Baptism: Sign, Symbol, Separation

A word about baptism

You have probably heard the expression that “Baptism is the outward expression of the inward change.” In one sense that is very true. Baptism, or being immersed in water, follows a person’s accepting Christ as their Savior.

Jesus is quoted as saying; “He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Mark 16:15-16 NIV. In these verses Jesus explains the sequence. Belief first then baptism. Baptism is linked to believing or to saving faith in Christ. However, Jesus does not say that a person who believes but is not baptized is condemned.

The classic example of a person in the New Testament believing but not being baptized is the thief on the cross who was dying along with Jesus. The Savior promised the believing man, on that very day, he would be with Jesus in Paradise. This man is one of the few “non baptized” exceptions in the Bible. In the book of Acts, which records the beginning of the church, every time a person is converted, baptism follows. The first disciples of Jesus took baptism very seriously.

Both Peter and Paul, writing in the New Testament pointed to an Old Testament example to explain the significance of believer’s baptism.

Peter wrote to the church saying: “After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (I Peter 3:19-21 NIV)

During the time the ark was being built, Noah, the “preacher of righteousness” was saved by his faith, however, not until the floods came and the old way was destroyed, was Noah and his family separated from the sin and evil of the day. The water of baptism does not cleanse from sin, only the blood of Jesus can do that. Going through the water signifies the separation from the old way of sin and death.

Paul further explains this in his letter to the church in Corinth: “For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea.” (I Corinthians 10:1-2 NIV)

Paul reminds the church that the children of Israel were in bondage in Egypt. They were saved from the angel of death by putting the lamb’s blood on their doorposts and lintels. It was not until Moses led the people through the Red Sea in a symbol of baptism, that they were finally freed from the grip of the pharaoh and the slavery of the old life.

In these two pictures, the apostles give us a rationale for baptism; it is not for salvation, we are saved by grace through faith alone. Baptism separates us from the former life of slavery and sin. We are free to follow Christ, escaping the dominion of sin and satan. Therefore baptism is both the act and the symbol of separation from the old life. Baptism is an important step of obedience for the Christ follower.

When my wife and I were in Japan as missionaries, we would often hear Japanese people say that they believed in Christ but were not yet baptized. For them, baptism was the line of demarcation. Often it meant that they would be disowned by their family and cut out of the family line. It meant that they could no longer honor their ancestors or worship at the family “god shelf.” These Japanese clearly knew the implications of baptism and taking a stand for Christ and, sadly, many could not make that step of discipleship.

Today baptism is a marvelous picture of our lives in Christ. As we are standing in the water we stand in the name of the One who created us; The Father. We are brought into the water and covered by it in identification with the Son who died for us and was buried. Then we come out of the water and are raised in new life in the Spirit. We are baptized in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In some ways, baptism is like the marriage ceremony. People can enter into the marriage covenant (salvation) and not consummate the marriage immediately (baptism.) Is the person married? Of course, yet it is only in one sense. The fullness of the covenant is shared in the act of marriage and becoming one flesh. Baptism is an important part of the salvation covenant for the Christ follower.

Yes, Baptism is a symbol and a sign of the inward change Christ has brought into the heart that is yielded to Him. However, baptism goes beyond the symbolism and is a very real step of faith that obedience to Christ requires ( if at all humanly possible.) Baptism is not optional for the believer; it is not just a nice thing to do. Baptism sets us apart from the old way and in a very real and tangible way separates us and delivers us from the former kingdom of darkness into the Kingdom of Light and Life in Christ.

Ecoterrorism- The Green Machine

What’s wrong with the green machine? Dr. Mark vonEhrenkrook

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1

The “green machine” is a reference to radical environmentalism. Today there is an ideology and philosophy that is taking on religious proportions. In fact, the ecological movement has become a religion of secularism. As a religion, the environmental movement is challenging mainstream Christianity, Western capitalism and even humanism.

The movement brings together a wide variety of different philosophies including Mother earth adherents, anarchists, ecofeminists, animal rights activists, pagans, Wiccans and anti-western protesters. Radical environmentalism encourages the use of methods legal and illegal to sabotage and stop those events and policies that they deem counter to their beliefs.

Groups have included Greenpeace, Earth Liberation Front, Earth First and the Earth Liberation Army to name a few. The groups have grown in number and audacity from tree-hugging sit-ins, tree spiking, and releasing caged animals to ecoterrorism, bombing and “ecotage.” They seek to “monkeywrench” through direct means both the activity and economy of such things as road building, cutting trees, mining and suburban building.

