Demonizing The Good

Christians are all too familiar with the experience of being ridiculed for their beliefs. Sometimes we deserve it (because our beliefs can be skewed toward the flesh), but it is interesting how the culture has come to use this tactic on a regular, more subtle basis.

Now I'm not talking about persecution, where believers are martyred. I'm talking about the less serious,  but more common practice of subtle denigration or dismissal whereby the meaning of a term that stands for something good is repeatedly used in such a manner so as to twist it into being perceived as something bad.

In current politics, an example is the word "protectionism". In their campaign to exahlt the the truly evil practice of free "trade", supporters regularly label anything that is not free trade as "protectionism". People on the far right call everyone that doesn't agree with them 100% a "liberal". Liberals call anything conservative the "far" right.

Using this tactic does nothing to bring people together, not to mention that it is dishonest, if not a bit disingenuous. As entertaining as it might be to fall into this practice, I'm going to try to relieve myself of this tendency in the Name of Jesus!

Baptizing The Dead

This may be old hat to some of you, but I had never deeply investigated this scripture:

1 Corinthians 15:29 (New International Version)

29 Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized for the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why are people baptized for them?

This was one of those I had read, but told myself I'd get back to and never did. So it was quite surprising to me when a Mormon friend pointed it out to me, explaining that this scripture is the theological root to the Mormon practice of praying for their genealogy.

Of course, I found the concept of praying for dead people at odds with the notion of free will, but was stumped by this scripture. I asked, "What does the phrase baptized for the dead mean?" He said, well, "just what it says". But the Bible teaches that the soul immediately, on departing the body, is either face to face with God in Heaven or in Hell. There is no such thing as wandering between the two waiting for water baptism (as in some Catholic circles), not to mention a "get in free" card for your relatives. Knowing scripture is not contradictory, I knew this couldn't be, so I did some digging.

Context is everything, but that didn't help my understanding in this case. After some research, I found that in the Greek, the term "for" has two meanings. The first is the literal term we are familiar with. The second has more to do with the motivation behind the act of baptism. It to do with the concept of identity. It means "because of".

When we are baptized, we identify with Christ. It isn't the water, it's the identity! We identify with his death (water submersion), burial and resurrection (coming out of the water) - that is why we are baptized. So let's look at a revised scripture interpretation:

Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are identified with the dead? If the dead are not raised at all, why do people identify with them?

Now let's add back in the context. Some did not believe in resurrection. Paul is emphasizing the critical importance of resurrection:

12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.

30 And as for us, why do we endanger ourselves every hour?

In other words, why do we risk our lives and why would those before us get baptized and even risk their lives for a lie? In one sense, he could have been speaking of the martyrs, but Christ died as well, so let's put the final touches on these thoughts:

Now if there is no resurrection, what will those do who are baptized because of Jesus? If the dead are not raised at all, why do people baptize because of Jesus?

Aha! Now it makes more sense. Those pesky translations...