#-994 Baptism a Cardinal Doctrine?
April 17, 2018Hello Dr. Craig.
I am a Christian and enjoy your work very much.
The other day I listened to your video, "What About Baptism?"
This is a great video and the different beliefs concerning baptism are very well explained. I just have a problem with the very end. Craig says that baptism “...is not a cardinal doctrine that need divide us.” This I disagree with.
There are some that believe that one must be baptized in order to receive salvation. No excuses or any other options. Must means must without equivocation. How can we agree to disagree with such teaching?
Paul writes in Galatians 1:6-9 that there is only one gospel. Not two. Therefore, either one has to be baptized to receive salvation, or one doesn't. And if one doesn't need to be baptized for salvation, then proponents of baptismal regeneration are promotion a second, false gospel, which cannot bring about salvation.
Thank you.
Chris
United States
Dr. craig’s response
A
Although I myself do not believe that water baptism is a means of saving grace and therefore necessary to salvation, as many of the Church Fathers believed, I am quite willing to work and fellowship with Christians who disagree. Why should we allow our disagreement on such a seemingly minor issue to divide us?
Since I am baptized and think, along with the New Testament authors, that every Christian should be baptized, those who think that baptism is necessary to salvation should have no problem with me. So should I separate myself from them because they, although baptized like me, think that baptism is necessary for salvation? They’re wrong, but is their error so serious that I must break fellowship with them? Why?
Your answer is that “proponents of baptismal regeneration are promotion [sic] a second false gospel,” which, if true, would indeed be grounds for separation. But I think that you have misunderstood the sacramentalists’ point of view. Those who believe in baptismal regeneration do not think that baptism is a meritorious work which we perform, whereby we obtain salvation. Rather the sacraments are mere means of grace, like hearing the Gospel preached or reading the New Testament. These are just channels through which the grace of God reaches us. So while I think that God’s saving grace comes to us in manifold ways and is not restricted to the typical sacraments, those who do so believe, while in error, are hardly to be regarded as false brethren.
- William Lane Craig