Some people recognize that Radical environmentalism; the green machine, is really a zealous religion that seeks to protect the ecosystem, especially from man’s intrusions.

This movement has also been called, “the green dragon” by conservatives. A counter movement, “Resisting the Green Dragon” focuses on educating Christians to the dangers of extreme ecology. They seek to expose environmentalism’s “false world view, substitute religion, poor science, misguided economics, and dangerous political aims.” Their 12 part series also “demonstrates how environmentalism threatens parents’ ability to pass on the Christian faith to their children, the sanctity of human life, the well-being of everyone but especially of the world’s poorest, and basic human liberties.”

In one lecture from the Resisting the Green Dragon series, entitled, From Captain Planet to Avatar: the Seduction of Our Youth, Michael Farris, the founder of the Home School Legal Defense Association shows how movies, television, the mainstream media and the internet are all being used to indoctrinate children into radical environmental philosophy.

He points out how the movie, Avatar, with the premise that man has destroyed the earth and is now branching out to plunder other planets as well, is a thinly disguised religious film encouraging earth based philosophy and a pantheistic world view. In this religion, mother earth is god and people must serve her and protect her at all costs. We hear terms like the goddess earth and mother nature used to personify the creation and lift it to the status of deity.

The religion of earth seems to be acceptable today in our schools and public institutions. People are indoctrinated and regulated by laws, in the efforts to “Go green” and to save the planet. Even unsuspecting Christians are sucked into the vortex of this false religion in their concern for environmental issues. Most people do not even suspect the underlying hatred for human intervention onto the creation.

The religious fervor of the environmental zealots is further fueled by their science and research. Many will remember the movie, “An Inconvenient Truth” that former vice president, Al Gore produced. Even though a judge ruled that there were at least nine errors in the film, Gore did receive an Oscar and the Nobel prize for calling attention to the issue of “global warming.”

Although global warming’s causal relationship to human intervention has been inconclusive, it is still used as a scare tactic today and is also the basis for such national policies as CO2 emissions and tree harvesting. In the end, the bottom line for many radical environmentalists may not be just their hatred for the human race as much as it is their love of money.

As we step back and take a look at the green machine, the religious fervor and the diverse groups that are joining the “church of earth” we notice some trends and similarities. The devaluing of human life over plant and animal life is a degradation of the human life. Zero population growth adherents as well as abortionists and other groups see man as the biggest culprit in such ecological issues as global warming. Man is the problem. One protest signboard read: “Save the planet, kill yourself.” When animals are elevated over man, we see a system that is totally out of control.

Much of this is rooted in evolutionary theory. That the earth produced the first life (Where the earth came from is not considered) and after earth created life, man rose to the status of king of the jungle. Man is no better than pond scum, because that is where he came from. Man has a responsibility to mother nature to leave the smallest footprint of his existence when he leaves.

The roots of this modern movement are solidly fixed in evolutionary theory. In the Darwinian model, humans are no more special than any other fellow animal. It is the earth that births all life, not God. There is almost a hatred for mankind and all the ills of pollution and global warming are a direct cause of man’s “survival of the fittest” urge.

So what should the informed Christian response should be? Here are three, even more inconvenient truths that should shape the eco dialogue among Christians:

Truth #1: The earth is the Lord’s.

A Christ-follower’s motivation for caring for the planet? It belongs to God.

The earth is the LORD’s, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it; 2for he founded it upon the seas and established it upon the waters.

Psalm 24:1-2 (New International Version)

Yours, O LORD, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty and the splendor, for everything in heaven and earth is yours. Yours, O LORD, is the kingdom; you are exalted as head over all. 1 Chronicles 29:11 (NIV)

Who has a claim against me that I must pay? Everything under heaven belongs to me. Job 41:11 (NIV)

16For by him all things were created: things in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or powers or rulers or authorities; all things were created by him and for him. 17He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. 18And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy. 19For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, 20and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross. Colossians 1:16

Truth #2: Believers are stewards of God’s creation. A steward is someone entrusted with another’s wealth or property and charged with the responsibility of managing it in the owner’s best interest.

26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” 27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.”

29Then God said, “I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground—everything that has the breath of life in it—I give every green plant for food.” And it was so. Genesis 1: 26-30

Genesis 2:15 15The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it

Jesus: “Again, it will be like a man going on a journey, who called his servants and entrusted his property to them.” Matthew 25:14 (NIV)

Psalm 8:4-8 (NIV) what is man?

“To rule” frequently carries with it the obligation of being compassionate in that rule and not to exploit or misuse that which you are ruling over.(See Leviticus 25:43, 46, 53)

Truth # 3: Man is eternal, the earth is temporal. One day, it is all going to burn.

