40 CAMPBELLISM on Confession, S. A. Paine The subject of confession needs but little comment to prove all that we claim for it, and to disprove the claims of our friends.
To confess a thing, in its primary meaning, is to acknowledge that thing as your own. To confess Christ, then, is to acknowledge Christ as yours.
Before one can truly confess Christ they must possess him. If they have Christ they have life. “He that hath the Son of God hath life.” Therefore it cannot be an alien sinner that confesses Christ, unless the alien sinner has life. We all agree that the alien sinner is without Christ, but our friends say they must confess him (acknowledge him as their own) in order to be saved. Therefore the sinner must confess a falsehood in order to their salvation!! Confessing an untruth will never make it a truth. We read, “Whosoever therefore shall confess me before men, him will I also confess before my Father which is in heaven,” Matt. 10:32.
Our friends say that it is the alien sinner that confesses Christ. If so, it follows that Christ confesses alien sinners before the Father in heaven. That proves too much. We must accept Christ and to do that sounds out a death knell to Campbellism. It is the Lord’s people that confess Christ, and it is also such that Christ confesses before his Father in heaven.
Syllogisms
1. One cannot confess Christ without first believing that he is Christ.
2. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. 1 John 5:1.
3. Therefore it is those who are born of God, and not alien sinners, that confess Christ.
1. In order for one to confess Christ, he must first know Christ.
2. Alien sinners do not know Christ. John 17:3.
3. Therefore alien sinners do not confess Christ.
1. Only those who dwell in God confess Christ. 1 John 4:15.
2. Alien sinners do not dwell in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:17.
3. Therefore alien sinners do not confess Christ.
1. Only those that have the Father acknowledge the Son. 1 John 2:23.
2. Alien sinners do not have the Father.
3. Therefore alien sinners do not acknowledge (confess) the Son.
1. Only those who are of God confess that Jesus came in the flesh. 1 John 4:2.
2. Alien sinners are not of God.
3. Therefore alien sinners do not confess that Jesus came in the flesh.
John declares that “whosoever shall confess that Jesus is the Son of God, God dwelleth in him, and he in God,” 1 John 4:15.
If the above is true, and it also be true that alien sinners confess, would it not follow that alien sinners dwell in God and God in them? That’s the ridiculous conclusion into which the wave of Campbellism lands you.
The fact that those who confess Christ are children of God is too plain to admit of any tedious and lengthy argument. The duty or obligation to confess Christ is beyond question confined to those who are the happy recipients of his salvation. So until they find just one text or example where a sinner was ever authorized or commanded to confess Christ in order to salvation, their claims for confession crumble and are driven to utter defeat.
We now close this chapter which brings us to a consideration of baptism. This is their all-important theme, the darling of their theology, the culminating point in salvation, yea, it is the acme of all virtue in the salvation of sinners. (Writings of S. A. Paine: ppg 30-32)