However, the New Testament repeatedly declares that this is not how one becomes a Christian as water neither saves nor redeems. Rather, the Bible teaches that in order to be a Savior you must live a sinless life, die on a cross and come back to life on the third day. As Mary, the Roman Catholic church, the Baptist church, Calvin, Wesley, or any present day churchmen etc. did not die on the cross and come back to life on the third day, they cannot be the savior of men's souls. Since water did not die on the cross and come back to life on the third day, it also cannot save the soul.

ORIGEN'S BELIEFS

The following is a composite gleaned from many sources1 depicting the beliefs of Origen. Let us examine them to see if he was in fact a "great early Father of the Church" as we are often told.

This Greek philosopher had been taught by the founder of Neo-Platonism (Ammonius Saccas 170-243 A.D.). Neo-Platonism is a strange combination of Aristotelian logic and Oriental cult teachings. It conceives the world as being an emanation from "the one" - the impersonal one (not the personal "Abba" [Daddy or even the more intimate "Dada"] of the Bible) with whom the soul is capable of being reunited while in some sort of trance or ecstasy.

As a follower of that philosophy, Origen attempted to amalgamate its views to Christianity. The problem with Origen, as with many who profess Christianity today, was that he tried to take "the best" of the world system (that which he had learned in school - his old philosophic views etc.) and incorporate them into Christianity; but they do not mix. It will be noted that many of Origen's beliefs coincide with Roman Catholic and Jehovah's Witness doctrine, both of which are "Christian" cults. Origen believed:

1.)in soul sleep (that the soul "sleeps" in the grave until the resurrection). However, the Bible teaches that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord (II Cor.5:8);

2.)in baptismal regeneration (belief that one is saved by water baptism). Although Satan was the originator, Origen is the first man we can find who was a strong proponent of this doctrine;

3.)in universal salvation, i.e., the ultimate reconciliation of all things including Satan and the demons;

4.)that the Father was God with a capital "G" and Jesus was God with a little "g" - that Jesus was only a created being. Thus, Origen was not Christian in the most basic of all doctrine, namely the person of the Lord Jesus the Christ;

5.)to become sinless, one had to go to purgatory . This doctrine is nowhere to be found in Scripture;

6.)in transubstantiation (that at communion the bread and wine actually turn to the body and blood of Christ); and

7.)in transmigration and reincarnation2 of the soul. (The resurrection of Jesus corrects that error as He came back to life as the same Jesus. Hebrews 9:27 says "And it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment." Thus the Bible teaches there is no reincarnation.);

1 Albert Henry Newman, A Manual of Church History, (Valley Forge, PA: Judson Press, 1902), Vol. I, pp. 284-287; Herbert Musurillo, The Fathers of the Primitive Church (New York: Mentor-Omega Pub., 1966), pp. 31, 38, 195, 198, 202-203; Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 16, (1936-esp. point 4, later editions omit this fact), pp. 900-902, to name but a few.

2 Transmigration means that one comes back to life as something else, i.e., a frog, or some other animal or even a tree. Reincarnation means that you come back to life as someone else - another human. Someone may reply "Well, reincarnation should be the case so that we can have a second chance." Such is heresy. Never should God give a "second chance." How terrible and wicked it would be of God to give only two opportunities to be saved! God has given every man during his lifetime literally hundreds and thousands of opportune moments to have his soul saved from the terrible consequences of sin, by simply receiving Jesus as his substitute - as his Lord and Savior.

61


continued...