Part 9

As a principle of eternal truth it is a necessity that not only must the administrator have faith, but the one who is the recipient of the blessings also must exercise it so far as he is capable. Therefore, as a rule, when Jesus healed the sick and opened the eyes of the blind, He said to the individual: "Go thy way, _thy_ faith hath made thee whole." As a further testimony of this He told unbelievers when they sought a sign: "An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign, and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas; for as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly, so shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth." (Matt. xii:39, 40.) Yet be it remembered that this sign of Christ's three days' rest in the tomb was not given to convince skeptics, for it was an event ordained of God before the foundation of the world, in the plan of human redemption, and would have occurred if all the world had received Him gladly. But they did not receive Him even when He was resurrected, for the same class who sought a sign circulated the fabrication that the body of Christ was not risen from the dead, but that His disciples had come in the night and stolen Him away.

There are sign-seekers today, even among those who profess Christ, and may we not say the same of them as Jesus said of the ancient sign-seekers, from the fact that what was true then is true now, and what is true of a generation is true of the individuals which compose it. Further, the Savior said to His apostles when they failed to cast out the devils and sought Him to know the reason: "Because of your unbelief, for verily I say unto you, If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, 'Remove hence to yonder place,' and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you." (Matt. xvii:20.)

To these quotations might be added many others, but this will suffice to show the effects of faith, that it is a principle of power. We ask, has God changed? Is not faith, being a principle emanating from Deity, as unchangeable as God Himself? Who, professing to believe in Christ, will say, if we believe and are baptized by rightful authority in this age, that Jesus will fail in His part of the contract to bestow the promised blessings?

In view of all that is written in the Bible concerning this true faith and the effects which flow therefrom, and the reverse of that pure faith of the Bible which characterizes the "Christianity" of today, is it wonderful that the Savior exclaimed: "When the Son of Man cometh, shall He find faith on earth?" (Luke xviii:8.)

REPENTANCE.

Repentance follows faith as a natural sequence; for when the human mind has sufficient faith in God, based upon the perfection of His attributes, to desire His guidance and a final return to His presence, the thought is foremost that no unclean thing can enter his presence. Repentance from all sin, not merely an expression of sorrow but a discontinuance of sinful practices, amounting to a reformation of life, therefore suggests itself as a matter of course. This philosophical view of the subject is in perfect accord with Holy Writ. Hence it was, upon the day of Pentecost, when the sin-convicted multitude cried out: "Men and brethren, What shall we do?" that Peter commanded them to repent as the first step following the manifestation of their faith in Christ and His atonement. (Acts ii:37.)

That repentance is an indispensable condition of salvation has been taught in all ages of the world by men of God, the only exception being that which applies to all other requirements of the Gospel. That exception is in the case of persons incapable of knowing good from evil, such as children who cannot believe, or disbelieve, and are exempt from the law until they arrive at the years of accountability. Hence the saying of the Savior: "Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. xix:14.)

Ezekiel said to ancient Israel, in his 18th chapter and 30th verse, "Repent and turn yourselves from all your transgressions, so iniquity shall not be your ruin." Israel did not repent as a nation, and their sad history proves that iniquity caused their ruin. The olive branch of peace was offered them without money and without price. They rejected the means of escape, and in consequence they have verified the words of Moses, their great lawgiver: "And I will scatter you among the heathen and will draw out a sword after you; and your land shall be desolate and your cities waste." (Lev. xxvi:33.)

It was supposed by those in Palestine that the Galileans, whose blood Pilate had mingled with the sacrifices, were greater sinners than others because such agonies had come upon them. "And Jesus answering said unto them, 'Suppose ye that these Galileans were sinners above all the Galileans, because they suffererd such things? I tell you nay, but except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish.'" The foregoing contains the divine lesson that suffering is not a substitute for repentance: that while He did not justify the agonies brought upon them by persecution, He did not intimate that the suffering would be acceptable instead of repentance, or that these sufferings were any evidence of the sins of the sufferers as to the height or depth of their transgressions. The weight of responsibility is measured either by the light men possess or the light which opportunities afford them to possess. As Paul said to the Athenians (Acts xvii:30.), "And the times of this ignorance God winked at, but now commandeth all men everywhere to repent"; and again the Savior enunciated this doctrine: "And this is the condemnation that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil." (St. John iii:19.)

