CHAPTER I
Testimony from the Old Testament
No baptism from Adam to Christ. Men were
saved by faith for 4,000 years without baptism. Circumcision did not save. Old Testament
types and salvation. Rome and followers commit sin of Jeroboam.
No Baptism from Adam to Christ a Period of 4,000 Years.
For 4,000 years from Adam to
Christ is a long time, and hundreds of millions of people had been dealt with, both
infants and adults. It seemed rather peculiar that if baptism was an instrument absolutely
necessary for salvation that the Holy Spirit should in the eleventh Chapter of Hebrews
picture for us so many of God's choicest saints,–saved people every one of them, and
some of them seen in glory with Christ,–yet not one of them had been baptized. No
stronger evidence should be necessary for the average man than this to convince him that
baptism is not necessary to salvation. Whoever heard of baptism justifying anyone, or
sanctifying and glorifying anyone? Moses and Elijah were seen with Christ justified,
sanctified and glorified, and that wholly without baptism.
Baptism is necessary as a
testimony and because God has commanded it, but not necessary to salvation. If God Himself
goes on record, then what can there be to argue about? We cannot say that faith in Christ
could save during the Old Testament dispensation and not in the New. This would make faith
in Christ more powerful before He came to die than after He had died. This would declare
that the death and resurrection of Christ had rendered Him impotent.
Scriptural Evidence Lacking for Baptismal Regeneration
Clever, indeed, must be he who
would build even a plausible argument from the meager evidence Scripture offers for
Baptismal Regeneration. Indeed, he greatly puts to shame even the peripatetic wayfarer who
taught the all too trusting housewife how to cook soup on a nail. Like the poor natives in
the famine stricken areas of China, where not a green spear remains for food, are driven
by circumstances to cook soup out of clay-soup they get, and it fills the stomach, but it
also causes a slow agonizing death. Rome in seeking to build up the doctrine of Baptismal
Regeneration was so hard pressed, that she had to take for evidence that which was not
evidence at all. Out of the mess she got not heavenly manna, but just clay soup. Baptismal
Regeneration is just such clay soup.
Was There Saving Power in Circumcision? Does Baptism Take the Place of
Circumcision?
Some say, they did not have
baptism, but they had circumcision. No they did not even have circumcision from Adam to
Abraham, nearly 2,000 years. Circumcision was first given to Abraham, a grown man,
twenty-four years after he had been declared saved by faith by God Himself. Commenting on
circumcision as given to Abraham, the Holy Spirit tells us in the fourth chapter of Romans
that Abraham, "received the sign of circumcision, a Seal of the righteousness of the
faith which he had while he was in uncircumcision." Clearly, positively, definitely,
and without any possibility of misunderstanding, therefore, the Holy Spirit tells us that
Abraham was a saved man before he was circumcised.
What endless confusion
results when saving power is attributed to anything but Christ. This is a carryover from
Romish Sacramentalism and is an indispensable instrument of Sacredotalism. Most of the
Protestant churches threw this overboard several hundred years ago. Why should the
Lutheran church stand so conspicuously joined to the Catholic Church in holding on to this
Romish rag of a doctrine when practically every other Protestant Church rejects it? Since
Luther called the Pope the Antichrist, and many able Lutheran theologians point to the
church of Rome as the great whore of Revelation seventeen, does it not appear that they
are in the wrong crowd on Baptismal Regeneration? I seek but to cleanse the church.
No Salvation in Circumcision
In as much as circumcision is
one of the three fundamental arguments upon which infant baptism and Baptismal
Regeneration are built we would like to present the following for consideration:
That men were saved by grace
in the Old Testament dispensation we believe to be conceded by all. Therefore, if
circumcision was a door to heaven even as baptism, we still have the first 2,000 years to
account for before circumcision was given. How did the infants get in then?
Since circumcision was only
for male children, then what provision was made for the female children?
How shall we find saving
power in circumcision inasmuch as Abraham got it 25 years after he had been declared saved
by faith?
It is contended that like as
circumcision was a sign of the New Covenant in the Old Testament times, so baptism is now
a sign of the New Covenant. In this connection it is well to notice that as such it could
have had no saving power. For Abel, Enoch, Noah and Abraham were all saved by faith, long,
long before circumcision was given. If baptism is now a sign of entrance into the New
Covenant as circumcision was, then it is a most unhappy sign for such as must find saving
power in baptism, for there was no saving power in circumcision. The sprinkled blood was
the characteristic seal of the New Covenant, as we read in Hebrews 9:19-20, "For when
every commandment had been spoken by Moses unto all the people according to the law, he
took the BLOOD of the calves and the goats, with water and scarlet wool and hyssop, and
sprinkled both the book itself and all the people, saying, "This is the blood of the
Covenant which God commanded to youward."
If circumcision had saving
power, then how account for the circumcision of the Ishmaelites and Edomites, and many
other nations of whom Keturah, Abraham's second wife, was the mother?
If circumcision had saving
power then Abraham must first have been saved by faith as the Scriptures say, then have
fallen away and been resaved by circumcision. If this be the case, then why is he known as
the Father of Faith? Should he not rather have been known as the Father of circumcision?
