All Truth Or Essential Truth

John 16:13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.

I have an issue with the concept of "nonessential" truth. I get it means issues that do not pertain to salvation. Yet, if it were only about salvation God could have written a shorter book by not addressing anything that has nothing to do with salvation.

What the doctrine of nonessential has created is a tolerance for error. If God spoke to an issue in the Word directly or in principle, there is only one truth about it, not several.

Biblical baptism is by immersion to those who have been saved. That is it. Infant baptism is an error and saying we agree to disagree is doing damage to the truth that God has declared.

I have read the history about how the other modes came about and that was a man's decision during a time of persecution, but they are not biblical baptisms and they need to be done away and replaced by the truth. The word baptizo means dunk, not pour, sprinkle or whatever else might be done somewhere. I saw one priest use a squirt gun because of COVID. Cute, maybe, but missing the point.

If you believe baptism replaced circumcision then do not baptize your infant daughters or circumcise them as you do your sons, which can be done. You cannot have it both ways. Baptism has nothing to do with with circumcision. It is identification with Christ and a symbol of dying, being buried and risen to new life. Ever bury someone by just sprinkling or pouring a little dirt over the grave?

Besides, Gentiles were never required to do circumcision or any of the Jewish covenant practices per the decree of the Jerusalem Council in Acts. Proof that circumcision and baptism are two different issues.

That is just one of many errors we tolerate because we consider it nonessential. An exhaustive study cannot be done in one session. The doctrine of the nonessential has given license to play fast and loose with the Word because as long as I do not deny or change the essentials, I am OK. Not.

People tend to accept all sorts of things because it does not matter if it is not quite as the Word says it since it does not affect my salvation. Once they get the essentials of salvation down, they are not like the Bereans and seeking to see if anything else that is said in the pulpit, books or the media is true because they have the essentials.

They tolerate errors like Jesus went to Hell and was beaten on becoming the first born again man or the Holy Spirit said that there are a trinity of trinities or nine of them and still listen to and support the ones who spoke those things.

I would say that the truth of Jesus' sacrifice and the nature of the Godhead are essential. Especially since Jesus specifically said He was taking the thief with Him to Paradise. Demons shook at His presence on earth so how can they beat on Him in Hell? Nowhere in Scripture do we even seen demons in Hell. The rich man complained about being tormented by the flames, not demons. Knowing they are heading for the Lake of Fire, it does not seen plausible that they would frequent a place to remind them of that. All of that is someone's imagination and speculation, not truth.

We can barely comprehend a triune God and is it not odd that He did not mention any of that to anyone else over the course of human history? That person did backtrack after being questioned by others. Still, who did he hear that from since it was not from God? Was it his vanity or the enemy or both?

Prophets prophesy things that do not come to pass and the prophets get a pass because people do not study to see that a prophet had to be right 100% of the time or he lost his job. There was no mea culpa as if they were still doing on the job training.

It is one thing to make an honest mistake in an interpretation. Unless you have a photographic memory, you may miss a passage that gives more clarity to what you are studying. It is quite another thing to proclaim that God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit said something directly to you and it does not come to pass or is contrary to God's nature or the Word itself.

We need to be Bereans. We tolerate much "evangelistic" preaching with wrong illustrations and wild speculations because we do not study. We want uplifting sermons, but much of the uplifting comes from "pop psychology" or some other fad in a "Jesus" wrap that pops and comes unwrapped with a little study.