Truth Magazine

By Jeffery Kingry

This month I had the pleasure of spending three days with a fellow preacher who was holding a meeting in Salem, Ohio. We stayed in one of the brethren’s home just outside Lisbon.

It was in Lisbon, Ohio, on November 18, 1827, that Walter Scott preached the true Gospel for the first time to the assembled Baptists of the Mahoning Association. Every seat in the Baptist church building was taken when Scott arrived in Lisbon. The aisles and doors were jammed.

Earlier that year both Scott and Campbell had decided after diligent study, that baptism was for the remission` of sins. In conversation with Alexander and his father Thomas at Bethany, Scott became even more convinced that Baptism was a part of the plan of God’s salvation.

That evening Walter was preaching on Matt. 16:16, Peter’s confession of Christ’s Messiahship and Deity. One Baptist, William Amend, a diligent Bible student himself, had arrived late. He heard Walter Scott preaching on Acts 2:38 as he approached the building. With sudden and firm resolve he pushed his way through the crowd, made his way to the feet of the teacher and demanded to be baptized for the remission of his sins.

From this beginning the entire Western Reserve was turned upside down. Many heard the Gospel for the first time and obeyed it. The Baptists and other denominational groups were in an uproar. The Gospel had been planted in the hearts of men, and the natural fruit was coming forth. despite the tares of the wicked one.

The church building that Scott preached in is long gone today. The town of Lisbon is a sleepy, rural, Ohio community with no remembrance of the excitement of earlier days. There is no sound church in Lisbon today.

We traveled an hour or so down the road till we came to a small sign declaring with weathered assurance that “Bethany” was to the east. The road we turned onto was rough and narrow. The hills rose up on either side and we crossed Buffalo Creek at least four times as we wound up towards Bethany. It was in those waters on a warm June day in 1812 that Alexander Campbell, his father and mother, and three close friends were immersed for the remission of sins. The war of 1812 with Britain was in full swing, and one of the men who came to hear and see this, unusual spectacle left for a muster in town of the militia. He returned six hours later in time to see the baptisms. The Campbell’s had been preaching baptism since he left.

Bethany College was erected by Alexander Campbell several years later on land given to him by his father-in-law. Campbell gave ten acres to the school board and by October 1842, the first classes were held. The school had 102 students. Twenty classes were formed, the first meeting at 6:30 AM. The school bell rang at sunrise and every student was required to rise and start the day at that time. Every student dressed alike in gray or black in material “not to exceed six dollars a yard.”

The ideal behind Bethany was not to produce a theological seminary but “a literary and scientific institution, founded upon the Bible as the basis of all true science and true learning.” Bethany did not have a “Bible Department.” The Bible was taught in every class. Great men taught there, and great men were students there.

We drove on the campus and found a librarian that would permit us to look into the “Campbell Room” at the remains of Campbell’s library and papers. Old letters, ledgers, notes, papers and books were idly stuffed in cabinets and bookcases. The people who worked on campus had no idea of the heritage they had been bequeathed.

The receptionist thought we were looking for material on the inventor of the telephone because she kept referring to “Alexander Campbell Bell” no doubt confusing Graham with Campbell.

In our search for material to buy or be given we visited the religion professors in their offices. While the other preacher talked to them; I glanced over their libraries. There was nothing one wouldn’t find in any denominational preacher’s library: junk. The bulletin board in the hall advertised a new course in methods and theory of Civil Disobedience with a “practical lab.”

We made our way to the home of Campbell, his Bethany mansion. The house was old, rickety, and in disrepair. A house where generations of Campbell’s lived and died, where presidents slept, where great Bible discussions with great preachers went far into the night-now stands creaking and idle, a minor tourist attraction.

We ended our day in Bethany talking to a very old man, Wilbur H. Cramblet. Cramblet had his PhD from Yale before he was.21. He had taught in Kansas shortly after it became a state, about the time Roy Cogdill was born. He had been president of Bethany College, President of the Disciple’s Board of Publications, President of the West Virginia Missionary Society Board. His book, The Christian Churches (Disciple of Christ ) in West Virginia, was reviewed by Brother Willis in Truth Magazine (“No New Thing Under The Sun” Vol. 17, p. 99 & 115).

His books were mildewing in a damp basement. As we were going downstairs, he told us he was in the process of sorting his periodicals. We had visions of old unbound volumes of the Advocate going back to the last century, at the very least the Standard. But his periodicals were Newsweek, Life, and Sports Illustrated.