No matter how strict the individual may be in living a life of moral rectitude, it is very plainly taught in the Scriptures that rejecting further light from God constitutes a sin. We cite the case of the young man told of in Matthew, chapter 19, who came to the Savior for instructions, but who, when he was commanded by the Redeemer to sell all that he had, give to the poor, and follow Him, went away sorrowful, rejecting the injunction of the Savior, and yet he had kept the commandments from his youth up, and probably was as righteous as any modern Christians, who, if commanded by the Savior to give their possessions to the poor, would go away sorrowful. There were "devout" people assembled on the day of Pentecost, and yet Peter made no exception when he commanded the multitude to repent. If they had done the best they could previously with the light they had, greater light had come to them and they must receive it or be condemned.

This truth applies to every gospel dispensation, not excepting the "dispensation of the fullness of times," the greatest of all. God promised to send a holy angel and make a restitution of all things as predicted by the ancient prophets, preceding the second advent of the Messiah. The light has come. A new dispensation has been ushered in. The Everlasting Gospel has been restored with its ancient gifts and blessings, and "God commandeth all men everywhere to repent," whether they be so-called Christians or infidels. Repentance is a principle and not merely an expression of penitent grief. It involves, as before stated, a reformation of life. In II Cor, vii:9, 10, Paul says: "Now I rejoice, not that ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance. * * * For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to be repented of, but the sorrow of the world worketh death." The sorrow of the world may be illustrated by the conduct of the inebriate, who, when intoxicated, commits acts of violence which mantle his brow with shame and fill him with remorse in his sober moments. He expresses sorrow, perhaps weeps in his agony, but again gives away to the tempter and repeats his acts of dishonor instead of "fleeing temptation." This kind of sorrow does not work repentance to salvation. We find religious people sorrowing and sometimes confessing their sins, only to repeat sin. This is the sorrow of the world and needs to be repented of because it savors so much of hypocrisy, and consequently "worketh death." On the contrary, true repentance consists, not in the outward expression of grief, but in forsaking sin. "Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts: and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." (Isa. lv:7.) Repentance is required not only of the evil deed, but of the unrighteous thought. Every wicked deed is first conceived in the mind, hence the need of casting away the evil thought before it germinates into actual crime, which leads to prison, the gallows and to spiritual death. Of the ruin caused by the talented, but corrupt Aaron Burr it was truly said: "His brain conceived it, his hand brought it into action."

Let us now examine a passage of Scripture which is frequently quoted to substantiate the erroneous doctrine that God is pleased to save men in their sins, or that death-bed repentance is all-sufficient. The passage is found in Luke xxiii:42, 43, and reads thus: "And he (the penitent malefactor) said unto Jesus, 'Lord, remember me when Thou comest into Thy kingdom.' And Jesus said unto him, 'Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.'" From this statement thousands in the Christian world have taken it for granted that the thief on the cross received full and complete salvation. With this unwarranted perversion of a sacred passage, the minister has taught the murderer in the felon's cell to confess Christ and all would be well with him; and as the hangman drew the bolt and let the culprit swing into eternity, the minister has stood close by and said, "The Lord Jesus receive thy soul." On the other hand, the poor victim of the assassin has been cut off without time to confess Christ, and the same doctrine which wafts the murderer to the courts of glory consigns the victim to the flames of hell. Is it possible that Christ ever taught such a heinous doctrine? A doctrine so inconsistent, so revolting to reason, so repugnant to justice! We answer emphatically "No," nor did He utter a syllable from which such an inference can be drawn or establish the idea that the malefactor went to heaven. The question is, then, where did he go? If not to heaven, then the paradise named and heaven are two different places. Let the Scriptures answer for themselves. Three days after the crucifixion the Savior came forth a resurrected being, and as Mary met Him at the tomb, He said to her, "Touch me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father." Thus we have from His own lips, in which there was never guile, that He had not ascended to the Father; and if He had not, neither had the thief. If no further light than this could be found in the sacred volume, this would be sufficient to show that the malefactor did not go to heaven, for where Jesus went the thief went, for that was the promise. Where, then, did the Lord go? Turn to I Peter iii 18-21, and the question is answered: "For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that He might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but quickened by the Spirit: By which also He went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometimes were disobedient when once the long suffering of God waited in the days of Noah."