Hebrews 12:27 The words "once more" indicate the removing of what can be shaken--that is, created things--so that what cannot be shaken may remain.

2 Peter 3:7, 10-13

By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men… 10 But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare. 11 Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives 12 as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. 13 But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.

Revelation 21:1 Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.

Some action steps we need to make as responsible stewards:

1. Be knowledgeable about the philosophy behind the green machine and be ready to give an answer for the hope that you have.

2. Take seriously the responsibility of being God’s steward over the earth and all that it contains.

3. Do your part to reduce, reuse and recycle.

Resources:

As a biblically orthodox Christian organization EEN totally rejects nature worship and pantheism. Nothing is clearer in Scripture: we are to worship only the Creator - never His creation…At the same time that we condemn nature worship, we must not let our zeal to avoid idolatry prevent us from our biblical call to care for all of creation. Indeed, one cannot fully worship the Creator and at the same time destroy His creation, which was brought into being to glorify him. Worshiping the Creator and caring for creation is all part of loving God. They are mutually reinforcing activities. It is actually unbiblical to set one against the other. www.CreationCare.org

We hope “Loving the Least of These” will be a useful tool for the evangelical community in considering how to respond to the biblical mandates to care for creation and for the poor. www.nae.net/lovingtheleastofthese

Dr. Fred Van Dyke, Between Heaven and Earth, Christian Prospectives on Environmental Stewardship.

Richard Gasaway, An Inconvenient Purpose: Linking Godly Stewardship and Alternative Energy.

“Without doubt one of the greatest threats to society and the church today is the multifaceted environmentalist movement. Although its reach is often subtle, there isn’t an aspect of life that it doesn’t seek to force into its own mold.” www.resistingthegreendragon.com/

We destroy speculations and arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God and we take captive every thought in subjection to Christ. II Cor 10:5

Christmas Bells

As I sit here in front of my computer I am listening to Christmas songs on my Itunes. I just noticed that I have downloaded 221 different Christmas hymns and songs. I really like the music of Christmas as you can probably tell. I have several “favorite” songs, however, one of my most favorite songs is the poem by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. His poem, “Christmas Bells” was written in the middle of the Civil War on Christmas day 1863.

Longfellow had lost his wife two years earlier in a tragic fire. He was also burned trying to save her. He was so badly burned he could not attend her funeral and he grew his famous beard to hide the scars on his face, yet he never was able to hide the scars on his heart. (Eighteen years later he was still mourning her death, writing that he was “inwardly bleeding to death.”) He was further devastated when during this particular Christmas season, he was informed that his son Charles had been wounded in the Battle of New Hope Church.

In his pain and despair, and in the middle of a national crisis, this great poet and man of God looked for signs of hope. Initially the sound of the familiar Christmas Bells only added to his pain and confusion. But then, God used these bells to remind him of the true message of Christmas and to give him the Hope, Peace, and Joy he was seeking.

Longfellow will be remembered by such wonderful poems as “The Song of Hiawatha”. “The Children’s Hour” “The Courtship of Miles Standish” and the “Village Blacksmith.” For me, however, I will always treasure this great poem, song and marvelous Christmas message:

I Heard the Bells on Christmas Day

Their old familiar carols play,

And wild and sweet the words repeat

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

I thought how, as the day had come,

The belfries of all Christendom

Had rolled along the unbroken song

Of peace on earth, good will to men.

And in despair I bowed my head:

"There is no peace on earth," I said,

"For hate is strong and mocks the song

Of peace on earth, good will to men."

Then pealed the bells more loud and deep:

"God is not dead, nor doth he sleep;

The wrong shall fail, the right prevail,

With peace on earth, good will to men."

Till, ringing singing, on its way,

The world revolved from night to day,

A voice, a chime, a chant sublime,

Of peace on earth, good will to men!

The Pac Rim

Wierd, Wacky and Wonderful, Washington state is all of these. I am fortunate to be able to call this my home.

Im Baaaaaaaack

Hello fellow blog persons. I have been doing some work on the Jovita website and I wanted to link to my blogsite. So here we are again. I am going to be posting more frequently now. Thanks for your interest. Mark

Pierce County Billboards

My daughter, Amanda is on billboards around the Puget Sound area. Here is the artwork. The photo was taken by her friend Cassie Creeley. If you see one of them, please leave a post with the nearest intersection. Thanks- Dr. J.

Pictures of Spring

Now that I have discovered there is someone in cyberspace, I am going to begin to post to this blog. Thanks for your encouragement. Here is our Seattle Spring, taken after Easter! Dr. J.