Texas LCMS Youth Gathering Website Link Rejects Baptismal Regeneration, by Pr. Rossow

There are five  links highlighted on the “Student page” of the Texas Lutheran youth gathering website. One of the links is to a website called ChristianAnswers.net.  The Texas District calls this a “sweet” link. I would call it a link of spiritual death. In the question and answer section on baptism this recomended site  says this:

While we should preach that all people are commanded to repent and be baptized (Acts 2:38), adding any other requirement to salvation by grace becomes “works” in disguise.

Even though numerous Scriptures speak of the importance of water baptism, adding anything to the work of the cross demeans the sacrifice of the Savior. It implies that His finished work wasn’t enough. But the Bible makes clear that we are saved by grace, and grace alone,

For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast.
—
Ephesians 2:8-9

Baptism is simply a step of obedience to the Lord following our repentance and confession of sin. Our obedience–water baptism, prayer, good works, fellowship, witnessing, etc.–issues from our faith in Christ. Salvation is not what we do, but Who we have.

Baptism is our obedient act for God and not his new birth of us? The authors of ChristianAnswers.net need to read  I Peter 3:21, Acts 2:35ff, Romans 6:1-4, Titus 3:4-5, John 3, etc.

Why are our Texas Lutheran young people being sent to a website that denies baptismal regeneration and the means of grace? Check out what the Small Catechism says about baptism. (Click page 5 on the guide on the right hand side of the link and it will take you right to the section on baptism.) How about if we send them to the Book of Concord site or to the Higher Things site?

We have argued on this site that there is a crisis of supervision in our synod.  This is not some out of the way little church website. This is the Texas District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod website for the upcoming youth conference. Who is minding the store? This is more evidence that Bapticostal-Arminianism continues to march into the church of the Lutheran Confessions.

The Rev. Dr. Timothy Rossow

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