Roy Neal Runyon, while a critic of baptismal regeneration, teaches that baptism is a commandment and is necessary for salvation. In response to a sneaky apologetic to explain Mark 16:16, responded thusly:
Mark
16:16 Doesn’t Say, ‘He Who Is Not Baptized Will Be Condemned’
This objection, though often
repeated lacks both logical and grammatical merit. Mark 16:16 does not need to
say, “He who does not believe and is not baptized will be condemned,” because
belief is the prerequisite to baptism. One who does not believe will not be
baptized, making the second clause redundant. To demand that “and is not
baptized” be added to the condemnation clause is to insist on the grammatical
excess where the logic is already complete. In fact, Jesus explicitly stated in
John 3:18 that “he who does not believe is condemned. It is a dangerous misuse
of Scripture to argue that the presence of baptism in the salvation clause can be
undone by its absence in the condemnation clause. How can what the text does
not say negate what it explicitly does say? The omission does not weaken the
first statement—it presupposes it.
Scripture often uses this kind of
parallel structure without restating all conditions in the negative clause. For
example, John 5:28-29 says, “Those who have done good will come forth to the
resurrection of life; those who have done evil, to the resurrection of
condemnation.” It doesn’t say “those who have not done good,” yet the inverse
is understood. The same is true in Proverbs 18:13: “He who answers a matter
before he hears it, it is folly and shame to him”—it doesn’t need to say “he
who does not answer after hearing” to make the opposite truth clear. More importantly,
Scripture makes clear that refusing baptism is a form of unbelief—a willful
rejection of God’s command. Luke 7:30 states of the Pharisees, “But the
Pharisees and lawyers rejected the counsel of God against themselves, being not
baptized of [John].” This shows that rejecting baptism is not a neutral act—it is
a rejection of God’s revealed will. Likewise, John 12:42 records that many of
the rulers believed on Jesus, but because of fear they would not confess Him publicly.
Their belief was rendered powerless by their unwillingness to act on it. Jesus
said, “He who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God”
(Luke 12:9). Baptism is the very moment one confesses Christ openly (Acts 8:37),
and to shrink back from it is to deny Him in the very act where one is
commanded to submit to Him. (Roy
Neal Runyon, Misunderstood Conversions of the New Testament [2025], 188-89)
