Will A Person Go To Hell Because He Has Not Been Baptized?

I received this article from:
"Words Of Truth And Reason" Volume III Issue xxix
http://www.vdcoc.org

adapted from an article by Thomas Thornhill, Sr.

Will a person go to hell because he has not been baptized? No, a person will not go to hell because he has not been baptized. A person will go to hell because he has sinned! But, doesn't a person need to be baptized to be saved? Absolutely. This presents no contradiction.

Suppose someone is bitten by a poisonous snake. There is an antidote available, but the person bitten does not use it and dies. Why did he die? Did he die because he had no antidote? No, he died of the poison the snake had injected into his bloodstream. Others did not have the antidote and they did not die. Why not? They didn't die because they didn't have the venom in their bodies. They never needed the antidote.

What causes a person to go to hell? Is it a lack of baptism? No, it is sin. When one commits sin, he is like the person bitten by a poisonous snake. He will be lost and go to hell unless he does something to counteract the poison of sin in his life. Fortunately, there is an antidote available that will do the job: the blood of Christ (Ephesians 1:7). This saving blood is contacted through the waters of baptism, for it is here that one comes in contact with the blood of Christ. Jesus' blood was shed in His death on the cross, and when one is baptized into Christ one is baptized into the death of Christ where the blood was shed (Romans 6:3-4). Thus the deadly venom of sin is counteracted, having been washed away in baptism (Acts 22:16). If one refuses the antidote he will not die because he has not been baptized, but because the sin remains.

Until a person is bitten and the venom is injected into the body, the antidote is not needed. In like manner, until sin enters a person's life, the antidote of the blood of Christ is not needed. That is why infant baptism is unnecessary. A little child is not a sinner. He or she has not yet committed sin thus doesn't need the cure. Sin comes through transgression of law (1st John 3:4), and a little child who doesn't understand the difference between right and wrong cannot transgress the law of God.

If you can understand this message you have been affected by sin. All accountable people have sinned (Romans 3:23), and are thus condemned to eternal death because of it (Romans 6:23). You won't be able to blame God in the judgment if you have been bitten by sin and are too stubborn to take the antidote which is available.