Mark 16:16 – Does Jesus teach that water baptism is an element of salvation?

If one studies…you will know that Messiah never teaches an alternative to repentance and “faith” as key to salvation…”belief” in Messiah by faith is what engenders covenant with the Father (John 3). For instance, many legalists, charasmatic deceived, quote Mark 16:16 as a proof text that Jesus espoused water baptism as an element of salvation.

16 “The one who has believed and has been baptized will be saved; but the one who has not believed will be condemned.” Mark 16:16 (NASB)

First of all, Mark 16:9-20 is questionable as “inspired” Scripture as it’s not found in early manuscripts but was probably added by a scribe as a conclusion to Mark’s rather abrupt ending and it is believed the scribe never intended it be included in the Scriptures but placed it as a subtext or addendum; this is why better translations bracket [ ] vs 9-20 with a margin note that states,

Mark 16:9 Later mss add vv 9-20

Mark 16:20 A few late mss and ancient versions contain this paragraph, usually after v 8; a few have it at the end of the ch

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Second, Mark 16:16 does not teach water baptism as an element of salvation as Jesus said that he who “believes” and is baptized will be saved; this is a true statement, he who “believes and is baptized” will be saved but Jesus clarifies what the element of salvation actually is in part “b” of the Scripture… “but whoever does not believe will be condemned.” Those who use Mark 16:16 in an effort to prove water baptism saves are guilty of the Negative Inference Fallacy.

Nothing supplements the sinless blood of Jesus as the initiator of covenant with the Father by faith. Water baptism is commanded for the believer, the redeemed in Jesus and is an act of obedience that follows salvation by faith in Jesus as Messiah.

Caution: when a teacher, preacher, tells you that salvation from death in Hell manifests through faith in Messiah Jesus “plus” keeping the Ten-Commandments or Jesus “plus” good works or philanthropy or water baptism, know that you are in the presence of evil/deception; therefore, runaway!

Don’t be deceived by adding anything to the sole-sufficiency of Jesus to save by faith, alone. Our works, our attempts to keep laws, days, diets, baptisms, has absolutely NOTHING to do with establishing New Covenant relationship with the Father (Ephesians 2:8-9; Galatians 2:16). Only by humble repentance of sin and sincerely trusting-believing in Jesus as Messiah who died for you to pay your sin-debt will you find life in the Kingdom of God (John 3; Luke 13:3).

If you trust in anything or anyone other than Jesus as Messiah for New Covenant relationship with the Father, you will not find life in the Kingdom (John 14:6; John 3). Christians don’t live their daily life pursuing Sinai or letters, the Christian honors the Father through faith in the Son (John 6:29) and obedience to the indwelling Holy Spirit subsequent salvation (Galatians 5:16); this, not through letters or law but through the production of fruit which fulfills all law; fruit, against which there is no law (Galatians 5).

It is through the law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2; Romans 7:6) via a redeemed conscience subsequent salvation (2 Corinthians 5:17) that the Father is pleased and saving faith is validated as authentic; in this, there is peace with Elohim (Romans 5:1).

Deceived child of Jacob stated: “When Judaism changed the name YAHWEH & YAHUSHUA, most people follow, but when Shabbat is insisted, only few follow.”

Christian rebuttal,

Jesus is Messiah, Jesus is Elohim, and He knows His Name in 7100-languages throughout the Earth and Judaism is a religion of hopelessness as it touts self-righteousness through law-keeping while the adherents to Judaism perish daily in their sin and ultimately Hell due to unbelief (Galatians 2:16; John 8:24).

The Sabbath edict, provided Israel by Elohim in Exodus 16, enslaves those deceived by the Law Covenant as a path to righteousness; this too is a spiritual illness in spiritual ignorance and arrogance.

Yeshua as Messiah coupled with sincere repentance is the ONLY Way to life via New Covenant relationship with the Father (John 14:6). The Jew and Israelite and Hebrew Roots fanatics will believe this truism and live or they’ll continue in religious nihilism and perish in Hell in their sin (John 8:24).

Why Jesus?

If human kind is saved from death in Hell by “faith,” why Jesus?

Jacob’s children, many of whom frequent these forums to express their disdain and loathing for the New Testament and Jesus as Messiah in the New Covenant, will cite Isaiah, Jeremiah, Zechariah, Amos, Hosea and Ezekiel suggesting that Elohim, working through these prophets by divine inspiration, declares that He will save the Israelite who repents from wickedness and that Elohim’s chosen people, Israel, “all of Israel will be saved” (Isaiah 45:17; Romans 11:26).