This makes it plain that the paradise referred to was the prison house, to which place Jesus went and opened up a dispensation of the Gospel to the dead. The next chapter, 6th verse, says: "For for this cause was the Gospel preached also to them that are dead, that they might be judged according to men in the flesh, but live according to God in the spirit." The thief therefore went to a place of confinement to remain until the justice of God should be satisfied and mercy step in and claim her own. The difference between the penitent malefactor, who appears to have repented before death, and the antediluvians was that the former immediately went to a place where Christ would present to him the plan of life, that day, while the latter had waited hundreds of years for that privilege. This shows that repentance brings its blessings even upon the deathbed; but to say that, after a life of sin, the malefactor went straight to the abode of the Father and remained there in glory, is in conflict with the teachings of Christ and Peter. The statements of Peter relative to the mission of Christ to the spirits in prison throws light upon the saying of the Savior in St. John v:25, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God, and they that hear shall live."

Thus we see the privileges of the penitent malefactor. He went to the prison house and heard the Gospel, but how long he remained there before receiving all the saving benefits of the Gospel, we are not told. One thing is certain-he did not come back with the Messiah, nor have we ever heard of him sitting down with Christ on the right hand of the Father. The Scripture being true which says, "The murderer hath not eternal life abiding in him," it is safe to say that the prayers of all the ministers on earth cannot carry the souls of the assassin to the presence and glory of God. As there are different degrees of glory, so are there various grades of crimes to which are attached the different degrees of punishment, all of which clearly maintain the justice and mercy of God.

In Galatians v:19-21, we read as follows: "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like; of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God."

In conclusion, as a true definition of repentance, let us quote the words of Paul to the Ephesians, iv: 25, 30: "Wherefore putting away lying speak every man truth with his neighbor. * * * Be ye angry and sin not: let not the sun go down upon your wrath. Neither give place to the devil. Let him that stole, steal no more. * * * Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth. * * *" This is the only repentance taught in Holy Writ, and simply means to forsake all sin and accomplish a reformation of life.

BAPTISM.

We come now to considering the necessity of the ordinance of baptism. When men have repented of their sins it is natural for them to desire a forgiveness of those sins. How shall this boon be obtained? That repentance alone does not blot out the sins of the past may be illustrated in part by a comparison between the temporal and the spiritual. A man acquires a debt by purchasing goods on credit, and finding it a ruinous policy, resolves, for the future, to pay as he goes. This changes his course and constitutes in his business life a reformation, but it does not pay the debt already incurred. He must liquidate the obligation, or be forgiven the debt by the creditor. Some may say that this is the difference between the earthly transaction of men and the dealings of God with His children. God forgives, it is true, but every blessing is predicated upon a condition, and the condition is laid down by the Lord; hence it is written in Mark i:4: "John did baptize in the wilderness and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." From this scripture it is evident that baptism is to follow repentance, and that at least one object of baptism is the remission of sins.

Let us now examine some statements of Holy Writ which point out clearly the necessity of this ordinance. "Then cometh Jesus from Gallilee to Jordan unto John to be baptized of him. But John forbade Him, saying, 'I have need to be baptized of Thee, and comest Thou to me? And Jesus, answering: said unto him, 'Suffer it to be so now; for thus it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness.' Then he suffered Him." (Matt. iii:13-15.) Every thoughtful, God-fearing person must be impressed with the feeling that if it was essential for the "Only Begotten of the Father," "who is full of grace and truth," to be baptized, none can be exempt who have arrived at the years of accountability. It appears also from the language used in the quotation that without being baptized he could not fulfill "all righteousness." After teaching His disciples for three years, being crucified and risen from the dead, He gave to them this commission: "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 xvi:15, 16. ) Also in Matthew xxviii:19: "Go ye, therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost"; and in Luke xxiv:45-47: "Then opened He their understanding that they might understand the Scriptures, And said unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day: And that repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His name among all nations, beginning at Jerusalem." In the latter quotation the word baptism is not used, but the same writer says in Luke iii:3, regarding the mission of John: "And he came into all the country about Jordan, preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins," thus enunciating the doctrine that remission of sins is obtained through baptism.

