Articles
The Plain Gospel
THE PLAIN GOSPEL
(Ron Halbrook)
The Missionary Baptist Church tract on “The Plain Gospel” asks, “Are you among many today who are confused as to which religion,...denomination,...church, or...preacher is right? They cannot all be right, can they?” The tract correctly teaches the only thing that matters is “what the Bible actually says.” It is our sole authority in all matters relating to salvation and service to God (2 Pet. 1:3).
The author creates confusion when he claims, “You were born into the world with a sinful, corrupt nature....You are a sinner, and therefore you sin.” He cites 1 John 3:4 and Psalm 51:5. “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law” (1 Jn. 3:4). This shows we become sinners by transgressing the law and committing sin, not by birth or inheritance.
Psalm 51:5 says, “Behold, I was shapen in iniquity; and in sin did my mother conceive me,” just as the people on Pentecost referred to the languages “wherein we were born” (Acts 2:8). We are not born sinners nor speaking languages. We enter a world filled with languages and sin; thus, in time we learn to speak and to sin from those around us.
Sin entered the world through Adam and we followed his flawed and fatal example--“all have sinned” (Rom. 5:12). We are not born out of the way but are “gone out of the way....For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:12,23). We cannot inherit sin in our nature: “The soul that sinneth it shall die. The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father” (Ezek. 18:20). The theory of an inherited sinful nature came from John Calvin (1509-64), not from Scripture.
Once we commit sin, we are destined to suffer eternal torment with Satan and his angels in the fires of hell. The tract points out passages which show that Christ died on the cross to provide the perfect sacrifice for our salvation from sin (Isa. 53; Jn. 3:16; Rom. 5:6-8; 1 Tim. 1:15). As the writer says, “You cannot earn or merit salvation, for you only deserve hell and God's wrath.” When the tract tells how we receive the saving benefits of Christ's blood, it mentions only two conditions: faith and repentance. By omitting other Bible conditions, the tracts misleads and confuses people.
In order to receive pardon from sin, sinners outside the family of God must hear the gospel, believe it, repent of sins, confess Christ, and be baptized in water. Jesus said “all the world” must hear the gospel including this: “He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved” (Mk. 16:16). Peter told sinners to believe or “know assuredly” that Jesus is “both Lord and Christ,” and to “repent, and be baptized” (Acts 2:36-38).
When the Ethiopian believed on Christ and confessed, “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God,” Philip “baptized him” (Acts 8:35-39). Confessing Christ “with the mouth” is just as necessary as believing “with the heart” (Rom. 10:9-10). If we are to be saved by the blood of Christ, we must be “baptized into Jesus Christ”--“baptized into his death” (Rom. 6:3-4). Confession of Christ and baptism are as essential as faith and repentance.
There is no salvation outside Christ (Jn. 14:6). How does the penitent believer who seeks salvation come into Christ? “For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ” (Gal. 3:26-27). To be “baptized into Christ” is to be “baptized into one body,” to “enter into the kingdom of God,” and to be “added to the church” of Christ (1 Cor. 12:13; Jn. 3:5; Acts 2:47). In this sense, “baptism doth also now save us” (1 Pet. 3:21). That is why Saul was told, “And now why tarriest thou? arise, and be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16).
