A Preacher’s Response to a Debate Request
Question: Dear church of Christ preacher; would you be willing to defend your apparent views of the necessity of baptism for salvation’s sake in open public debate with another local church leader from, say the Baptist, or some other local church?
Answer: No; I would not be willing to defend “my views” on that or anything else. Why should I want to defend or have anyone accept “my views” on anything? After all, I am just a lowly sinner saved by grace. And my humanistic, personal viewpoints are just as pointless as the Pope’s, Martin Luther’s, John Smyth’s, or anyone else’s, unless, unlike so many of their views, they are completely rooted, grounded in, and absolutely validated, without contradiction, by Scripture (II Tim. 3:16-4:5).
However, I would be absolutely delighted, honored, and very humbled to defend the gospel (Phil. 1:7) in any well-structured, public debate with any local church leader in order to present/discuss the crystal clear truth of exactly what God’s Word emphatically reveals to us about the Biblical essentiality of baptism for the forgiveness of one’s sins in order to be saved, and it’s inherent inclusion in the God-given instruction regarding “saved by grace salvation.”
But please be advised, while I would welcome nothing more, I humbly doubt it will ever happen; in decades past many great debates have often occurred between our brethren and some of our denominational friends and neighbors; and the end result was quite often that many, many people – sometimes almost whole congregations of those denominations – were Biblically converted to Christ and became members of the Lord’s church… certainly not because our brethren were any smarter or anything like that, but simply because the Scriptures have not changed (Psa. 119:89), and true seekers will always be able to easily see said truth once pointed out upon the printed, sacred page.