From the paraphanalia on his walls, Cramblet’s greatest joy was his association with the institutions he headed, the political figures he had met, and his longtime association with the Masons. His library was junkier and even more worthless than the religious department’s.

So What?

It struck me as we drove out of that isolated valley and its one gas-pump town, “How did Campbell change the face of America and touch so many lives? What is his heritage today?” Campbell as a man left little or nothing. If he were to return to Bethany Campus today, he would find a few crumbling books, yellowed creased papers stuffed into a cabinet. He might find a few sticks of funiture and odds and ends from his house. If he were to see the bar in the home of the president, the lasciviously clad girls walking about on campus, and view the place the Bible takes in the curriculum of their evolution and religion classes, he would probably stalk away in frustrated rage.

Campbell’s heritage was not in the college he founded, the papers he started, or the money he spent. Campbell’s heritage was a strong and defiant individualism that pointed men away from conformity to the word of God. The fruit of that is eternal and still growing today, because he turned men to the only lasting heritage we have. Solomon’s temple is gone, David’s battles are long gone, the pain and sacrifice of the Apostles has long since gone into the earth, but the heritage they left us through their teaching will bear fruit in eternity. Campbell was not inspired, but he like all men, went to the dust, and his works will follow him to eternity or to the dust.

Where will “our” colleges be 150 years from now? Or the papers, or the church buildings, or the houses we live in? Will our books, and papers, and personal possessions be rotting in a library or an attic, or long since hauled away to the garbage dump of the future? The only thing that endures is the soul of man. What are we doing about its future. Souls converted to Christ, washed in the blood of the Lamb, led from spiritual infancy to full maturity by preaching the full counsel of God, strong men standing behind the power of God: These are what stand for eternity. We are making the history of tomorrow and the substance of eternity now. “Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved, what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness” (2 Pet. 3:11)?

Truth Magazine XIX: 45, pp. 714-715
September 25, 1975

By Roy E. Cogdill

The undenominational character of the church revealed in the New Testament scriptures is easily apparent to unprejudiced minds.. The simplicity of it is evident. The government of God’s people can be set forth in a few simple sentences.

The church is the spiritual body of .Christ and He is its head (Eph. 1:22-23). The same passage affirms that Christ is the “head over all things to the church.” This simply means that he is the exclusive head-the only head-and that there is nothing which is any part of the church over which he is not head. The church is a realm where the authority and rule of Christ is absolute and complete. This eliminates Catholicism for the Catholic church claims two heads-Christ and the pope. That is one too many

The scriptures also reveal that there are not many bodies but “one” (Eph. 4:4). It is just as scriptural and right to teach that there are many Christs as to teach that there are many bodies. Yet this is the essence of protestant denominationalism. The entire denominational conception is that there are many bodies and one is just as good as another. This idea is as much a monstrosity as the two-headed body of Catholics.

Many brethren (or at least they were) today have the denominational concept of the church in their idea that the “churches of Christ” compose “The Church of Christ.” This is being heard on every hand. E. R. Harper of the Herald of Truth has ‘preached all over this country that the church is the army and the local churches of Christ compose the various battalions of that army. Carl Spain in an hour’s recorded speech argued that there is an “organic” connection or, relationship between all the churches of Christ on earth. That there is a spiritual connection in the relationship every Christian sustains to Christ would be undeniable but the idea of an “organic” connection tying all of the churches of Christ together is rank error and evident sectarianism. There is a film strip, with a record accompanying, put out by some of the brethren (the voice on the record is not identified) advocating that the church is the body-in a universal sense and that the member of the body, (the hand, for instance) represents the congregation. The recorder goes on to say that of course there are various members of the hand representing the individual members of the congregation. This is the attempted defense they make of the amalgamation and federation of congregations into the “co-operative” organizations that characterize the promoting liberal churches of today.

In one instance on a sign identifying the church as “The Church of Christ” there was a further point of identification-“The church with a complete scriptural program.” By this they meant simply that they were having a part in all, or at least all kinds, of federated programs promoted among the churches of today. They make this a point of identity. In the publication fathered by Batsell Barrett Baxter and M. Norvell Young -“Churches of Today”-their questionnaire seeks to establish their identity as a separate body by asking the churches to signify whether or not they believe in and support the institutional orphan homes (so-called) among us and the federated promotions in evangelism such as the Herald of Truth. These “Churches of Christ of Today” reminding one of the “Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, ” and one of these days they will identify themselves by some such distinctive title, have denominationalized themselves by this concept of the church as a universal body composed of smaller units (local churches) tied into the “main stream.” The church is the vine and congregations are the branches according to them. This is very little different to the concept that denominational preachers have contended for through the years, viz., Christ is the vine and denominations are the branches. One is just as scriptural as the other. The text (John 15) teaches, of course, that individuals are the branches not organizations.