First of all,

The promises of Elohim to Israel’s children relevant to the one who repents and turns from his wicked ways shall be saved are the very same parameters every human being has been subject to from Adam forward. When a man or woman in the Old Testament expressed sorrow for their sin, a contrite spirit toward behavior that condemned their conscience, and that man or woman expressed “faith” in Elohim as Creator, Provider, Sustainer, they entered into a covenant of righteousness (a right standing) with the Father (Hebrews 11).

When the individual Israelite or Jew under the Law Covenant expressed sorrow for sin and honored Yahweh by faith through believing in Him as Elohim, our Creator who is True, Holy, Faithful, that Israelite or Jew was saved from death in Hell by their “faith,” not Torah Law, not self-righteousness, not through a Rabbi or Priest or animal blood or diet or days.

Second,

There exists no special salvation dispensation in Scripture based upon one’s genetics or affiliations. Every Old Testament Israelite, every Jew, every Gentile, must come to the Father by “faith” in order to establish a covenant of righteousness (a right standing) with Elohim.

Why Jesus?

Where the Jew and Israelite err and ultimately find them self in Hades-Sheol/Torments subsequent death of the body is their spiritual lack of knowledge, their stubbornness and refusal to believe that Yeshua is Messiah and that His blood shed for them at Golgotha is the only atonement the Father will accept as payment for sin (John 3; John 14:6; 1 Peter 1:19).

Though Old Testament men and women initiated a righteous relationship with Elohim via faith, their sin had not received the mandated atonement first pictured in Genesis 3:21 and codified in Leviticus 17:11 and reiterated in Hebrews 9:22; that is, without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness of sin.

Yes, these Old Testament saints honored Elohim through repentance and faith but the primary requisite for entrance into the Kingdom subsequent death of the body in Time is forgiveness of sin via blood atonement, NOT just any blood (Hebrews 10:4) but the blood of the Spotless Lamb of Elohim who entered Time specifically “to destroy the works of the Devil” (death, Hell, the grave) via blood atonement provided at Golgotha and confirmed by Messiah with the words “It is finished” (1 John 3:8b; 1 Peter 1:19; John 19:30).

The Soul and Sheol,

Every Old Testament saint that died in body having established a relationship of righteousness with Elohim, the soul of that saint was relegated to Sheol-Paradise awaiting Messiah’s blood atonement.

Messiah, while His body of flesh lie in the tomb for three-days, Messiah entered the region of Sheol (“Hades” in the Greek text) and preached liberty to the captive saints there and escorted them in disembodied spiritual form into the Kingdom “where nothing impure is permitted to exist” (Ephesians 4:7-10; 1 Peter 3:19; Luke 16:19-31; Revelation 21:27).

The Soul subsequent Messiah’s blood atonement,

Today, subsequent Messiah’s blood atonement and resurrection, every Christian that dies in body is immediately translated into the presence of our Lord awaiting the resurrection of the righteous (2 Corinthians 5:8; Philippians 3:21; Acts 24:15; Luke 14:14).

Every man or woman who has died in body from Adam forward having rejected relationship with Elohim by faith and those born in the Age of Grace who have rejected Messiah Jesus for the forgiveness of sin, these unrighteous dead are interned in Sheol-Hades/Torments to this very day awaiting the Judgment of the Condemned that will manifest immediately subsequent Messiah’s Millennial Reign (Revelation 20:11-15). Sheol-Paradise is currently vacated.

In conclusion,

There has never existed a Path to the Kingdom of Elohim subsequent death of the body in Time other than through Jesus Christ our Messiah by faith (John 14:6).

“The New Covenant” – A proud child of Jacob boasted: “Remember that the New Covenant belongs to Israel” Jeremiah 31:31-34; Ezekiel 36:24-28; Hebrews 8:6-13 What is the Truth of the matter?

