Heaven Coach

Baptism plays an essential part in God’s plan for people to achieve heaven. The vast majority of so-called Christians reject baptism’s rightful place in God’s plan for salvation. Thus they and those they convince will miss out on heaven.
The scriptures place baptism as essential for forgiveness of sin and the world of Christianity (again so-called) reject the idea of its necessity. In the process they reject heaven.
We learn in Ephesians that there are SEVEN ONE’s and each of these is critically important to the lives of those who will find heaven.

One

God and Father of all

One

Lord, God’s Son, Jesus

One

Spirit – the Holy Spirit of God

One

Faith

One

Baptism

One

Hope of our calling
and

One

Body
The body of Christ – it is the kingdom, the kingdom not of this world, the church and it includes those obedient to the gospel of Christ and forgiveness of sins occurs in baptism.

The Seven One’s are list of the most important things in life and it includes baptism and if you want the truth you will understand the role baptism plays in God’s plan. Baptism is not an outward sign of an inward grace or something you do after you have been saved. Baptism is where you come into contact with the blood of Christ. You come in contact with the blood of the new covenant inasmuch as you were bought with a price. The price paid for the church per Acts 20.28 was the blood of Christ. Christ, Himself adds you to the church (Acts 2.47) when you obey Him, when you obey the gospel, that is you obey His death, burial and resurrection in baptism (Romans 6.3,4). The church the Lord adds you to is the kingdom, the kingdom that is not of the world. It is a spiritual kingdom, a spiritual church different than the local church, which contains those who are in Christ. You will die in your sins unless they are forgiven and in baptism you receive forgiveness of past sins.

Pride, Ego, Selfishness Placed Before God’s Truth

It is amazing how baptism has been attacked and how this war against baptism has been so effective in turning people from the truth, costing them their very souls. Perhaps, most do not realize that they honor Martin Luther and John Calvin among others more than they honor God. In utter silliness, they call baptism a work and since you cannot do any work to earn heaven only believing (a mental acceptance of Jesus) is required for salvation. Believing could be considered “a work” since it something YOU choose to do. Of course, Luther had to reject the book of James since it says faith without works is dead. Actually, he had to reject ALL OF SCRIPTURE, every principle from God in order to reach salvation by faith only. Faith and belief PROPERLY UNDERSTOOD as God defines them is all you need for salvation. The silliness referred to is how can anyone think that doing a command of God is a work wherein one could boast. A person seeking God and serious about having a successful life can look at Christ and the scriptures and will want TO DO ALL God requires being faithful until death.
Belief in God is not a mere mental acceptance of Christ, but a faith that acts in love. Do you believe in Christ, then by your actions you demonstrate that belief, that love. Oh, I believe in Christ, but I will not do what He says, I will not live in accordance with His will. Jesus says in Matthew 7.21:

Matthew 7.21

21 Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.

Jesus, sent the Holy Spirit to guide the apostles into all truth and by the Spirit of God we have God’s word, specifically the will of Christ or the new covenant, the new testament in His blood. God’s will is that you are baptized for the reason He indicates, namely the forgiveness of sins. The scriptures tie baptism to forgiveness of sins over and over again. Baptism is a form of doctrine that moves a person from being a slave to sin into a new life, describing you as a new creature, a new creature in Christ. Believing in Jesus as Lord is the beginning, but your sins were not forgiven until, in obedience, you were baptized. As 1 Peter indicates baptism now saves us, that is saves us from past sins.

1 Peter 3.20,21

20 who formerly were disobedient, when once the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
21 There is also an antitype which now saves us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ

The Holy Spirit assures the word of God comes accurately by inspiration and one thing we see recorded is the conversions of people in the first century. These are for your learning and those conversions point to the necessity of baptism. See those conversions recorded at “Conversions of the New Testament” and you can see how persons were converted in the first century, when the apostles were led by the Holy Spirit into all truth. Men and women have attacked baptism, creating something unknown to God and in the process have stolen the souls of the so-called Christian world. This whole process of developing the lies in relation to “FAITH ONLY” required a great deal of new inventions such as defining predestination different to its clear meaning, creating “once saved always saved”, creating “total inherited depravity.” One page at heaven coach directs itself to the silliness of all these human devised doctrines, read
“The Fall of Catholicism and Protestantism in One Simple Lesson.”

God’s Plan For Baptism

Lets us focus on the positive, the truth of the scriptures as opposed to the doctrines of humankind that oppose God. God, in Genesis 3.15 laid out the plan for humankind to be reconciled to Him. It was sin that caused the separation and sin needed to be forgiven or none would achieve God’s purpose. So, there is Jesus, His heel bruised as seen in his suffering and death and now there would be a way to have sin forgiven, permanently. That is, a person’s past sins could be forgiven. The apostles of Jesus awaited the Holy Spirit on that first Pentecost after the death of Christ and now the long waited answer to sin was about to be revealed. Acts 2 tells of that event, ending in Peter being asked what to do and He would say, repent and be baptized.

Acts 2.38

38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.

