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Baptism – Necessary or Not?

Baptism – Necessary or Not?

Could you please write a blog on the topic of baptism. My understanding is that when you come to know God and trust him completely, there comes a point when you decide to surrender your life to the will of Jesus and follow him 100%.

Baptism symbolizes repentance of sinful/selfish living and rebirth in Jesus Christ. It is a public display of one’s change of heart and desire/devotion to live like Christ and develop a Christ like character. Is this correct? Could you also address whether baptism is necessary for salvation and at what stage a of a person’s Christian journey should they consider baptism? Your insight into the meaning and significance of baptism would be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance. God bless.  


Baptism has a literal and a symbolic significance. The literal significance is when our minds, hearts, and characters are immersed into Jesus Christ and we surrender self, cease to live for self, “die” to self and begin living a new life of love for God and others. This is symbolically demonstrated by the ceremony called baptism. The ceremony called baptism has no power to cleanse, save, heal or renew the believer. It is a mere public enactment of being buried under water, symbolizing death to the old life of selfishness, washed anew by the Spirit, and rising again to live a new life in Christ.

The literal baptism is necessary (having the mind/heart immersed in Christ by the Holy Spirit) for salvation. It is this immersion into Christ, via the presence of the Holy Spirit, which regenerates the heart, writes the law on the heart and mind (Heb 8:10), circumcises the heart, thus recreating us into Christ-likeness. To receive Christ into the heart is the only means of salvation. This immersion of the mind/heart/character into Christ requires the individual to freely choose to surrender self in trust to God.

The symbolic baptism of immersion in water is not a requirement for salvation. The thief on the cross was not baptized symbolically, but his heart was immersed into Christ and renewed by the Spirit.

The ceremony of baptism can be done for many reasons, but only one is spiritually meaningful. A person can be ceremonially baptized (in water) because their parents expect them to do it, their friends are doing it, their fiancé won’t marry them unless they do etc. Such baptism is meaningless because the motives for the ceremony are all selfish, thus the public enactment of dying to self and living for God and others is a lie.

The meaningful fulfillment of the ritual of public baptism is entered into whenever a person has experienced the immersion of heart and mind into Christ, died to selfishness and now lives a new life of love for God and others, and wants to publicly testify to this new life.

Below is my paraphrase of 1Cor 1:10-17 regarding baptism:

1 CO 1:10 Brothers and sisters, as an ambassador of our Lord Jesus Christ, I call on you to come into agreement with each other on the truth about God as revealed by Jesus and be fully united in mind, heart, attitude and motive around the beautiful character and methods of God. 11 My brothers and sisters, I have heard, from some of Chloe’s household, that disagreements and arguments have developed among you. 12 Evidently, some have lost the main focus of the truth about God as revealed by Jesus, for one of you says, “I am Paul’s disciple”; another, “I adhere to the teachings of Apollos”; another, “I belong to the order of Peter”; and still others, “I follow Christ.”

1CO 1:13 What are you thinking? Is there more than one Christ? Do you think Christ has multiple personalities or is two-faced? Were your minds immersed into the truth about Paul or into the truth about God as revealed by Christ? 14 I am thankful, that after your minds were immersed into the truth about God, as revealed by Christ, I didn’t assist any of you in the symbolic water immersion, except for Crispus and Gaius, 15 so none of you would get confused and think you were immersing your hearts in loyalty to me. 16 (Oh yes, I also assisted the household of Stephanas in the symbolic water immersion; but other than that I don’t remember assisting anyone else with this ritual). 17 For God did not send me to perform rituals, but to present the good news about him, his methods, principles and character as revealed by Christ – not some human theory of appeasement, lest the death of Christ be seen as some payment to an offended god and therefore lose its power to free the mind from fear and mistrust of God.

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I can get rid of most of my books, because “The Remedy” brings the Love of God out so clearly, even I can’t miss it. Now, I want to sit and read my Bible. Wow, what a revelation! It is just simply Awesome! I am so grateful to Jehovah Almighty for hearing my prayer for more understanding! I am so encouraged!

Jackie S.

 

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I’m a native Ghanan, but am currently in France for my master’s degree. Prior to this, during my final years at undergraduate studies in Ghana, I was introduced to your ministry and I’ve been immensely blessed by what you share, especially about the Design and Imposed Laws. God richly bless you for that.

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God bless you so much and your ministry.

