A reader requested that I respond to an article he sent to me. The writer of the article makes some grave errors in his reasoning. The first is his view of the one mediator. The article states: "I refer now to first Tim, 2:5, 'For there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.' This is the scripture that prompted me in 8/28/87 to lay charge against the (so called) church of Christ, for bringing into play a third party: one to baptize a person, which the claim in order for that person to be saved. My friends it is unmistakable clear according to that doctrine, the third party would constitute a second mediator. God says there is only one. And God will never, compromise the proclamation of His word, to accommodate man." If that were true, then the person who did the teaching would constitute a third mediator. Of course that is not the case.
In I Cor. 1:21 we read where "it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." The foolishness is not in the act of preaching but human wisdom claims it is foolish. But what did Christ command to be taught? "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matt. 28:19). "He that believeth, and is baptized shall be saved" (Mark 16:16). It is not possible to obey the commands of God without teaching the baptism that the writer denies. We read of such a case in Luke 7:29-30: "And all the people that heard him, and the publicans, justified God, being baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not baptized of him." The writer of The One Mediator in his wisdom, teaches that it is foolish for one to be "baptized for the remission of sins" (Acts 2:38), thereby rejecting the counsel of God.
Baptism stands squarely between the believer and salvation. "He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved." The writer would have it say, "He that believeth is saved then shall be baptized". It is not possible for the term "shall be saved" to come before "baptism." The word "and" is a copulative conjunction and it joins words of equal value. Therefore if salvation comes before baptism, then it would have to come before belief. Who can believe such?
Christ is not a mediator of those outside of Christ. "Now we know that God heareth not sinners" (John 9:31). Salvation is "in Christ" (II Tim. 2:10). One must be "baptized" in order to get "into Christ" (Gal. 3:27), before Christ can be his mediator. The word baptize in some form is used in the New Testament about 100 times. Of that number, I think it is used 79 times with reference to water baptism. It is a mystery to me why those who oppose baptism for the remission of sins use every passage in the Bible except the ones that refer to baptism to prove that baptism is not required. They use all of the "faith" and "grace" passages, but not one on baptism. If one wants to learn about faith he must study the faith passages. If one desires to know about grace, he must study the scriptures that refer to grace. But, he does not read about baptism in most of those passages. He must read the scriptures that teach baptism in order to learn about that subject. The only time the writer of The One Mediator used any scripture concerning baptism, is where he erroneously believes he has proven that baptism came after salvation.
Be as the noble Bereans and search the scriptures to see whether these things are so (Acts 17:11).
"If any man speak let him speak as the oracles of God" (I Pet. 4:11)
Don H. Noblin
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