Shareware Overload Trio 2/Shareware Overload Trio Volume 2 (Chestnut CD-ROM).ISO/dir32/alphon_5.zip/8301/BAPTISED

Text File | 1993-10-02 | 13KB | 240 lines

                BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD.

        'Now if Christ be preached that he rose from the dead, how say
       some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead?  But if
       there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: And
       if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith
       is also vain.' (1 Corinthians 15:12-14)

       Despite its simplicity this portion of Scripture has been
       mis-interpreted by so many that what Paul is dealing with here has
       been missed.

          Paul is admonishing the Corinthians again.

        Not this time for immorality, or 'contentions,' or lack of
       compassion, not even for false doctrine but because, in their zeal
       to win others to The Way, they had been receiving into fellowship
       men and women who did not believe, or had difficulty in believing,
       the resurrection.

        If this were so, even though they had come to recognise Jesus
       as the One who had died in their place to pay the price of sin, if
       they were being baptised into the death of a Christ whom they
       believed dead, their faith was in vain for they were only being
       baptised into someone who was dead and they could have no hope of
       eternal life.

                Paul says so.

        'Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if
       the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?'
       (1 Corinthians 15:29)

        Those words become even more significant when we read again
    what Paul wrote a few verses earlier.

        'For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ raised: And if
       Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.'
       (1 Corinthians 15:16-17)

         And that these words are written for the correction of
    something wrong in the Church is as obvious as are the others he
    wrote earlier in his letter about the various `contentions` in the
    Church which had been reported to him, 1 Corinthians 1:11, and
    which he dealt with, not only in detail but to their profit as is
    obvious from his further letter to them in 2 Corinthians 7:8-10.

        'For though I made you sorry with a letter, I do not repent,
       though I did repent: for I perceive that the same epistle hath made
       you sorry, though it were but for a season. Now I rejoice, not that
       ye were made sorry, but that ye sorrowed to repentance: for ye were
       made sorry after a godly manner, that ye might receive damage by us
       in nothing. For godly sorrow worketh repentance to salvation not to
       be repented of: but the sorrow of the world worketh death.'

        This question of the resurrection had been the cause of
       division almost all of Paul's life not only, when as a Pharisee, he
       had been in conflict with the Sadducees who believed neither in the
       resurrection nor in angels, but in his many missionary journeys
       because, even though he had found many who believed, he had also
       found many Jews and Gentiles to whom the Cross and the resurrection
       was foolishness.

        'For the preaching of the cross is to them that perish
       foolishness; but unto us which are saved it is the power of God.
       For it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them
       that believe.  For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek
       after wisdom:  But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a
       stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness;'
       (1 Corinthians 1:18,20-23)

        'Then certain philosophers of the Epicureans, and of the
       Stoicks, encountered him. And some said, What will this babbler
       say? other some, He seemeth to be a setter forth of strange gods:
       because he preached unto them Jesus, and the resurrection.'
       (Acts 17:18)

        'And when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some
       mocked: and others said, We will hear thee again of this matter.'
       (Acts 17:32)

        'Howbeit certain men clave unto him, and believed: among the
       which was Dionysius the Areopagite, and a woman named Damaris, and
       others with them.' (Acts 17:34)

        It is plain the Corinthian Church had been so zealous to win
       souls to Christ that they had accepted all who believed Jesus to be
       the Son of God and their Saviour without demanding a belief in the
       resurrection however, in doing so, they had failed to bring their
       new found converts to fully understand the most wonderful truth of
       all now they were a 'new creation.'

        The new life available now in the walk with Christ, and the
       promise of eternal life to be shared with Him in His resurrection.

        For, without a belief in the resurrection, they had only been
       baptized into a 'dead' Christ and, if so, were 'dead with Him.'

              Paul had made it so clear.

        'Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus
       Christ were baptized into his death?  Therefore we are buried with
       him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from
       the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in
       newness of life.  For if we have been planted together in the
       likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his
       resurrection:  Knowing this, that our old man is crucified with
       him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth we
       should not serve sin.  For he that is dead is freed from sin.  Now
       if we be dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with
       him:' (Romans 6:3-8)

             They had forgotten the key!

        'For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by
       the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be
       SAVED BY HIS LIFE.' (Romans 5:10)

        One can see the foolishness of this when Scripture tells us
       that, 'No man can by any means redeem his brother nor give to God a
       ransom for him.' Psalm 49:7, and that, 'It is appointed unto men
       once to die, but after this the judgment: So Christ was once
       offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him
       shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.'
       (Hebrews 9:27-28).

