Covenants play an important role in our progression in the Gospel. I think most of us know the definition for a covenant: a two-way promise between us an God in which we are promised blessings in return for our obedience. Covenants are often received through ordinances, such as baptism or temple ordinances. These covenants allow us to further our relationship to God and progress as His children. In the Bible Dictionary it says: "The gospel is so arranged that principles and ordinances are received by covenant placing the recipient under strong obligation and responsibility to honor the commitment." We must fulfill our part of the promise to receive the promised blessings. The Lord says in D&C 82:10, "I, the Lord, am bound when ye do what I say; but when ye do not what I say, ye have no promise." The Lord will bless us if we obey Him. There is no condition other than that.Baptism is the first of these covenants that we make in our lives. In this covenant we promise a few things, that we will take upon ourselves the name of Christ, that we will always remember him, and that we will keep his commandments. In return we are promised a remission of our sins and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. (see sacrament prayers in D&C 20: 77, 79) Baptism is also the way by which we enter the Church. When we covenant to take upon ourselves the name of Christ, we take weighty responsibility with that. The Lord has commanded "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain: for the Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his name in vain." (Deut. 5: 11) This not only applies to vain or casual use of the name of deity but also in the sense that we take His name through baptism. In doing so we make ourselves representatives of the Savior. To do so in vain would be to dishonor the Covenant. As a missionary I have the name of the Lord upon me in a very literal sense. The name badge we wear bears the name of Christ just under our own name. This means that every action I make, people see the name of the Savior on me as I do it. Likewise, all of us, after baptism, are representatives of Christ in the same way. By keeping the Commandments and always remembering Him, the other two parts of our promise, we also wear the name of the Lord well.
Through Baptism we are promised great blessings. The promise of Eternal Life is ours if we remain faithful and receive all the covenants of the Gospel. We are asked to give a small thing in comparison to what we receive. As in all aspects of our lives, we are indebted to God for his gifts to us. Christ himself was baptized, though not for a remission of sins, as that was unnecessary, but to "Fulfill all Righteousness." (Matt. 3:16) All of us need to make this important step in our progression and remain faithful to those promises which we made, so that all the promised blessings may be ours.
fantastic blog Elder!
ReplyDeleteDear Baptist/evangelical brothers and sisters in Christ,
ReplyDeleteI ask you to consider these points:
1. When God said that he would preserve his Word, what did he mean? Did he mean that he would preserve the original papyrus and parchment upon which his Word was written? If so, then his Word has disappeared as none of the original manuscripts remain.
Did he mean that he would preserve his word in the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek only? He would not preserve his Word when it was translated into all the other languages of the world?
Or did God mean that he would preserve his Word…the message/the words…the Gospel: the free gift of salvation, and the true doctrines of the Christian Faith? Would God allow his Word/his message to mankind to be so polluted by translation errors that no translation, into any other language from the three original languages, continues to convey his true words?
2. There is NO translation of the Bible, from the original ancient languages, into ANY language, ANYWHERE on earth, that translates the Bible as the Baptists/evangelicals believe it should be translated.
No Bible translation on earth translates Acts 2:38 as, “Repent and believe in Jesus Christ every one of you and you will receive the Holy Ghost. Then be baptized as a public profession of your faith.”
Why would God allow EVERY English translation of the Bible throughout history to be mistranslated or use such confusing language as to suggest that God forgives sins in Baptism? And not only all English translations, ALL translations of the Bible have retained these “mistranslations or confusing wording”.
Do you honestly believe that God would allow his Word to be so polluted with translation errors that EVERY Bible in the world, if read in its simple, plain interpretation, would tell the people of the world that God forgives sins in water baptism??
3. Why is there not one single piece of evidence from the early Christians that indicates that ANYONE in the 800-1,000 years after Christ believed that: Water baptism is ONLY a public profession of faith/act of obedience; sins are NOT forgiven in water baptism? Yes, you will find statements by these early Christians that salvation is by faith, but do Baptists and evangelicals really understand how a sinner obtains saving faith? THAT IS THE MILLION DOLLAR QUESTION, MY FRIENDS! Does the sinner produce faith by his own free will or does God provide faith and belief as a gift, and if God does provide faith and belief as a free gift, with no strings attached, WHEN exactly does God give it?
4. Is it possible that: Baptist-like believers, at some point near or after 1,000 AD, were reading the Bible and came across verses that read “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved” and “Call upon the name of the Lord and you will be saved” and established their doctrine of Salvation/Justification first, based on these and similar verses alone, and then, looked at the issue of water baptism, and since the idea that God forgives sins in water baptism didn’t seem to fit with the verses just mentioned, these early Baptists re-interpreted these verses to fit with their already established doctrine, instead of believing the “baptism verses” literally?
Is it possible that BOTH groups of verses are literally correct?? If we believe God’s Word literally, he says that he saves/forgives sins when sinners believe/call AND when they are baptized? Why not believe that God can give the free gift of salvation in both situations: when a sinner hears the Gospel and believes and when a sinner is baptized?
Should we re-interpret God’s plain, simple words just because they don’t seem to make sense to us?
God bless you and keep you!
http://www.lutherwasnotbornagain.com/2013/06/the-early-church-fathers-believed-in.html