yet if the
order of the passage is the temporal order, then the verse not only puts faith
before baptism, but baptism before salvation, and teaches the error of
baptismal regeneration. The Baptist,
however, wants arbitrarily to change the rules for interpreting the passage in
the middle of the verse. He wants the
relation between faith and baptism to be temporal, but not that between baptism
and salvation!
Not
only that, but there are passages in the New Testament that suggest that at
least in some cases faith did not precede baptism. Acts 19:4 speaks of John’s baptism and says
that he told the people when he baptized them, “that they should believe on him
who should come after him.” He did not
baptize them because they had already believed on Christ, but with a
view to their believing in Christ.
Indeed Mark 1:4 suggests that John baptized before he even preached!
Perhaps
a Baptist would argue that John’s baptism was prior to Christ’s ministry, and
therefore, faith in Christ could not and did not precede baptism then, but only
repentance. But this leaves a Baptist
with only several options:
1.
To admit that faith did not always precede John’s baptism, that it was really
the same as the Old Testament baptisms and, therefore, of no significance with
respect to the New Testament sacrament.
In that case, John’s baptism cannot be used by a Baptist to prove anything
at all about the New Testament sacrament—not immersion, not the necessity of
faith and/or repentance prior to baptism.
This, however, would ignore the fact that half of the references to
baptism in the New Testament are to John’s baptism [Matt. 3:1, 6-7, 13-14, 16;
21:25; Mark 1:4-5, 8-9; 11:30; Luke 3:3, 7, 12, 16, 21; 7:29; 20:4; John
1:25-26, 28, 31, 33; 3:23; 10:40; Acts 1:22; 10:37; 13:24; 18:25; 19:3-4]. The only other option, though, is:
2.
To continue to use John’s baptism as an example of New Testament baptism and to
concede that faith at least need not necessarily precede water baptism. This, however, would be conceding that the foundation
for Baptist teaching is in error, i.e., that baptism is not necessarily believer’s
baptism.
(b)
[Source:
Sprinkling, Infant Baptism and the Bible]
A
Baptist will argue, however, that a person must give evidence of having
salvation before he can receive the sign.
He will insist, therefore, that faith must precede water baptism. So, he says, water baptism ought to be
administered only to believers. The
bedrock of Baptist teaching, then, is the idea that faith must precede water
baptism.
This
teaching is based on a misinterpretation of Mark 16:15-16. These verses, however, do not say that faith
must precede baptism. Nor does
any other Scripture passage. The
argument that this is the order of the passage is really no argument at
all. It is true that faith is mentioned
before baptism in Mark 16:15-16. That
order is important. But that does not
prove that the order is a temporal
order, i.e., first faith, then baptism.
The passage does not
say, “He that believeth and then is
baptized shall be saved.” Baptists
assume that it says “then,” but it does not.
The order in Mark 16:15-16, is simply that of priority, i.e.,
that faith is more important than
baptism—something we all believe. This
we have already seen.
Following
the Baptist line of reasoning, one might just as easily prove from II
Corinthians 1:6 that consolation comes before salvation, or from I Corinthians
1:30 that wisdom, righteous and sanctification come before redemption, because
they are mentioned first. In fact,
following the Baptist line of reasoning, the order in Mark 16:15-16, is, first
of all, faith, then water baptism, then
salvation; an order that no Baptist could accept. All Mark 16:15-16, proves, then, is that
faith, baptism and salvation are very closely related to each other.
---------------------------------------------
(II)
More to come! (DV)
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