“WHAT ABOUT THE UNBAPTIZED?”

“Jesus answered, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the Kingdom of God” (John 3:5).
Members and Ministers of Christian Churches/Churches of Christ are often criticized, accused of being legalistic, unspiritual, unloving, and teaching “baptismal regeneration” (that salvation is by the mere act of water baptism apart from faith), because we preach the Biblical injunctions requiring baptism (Matt. 28: 18-20, Mk. 16: 16, Jn. 3: 5, Acts 2: 38, etc.) and insist that Scriptural baptism is total immersion. We are accused of being especially unkind and judgmental toward Pedobaptists (infant sprinklers), and making of baptism an “absolute” in a sense God never intended. Alexander Campbell, renowned preacher of the 19th Century whom God raised up to help complete the Protestant Reformation by a more complete restoration of New Testament Christianity, expressing his “opinion” (Note!) on this subject in his outstanding and remarkable book, “The Christian System”, explains well what most of our churches and preachers believe concerning the unimmersed. He writes:

“George Whitefield, writing on John 3: 5, says, “Does not this verse urge the absolute necessity of water baptism? Yes, when it is to be had. But how God will deal with persons unbaptized, we cannot tell.” I say with him, we cannot tell with certainty. But I am of the opinion that when a neglect proceeds from a simple mistake or sheer ignorance, and when there is no aversion, but a will to do everything the Lord commands, the Lord will admit into the Everlasting Kingdom those who by reason of this mistake never had the testimony of God assuring them of pardon or justification, and consequently never did fully enjoy the salvation of God on earth. But I will say with Timothy Dwight, the renowned President of Yale University, that “he who, understanding the nature and authority of this institution, refuses to be baptized, will never enter the visible nor invisible Kingdom of God. He who persists in this rebellious act against the authority of Christ will never belong to His Kingdom.”… Infants, idiots, deaf and dumb persons, innocent pagans wherever they can be found, with all the pious Pedobaptists, we commend to the mercy of God. But such of them as willfully despise this salvation, and who, having the opportunity to be immersed for the remission of their sins, willfully despise or refuse; we have little hope for them.

(Alexander Campbell – Adapted).

To our Restoration forefathers baptism was not so much the means by which we procure the forgiveness of sins (that is accomplished by the blood of Christ), but the means by which we appropriate it as God’s gift and by which God assures us of pardon and enables us to enjoy the fullness of salvation’s blessings! The “neglect of baptism by simple mistake or sheer ignorance by those who nevertheless, have a will to do everything the Lord commands” may hinder a man’s full enjoyment and assurance of his salvation, but not deny it. That, however, does not mean that any who have access to the truth and opportunities to be Scripturally immersed are excused from doing it! Far from it! “Therefore, to him who knows to do good and does not do it, to him it is sin” (James 4: 17). And those who stubbornly refuse the ordinance of Christ in baptism stand squarely with the Pharisees and lawyers who rejected John’s baptism: “And when all the people heard Him, even the tax collectors justified God, having been baptized with the baptism of John. But the Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God for themselves, not having been baptized by him” (Lk. 7: 29, 30).
We do not judge men. We do not excuse men. We do not raise false hopes. We merely repeat Jesus’ command to be immersed in His Name for the remission of sins, the gift of the Holy Spirit, and the hope of eternal life! God is a just and merciful God. He will judge our responses. Or our failures to do so.

Larry Atkin, Preacher