Are We Really Prepared?

Mark 16:16

What we mean by this title is that we must be prepared to meet God. We must seek to do His will at all times, regardless of consequences. We must face the future with great confidence and earnest effort in our strivings to live for God. As Scripture says, “To those who by perseverance in doing good,” we are to “seek for glory and honor and immortality, eternal life.” Paul goes on to say, there will be “glory and honor and peace to everyone who does good, to the Jew first and also to the Greek (Romans 2:7, 10). We can see that living for God means everything and we must not be slack in this commitment.

I think that there is no way to deal with this issue unless we commit all to God and seek with all of our heart to love, serve, and obey Him! If we live another 100 years (for nearly all of us, it will be much less), we have very few years before us. If this describes us now, we are very, very close to the “end” of our life and we will face God in judgment before long.

But we know that eternity is endless! We will face eternity—millions, and billions and trillions and quadrillions of years, etc.—either with God or away from Him! How can any of us really know, and far more than this. What does this mean? If we seek to understand this and really fathom it, we will be driven to distraction. It will place us in a situation of intensity and will need God to help!

I have often thought and thought about eternity and what lies before us. Let’s just take a simple (even a minor) point and ask about it. Suppose that we take Mark 16:16 as true and accurate. I realize that there is some manuscript issue here and many would not accept this verse as true. Even if we do not, we would need to face Matthew 28:18-20 and Acts 2:38 and the like. But if Mark 1616 is inspired of God and should be trusted, what shall we do with this?

This is what I mean. If Mark 16:16 is inspired, then this verse reads, “He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.” Just taking the first part of the verse, we see that one must believe [in Jesus Christ, in His identity, in His death for our sins, and in His resurrection from the grave]. He must be baptized. If we know the Greek here, this would mean that after belief and as an expression of belief/faith, such a person must be baptized. One must be immersed in water. Let us discard all of the things that we have been taught and what our spiritual leaders believe and have told us and let us go on, with fresh insight and with new glasses, and thus see the truth as it really is.

Only then can we claim salvation—claim salvation from sin, from death, and from hell. And the verse goes on from there but this is sufficient to make our point.

Quite plainly, this means that one must believe (and repent of his sins) that Jesus is the Christ, died on the cross, and rose again, then he must be baptized (immersed in water) in order to be saved. Does this requirement cause some concern to you right now? Do you have any problem with this? Do you tend to reject it as the ravings of a deluded soul?

If you are like me and seek to analyze this verse (and all other verses), what about those who have not believed on Christ subsequent to this verse? We know that there are hundreds of millions (or as many as two billion) in this generation, plus even more if we include previous generations) who have not believed at all before they were baptized (if they were at all). This gets at the heart of the issue.

Think of the many who have only been sprinkled or poured. They have gone through a “water ceremony” but haven’t really submitted to the meaning of this verse (in Greek). They have not really been baptized (immersed). They have not really come to Christ as He has said.

Think of the many Catholics, most of whom have not been baptized (immersed). Think of the many Presbyterians, Methodists, Lutherans, Anglicans, Episcopalians, and all other “baby sprinklers” and thus have not believed and have been baptized (immersed). There surely are millions of people who think they have been “baptized” but really have not. They have merely been sprinkled or poured—but not baptized (immersed). They have not really believed and then been baptized (immersed) but they think and even assume that they have. Their pastor or minister have told these people and the parents of these people that “john Doe” has been baptized—but they have experienced a “water ceremony” far different from what we read in Scripture!

If we are to deal with all of these people fairly, honestly, and truthfully, we must ask, how do we view them? How does God view them? Are they saved or not? Are they forgiven? How much weight are we to put on the words of Christ? Are these words only meant for people who understand them and for those who want to obey whatever Christ has commanded? Or are the for all others—if they believe and trust and love Jesus? Perhaps Christ’s words are to be understood differently if people either don’t understand them or misunderstand them? Or perhaps view them a different way. Just how crucial are the words that Christ has given—in just the way that He gave them? Further, could it be that we, ourselves, are wrong in our understanding?

For example, we read, “God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life” (1 John 5:11-12). This seems simple: the one who has the Son of God [through faith and obedience] has eternal life. If we do not have the Son of God, we do not have this eternal life.

It is one way or the other. But what if a person says that he doesn’t believe in the Son of God but does believe that Jesus is the Messiah? He believes that Jesus is either God [alone] or the Messiah and he doesn’t believe that Jesus is the Son of God. In other words, it is conceivable that one could believe something about Jesus (which may be good in itself or perhaps not) but not believe something else about Christ. How do we view this difference?

We do have other articles that deal with the Person of Jesus Christ as well as His relationship with God the Father, yet we know that Jesus (the Son) is not God the Father and the Father is not Jesus the Son. This is important and it does show an important distinction that Oneness people must not overlook. They must face this face boldly, plainly, and honestly.