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"He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall
be damned. And these signs shall follow them that believe . . . . . demons . . . . . tongues
. . . . . serpents . . . . . deadly thing . . . . . sick . . . . ." (Mark 16: 16-18).
The reader will note that on either side of the words "shall be saved" stand two signs,
thus:--
FIRST SIGN.--The sign of baptism (Mark 16: 16). "Shall be saved."
SECOND SIGN.--"The signs following" (Mark 16: 20).
The baptism of Mark 16: cannot be introduced into the church ministered to by Paul
without havoc being caused therein. Many who hold to water baptism to-day, and who
think they hold to Mark 16:, do no such thing, but reverse the order given. Most
Baptists believe and teach that when a person believes and is saved he should be
baptized. Mark 16:, however, puts baptism before salvation: "He that believeth and is
baptized shall be saved."
Moreover, we have no right to substitute any other word for "shall" in what follows:
"These signs shall follow them that believe", for these signs did follow, as
Acts 28: 1-10 clearly shows. They do not follow now, and if Mark 16: be truth for
the times, we are without scriptural evidence for our salvation.
We find the apostle Paul baptizing during the period covered by his freedom in the
Acts (Acts 16: 15 and 33; 18: 8), but the inspired language of I Cor. 1: 17 reveals a
condition and a ministry quite different from that exercised by the twelve. Peter certainly
could not say with truth: "Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel."
Whether there is a reference to water baptism in Rom. 6: 3, 4 we will not discuss
here; suffice it for us, that when we read the great epistle of the Mystery, we discover but
one baptism acknowledged and permitted. If that one baptism of Eph. 4: 5 be water,
then the church of the One Body is destitute of the baptism of the Spirit. Instead of being
blessed with all spiritual blessings, the chief means of entering into those blessings is
absent. This, however, is not the case, for in that seven-fold unity of the Spirit there are
found three pairs on either side of the one Lord, and just as one hope is balanced by
one faith, so one baptism is balanced by one Spirit. Colossians therefore--which is an
epistle of the same dispensation as that of Ephesians--does not speak of baptism in
water, but of that baptism of the Spirit whereby the believer is identified and incorporated
with Christ:--
"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through the faith of
the operation of God, Who hath raised Him from the dead" (Col. 2: 12).
Alford's remark on the word for "buried" here is:--
"Buried together, i.e., `when you were buried', the aorist part, as so often, is
contemporary with the preceding verb."
This, therefore, would lead us to read:--