Where in the Bible does anybody learn that the “churches of Christ” (Rom. 16:16) compose the “church of Christ?” Such teaching is not in the Bible and one who does not know the teaching of the Word of God better than that is incapable of teaching the truth to anyone.

Bible teaching sets forth each congregation or community of Christians in their own geographical locality as the church of Christ in the absolute and complete sense and if there were but one on earth instead of a plurality or multiplicity of congregations, it would still be the church of Christ in the exact sense in which the Bible uses that term. The church in a universal sense has no organic existence but is a common relationship that all the saved individuals on earth sustain to God, Christ and the Holy Spirit.

Some brethren in their ignorance are contending that one church of Christ can withdraw fellowship from another church of Christ. How can this be unless there are organic ties in some sense? You cannot sever what is not joined! The concept of universal federation and one church withdrawing from another grows out of the same error. One church might refuse to recognize another as a church of Christ, but this is as far as that can go scripturally. Brethren who are trying to stand for the truth against present day institutionalism need to see that they surrender their very ground when they contend for the right of one church to discipline another or disfellowship another.

The undenominational character of any church of Christ can easily be lost. Churches of Christ as undenominational in the fact that they have no denominational organization. Whenever any church made up of God’s people adopts human doctrines, human designations, or forms human combinations and organizations, it has already denominationalized itself and lost its identity as a “church of Christ” in reality.

The pattern of apostasy has always followed the same course. The devil infiltrated the Jewish nation with a corrupted idea of government. God was their king! But Satan planted in their minds the desire for another king, an earthly or human king, that they might be like the nations of the world. When they made this demand, although God let them have their way, they had actually rejected God as their king and corrupted their government. This led to their eventual ruin as a nation.

Moreover, when the church had been planted on this earth, and in Paul’s day the “spirit of iniquity” was already at work, the first thing Satan sought to do was to corrupt the organization of the church. Intercongregational ties soon corrupted the equality, independence and autonomy of the churches and gradually human doctrines and human methods of worship led them into complete apostasy. The devil knows that if he can get control of the organization of God’s people, he can have his way in all other regards.

In the great apostasy of the churches of Christ of the 19th Century that formed the Christian Churches and their denomination, the procedure, once again, was exactly the same. Satan corrupted the simplicity that is Christ’s by introducing the missionary society among the churches. Wherever it was accepted, this principle of forming a separate human organization to do the work God commanded the church to do, resulted in the corruption of the worship by adding instrumental music and eventually led into complete apostasy and denominationalism. The same spirit of “iniquity” is at work today. Iniquity is simply lawlessness or disrespect for divine authority. Evidence of it is apparent on every hand.

Truth Magazine XIX: 45, pp. 712-713
September 25, 1975

By James R. Cope

During late June it was my pleasure to be with the few but faithful brethren meeting at 2309 Gates Drive, S. W., in Rochester, Minnesota. Presently consisting of ten men and twelve women, this congregation had its beginning three years ago with two women worshiping in a rented hotel groom in downtown Rochester. About two years ago Gary and Carolyn Hargis of Tampa, Florida, moved to this area to work with these two disciples and Brother Hargis to serve as the evangelist. Membership was thus doubled, and counting all children of the three families there were eleven in regular attendance. Since the beginning of this work, one of the women moved away and the other ceased to attend.

To date Brother Hargis has baptized seven. One of these, a woman residing at Spring Valley, 26 miles south of Rochester, was contacted as a result of teaching advertisements in the Rochester Post-Bulletin. Because of this contact, five members, one 70-year-old man and four women, now constitute the body of Christ in Spring Valley. Weather permitting, for several months Brother and Sister Hargis drove to Spring Valley for one service each Lord’s day and two or three days a week making contacts and teaching. Bill Imrisek, a young man who has worked with Brother Hargis for the last year, has been preaching regularly for the Spring Valley church each Sunday since May 1 this year. He and Hargis did all the preaching prior to then. Brother Hargis secured a vacated church building for this group to meet in, and he holds the deed to it.

Leaving the hotel room, the small band at Rochester rented a business house where meetings were held Sunday afternoons for sixteen months. In December, 1974, these disciples moved to their present building, a remodeled residence with seating capacity for 50 and adequate classrooms for the present. They have Sunday classes and two assemblies plus another meeting Wednesday evening.

