‘Ordinances’
are the orders and instructions necessary to keep right order
and holy
behaviour in the church. Indeed, we have
local government orders and ordinances of “Don’t Park Here” and “Don’t
Speed
Over 60km/hr” for civil law and order, and with appropriate penalties
for
non-compliance.
If
“Christ
sent me (Paul)
not to baptize, but to preach the gospel: … lest the
cross of Christ should be made of none effect.” (1 Cor
1:17), then
why would Paul then order the church to water baptize. He wouldn’t!
Here
are the questions:
1.
“WHY?
Oh
WHY? Oh WHY? Oh WHY? Do churches continue to water baptize people?”
2.
“WHERE?
Oh
WHERE, Oh WHERE, Oh WHERE does it say a Christian shows other
Christians his
faith by being water baptised?”
The
Bible says you will know them by their fruits
not their works. Water baptism is a work! You may as
well hang
rosary beads around your neck!
Paul’s
gospel is the waterless gospel - no water
baptism before salvation and no water baptism after salvation!!
Water
baptism is a weak and beggarly element
(Gal 4:9) belonging to other dispensations, and gives people a false sense of
security that they are saved when they might not be.
The
result of water baptism is that people think
they are saved because the church said they were saved, by putting the
stamp of
water approval on them.
“They
water baptized me, therefore I must be
saved.”
Christ’s
gospel of the kingdom
of heaven has a water
baptism but this dispensation has been surpassed by Paul’s gospel.
Paul’s
gospel of the kingdom of God has no water
baptism, before or after salvation, and Christians are to follow
Paul as he
follows Christ. Do we follow Christ? Absolutely and Paul shows us
how to as
Christians. We can’t follow Christ directly as he was a Sabbath
worshipping, pork abstaining Jew.
It’s
like putting a mixture of water and petrol
into a Rolls Royce. Adding their traditions that bring to nought
the word of
God, churches wonder why they are in a mess, spinning their wheels
and
sinking slowly into the mud.
****
****
Harley Hitchcock
This
website’s front page is:
www.
www.AustralianBibleMinistries.com
