Belief, Repentance and Responding from the Heart

3/4/2000

Thanks again to everyone there for the books and tracts. I am plowing through them and being encouraged for the most part. A couple of questions for you.

In your baptism tract you mention that there is no reference of children being baptized. What do you do with the accounts of households being baptized? How do you know that children were not involved?

Secondly what do you do with the thief on the cross next to Jesus being given salvation minus the fact that he wasn’t able to be baptized?

…I consider baptism essential but at the same time I wrestle with saying that if one isn’t only “immersed” verses “sprinkled” they are not saved. Or if sharing Christ with someone bedridden and they give their life to Christ in their last moments, because I couldn’t get them into the bathtub they are not saved.

Anyhow, just wanted to correspond with you. Thanks again for your generosity.

In Christ, Daniel

Hi Daniel……. : ) Greetings. Actually, a “household” in that culture was not anything like the “household” in our culture. This is very evident in correspondence of various kinds available from the archaelogical world. Most often (and in fact, clearly in the Jewish culture as well), a child was not considered in “sonship” until they were twelve. “Household” was often the term used to refer to the cherished servants, the extended family of uncles and grandparents, and many others. There is no Scriptural evidence of a child ever being immersed, though clearly many adults were. And this makes sense, since “BELIEF” (fully trusting that Jesus’ Blood is the only solution for sin) and “REPENTENCE” (a whole-hearted turning from self-life to Jesus as Ruler of the heart) are pre-requisites for baptism anyway. And babies can’t do those things!—though surely some children can.

As for the thief on the cross, it seems clear to me that deathbeds and thieves on the cross are totally God’s Business, and I’d love it if He’d save as many as possible. It’s His kindness that saves, not water. SO, we just need to respond to Him from the heart as WE can, and call others to do the same (rather than make excuses as some are prone to do)—and surely Jesus can work out the details of everything that IS out of our control! : ) I was sprinkled, personally, as a baby. Then it became evident that I surely had not seen my need for the Blood of Jesus and put my full weight on Him as a baby, so I was not a candidate to be baptized as a baby. And then, it was evident with just the slightest ability to go past man-made translations, that GOD said to be IMMERSED, and I had not. So, it was no problem for me to desire that, since my heart was His, and He SAID that’s what He wanted. Easy decision. It wasn’t really about “OH! I may not be saved!” It was, “I want to please Him to the nth degree, and HE has said this pleases Him! Count me in! Why WOULDN’T I want to do that—what am I afraid of?!” I know you can see the difference. One is “technical”—which is not Christianity, but legal jargon and dead works. The other is passionate love, “beating the arrow” 5 or 6 or 50 times because we love Him!

Well, thanks for your letter. Enjoyed “talking” with you! : )

•  What God Says About Water Baptism