By Harold Kemp & Reese Currie, Compass Distributors
During the years that we have been interested in ideas about God, eternity and the situation of people after death, we have come across various ideas that would fall under the heading of "theology".
Theology is a study of ideas such as these and it professes to offer explanations for things that people find difficult to understand. We have found, however, that all too often a "theology" will contain incorrect logic and will tend to deceive a person rather than provide any explanations.
While the views expressed in the following are not necessarily held by all adherents to a certain theology, we have heard them expressed by adherents of these theologies.
Some (probably most) advocates of Covenantal Theology draw a line of symbolism that they believe "proves" that baptism is necessary for salvation. This view was based on the following false logic.
In Genesis 17:10, God said to Abraham "This is My covenant which you shall keep, between Me and you and your descendants after you; Every male child among you shall be circumcised." In Colossians 2:11,12 the apostle Paul says "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ, buried with Him in baptism..."
Therefore, some Covenantal theologians say, since God always deals with His people in the same manner, the sign that has replaced circumcision is baptism and so it must be done soon after birth. And, just as a person became a partaker of the first covenant by circumcision, a person becomes partaker of the second covenant by baptism.
There are several flaws in this logic:
(1) The passage in Colossians does not say that baptism is the equivalent of circumcision.
(2) Circumcision was only performed on males. (Females too are baptized, so circumcision and baptism are markedly dissimilar.)
(3) Baptism is not performed "without hands".
(4) The passage in Colossians states that the "circumcision made without hands" is the "putting off the body of sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ".
So you can see that any relationship that can be drawn between circumcision and baptism in these verses must rely on the preconceived belief that the premise is correct, because the argumentation itself is fatally flawed.
We would agree that God has dealt differently with people during different time periods in the Bible based on covenants He made with humanity. The two major covenants are the Law covenant that He instituted with the people of Israel, and the Grace covenant He instituted through the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus Christ.
One system that attempts to interpret this is dispensational theology. We have found that not all groups implement their dispensational theology similarly. In fact, in many cases, groups have made additions to dispensational theology that are downright heretical.
The most common heresy found among dispensationalists is a belief that people are saved in a different manner in the current "dispensation". In the Old Testament (called the dispensation of the law by theologians), people were told to keep the law. In the New Testament (called the dispensation of grace - see Romans 6:14), it is claimed that all that is necessary is to "accept Christ as your Saviour."
The flaw in this logic is the fact that the second statement is simply not true. There is no such statement in the Bible as "accept Christ as your Saviour", nor can the concept be found in the Scriptures.
Now it is true that there were two main covenants between God and mankind (see Hebrews 8:7) and there are two main "dispensations" of God's goodness -- the law of Moses and the grace of Jesus Christ. However, the means of salvation is the same throughout the entire Bible -- repentance and faith in Christ. The fact that each covenant or dispensation had different features does not prove that the means of salvation is different in each one.
From the beginning of Genesis to the end of Revelation the main message that is preached to mankind is "Repent". Note Genesis 4:7, where God said to Cain, "If you do well, will you not be accepted?" The entire thrust of the law of Moses is repentance, as outlined in Exodus 20 and the books of Leviticus and Deuteronomy.
Gentiles were aware of the need to repent. When Job realized that his righteousness was not of his own doing but rather of God, he said "...I abhor myself and repent in dust and ashes." (Job 42:6) The entire thrust of the messages of the prophets of the Old Testament is "repent".
In the New Testament, the main message continues to be "repent". When Jesus began His public ministry He preached "Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand". (Matthew 4:17) When He sent His disciples out to preach they "went out and preached that people should repent". (Mark 6:12) After Jesus rose from the dead, He told His disciples to preach repentance. (Luke 24:47) The disciples preached that God "now commands all men everywhere to repent". (Acts 17:30)
Repentance is mentioned all through the epistles and finally, in Revelation 22:14 we read "Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life..."
Also, throughout the entire Bible, it is made clear that those who truly repent receive faith in Jesus Christ and that this is the means of salvation. The Saviour was not known as Jesus in the Old Testament but it is clear that repentant people came to believe in a Saviour.
When Job was in the midst of his trials, he said "...I know that my Redeemer lives, and He shall stand at last on the earth." (Job 19:25)
David said "The Lord said to my Lord, 'Sit at My right hand, till I make Your enemies Your footstool." (Psalm 110:1) A literal translation of the first phrase would be "Jehovah said to my master". So David knew of the existence of a "Master" or "Lord" who was distinct from the Father. In Matthew 22:42-45, Jesus verifies the fact that David was talking about Him.
In some of the messages that the disciples preached, they mentioned faith as well as repentance. (Acts 20:21) And in conversations with people and letters written to people they made it clear that salvation is based on faith and faith alone.
William Branham was a Pentecostal dispensationalist. He was also a fake faith healer, who maintained that the very Personage of God is "dispensational" in nature, meaning that the Father ceased to exist when Jesus was on earth, and when Jesus returned to heaven, He ceased to exist as the Son but changed "dispensations" into the Holy Spirit.
This is totally insane. The Bible is consistent throughout in maintaining the simultaneous existence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We have already shown with Psalm 110:1 that God and Jesus existed simultaneously, and you have to go no farther than Genesis 1:2 to realize that the Holy Spirit existed in the beginning just as He exists today.
Nevertheless, William Branham enjoyed wide acceptance among even Trinitarian Pentecostals like the Pentecostal Assemblies of Canada, which hosted him on "faith healing" tours. It is amazing how little your theology matters when your hucksterism works to put people in the pews. (He is still fondly eulogized by many in the charismatic movement.)
It is easier to conceal a lie by making it a half-truth. Yes, there are two major covenants between God and man, this is an observable fact found in the Bible, but not all elements of the old covenant has a reciprocal element in the new covenant. The Bible says that the new covenant is better in Hebrews 8:6-7: "But now He has obtained a more excellent ministry, inasmuch as He is also Mediator of a better covenant, which was established on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, then no place would have been sought for a second."
If the new covenant is better, then it is impossible that all the elements in the old covenant have a reciprocal element in the new covenant; otherwise, the quality of the two covenants would have to be the same.
There are also various identifiable "dispensations", with two major ones, the dispensation of Law and the dispensation of Grace. The changing of dispensations does not lead to a total overhaul of the means of salvation, which is repentance and faith. Otherwise, this would have been plainly recorded somewhere, but it is not. Instead, the teaching on salvation remains consistent throughout the Bible.
The last thing we will say about theology is this: It seems an inordinate amount of time is spent learning and teaching theology rather than teaching what the Bible itself says. More attention is given to the authors of these theologies, like Luther, Calvin, Ariminius, and so forth, than the true author and finisher of our faith, the Lord Jesus Christ (Hebrews 12:2). More people look to the Reformation of the 1500's for their definition of the true church, complete with its evil persecutions (that includes "reformed" Protestants as well as Catholics) than to the first century church. It is sad that so much effort is misdirected and so many are led astray by philosophy and ignore what the Bible really says. Colossians 2:8 warns, "Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ."
Theology: An Opportunity for Deception? Copyright © 1998 by Compass Distributors
All Scripture quotations taken from The Holy Bible: New King James Version (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson Inc.), 1982