Blog
“The Oak Hills Church and Baptism”
Categories: M. W. Bassford, Meditations
Some brethren are allergic to slippery-slope arguments. Whenever they see someone arguing that departing from the pattern in one area will lead to apostasy in everything, they link to the Wikipedia page about logical fallacies, which does describe a slippery-slope argument as an informal logical fallacy.
However, we need to understand the limits of this counter-argument. All Wikipedia, etc., are saying is that a slippery-slope argument proves nothing by itself. It does not necessarily follow that because things have gotten this bad, they will continue to get worse. Sometimes, they stay the same. Sometimes, they do get worse.
Sadly, experience has taught us that the latter tends to be true when it comes to matters of Scriptural authority. Indifference to the silence of the Scriptures naturally leads to indifference to isolated commandments. That in turn naturally leads to indifference to the most important commandments of the Bible.
Over the past 75 years, we’ve seen congregations make this sad journey. They began by embracing church support of colleges and fellowship halls, even though we read nothing of such things in the word. Increasingly, such churches are now in the midst of rejecting Bible teaching on a-cappella worship and women in positions of authority. The conclusion of this process seems to be denial of the necessity of baptism for salvation.
As evidence for this proposition, consider this pamphlet produced by the Oak Hills Church of San Antonio, formerly the Oak Hills Church of Christ. I would describe this pamphlet as a model of obfuscation, designed to offer just enough to appease both those who believe that baptism is necessary for forgiveness of sins and those who do not. Though offered the opportunity to stand either with the first-century church or with the denominational world, Oak Hills appears to be doing its best to choose C) None of the Above.
However, there are a couple of sections in this pamphlet that give the game away. The first is its analysis of 1 Peter 3:21 on Page 6 (there are no page numbers; you’ll have to count). According to Oak Hills, the passage teaches that baptism is important because it shows commitment to God. Well, yes, I guess you can get that out of 1 Peter 3:21, but it is hardly the core teaching of the text!
1 Peter 3:21 is important because it says, in so many words, that baptism saves. If Oak Hills acknowledges that, they can’t say, as they do at the bottom of the page, “Please understand; it is not the act that saves us.” Of course, if you repeat Bible teaching on the saving effect of baptism, you also put a stumbling block in the way of those who don’t believe it’s important.
I was also struck by Oak Hills’ message to those who were sprinkled as infants and see no need to be immersed. They say, “If you choose not to be immersed at this time, we still welcome you as a member. We ask only that you respect our teaching position and not be divisive.” They go on to say that members who teach have to accept the church’s position on immersion. Presumably, others do not.
Hmm.
As I understand this, you can be somebody who was sprinkled as an infant, go to Oak Hills, be received as a member, appear in the church directory, be in the church band, and lead prayers, all without ever being immersed, period, let alone for the forgiveness of your sins. In other words, Oak Hills does not view Bible baptism as a necessary part of being made right with God and being added to His church. They may talk a big game about the importance of Bible baptism, but when you get right down to it, they think baptism is an extra.
In Luke 16:10, Jesus notes that he who is faithful in little will be faithful in much. Concerns about fellowship halls and orphans’ homes may strike some as rampant legalism, but ultimately, it’s about respect for the authority of the King. We can’t shrug our shoulders at that authority when it comes to matters that seem unimportant to us while still honoring it in things that we think are essential. As Oak Hills’ example proves, such a spirit easily can lead to unconcern with the things that we used to think were essential too.