The church was established in Rochester, home of the renowned Mayo Clinic, about 1946. As the innovations of the next two decades swept the churches, this one was engulfed.

When Brother Hargis arrived, he began a series of teaching articles in the Post-Bulletin which caught the attention of the innovators. Among these were three persons’ who had renounced Christian Church departures under the teaching of Wayne Mickey in 1947. Every contact was cultivated and last January W. C. Hinton visited Gates Drive for the specific purpose of dealing with innovations. This effort has now resulted in ten souls renouncing these departures and taking their stand on the authority of Christ.

As indicated above, Bill Imrisek came to Rochester about a year ago. Soon he will move to work with the small group in Duluth, largely held together by the Melvin Krumrei family which I have known for 30 years.

Based on recent developments, Spring Valley affords what apparently is a quite fruitful field. Fred McKinney, a man with many years of experience in Minnesota, will probably move there: Billy Farris is beginning work with the Summit and Grotto church in St. Paul where Leslie Diestelkamp worked before going to Australia and with which Ed Harrell worshiped and worked during his recent studies in that area. Fred McKinney has been with the Downtown Minneapolis church for the past two years, having renounced the departures of the Central congregation, having preached there a while. Albert Wanous (converted by Leslie Diestelkamp) has been at Pine City for about 20 years.

At this time of year (summer) the weather in Minnesota is warm but comfortable and the landscape is breathtaking. The multitude of relatively small farms, each with its red and white barn, silver-topped silo and white farmhouse, spot the rolling hills and shallow vales, making an imposing picture as far as the eye can span, Woodlands scattered over this vast expanse are nature’s embroidery to emphasize the splendor of this great outdoors. Any person who loves to commune with Nature will find a fitting temple for his meditations in this ornate garden which the Creator formed in the great Midwestern portion of our beloved land.

Minnesota is twelfth in size of the 50 states and 19th in population with almost eight million. Though usually identified as the “Gopher State,” it is also called the “Bread and Butter State” because of its enormous wheat crops, great flour mills, abundant dairy products, and hog and cattle production. Even so manufacturing stimulates the economy more than agriculture, much of it involving the processing of the fruitage of the soil. It is a vacation wonderland for those who love the outdoors.

Lutherans and Catholics dominate the religious scene though Baptists, Congregationalists, Episcopalians, Methodists, and Presbyterians are prominent and, in some areas, powerful.

In all of this great and beautiful state there are only six sound churches of Christ with more than two members, and all of these lie along the eastern border. Probably 100 would constitute the total membership of the six. A man and wife worship in their own residence just south of the Canadian border. No other pure New Testament churches are to be found anywhere. The Dakotas to the west and Iowa to the south present much the same depressing picture though a tremendous challenge. Wisconsin to the east has a few more and larger churches but not many. The whole area cries, “Come over into Macedonia and help us!”

To brethren who read these lines I have a suggestion. Its wisdom and practicality may be questioned, yet its potential cannot be negated because it has never been tried. I have discussed the idea with some of the brethren in the area who feel it has realistic merit. Here it is.

Truth Magazine XIX: 45, pp. 710-711

September 25, 1975

By Cecil Willis

This is our last lesson on faith in this present series. We have studied the great theme of faith for eighteen issues and we now bring this particular study to a close with this week’s lesson, “What Justification by Faith Means.”

The Bible very plainly teaches in many, many instances that one is justified by faith, but for the most part, the religious world has very little (if any) conception of what it means to be justified by faith. It would be absurd of one, professing to believe the Bible, to deny that one is saved by faith, and such is not my intention. I believe that faith justifies, but I also believe what the Bible says about when it justifies. Paul says, “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision; but faith working through love” (Gal. 5:6). Further, the writer of the book of Hebrews states that Christ is the author of eternal salvation to all them that obey Him (Heb. 5:9). We therefore see from these passages that it takes two things to save one, namely, faith and obedience. There are a number of commandments that one must obey in order to be saved. Our entire lesson last week was devoted to a study of God’s eternal principle of salvation, and in that lesson we pointed out that God has always justified man according to the same principle. In every age it has been necessary for man to believe and obey in order to be justified. The commandments have been changed from time to time. The Jews under Moses’ Law were commanded to offer animal sacrifices, but we are given different commandments to obey, and yet God demands that both we and they believe and obey. The principle of salvation has not changed!