Yes, Messiah came directly to the children of Israel to prepare them for the New Covenant’s Gospel (Matthew 15:24). The children of Israel were foreordained to be proselytized in the New Covenant’s Gospel and thereby become Elohim’s ministers of the Great Commission (Matthew 28) but Israel failed Elohim and their Messiah. Israel blasphemed the Holy Spirit. Israel blasphemed their Messiah and falsely accused Him of paganism – blasphemy violations of the Greatest Commandment. Israel’s children conspired with Rome and had their Messiah scourged nearly to death then demanded that Messiah be murdered, suffocated, upon a tree while demanding that Messiah’s blood be upon them and their children.

Elohim’s eschatological plan relevant to “destroying the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8b) via Messiah via the Gospel “ordained before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:9-10) would not be thwarted by the unfaithfulness of Israel’s children; therefore, Elohim relented and ordained the Gentiles as custodians of the New Covenant, the Gospel, the Great Commission and the Gentiles will remain in custody and in authority over these eschatological mandates until the “fullness of the Gentiles have entered the Kingdom of Elohim” (Romans 11:35).

Israel FAILED; therefore, Israel’s children are under judgment, their covenants with Elohim predicated upon obedience nullified (Deuteronomy 28) and only a “remnant” of Israel’s children will escape the “second death” in Hell due their arrogance, self-righteousness, in rejection of Messiah Yeshua, a blind rejection of Truth and Life, a divine judgment relevant to this very day (Isaiah 10:22; Romans 9:27).

Is the physical World controlled by the Spiritual?

The physical World is in the midst of an unfathomable spiritual war initiated by a rebellious cherub angel, a war that manifest in the Kingdom of Elohim and is causation for the creation of Time and physics and the human genome as a repository for rebellion that is not permitted in the Kingdom (Revelation 21:27).

Due Adam’s compromise with evil in direct rejection of Elohim’s precepts relevant to Covenant Relationship, Satan has been granted temporary dominion over the Earth; therefore, this fallen World is controlled by (1) the free will of human kind, (2) the wicked desires of Satan and (3) the necessary restraint of the Holy Spirit to prevent humanity from imploding in unrestrained narcissism in conjunction with guiding and directing Time toward a specific eschatological purpose (2 Corinthians 4:4; 2 Thessalonians 2:7).

This confluence of evil (demonic & human) partially constrained by the Holy Spirit is the Father’s eschatological will as the previous six-thousand-years of World history are a display, an example, to the faithful angelic creation of the horrors of disobedience and rejection of the Father’s will and His wisdom and love; the previous 6000-years of horror, death, suffering, perversion, unconscionable filth, will soon be countered by 1000-years of absolute peace manifesting during Messiah’s Millennial Reign; this, while Satan and his spiritual servants are confined and prevented from human interaction (Revelation 20:2).

The Millennial Kingdom, the holiness and peace that is present there, will provide the faithful angelic creation an undeniable, unmistakable, comparison/contrast between life lived in obedience to the Father’s will and life lived in disobedience at the behest of Satan; ultimately, at the conclusion of Messiah’s Millennial Kingdom, Satan will be released and he will be successful in deceiving the Nations and humanity will turn against Elohim in war but Elohim will destroy His enemies with fire and vengeance and the faithful angelic creation will wholeheartedly agree with the Father that their former boss, Satan, does indeed deserve eternal punishment in Hell, forever (Revelation 20:10). Through all of this unconscionable horror, horror resulting from disobedience, Elohim will have successfully maintained volitional love and intimacy with His cherished angelic creation that He loves more than the human mind can comprehend.

The 6000-years of horror, the 1000-years of peace while Satan is restrained, the instantaneous corruption of humanity the moment Satan is released from captivity, these millennia, in combination, will provided a bulwark against a repeat of Satan’s rebellion in the Kingdom as the faithful angelic creation will witness the unfathomable love and compassion of their Creator who suffered and gave Himself as a blood sacrifice for a wicked, vile, vulgar, defiled, human kind as Elohim destroyed the works of Satan via selfless love displayed at Golgotha (1 John 3:8b) via a Gospel ordained “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10). These things the angels observe with awe (1 Peter 1:12).

The New Covenant is initiated by grace – repentance – faith; does this mean the Christian is not required to submit to Elohim’s Law; that is, Torah?

People DON’T submit to God’s law…if they did, our World would not be fallen and Jesus would not have needed to suffer and die in your place. What I AM SAYING is this; if a man or woman truly desires a relationship with Elohim; they are sorry for the way they’ve lived; they desire forgiveness and intimacy with their Creator, to know Him and love Him and serve Him; the divine truth is that intimacy with the Father is ONLY POSSIBLE through faith in Jesus as Messiah (John 14:6).

