In the Year 2025
In the last century, Zager and Evans hit the top of the charts with, “In the Year 2525.” Most of us will not likely be around 500 years from now, but we have made it to the first quarter of the twenty-first century. So, congratulations, and here is a suggestion for the new year: Don’t let people tell you what the Bible says without checking it out. And, yes, that includes me, also.
“But I’ve always looked up Scriptures,” you might protest. Good, but we must not only remain steadfast in doing so ourselves—we must also insist that others take the same approach to the Scriptures. How do I know this is possible to achieve? One of our members was given a publication the same size as Spiritual Perspectives. If people can find a way to carry about error and distribute it, we ought to be able to do as much with the truth.
What she was handed was Tony Alamo’s Christian Ministries World Newsletter. Some are not fooled by publications that do not make any pretense to back up what they are saying with Scriptures. They read it and conclude that it is just someone’s opinion. But Alamo has seven lines of Scriptures at the bottom of page one. Some of them pertain to the subject; some do not. Most people are not going to look them all up; they’ll just assume that he knows what he is talking about. Don’t do that! Don’t make the assumption that, because someone can write down several Scriptures, they are using them correctly.
Jehovah’s Witnesses are particularly adept at quoting Scriptures out of context. They will cite a verse—and hope that the reader will not read the verse before or after the one they want you to read. They are champions at misusing and misapplying the Word of God. It is disgraceful that any individual or group has such a low regard for the Scriptures that they will abuse them in such a manner. Alamo treats his readers poorly.
Salvation
Most of his main article is a hodgepodge of Scriptures often unrelated to the same topic. He claims that we are living at the time of the fulfillment of God’s two witnesses appearing to everyone around the world on television, citing Revelation 11:3-12. Time has already shown how foolish he was in making this prediction (before 2015). This spiritual forecast will join the scores of other false prophecies that never came to pass.
Alamo is certain that there are many who will want to be saved; so, he gives them a prayer to say which will enable them to be saved. “Big deal!” you say. “We see sinner’s prayers all the time.” True. What is different about this one is that he attempts to document it with four lines of Bible verses. He lists five passages to substantiate the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, although for some reason he does not include Matthew 16:16, which is Peter’s confession. He also omits John 8:24 (“…for if you do not believe that I am He, you will die in your sins”) and the Ethiopian eunuch’s confession in Acts 8:37. The ones he does cite are valid.
Much of the prayer is, in fact, appropriate—until Alamo gets to this statement: “I open up the door of my heart, and I invite YOU into my heart, LORD JESUS.” Two verses are cited; the first one is 1 Corinthians 3:16, which says: “Do you not know that you are the temple of God and that the Spirit of God dwells in you?”
In the first place, Paul is writing to Christians in Corinth—not sinners. Second, he is not telling them how to have the Holy Spirit or Jesus dwell within them. Third, he is not writing about salvation or how to be saved. Fourth, he does not say that either the Holy Spirit or Jesus was to be invited to come into anyone’s heart. Fifth, you is plural. You refers to the church—not an individual. The Spirit of God dwells in the church.
The second verse cited is Revelation 3:20: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come into him and dine with him, and he with Me.” “See!” some would say. “Alamo is right. Sinners need to invite Jesus into their hearts.” Are you sure?
The first thing to note is that these words are written to the church of the Laodiceans (Rev. 3:14). It is not a message to sinners telling them how to be saved. It is a message to Christians, telling them they need to repent. Their sins had already been cleansed, but they have shut Christ out of their lives. In verse 20, the Lord is explaining to them how they can let Him back in. Misapplying Revelation 3:20 to sinners is what is meant by taking a verse out of its context.
The next thing Alamo does is have the sinner ask Jesus to wash all his filthy sins away. One Scripture reference is actually correct (Rev. 1:5), but 1 John 1:7 has the same problem the others had. It is speaking of the way Christians (not sinners) are pardoned: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin.” The we in the verse are the Christians to whom John is writing; they are not sinners wondering how to be saved—nor are they in the midst of a “sinner’s prayer.”
The prayer continues by reminding Jesus that He will not turn away a sinner (in case He forgot?) and that he knows Jesus has heard him and saved him. Only one Scripture is listed in connection with, “I know I am saved,” and that is Hebrews 11:6: “But without faith it is impossible to please Him….” All the examples that follow in Hebrews 11 are of those who lived by faith. Not one of them describes a person being saved. Obviously, Alamo does not know how to properly apply Scriptures.
