{"id":3776,"date":"2016-05-22T07:32:13","date_gmt":"2016-05-22T07:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3776"},"modified":"2016-05-22T07:32:13","modified_gmt":"2016-05-22T07:32:13","slug":"the-answer-of-a-good-conscience-toward-god","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/?p=3776","title":{"rendered":"The answer of a good conscience toward God"},"content":{"rendered":"

The answer of a good conscience toward God<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bill Green was a faithful member of the church I formerly pastored in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was retired from secular employment when the church called me to be their pastor. He therefore requested permission to accompany me to conferences and preaching engagements. I gladly consented. He and I spent many hours in sweet fellowship during those trips.<\/p>\n

On one such occasion, Bill mentioned his first profession of faith. He was at the time of that profession a very young lad. Bill professed his faith at the end of a certain preacher\u2019s message, and was subsequently baptized upon that profession of faith.<\/p>\n

On the occasion of my conversation with Bill, he told me that he whole-heartedly believed and delighted in the gospel and the Jesus I preached. But he also had come to realize that the message he had heard in his youth was diametrically opposed to what I preached, for it was \u201ca different gospel\u201d of \u201canother Jesus\u201d (2 Corinthians 11:4<\/a>). He also realized that whoever preaches such false doctrine is worthy of being \u201caccursed\u201d (Galatians 1:6-9<\/a>), and that no one is by such false doctrine saved. He also realized that Christian baptism is \u201cthe answer of a good conscience toward God\u201d (1 Peter 3:21<\/a>), and that his former \u201cbaptism\u201d was invalid because in it he had professed and confessed a false gospel of a false Jesus, and that he had since then been saved from it.<\/p>\n

Bill therefore requested I baptize him. I gladly consented. He in his baptism gave \u201cthe answer of a good conscience toward God\u201d.<\/p>\n

Many other persons have had a similar experience. They were nominal Christians (i.e., in name only) when they were blessed by divine grace to hear and believe the gospel of the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. They therefore become convinced of the invalidity of their former \u201cbaptism\u201d. They realize that \u201cthe answer of a good conscience toward God\u201d cannot be expressed in a sacrament administered to an infant (Acts 8:36f<\/a>), or of one believing he is not saved until he is baptized (see\u00a0Acts 16:30-33<\/a>), or of one heeding the message of a preacher not sent by Christ (see Jeremiah ch.31, especially vv.1f, 21, 32), or of one relying on the efficacy of his own \u201cfreewill\u201d in salvation (see\u00a0John 1:12<\/a>;\u00a05:40<\/a>;\u00a06:63-65<\/a>), or of one boasting of works he performed to merit salvation (see\u00a0Ephesians 2:8f<\/a>), or of one believing baptism to be \u201cthe removal of the filth of the flesh\u201d (1 Peter 3:21<\/a>), or of one believing baptism to be the means of obtaining \u201ca good conscience toward God\u201d (ibid), or of one trusting in \u201ca different gospel\u201d of \u201canother Jesus\u201d. They therefore desire to be baptized \u2013 not rebaptized, but Scripturally baptized.<\/p>\n

In this baptism they profess \u201cthe answer of a good conscience toward God\u201d. Daniel Parks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The answer of a good conscience toward God Bill Green was a faithful member of the church I formerly pastored in Louisville, Kentucky, USA. He was retired from secular employment when the church called me to be their pastor. He therefore requested permission to accompany me to conferences and preaching engagements. I gladly consented. He […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,61,45],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-author-daniel-parks","category-believers-assurance","category-gospel-ordinances"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3777,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3776\/revisions\/3777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.shoalhavengospelchurch.org.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}