The KEY to LIFE and PEACE with the Father,

The Father is only approachable through His Son (1 John 2:23)…this is the divine “Standard” that the Father has ordained through the New Covenant’s Gospel, a Gospel of Grace that was ordained-enacted “before Time began” (2 Timothy 1:8-10) and this Gospel was first pictured/demonstrated in Genesis 3:21.

God’s will, His “spiritual law” that is eternal (Romans 2:14-15), that spiritual law of the Spirit of life (Romans 8:2) is made alive-applicable-livable-doable-when one enters into life-intimacy-relationship with the Father by faith in the Son…THIS IS THE FATHER’S WILL (John 6:29; John 3:16-17). Once intimacy is established through New Covenant relationship with the Father, the Holy Spirit indwells, literally takes-up residence within the redeemed (Ephesians 1:13-14) and does the work of obedience by employing the spiritual law written upon the heart…NOT LETTERS etched in stone or scratched upon parchment as in Torah but the spiritual law infused within the heart of humanity at conception and infused within the human genome on Day-6 of Creation.

Christians and Torah?

Christians don’t pursue Torah Law, Sinai, Ordinances, Diets, Days, as these things only foreshadowed our Messiah, but the Christian walks in peace with the Father through faith in the Son, Jesus Christ (Romans 5:1), and the Christian walks in obedience to the Holy Spirit who methodically guides the redeemed conscience in obedience to the Father’s will (2 Corinthians 5:17; Galatians 5:16). This form of divine obedience is eternally superior to the coerced obedience of Torah Law which seeks perfection from the sin-nature, a condemned sin-nature that can never comply sufficiently (Romans 8:1-4; Romans 3:20; James 2:10; Galatians 3:10; Galatians 2:16).

This is why the Holy Spirit explains in Paul’s letter to the Church at Rome that what the Law (Torah) was powerless to do in that it was weakened by the sin-nature, the Father did by sending His Son as a blood sacrifice for our sin and through faith in the Son, we can receive the Son’s perfection, righteousness, “gifted” – imputed over our life and receive complete forgiveness for sin by New Covenant promise (Romans 8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 8:12). This is why the “law of the Spirit of life” is eternally superior to “the law of sin and death” (Torah Law) (Romans 8:2).

In conclusion,

As the Christian walks in the Father’s forgiveness and peace, the Christian is methodically guided, daily, by the indwelling Spirit and produces fruit (Galatians 5) that Torah could never achieve; this, as the Spirit methodically prepares the redeemed in Jesus for service in the New Jerusalem.

Torah Law and Israel’s failures…

Torah Law was given to Israel and sojourners with them seeking the protective benefits of that theocracy. Only those under the Law Covenant were subject to Torah Law, Gentiles have always been under the spiritual law infused within the human genome on Day-6 (Romans 8:2; Romans 2:14-15).  

Torah Law’ specific function was to act as a bulwark against a repeat of the failures of the Adamic and Noahic generations as their compromise with the demonic thwarted their ability to produce the Messiah but Elohim began anew with Noah, Shem and through Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Elohim sanctified a people group through whom He would bring forth Messiah through Judah; in order for this eschatological mandate to manifest, Israel would have to be sanctified, made holy as Elohim is Holy and set-apart from the paganism that surrounded the Tribes and continuously sought Israel’s compromise with Baal and Molech; therefore, Torah Law and Israel’s covenants were overwhelmingly based upon strict obedience to the “letter” as per Deuteronomy 28; unfortunately, Israel ultimately failed Elohim, Israel failed their Messiah and their ordination as ministers of the Gospel via the Great Commission; therefore, the Gentiles were given custody of the Gospel and the Great Commission until the fullness of the Gentiles have entered the Kingdom via faith in Jesus as Messiah (Romans 11:25).

A warning to Israel’s children, 

Israel’s children, to this very day, falsely believe their heritage and divine promises of forgiveness via covenants, covenants predicated upon obedience, shelter them from their need for blood atonement as per Leviticus 17:11 and from the ramifications of sin and Israel’s children falsely believe their self-righteousness through Torah negates their need for Messiah. Israel’s ONLY HOPE is Yeshua and New Covenant relationship with the Father granted only by faith in Yeshua as Messiah, a personal relationship with Elohim initiated by faith, alone.