To continue with my study and summary of the Myths of Christianity that the Book of Mormon Refutes (see myth #1 here, myth #2 here, myth #3 here), this next myth seems kind of singular at first glance, but the impacts of having lost this plain and precious truth have led to many false doctrines that have negatively impacted Christianity in expansive ways. For almost two thousand years Christian doctrine taught that baptism as a practice began during New Testament times and was a symbolic witness of the "new gospel" of Jesus Christ. This was taught in spite of Old Testament reference to the concepts of baptism in the stories and symbols of the scriptural text.
The Book of Mormon provides the clear critical link that weaves a golden thread through the Old Testament, New Testament, and Last-day Restoration of all things (Acts 3:21). The Book of Mormon record makes clear that the ordinance and covenant of baptism was practiced under the Mosaic Law, before the coming of Christ, and the practice and purpose of the ordinance of baptism is described in greater detail in the Book of Mormon. (Mosiah 18) I will detail the important ways the Book of Mormon clarifies the essential nature of baptism and the proper observance of the ordinance in a future essay, but just the clear teaching and practice of baptism in the ancient text of the Book of Mormon is stunning in its implications on Christian teaching.
The ancient Christian church lost many of the plain and precious truths of Christ's gospel as taught in the apostolic age, and the loss of this essential truth, that baptism is an ordinance of Christ's atonement practiced among God's people as symbol of their covenant with God long before Christ's birth, had the effect of convincing the Christian theologians to consider all the ages of men before Jesus Christ's earthly mission to be lost to salvation. A confusing prospect considering some of the beloved prophets who lived before Christ, such as Noah, Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah, to mention only a few who were clearly beloved by God.
A modern backlash against this concept, that denies the mercy and justice of God, has led some modern Christian teachers to falter in another way. Instead of accepting that baptism is necessary for salvation, some Christian teachers have chosen to reorient what is necessary for men to receive salvation through Christ's atonement; namely, nothing is needed on our part. Christian teaching has gone from one of strict observance to what Jesus said was necessary for salvation, to teachings that go so far to the other extreme as to say that there is no spiritual work or act of obedience that is necessary for salvation. This attempt to correct the harsh implications of former false doctrines of Christian antiquity denies the clear words of Christ and places the souls of men in danger in another way.
Jesus was clear about the essential nature of baptism when he taught Nicodeamus that "except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." (John 3:5) The emphasis that Jesus Christ placed on the essential role of baptism for the salvation of men, was most apparent when he began his mission by submitting himself to baptism by one having authority to baptize, a Levitical priest known as John the Baptist. Christ declared even his need to be baptized that he might "fulfill all righteousness." (Matthew 3:15)
The false application of this truth is astonishing; if Adam, Noah, Moses, Isaiah and the many faithful followers in the ages before Christ were not baptized, if they didn't enter into a covenant relationship with Christ, they cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. The modern alternative is to dismiss the commandment of Christ to be baptized as a necessary observance for salvation in an attempt to open some hope that they are not so cruelly damned, but this teaching is no less perilous to the souls of men.
(This line of reasoning may have you asking, what about those who live and die without knowledge of Christ, they are lost. The Book of Mormon helps clarify doctrines briefly mentioned in the New Testament that reveal how Christ's plan is able to reach even those who lived without a knowledge of Christ. This topic will take its own essay.)
At least the Christian theologians of antiquity were attempting to follow Christ's clear command that all be baptized, unfortunately, their belief that no one could be baptized before Christ and thus cutting them off from God's salvation unravels all that God had established from Adam down to Christ. It places the many who worshiped the God of Israel in the performances of the Law of Moses, and who understood that the law drew them to Christ through the promise of his atoning sacrifice for sin, in a state of everlasting damnation. The thought is simply astonishing and has required many Christians over the ages to suspend their own reason, or to conclude that God was not a merciful God.
Another false teaching of Christian antiquity that grew out of this idea, that the essential principles and ordinances of salvation such as faith in Christ and baptism did not exist prior to Christ's coming in the meridian of time, was that that the God of the Old Testament is not the God of the New Testament. All of the false teachings that have come because of the missing truths that Christ was known and worshiped anciently and that baptism and ordinances of the atonement were given anciently, truly baffle me. It is simply impossible for me to believe that the Old Testament prophets, so beloved by Christians as part of our religious foundation, could of come from a people who didn't worship the one true God; and even harder to accept the idea that faithful followers of God are cut off from him forever because he placed them on earth prior to the coming of his Son.
(Who is the God of the Old Testament? Is the God of the Old Testament Jesus Christ? This question I will cover in more detail in a future essay about things the Book of Mormon clarifies)
The Book of Mormon not only establishes the reality of ancient worship of the principles and ordinances of Christ, such as faith, repentance, and baptism, but it tells the story of a branch of Israel who live the Law of Moses with the understanding that the law is a type and symbol of things to come. It makes it clear with no room for confusion that all of God's children, living before or after the atonement of Christ, are saved through faith in Christ and observance of the principles and ordinances of His gospel as given to them in their time.
Nephi, the Book of Mormon prophet, living 600 year before the coming of Christ gives this enlightening testimony of Christ:
"And, notwithstanding we believe in Christ, we keep the Law of Moses, and look forward with steadfastness unto Christ, until the law shall be fulfilled. For, for this end was the law given; wherefore the law hath become dead unto us, and we are made alive in Christ because of our faith; yet we keep the law because of the commandments. And we talk of Christ, we rejoice in Christ, we preach of Christ, we prophesy of Christ, and we write according to our prophecies, that our children may know to what source they may look for a remission of their sins. Wherefore, we speak concerning the law that our children may know the deadness of the law; and they, by knowing the deadness of the law, may look forward unto that life which is in Christ, and know for what end the law was given. And after the law is fulfilled in Christ, that they need not harden their hearts against him when the law ought to be done away." (2 Nephi 25:24-27)
The same Nephi gives this ancient teaching of the place of baptism in salvation:
"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I know that if ye shall follow the Son, with full purpose of heart, acting no hypocrisy and no deception before God, but with real intent, repenting of your sins, witnessing unto the Father that ye are willing to take upon you the name of Christ, by baptism—yea, by following your Lord and your Savior down into the water, according to his word, behold, then shall ye receive the Holy Ghost; yea, then cometh the baptism of fire and of the Holy Ghost... Wherefore, do the things which I have told you I have seen that your Lord and your Redeemer should do; for, for this cause have they been shown unto me, that ye might know the gate by which ye should enter. For the gate by which ye should enter is repentance and baptism by water; and then cometh a remission of your sins by fire and by the Holy Ghost. And then are ye in this strait and narrow path which leads to eternal life; yea, ye have entered in by the gate; ye have done according to the commandments of the Father and the Son; and ye have received the Holy Ghost, which witnesses of the Father and the Son, unto the fulfilling of the promise which he hath made, that if ye entered in by the way ye should receive." (2 Nephi 31:13-18)
To know that God is truly "the same yesterday, today, and forever and the way is prepared for all men form the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him," (1 Nephi 10:18) is such a profound comfort and joy. To know that the God of this world is Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of our Father in Heaven, is the beginning of coming to truly know God. To witness of Christ and to dispel the confusion of false doctrines that have come about because of plain and precious truths lost from the translations of the Bible, is the primary purpose of God in bringing forth the Book of Mormon in these last days. "This is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent." (John 17:3) Joseph Smith said that "the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book." Truly we must know God more perfectly to come close to Him and the Book of Mormon refuting of false teachings and clarifying teachings the Book of Mormon contains are astonishing in their breadth and scope.
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