        Nevertheless, many expositors of the faith have believed it
       was a practice of the times, although most qualify it by suggesting
       it was being, `Perhaps baptized in the hope of blessings to be
       received after they were numbered with the dead,` or, `baptized in
       the room of, or place of, the dead,' or 'of them that are just
       fallen in the cause of Christ; like soldiers who advance into the
       place of their companions, that fell just before their face.`

        Another thought it may have referred to a custom in Paul's
       time by 'believers who were being baptised on behalf of those who
       for one reason or another, had died without baptism', but while
       this expositor did not accept that explanation himself, or believe
       Paul did either, he had no explanation for the phrase.

        Certainly we are 'baptised into His death', but as He arose,
       so are we to rise with Him.

            Therein lies our hope of eternal life!

        The meaning of this chapter in 1 Corinthians 15 is found in
       the death of Christ and why!

        The victory of His resurrection and now ours!

        The contrast that lies between the act of being baptised into
       someone who died and has remained dead, and the act of being
       baptised into someone who has died in our stead, who has risen from
       the dead, and ever lives!

        If we are being baptised into the baptism of someone who died
       and remained dead we are being baptised into a place without hope!

        But we are not baptised into hopelessness. We are baptised
       into the death of One who died on our behalf, who is risen and who
       has raised us with Him into heavenly places.

        Paul has this. 'Buried with Him in baptism, risen with Him to
       eternal life' Romans 6:3-10, and Peter writes. 'We have been given
       a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to
       an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not
       away reserved in heaven for you.' 1 Peter 1:3-5.

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        Misunderstanding the truth of this passage in 1 Corinthians
       15:29 has lead to all kinds of confusion and error and, because
       they have not seen the simple truth of this portion of Scripture,
       'Baptism for the dead,' has become a doctrine in the Mormon Church
       and the Church of Latter Day Saints who, believing Paul was
       introducing a means of grace here, practice baptism by proxy for
       loved ones who have died before they were baptized, even though
       they might have been unbelievers!

        Believing as they do that baptism is necessary for salvation,
       and that there are countless thousands of others who for one reason
       or another have never been baptised they have, as one of their
       doctrines, the ceremony of being 'baptised for the dead.'

        They believe by their obedience to this ordinance they are
       giving all those who have never heard of Christ, access to Him in
       the 'heavenlies', and the opportunity to decide for themselves
       whether they will accept, or reject, Christ as Saviour.

        The 'Articles of Faith' by James E. Talmage published by The
       Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Salt Lake City, has
       this on page 149, lines 14-16...'As baptism is essential to the
       salvation of the living, it is likewise indispensable to the dead.
       This was known by the saints of old, and hence the doctrine of
       baptism for the dead was taught among them.'

        And beginning from the last line on that same page and
       continuing to line 3 on page 150 he has the following. 'herein is
       shown the necessity of vicarious work. The living ministering on
       behalf of the dead; the children doing for their progenitors what
       is beyond the power of the latter to do for themselves.'

        On page 151 beginning at line 25 he quotes Joseph Smith as
       teaching, 'But for the establishment of a connecting link between
       the departed fathers and the living children the earth would be
       smitten with a curse. He goes on to write, 'The divine plan
       provides that neither the children nor the fathers can alone be
       made perfect; and the necessary union is effected through baptism
       and associated ordinances administered by the living on behalf of
       the dead.'

        This it is suggested will give them the opportunity they never
       had on earth of examining the claims of Christ which, if they
       accept, will grant them also with those who have accepted on earth,
       all the blessings associated with that acceptance, and if rejected,
       the penalties coming upon that decision until duly chastened, and
       penitent, they will accept the work done for them on earth.'

        On page 148, writing of those who have never heard of the
       Gospel, or those who have spurned the truth he has this, from line
       13 to line 20. 'The gifts of God are not confined to this sphere of
       action, but will be bestowed in justice throughout eternity. Upon
       all who reject the Word of God in this life will fall the penalties
       provided; but after the debt has been paid the prison doors shall
       be opened, and the spirits once confined in suffering, then
       chastened and clean, shall come forth to partake of the glory
       provided for their class.'

        Perhaps the words of Paul to the Galatians would make a
       fitting conclusion at this point.

        'O foolish Galatians, who hath bewitched you, that ye should
       not obey the truth, before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been
       evidently set forth, crucified among you?  This only would I learn
       of you, Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by the
       hearing of faith?   Are ye so foolish?  Having begun in the Spirit,
       are ye now made perfect by the flesh?'  (Galatians 3:1-3)

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