Even as Tertullion says, he thinks that Baptismal Regeneration came from Africa, truly
this idea of putting baptism in the place of circumcision as a door into heaven, must also
have come from there.
"The New Is In the Old Contained. The Old Is by the New Explained."
Whereas we do not build
doctrine on types, yet the knowledge gained in a study of the Old Testament aids one much
in the right approach and understanding of the New. From our observations so far we
approach the New Testament era with a clear and definite knowledge that, adults were saved
without baptism, and that infants were provided for by the Lord without baptism, or
believe that every infant was lost under Old Testament dispensation. This is clearly
unscriptural, for David declared by God to be a saved man, anticipating his death, and
speaking of his little child who had just died, says: "I shall go to him, but he will
not return to me." The conclusion is inescapable: Adults and infants were both saved
without baptism, and that for a period of 4,000 years. Only one logical conclusion
remains: If faith in Christ could save before baptism was instituted, then faith in Christ
can save now without baptism. This does not mean that baptism is not important for this
age, but any other conclusion robs Christ of His Deity, by making Him impotent, inasmuch
as He needs the assistance of baptism in order to save men.
During the entire Old
Testament period God had taught men by setting forth Christ in type, figure, symbol, in
prophetic utterance and open discourse. These types were numerous and varied. According to
Hebrews these types and figures were but "copies of the things in the heavens."
That is, Christ the reality was still in heaven, and these types were but copies of Him,
but were not the Christ. Not one of these types had saving power.
Speaking of His demise Jesus
says: "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all
things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and
in the Psalms, concerning me." Note then whether we turn to the Historical, the
Prophetical, or to the Poetical section of the Old Testament we find that Jesus is the one
they write about. He is the one theme of the Scriptures.
What the Old Testament Teaches As to the Saving Power of Types and
Figures.
- Abel's lamb did not save.
- Noah’s sacrifice did not save.
- The Ark did not save.
- The Passover lamb did not save.
- The Brazen Serpent did not save.
- The Scape-Goat did not save.
- The Altar did not save.
- The Laver did not save.
- The Candlesticks did not save.
- The Shewbread did not save.
- The Ark did not save.
- The Veil did not save.
- The Tabernacle did not save.
- The Boards did not save.
- The Silver Sockets did not save.
- The High Priest did not save.
- The Miter did not save.
- Aaron's Rod did not save.
- The Burnt-Offering did not save.
- The Meal-Offering did not save.
- The Peace-Offering did not save.
- The Sin-Offering did not save.
- The Trespass-Offering did not save.
- The Temple did not save.
No dear friends, Christ
alone saves. He is the reality of which these figures were but shadows. He was with Adam
in the garden,–with Abel in his sacrifice. He walked with Enoch, and kept Noah in the
Ark. He appeared to Abraham by the oaks of Mamre, warned unfaithful Lot, and struggled
with Jacob. He led Israel out of Egypt, spoke from Sinai's burning mount and dwelt in the
Holy of Holies. It is Christ and not the figures that alone can save and keep.
In the light of the above
evidence, is it not astounding, and that also in the blazing light of New Testament
revelation, that when Jesus gave us a New Testament type of His wonderful salvation, that
Rome should shut her eyes dead shut to 4,000 years of evidence and immediately proceed to
turn this new symbol, baptism, into a saviour? The book of Concord but restates the
position of Rome when it says: "The power, work, profit and fruit and end of baptism
is to save."
Lutheran Church Commits Sin of Jereboam.
When the Lutheran church
incorporated this teaching into her confessional books, she officially joined hands with
Rome and Pagan Babylon and committed over again the sin of Jereboam, who made the golden
calves and set them up for worship at Bethel and Dan, thus keeping hidden from his
trusting adherents the true door and place of worship at Jerusalem. Millions there are
today who refuse to worship God except through the Golden Calf of Jereboam, which is but
another name for Baptismal Regeneration. Idolatry is not a thing of the past. Did not
John, the aged apostle foresee what was coming when he exclaimed: "My little
children, guard yourselves from idols."
Had not Rome's attention been
called to this error? Oh yes, for centuries this has been done, but it has gone unheeded.
She evidently finds this tool indispensable to her system. Rome and her followers, because
of the system of water and works on which they build, do not produce born again
Christians, thus they must have a new door by which to get members into the church. If
they should add only such as are truly born again, how many do you think they would add?
How long would this system last without this false door? The book of Revelation tells us
of a certain church whom the Lord gave plenty of time for repentance, but she would not.
All types of the Old Testament cried out to Rome and said: "We are not
saviours." Still Rome made baptism a saviour. All types cried out to Rome and said:
"We have no saving power." Still Rome and her followers say: "The power,
work, profit and fruit and end of baptism is to save." Here we must choose whom we
will believe.
Summary of Facts Gleaned From Our Study Of The Old Testament.
- Men were saved by faith in Christ without Baptism.
- Infants were saved without baptism.
- Men were saved without circumcision.
- Types, figures and symbols are Pot saviours.
- Types, figures and symbols all point to the death, burial and resurrection of Christ,
our Saviour.
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