After Salvation
After he completes his own version of the sinner’s prayer, Alamo makes a truly remarkable statement:
After salvation, JESUS said to be baptized, fully submerged in water, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.23 Then study the King James Version of the Bible…and do what it says (4).24
Where did Jesus say to be baptized AFTER salvation? Consider the verses cited. Matthew 28:18-20 does teach baptism—but not after salvation. Consider the translation of verses 19 and 20:
Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,
Teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen.
The Greek word, poreuthentes, is an aorist participle, but it is translated as an imperative (as a command). Disciple, or make disciples, is the main verb and it is an imperative. Baptizing and teaching are participles that explain how to make disciples. Sometimes, the consideration of grammar is necessary so that the reader gets the full meaning of the text.
What is interesting in Matthew 28:19-20 is that the baptizing comes before the teaching. The reader assumes that people are taught first, or there would be no reason to be baptized. The teaching in verse 20 pertain to what a Christian needs to know in order to learn, grow, and mature (1 Peter 2:2), which occurs now that they are Christians.
The passage does not say that one is saved and then baptized and taught—but that one becomes a disciple by being baptized and taught further. Where salvation actually occurs in the process is not stated in this text, but in a similar one Jesus made clear where salvation occurs. Mark 16:15-16 states:
And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.
He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who does not believe will be condemned.”
Jesus specifies what must occur in order to have salvation: “He who believes and is baptized will be saved.” Notice that Jesus did not say, “He who believes is saved, and after salvation he should be baptized.” Alamo directly contradicts this Scripture. Notice that Jesus also did not say, “He who believes and says a sinner’s prayer will be saved.” For Jesus, baptism is part of the salvation process that begins with faith. Matthew 28:18-20 fits with Mark 16:16. Baptism is necessary in order to be saved and to become a disciple.
Other Verses
Did Alamo cite any other verse to prove baptism comes after salvation? Yes, he did. Next is John 3:5, where Jesus told Nicodemus: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” This verse only shows that baptism (born of water) is required to enter the kingdom. It does not state when a person is saved, directly. But if he is saved before he is baptized, he is saved before he is in the kingdom. The Bible teaches that when a person is baptized, God puts him in the kingdom (Acts 2:47).
Remarkably the next Scripture Alamo mentions is Acts 2:38. Apparently, he assumes that those on Pentecost were already saved when they asked Peter what they should do (Acts 2:37). Peter answers that they should “repent” and “be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins….” The apostle did not say that the people were already saved (an idea they never even thought of); he told them to repent and be baptized in order to have sins forgiven. Therefore, this verse places salvation after baptism—not before.
The last text that Alamo mentions is Acts 19:3-5. Some disciples in Ephesus had been baptized into John’s baptism. Paul taught them the way of the Lord more perfectly, and they were “baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus.” The implication is that at that point they were saved. They had not been saved by John’s baptism, which was no longer in effect. They needed to be baptized properly, and when they were, they were saved from their sins.
What we have seen, therefore, is that none of the verses printed at the bottom of the page substantiate the claim that Jesus taught people to be baptized after being saved. While it is true that Alamo mentioned or alluded to baptism, not one of those verses said that a person is saved first and baptized afterward. They teach that being baptized is part of becoming the Lord’s disciples (Matt. 28:18-20), that baptism is involved in the new birth (John 3:5), that one repents and is baptized in order to have his sins forgiven (Acts 2:38), and that those baptized for the wrong reason (John’s baptism) needed to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ (Acts 19:3-5).
Thus, when someone provides a list of Scriptures that is supposed to prove his point, it is crucial to look them up to see if they establish his case. They might, but a good Bible student will check to make certain they apply. In this case, Alamo’s list of Scriptures actually refutes, rather than substantiates, his claims. Alamo accepted only the King James Version of the Bible (as his comment above indicates).
[Concerning Tony Alamo, according to Wikipedia, he was born Bernie Lazar Hoffman in 1934. He changed his name to Tony Alamo when he married in 1966. He “was convicted of 10 child rape offenses in 2009. He received a maximum sentence of 175 years and was imprisoned until his death in May 2017.” Why would anyone still be passing out his materials?]