Doctrinal Stones of Our Faith

In one’s life there exists two critical moments of responsibility, two events or two covenants--- one is a covenant with God through the Holy Water Baptism and the other a covenant of marital fidelity. Therefore, the approach towards both of these events must be done with utmost seriousness and responsibility.
Christ said: “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Matthew 28:19-20
As the Bible teaches us we must first make disciples, and then baptize. Make disciples; this is easy to say, but in practice it’s not that simple. A problem that large churches experience; is a lack of outreach towards the church members, and therefore the work is placed on “conveyers”, they don’t make disciples first or as the saying goes: “baptized—and released”. On the other hand the problem encountered by small churches--- is to not lose church members, of whom there is already a lack. Therefore it is not surprising that the result of such an approach would be the spiritual illiteracy and ignorance. When taking into account that the majority of those taking the Holy Water Baptism are young individuals, then it becomes appropriate to recall the wise advice of the Bible: <<Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old he will not depart from it>>. Proverbs 22:6.
It is during this exact time that those taking the Holy Water Baptism are also developing their character, view of the world, priorities and values in life; where the right or wrong choices are made. It is very important; during this specific time to help a young man or woman to form a robust worldview based on Biblical principles and not on earthly teaching that lead to fatal mistakes.
Christ told a parable about two builders: one built on a rock, the other on the sand. The problem, that ensued, did not begin when walls began to crumble, but rather when the first stone was not laid on a foundation. That's the bitter truth.
On the day of the baptism all can be very graphic, beautiful and impressive; a successfully selected sunny day, crowds of people, choice picked flowers, an orchestra, greetings, a photo album, ministers in white robes and a celebratory dinner. All that is great!
But!---Life lays its own frontiers. The day will come when the Covenant of Faithfulness to God will undergo an extremely serious test. It may very well be that someone’s structure can begin to crack, if not collapse. Sometimes it is so tempting to invest very little on the foundation but so much on the visible portion of our structure. Times of heavy trials will summarize and show the discretion of each.