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     Recently, a man attending a Bible class several hundred miles from Brookings asserted there was not just one baptism, because other churches used different modes of baptism and baptized for different reasons.  However, he also said no one can know whether he has eternal life.  That is a miserable thought.  In contrast, as we pondered in the last article, a person can “have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:1).  This man misunderstands Christianity on several fronts.

     First, the Bible clearly informs a person can know whether he has eternal life (1 John 5:13).  When the man was confronted with that scripture, he said it was a mistake.  What?  To those of us who know and accept the Bible as God’s inspired word, such a thought is absurd and irrational.  In essence, he had rejected the Bible as God’s divinely inspired word (direct from God’s mind) and by implication, to him, it is just another book by man, like James Michener’s “The Source.”

     Second, his claim about a multiplicity of reasons and methods of baptism based upon what churches decide, implies that any church can set the standard they prefer.  Isn’t this essentially Religious Humanism – man deciding what he wants in matters of faith?  Again he denied the authority of the Bible.

     When Jesus taught among the Jews, the chief priests and Jewish elders confronted Jesus – “By what authority are You doing these things?  And who gave You this authority?”  Their question is reasonable.  Jesus rose from the dead and stood among many witnesses (as many as 500 people at once), as proof He is God (1 Corinthians 15:3-8).  Following His resurrection, God gave Him all authority – all of it.  Moments before ascending into heaven, Jesus announced to His disciples, shortly to become His apostles, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth” (Matthew 28:18).  The Hebrew writer acknowledged the royal position appointed to Jesus when He ascended into heaven, “...Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2).  Again the writer informed us of the extent of “all” authority – “And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who obey Him” (Hebrews 5:9).  Jesus set the conditions of salvation from sin!

     The apostle Paul wrote, “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:4-6).  Thus the man who argued against one acceptable baptism and the certainty of one’s eternal life simply rejected clear biblical teaching and the authority of Jesus – tantamount to blasphemy!  Many will join that rebellion.  Jesus said, “Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it” (Matthew 7:13, 14).  Are you among the many or the few?

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