We then see that Jesus would add those to the church, such as were being saved. Again, they were added to His kingdom, the spiritual church. As of this time, there was no definition for a local church, but that would be revealed shortly.
Jesus was very direct through the Spirit in defining baptism’s part in the plan of salvation. Many have changed baptism to make it easy to accept and to live. Baptism, repentance and confessing Jesus for those who believe (in Jesus) are required and then you must live for Christ and the gospel unto your death. This is substantially more difficult than one time mentally accepting Jesus. The important part is not the difficulty, but that these are things God demands. God’s way to salvation is difficult and few find it (Matthew 7.13,14). There is a certain hopeful naivety in “believe and be saved forever” and that there is nothing you can do to save yourself. God’s purpose has to do with people making choices and along comes men and women after the death of Christ and the truth was delivered making it easy for you convert and join their group. Jesus says if you want to save your life you must lose it, that is live your life for Him and the gospel.

Mark 8.35,36

35 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. 
36 For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?

Giving up your life means putting away what you desire and doing what God wants you to do. Indeed, achieving heaven is for those who obey God throughout their life from their conversion forward. Paul told the Philippians to work out their own salvation with fear and trembling.

Philippians 2.12

12 Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling;

God Makes Everything Clear

Why in the world did Luther and Calvin believe they could speak for God? They end up being no better, albeit in no way as violent and cruel as the Catholicism they so aggressively opposed. In terms of souls, they are equally as destructive and their followers continued and enhanced these damaging doctrines down through the centuries. They needed to look no further then the old covenant lessons as advised by Paul in Roman 15.4.

Romans 15.4

4 For whatever things were written before were written for our learning, that we through the patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope.

Look at Cain, Nadab and Abihu, at King Saul, Naaman and hundreds of others as lessons defining God’s principles. Look at Naaman, who was told to dip seven times in the river Jordan to remove his leprosy. Naaman, with this great opportunity before him decides to argue the (God-defined) place where he is to dip seven times.

2 Kings 5.9-12

9 Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house.
10 And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
11 But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’
12 Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.

Naaman, would shortly thereafter obey God and go to the river Jordan and dip seven times. Of course, the result promised was achieved and Naaman was cured.

Naaman, like Cain, Adam and Eve and hundreds of others in the Old Testament thought bringing something different would be acceptable to God. All the time it was really just a decision to do things their way instead of God’s way. Sometimes, it may be with the best of intentions, but God is pleased when you do what He says. Like king Saul was told, it is better to obey than sacrifice and his choices and excuses cost him greatly. It is this choice to obey that defines a person’s success or failure in life. Many people want heaven, but want to also live in the world. Watering down the doctrine of Christ helps them do this, because the truth means living for Christ and that eliminates many things people want. The growth of a religious group would be very stunted if the truth were preached.
So, here it is: no substitutions to God’s will, it is better to obey than sacrifice, and especially learning to do things God’s way and EXACTLY HOW (in the details) and for the REASON God intended. Much of the error today is the result of casually assuming “this way is a good as that way” – what difference does it make. So, we see Christ sending the Holy Spirit to define salvation, and baptism is in God’s plan for the reason of forgiving sins. The religious world in its complacency calls the details of God, legalism. It is an attempt to justify a different way, but is really only disobedience. They attempt to align with Jesus in His condemnation of the Jews for their legalism. However, that was not His condemnation, but instead it was the rejection of God’s ways by their tradition. It was the teaching for doctrines, the commandments of men. When God defines how to do something, do you think that doing it His way would be condemned OR would it be counted as righteousness?

Baptism Defined

(The following is an excerpt from my book, “What Is Life All About?“)

One important example of distorting the meaning of a word is the word baptism. The word baptism in the Greek language means “to dip,” “plunge,” or “immerse” (Vine). There is another Greek word for sprinkle. We see the disciples baptizing in Aenon because there is much water there. We see the Ethiopian eunuch asking Philip after he had explained Jesus to him, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” The eunuch responds, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Then both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him.
We see Jesus being baptized not in His case for forgiveness of sins (for He had no sin), but to fulfill all righteousness and Jesus coming up out of the water. There is a relationship between Christ’s death and baptism. It is simply that Christ died, was buried, and rose from His tomb and in the process of baptism, we die to sin, are buried in a watery grave, and rise out of the water into a new life. You see those who were not baptized for the reason of having their sins forgiven, were not baptized! They have not come into a new life. How does one come into a new life if they were not baptized? At what point were their sins forgiven? We are born again (i.e. a new life, a spiritual life) of water and the Spirit.

The water is obvious and the Spirit is not so obvious. By faith, more than getting wet has occurred in your obedience. God forgave your sins in the process of obedience. Something spiritual occurred:

Romans 6.3-5

3 Or do you not know that as many of us as were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?
4 Therefore we are buried with Him through baptism into death, that just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
5 For if we have been united together in the likeness of His death, certainly we also shall be in the likeness of His resurrection.

