The Moment of Truth
A guest post by Chase Green.
We had been studying for months. I anticipated that this would be the night in which a decision must be made. Would he obey the gospel? Or would we come to an impasse, to a point when further studies would prove unfruitful?
I had reason to believe that this study could go either way. The green book* had been received extremely well. That study had established the words of Christ and, by extension, His apostles, as authoritative for our lives today, and that these words could be found in the Bible. It seemed that we had enough upon which we agreed to have a shot at converting him.
Then we came to the blue book*. This booklet established that God demands worship in spirit and truth (John 4:24), that Christ established His church (Matt. 16:18) and died for it (Acts 20:28), and that He is the head of it (Eph. 1:22-23), and organized it with elders and deacons (Acts 14:23; Titus 1:5; 1 Tim. ch. 3).
While we agreed on much in this study, there were certainly moments (like instrumental music, for example) where he balked quite a bit. But there were still enough glimmers of hope that we could teach him enough that would show him he was lost, and we could come back to topics such as that later.
Then came the red book*. Now we discussed sin (Isa. 59:1-2; Rom. 3:23; 6:23) and God’s plan of salvation (John 3:16; 14:6; Rom. 5:8; etc.). It was during this discussion that we agreed on the problem of sin and the solution to sin (Jesus Christ), but unfortunately, we came to the afore-worried impasse. As expected, the impasse came when we arrived upon a discussion of baptism.
My study partner and I showed the man Bible passage after passage that deals with the requirements for baptism for salvation (such as Acts 2:38; Romans 6:1ff; 1 Pet. 3:21; etc.). It was when we discussed Mark 16:16 that I realized our study had become unfruitful.
This verse simply records the words of Christ during His great commission: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
My partner and I pointed this out to the gentleman (along with many other verses that teach this truth), but he refused to accept that baptism is necessary for salvation.
Finally, to press the issue to a point where we could find out if we should continue our study or if we were just wasting our time, I pulled out a sheet of paper.
I asked the man kindly if he would agree with one of two statements found on the sheet of paper:
He who believes is saved and then baptized; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
OR
He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
Of course, the first is a perversion of the text of Mark 16:16, while the second is exactly what Jesus said in Mark 16:16. When I asked the man which one he believed, I knew that our prior discussion indicated that he believed the first statement, but when I asked the question, he simply said, “I agree with neither.”
You see, he knew that the first statement was the opposite of what the Bible taught, but the second statement was in disagreement with his long-held belief, even though these were the exact words of Jesus Christ.
We had reached the moment of truth, and unfortunately, this man rejected the truth. My study partner and I and the man politely wrapped up our study, and that was that.
While discouraged that someone could so easily disregard the words of Christ, we understood that this was exactly what Jesus meant when He said, “Seeing they may see and not perceive, And hearing they may hear and not understand; Lest they should turn, And their sins be forgiven them’” (Mark 4:12).
* Back to the Bible booklets 1-3 by Bobby Bates.
Chase Green is a good friend that I spent some time with in preaching school - he graduated in the class before me. Chase preaches for the Marietta Church of Christ in Marietta, Oklahoma.
Chase hosts the Everyday Christian podcast with the Scattered Abroad Network.
So sad. I pray he’ll change his mind before it’s too late.