Tuesday, August 23, 2011

The Priests get Baptized?

Moroni 6:1-3
1 And now I speak concerning baptism. Behold, elders, priests, and teachers were baptized; and they were not baptized save they brought forth afruit meet that they were bworthy of it.
2 Neither did they receive any unto baptism save they came forth with a abroken bheart and a contrite spirit, and witnessed unto the church that they truly repented of all their sins.
3 And none were received unto baptism save they atook upon them the name of Christ, having a determination to serve him to the end.

The other day the priests were ordained, now they get around to being baptized. Something seems a bit backwards there.
But the bad doctrine just keeps going on and on like a Baptist sermon. Baptism is nothing but work here. There is no gospel in it. This baptism is nothing but a pledge of the baptized to continue to be a good boy. Yet Romans says that in it we are buried into Christ and rsie to new Life. Acts 2:38 and 39 say that we are given the Hoy Spirt in it.
Here it is just the beginning of repentance. But this betrays a superficial understanding of repentance born out by a superficial understanding of the law. One doesn’t truly repent, until one has been baptized. The Baptism is the repentance, and that repentance is ongoing through out the Christian life. This because the first sin that a person must be worried about is the sin of unbelief. Every sin we commit is infact a result of unbelief. So by believing we repent of unbelief. “I believe, help my unbelief!” This is the Christian life. But we cannot believe and not be baptized. Baptism and belief are intimately linked. The one goes with the other. Just look at how they go together in Acts 16. Acts 16:31-34 (ESV)
And they said, "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." [32] And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. [33] And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their wounds; and he was baptized at once, he and all his family. [34] Then he brought them up into his house and set food before them. And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.
Not until the man had been baptized does he rejoice for having believed. Ask yourself, what belief would you have if you were not baptized, if you refused to be baptized and thereby receive the gifts that God gives you in baptism. Would not your refusal to be baptized be a sign of an unrepentant unbelieving heart? So being baptized is believing, and believing is repenting, you can’t do one without the other two.

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