Michael A., Ghana

 

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M.T., USA

 

Testimony 54

I had a lot of pressure, as a pastor’s kid, to conform and be “good.” I was good at being “good.” I thought my life was going along well until it all started falling apart and I could not figure out why! In my search for “why is this happening to me, God?” I came across your book, “Could it be this Simple,” and God started revealing to me the many distortions I held about His character, His principles, and how He has designed His universe to operate. I remember thinking, “Wow, I have had this all backwards.” I was happy and angry all at the same time. Happy to have the light of truth break through the darkness, revealing a wonderful, beautiful way of understanding God and His plan for His children, and angry, because I felt deceived and cheated by the church, my family, and myself!

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Karen S., Portal, AZ, USA

 

Testimony 69

After reading your book, ‘Could It Be This Simple,’ someone was explaining Christianity in a way that made sense to me for the first time in my life. One morning, I simply prayed “I’m sorry and I love you.” As soon as I silently said that, I could literally feel God’s presence and light flood down on me from above and fill me up with love and joy. I sat there crying my eyes out, because I was so overpowered with this feeling of love and joy. It was just so incredible. I hope that more people can read this book and get a blessing from it. It’s really amazing.

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Testimony 74

Thank you so much for opening my eyes. I’ve been through a lot of ministries that just didn’t show the love of God that I felt he was. You have helped me to begin the process of true healing. I thought I was “too far gone,” now I know there’s hope in Jesus, because he loves us beyond what we can comprehend. Thank you again for all you do. I truly appreciate it and pray more people find you (physical at your studio and through this website).

Dalio M.

Testimony 57

You have helped make sense of thirty two years of confusion. The material you freely provide reorganized so much of my life into such a beautiful pattern that has always been hinted at from within, but misguided with my training and what I was experiencing externally. My filipno parents, who were converted from Catholicism to SDA, were sincere and did their best to raise me the right way and I have deep respect for them. However, being immigrants and not understanding the language made for a difficult transition as I was growing up, which also applied to my spiritual growth as I learned the patterns of religion. I have been listening to as many bible study classes and reading blog posts as my time in a work truck will allow, searching for the practical applications of where spirituality and reality meet, and I thank you for helping me find that. You have helped me reach a point in which I can truly say that I love God, that I believe He loves me, and, like David, I delight in His law. God bless.

Emmanuel V., Calgary, AB Canada

Testimony 65

I have been tuning into your weekly study classes for a while now and wanted express my appreciation for the teachings that ha been a huge blessing in opening up the true message of the word. Viewing scripture under an imposed law theory always, without fail, raised more questions, concerns, and conflicting scripture interpretations that were discouraging at the very least. Looking at scripture through the design law lens has brought more truth to light for me personally and an understanding of our Heavenly Father that places Him “above all others,” where I am now more than thrilled to witness and serve Him.  I “stumbled” across this ministry a year or so ago and would only watch a few minutes at a time. But the more I listened and the longer I paid attention, the more my spiritual eyes were opened to the ever present truths of scripture. The comprehension of the great controversy and it’s origin by the lies perpetrated and perpetuated throughout the Bible on the attack of God’s character and government is truly priceless. Keep up the Good Work! Your servanthood is desperately needed in such a time as this!

Jeff D., Reading, MA, USA

 

Testimony 52

Your unique way in spreading the truth is what we all need today. Most of us don’t recognize the contamination coming from all the lies and selfishness in the world. Because of our fear of death, we forgot how to live. Lies left and right. I was losing hope and faith, because of so many ideas that are always contradicting each other – so many questions answered by other, more complicated, questions – until I found your channel on YouTube.

You did not just give me answers, you also taught me how to answer new questions that arise in my mind. Now I see things differently. I see God’s mercy, grace, and Love everywhere, in spite of all the chaos that we all have done as humans. I don’t fear death anymore. Accepting the Truth and Love about God is truly a genuine Freedom from all the confusions, sufferings, selfishness, pain, and death.

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Wheinny P., University Place, WA, USA

 

Testimony 15

I have been sharing Come And Reason Ministries Bible study lessons with several folk. You have such a beautiful view of the plan of salvation. If we had this message preached when I was young, my generation would still all be in church.

H. R., New Zealand

Testimony 32

The message [of Come And Reason Ministries is] for all Christians (and those who may become Christians) and not just Adventists or any other group. It is difficult to imagine why any [anyone] with intellectual and spiritual honesty could find fault with the way you explained the healing substitution concepts and the truth about God’s character, though I know some will reject and criticize. On behalf of those in our group near Tacoma, WA, thank you and your staff for all of the hard work and for sharing the Gospel in this manner. God’s message of healing love will be carried to the whole world and then Jesus will come – He promised it.

Terry U., Tacoma, WA, USA