The same writer gives us the following (Luke vii:29, 30): "And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of Him." From this it is manifested that by receiving baptism they honored and obeyed God, and that the rejection of this simple yet divine institution amounted to rejecting the counsel of God, with all the terrible consequences attendant upon such disobedience.

We read in the eighth chapter of Acts that Philip baptized the Samaritans and the Ethiopian. In the same book is related the baptism of Saul, of Lydia, of the Philippian jailor, and of Cornelius. It is not necessary to multiply quotations to show that baptism was taught and practiced all through the apostolic dispensation, as being essential to salvation. As a direct statement of Jesus Himself, to close this part of the subject, we quote His words to Nicodemus, St. John iii:5: "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man, be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." The birth of the water can only be accomplished by baptism, and if an accountable being cannot enter into the kingdom of God without baptism, then that ordinance must be essential to salvation.

Let us next consider the object of this sacred rite. It is evident that inasmuch as a man cannot enter into the kingdom of God without the baptism of water, then his sins must necessarily be remitted through faith, repentance and baptism from the fact that "no unclean person * * * hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."

In Mark i:4 and Luke iii:3 we read that "John did baptize in the wilderness and preached the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins." On the day of Pentecost, when the mighty power of God rested upon the apostles and the Spirit bore witness to the multitude that they were in sin, notwithstanding their devoutness, they cried out, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" To this Peter answered, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins." (Acts ii:38.)

Paul narrates before King Agrippa his conversion, in Acts xxii:16, and says that Ananias, to whom he had been commanded to apply, said: "And now, why tarriest thou? Arise and be baptized and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord." The foregoing quotations will suffice to show that God instituted baptism for the remission of sins, but from other passages already quoted. Mark i:4, also xvi:15-16, and the account of Simon, the sorcerer, in the eighth chapter of Acts, it is very evident that the result--forgiveness--is not secured unless baptism is accompanied on the part of the candidate by faith and a genuine repentance in turning aside from sin. Otherwise there would be the solemn mockery of administering a sacred ordinance to a hypocrite. Hence the apostles said to Simon, "Thy money perish with thee because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money." (Acts viii:20.) Notwithstanding he had been baptized he was still in his sins, because his heart was not pure, and he had not repented. For this reason the apostles said to him, "Repent therefore of this wickedness. * * * For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity." (Acts viii:22-23.) This should be a warning to those modern professors whose religion is in many instances a cloak, hidden beneath which is the depraved heart that garnishes the sepulchres of the dead prophets but is ready to slay the living ones.

We now come to that part of the subject which formerly caused so much dissension among the Christian sects, but which latterly is smoothed over with the assertion that it makes no difference which mode--sprinkling, pouring, or immersion--is used; "either will do," "let the candidate take his choice; it is immaterial." To these unwarranted assertions we reply: First, that if either mode will do, none will do, for still other forms may be added by the whims of men. Christ established but one true mode, "One Lord, one faith, _one baptism,"_ and if one is right, the others are wrong. This is a plain proposition. Again, the dissension and conflict on this point is proof against the inspiration of the sectarian world, if they have any, for the reason that the Spirit of God will not lie nor contradict itself. If, therefore, the Spirit of the Lord teaches me that immersion is right, it will not teach another sprinkling, and yet another pouring. This division, then, is because men are guided by opinion and preference and not by the spirit of revelation from God, which guides into all truth and brings those who possess it to a unity of faith.

Now as concerning the baptism of Jesus, who is the pattern, we have Matt. iii:16, which says, "And Jesus when He was baptized went up straightway out of the water." It is not likely that John would be baptizing in Jordan and that Jesus would have gone down into the water if anything less than immersion would have fulfilled the law. This also agrees with the account of the Ethiopian's baptism by Philip (Acts viii:38): "And they went down both into the water, _both Philip and the eunuch,_ and he baptized him." As making still plainer this using a river of water and going _"down into the water"_ to receive the sacred rite, we quote from St. John iii:23: "And John also was baptizing in Enon, near to Salim, because there was _much water there."_ A statement so plain as the foregoing needs no comment. It speaks for itself. He was baptizing not only in Enon, but at a certain point in the stream "because there was much water there." Such a reason could not have been given if sprinkling or pouring had been a proper mode.