And now, in this article, we are ready to study what the Bible says about how far one’s faith must go in obeying in order to make one pleasing in the sight of God. Is there any limit beyond which one’s faith must not go in obedience, and yet that faith still be pleasing to God?

Faith Must Extend Beyond Human Reason

in order to be pleasing to God. One’s faith must obey when it can see no human reason for doing the thing commanded. When God gave the command to Noah to build an ark because there was going to come a great flood upon all the earth, and told him that the only way that he and his household could be saved was by his building the ark, surely the world must have sneered and laughed. It would seem to be absolute foolishness to spend so much of one’s time in preparing4 large boat in which to escape’ a flood that was to cover the whole earth. The world could see no human reason why one should be spending so much time and effort in the building of the ark to avert destruction by the flood. It was not a matter of human reason.

Human reason would be completely against the possibility of a flood such as that for which Noah was preparing. There is some indication that prior to this time there had not even been any rain, but that God had watered the earth by the dew that came up from the earth, but this is not conclusive, and consequently I advance this idea only as a possibility. Certainly the world had never experienced the degree of a flood that Noah anticipated.

In all probability Noah was the subject of ridicule and scorn as he labored on the ark, and warned the world of the impending flood, but when his faith led him to obey, when there was no reason for obeying from a strictly human standpoint, it justified him. Therefore, the first extent to which one’s faith must go in obeying, is that it must obey when, from a human standpoint, no reason can be seen why it should.

Faith Must Extend Beyond What Men Think Is Right Or Wrong

The command that Jehovah gave to Abraham in Genesis 22 is an example of this principle. Here God told Abraham to take his son, his only son, the one through whom the promise had been made, and take him into the land of Moriah, and offer him as a burnt offering unto the Lord. God has always condemned the offering of human sacrifices unto idol gods, and had disapproved taking the lives of innocent men. Certainly Abraham must have been cognizant of God’s dealings with Cain for his murder of Abel, and now God has commanded him to take the life of his own son. What was he to do? Obey, or rebel? The writer says in Hebrews 11:17, 18, “By faith Abraham, being tried, offered up Isaac, yea, he that had gladly received the promises was offering up his only begotten son, even he to whom it was said, In Isaac shall thy seed be called.” This action was in obedience to God’s command. It was necessary that the faith of Abraham obey when the thing commanded in itself seemed wrong.

Faith Must Extend When Men Can Not See The Reasoning Between Cause And Effect

We read in Hebrews 11 that by faith Noah prepared The third extent, to which we now call attention, to an ark to the saving of his house, and so we see that he which one’s faith must go in obeying, is that it must obeyed the eternal principle of salvation by faith and obey when we can see no connection between the end obedience. Here is the first point that we want to make sought (effect) and the means employed (cause) in pointing out how far one’s faith must go in obedience seeking that end. Our faith must obey a commandment of God even though we can see no connection between what we are trying to accomplish and the thing we are told to do to accomplish it.

The Bible is full of excellent illustrations of this particular point. Think, now, of the events recorded in Numbers 21: The children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness because they lacked faith and had disobeyed the divine injunction of God. They began to murmur against God and Moses, and said, “Why did you bring us out in this wilderness to die?” Because of their rebellious spirit, God sent serpents among them, and they were bitten and were dying. They cried to Moses, and said, “We told Moses to make a brazen serpent and put it on the pole set up in the middle of the camp, and that all who looked upon this brazen serpent would be made whole. When the serpent was set upon the pole, many of the Israelites responded in obedience to God’s advice, and were healed of the snake bites.

Our point is that one’s faith must obey when it can see no connection between the end sought, and the means employed in the seeking of that end. Notice these points in our illustration from Numbers 21. What was the end sought? The people had been snake bitten, and wanted to be cured of the bite. What was the means used in curing them? They were told to look upon a brass serpent erected in the middle of the camp. There is no connection between looking at a brass snake and being cured of a snake bite, and yet until their faith was willing to obey, they could not be healed of the snake bite. Their faith had to obey when they could see no human connection between the ends sought and the means employed.

In 2 Kings 5, we find the record of the leprous Naaman. He wanted to be healed of the dreaded disease of leprosy. This was the end sought. Well, what was the means employed? He went to the prophet Elisha, and Elisha told him to go down to the Jordan River and dip in it seven times. Naaman could see absolutely no connection between dipping seven times in the Jordan River and getting cured of leprosy, and neither can you. The reasonable thing to do when one finds that he has leprosy is not to take a trip to Palestine and dip seven times in the River Jordan. It seemed foolish of Naaman to have to go down into the dirty waters of the Jordan River seven times in order to be healed. But the truth was, he could not be healed until he did the thing commanded of God, even though he could not see the connection between what God through the prophet told him to do, and in the benefit he wanted to obtain. Naaman wanted his leprosy removed, and God said, Go dip seven times in the Jordan River.