Baptism is a burial, not a sprinkling. No man has the right to change this! The words baptism and baptize are transliterations. They are transliterated from the Greek words baptisma and baptizo, respectively. In Vine’s expository dictionary of New Testament words, we see baptisma means, “consisting of the process of immersion, submersion, and emergence” (from bapto, “to dip”). There is a separate Greek word for sprinkle, namely, rhantizo. For instance, in Hebrews 9.13,14: “For if the blood of bulls and goats and the ashes of a heifer, sprinkling [rhantizo] the unclean, sanctifies for the purifying of the flesh, how much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?” Changing the word baptism to mean sprinkling violates every principle of scripture. God has accurately defined the word baptism by its usage at the time and by the many examples of its application.

Many others who know baptism is an immersion yet not understanding its purpose exclude it as part of salvation (point in case: most Baptists). Strangely, many think of baptism as sprinkling and include it as necessary for salvation (case in point: Catholics, Lutherans). When groups make such fundamental mistakes as these, you will usually find hundreds of similarly serious errors. It is certainly a sign of false teaching when people have changed the meanings of words to fit their doctrine. Why in the world would you trust such people religiously when so much is at stake? (end of excerpt from “What Is Life All About?”)
In the book “What Is Life All About?” it is clear that although some groups require baptism, they also do not baptize for the right reason, or they baptism those who are not legitimate candidates for baptism (for instance babies and others who do not believe). It is an attack on baptism, but really an attack on God and God’s way – MOST SERIOUS!

If you understand God as He has revealed Himself, then you realize that making choices along the lines of what men and women teach versus God’s clear teaching will make it easy for God to separate the righteous from the unrighteous. God expects a lot to be worthy of heaven, worthy of the death of His Son. He expects obedience, Jesus being the author of eternal salvation to all those who obey Him. One principle from God found throughout scripture is how God resists the proud. In Matthew 23 we see this principle again stated:

Matthew 23.12

12 And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.

Can you see that choosing to refuse any of God’s commands or choosing to do what God commanded YOUR WAY is pride. It is pride versus the humility of following God’s way. Losing your life to gain it is exactly along the lines of humbly living for Jesus and the gospel. There is usually a lot to overcome to do the right thing the right way. Overcoming doctrines that have replaced the gospel meaning of baptism after having influenced so many people you know including family can be difficult. However, WHEN you know to do the right thing, DO IT!
Adam and Eve, Cain, Nadab and Abihu, Uzzah, Naaman, Ananias & Sapphira and many others decided to do things their way and they are indeed there for our learning. If you want heaven, then take serious God’s direction, demonstrating humility versus your way of doing things.

The History of Baptism

The history of baptism you need to understand is very short. In the first century people obeyed the truth and were baptized for the forgiveness of sins. At some point people began changing the mode of baptism, the reason for baptism, even placing something called original sin or inherited depravity on babies to justify baptizing infants. Here is the problem, in the first century when people obeyed God they were forgiven, they were added to the church (spiritual), the body of Christ. There is no reason to believe when God’s ways are changed that the result will be good. Do what was authorized and produced the result that Christ died to provide – salvation.
What can you say to a risen Savior if you did not obey Him in Baptism? You never were forgiven because you failed to come in contact with the blood of Christ in baptism. When you OBEY THE GOSPEL, you are obeying the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus in baptism.

NOT obeying the gospel linked directly to God’s vengeance

2 Thessalonians 1.7-9

7 and to give you who are troubled rest with us when the Lord Jesus is revealed from heaven with His mighty angels, 
8 in flaming fire taking vengeance on those who do not know God, and on those who do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
9 These shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of His power

Obeying the gospel tied directly to the judgment

1 Peter 4.17,18

17 For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? 
18 Now, “If the righteous one is scarcely saved, Where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?”

The scriptures, the gospel made known for obedience to the faith

Romans 16.25,26

25 Now to Him who is able to establish you according to my gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, according to the revelation of the mystery kept secret since the world began 
26 but now made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations, according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the faith—

The power of God to save is in the gospel

Romans 1.16

16 For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God to salvation for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek.

The power of God to save is in the gospel (Romans 1.16 above) and the gospel is the death, burial and resurrection of Christ. The power is not in the water, but in your obedience. If you failed to be immersed or were immersed for the wrong reason, then you were never buried with Christ in baptism. You never came out of the watery grave into a new life, because your sins were not forgiven. This is God’s test and in treating God’s commands as trivial you are deciding they are not important, they are not necessary and essentially God is not important in your life.

We know from Hebrews 5.9 that Jesus is the author of salvation to all those who obey Him. Do you think that obeying the gospel (beginning your life in Christ), is the end of your obedience to the doctrine of Christ? The scriptures are clear that we must be obedient unto death and who would truly love the Lord and expect to do anything less than ALL GOD COMMANDS.

In conclusion, baptism has been under attack since the first century when Paul, “marveled that you are turning away so soon from Him who called you in the grace of Christ, to a different gospel, which is not another; but there are some who trouble you and want to pervert the gospel of Christ.” I do not know if it was baptism that was being perverted, but in some way the saving message of the gospel was being changed and thus from Paul’s comments this was not acceptable and something to be accursed.