June 18, 2022

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” 1 Corinthians 15:54

What a wonderful hope we have in our Creator and Redeemer! His promises to those who love Him uplift and sustain us in this broken world, if we truly believe Him. When we consume a steady diet of His word, we grow in confidence to lay claim to His promises, some of which begin immediately upon acceptance of Him as the Passover sacrifice, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. Praise Him for a forgiven past and peace beyond understanding! Other promises come later. We are promised immortality—access to that beautiful tree of life—upon being resurrected and taken to the heavenly Jerusalem! It is vitally important to distinguish between God’s promises that are for now and those yet future, such as the one in our opening verse.

The pillar of falsehood upon which all “new age” religions are built goes back to that first blatant lie that the serpent in the Garden of Eden told to Eve: “You shall not surely die.” (Genesis 3:4) From this we see that “new age religions” are not at all new. New age spiritualism is on the rise. Are Christians in danger of swallowing the deceptions of these teachings?

During the Dark Ages, the notion of inherent immortality made its way into the Roman church. Acceptance of this idea ushers in a veritable host of other erroneous doctrines. Today we shall briefly examine one of them: infant baptism. The “immortal soul” teaching is the springboard from which the church began to teach that babies must be baptized to guarantee their eternal safety if they were to die. They taught that unbaptized babies who died were immediately committed to live eternally in torturous flames (another error to discuss another day). Beloved, allow the Scriptures to speak for themselves:

“Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of God. Assuredly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will by no means enter it.” Luke 18:16-17

Now as [Philip and the eunuch] went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, “See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?” Then Philip said, “If you believe with all your heart, you may.” And [the eunuch] answered and said, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Acts 8:36-37 Here we see that baptism is for believers. (Unfortunately, verse 37 has been removed from many Bibles.)

A glimpse of the future heavenly city: The streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets. Zechariah 8:5