Here is the test of his faith. Was he to obey when the thing commanded by the prophet seemed pointless? His faith, in order, to heal him, had to comply with the divine decree, and so Naaman went and dipped himself seven times in the Jordan River, as God commanded, and when he did, he came up whole. But it was not until he obeyed that he received the end that he was seeking. He was still a leprous man until he completed doing what the Lord commanded.

In John 9, we find the record of a very sad story. Here is a man that has been blind from his mother’s womb. He has never had the glorious privilege of seeing the sunlight of a new day. The disciples asked the Lord who it was that had sinned, this man, or his parents. Christ said that neither of them had sinned. He then told the man what to do to be healed of his blindness. Our Lord spat upon the ground, and then mixed clay with that spittal. With this mixture of clay and spittal he covered the blinded eyes of this poor man. He then sent him to the pool of Siloam, and told him to wash the mixture from his eyes and he would come forth seeing. Let me ask a simple question that will bring out our point: If you were blind and a doctor told you to take clay and spit and put it on your eyes and then go wash in the pool of Siloam, would you expect to come forth seeing, if you did? Certainly not, for there is no human connection between a mixture of spit and clay, and washing in the pool of Siloam, and in being healed of one’s blindness. But this man had to obey when he could understand no connection whatever between what he wanted (healed of his blindness), and in what the Lord told him to do. But he was not healed until his faith led him to obey even though he could see no connection.

Application

Let us bring the point vividly to our minds now. Our Lord has given some commandments for men to obey. Men can see no connection between the commandments that Christ gave . and what they are to receive for obeying them. Christ said, “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16). Peter commanded the Jews on the day of Pentecost to “Repent ye, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of sins” (Acts 2:38). Ananias, the God sent preacher, told Saul to “Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins” (Acts 22:16). Peter said that baptism “doth also now save us” (1 Peter 3:21). The Lord has commanded that men and women be baptized in order to be saved.

Men today say, “I just can’t see what baptism has to do with salvation. I just cannot see what good it does to go down into a pool of water.” Frankly, friends, humanly speaking, I cannot either. But I do know that God said to do it, and that my faith must obey whether the thing commanded seems that it is the thing that one should do in order to reach the end sought. I cannot see what going down into the Jordan River had to do with Naaman’s leprosy, but he was not healed until he did go down into it. I see no connection between being healed of blindness and in going to wash in the pool of Siloam, but the man would have died blind had he not obeyed.

The end sought (effect) is the remission of sins, and the things commanded (causes-on our part) are faith, repentance, confession, and baptism in order to receive the remission of sins. Unless I have faith enough to obey, and even when I cannot see the connection between the end sought and the means employed, then I do not have enough faith to justify me.

The world of today says that if one has to be baptized in order to be saved, then that would be water salvation. Your salvation would be dependent upon water. Did you ever hear anyone say that the blind man of John 9 was made whole by water healing? He was commanded to go wash in the pool of Siloam, and I have never heard anyone say that he was made whole by water healing. What about Naaman? He was told to go dip seven times in the Jordan to be healed of leprosy. Was this water healing? Certainly not. It was healing by faith, but only when he did the thing commanded.

The man in Jn. 9 was told to wash in the pool of Siloam, and yet we have a song today about him, “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I am found, was blind but now I see.” The song says that this was by grace, but he had to go wash the clay and spittle from his eyes in the pool of Siloam. This man was no different than the man that is baptized in order to be saved. It was through grace that both accomplished their means. If you do not have enough faith to obey the command of the Lord whether you can see the connection between what He said do and the end you are seeking, you do not have enough faith to be saved. God commanded baptism. There is not a man living that will deny that. “And Peter commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus” (Acts 10:48). Are you unbelieving enough to say it is not necessary? If so, you cannot be justified by faith.

Conclusion

What does justification by faith mean? Justification by faith is believing to the extent that we are willing to obey, and then obeying. We then are justified by our faith that obeyed, as was our spiritual father Abraham. Baptism For The Remission Of Sins Is Justification By Faith. We are praying and pleading that you will have faith enough to obey the commandments of the Lord, for without obedience, you cannot be saved.

Truth Magazine XIX: 45, pp. 707-709
September 25, 1975