“Logical AND” In The Scriptures

“‘He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mark 16:16)

if (you believe && you are baptized)
{
     you will be saved;
}
else
{
     you will be condemned;
}

Above is some computer code (an if-statement) that resembles the meaning of the verse above. If the conditions in the parenthesis are true then the first section will be executed, otherwise the “else” section will be executed. It simply means if you believe and you are baptized you will be saved, otherwise you will be condemned—the same as is stated in Mark 16:16.

What I want to bring to you attention is the logical AND, which is the “&&” in the code. Many of those in denominations believe that a person only needs to believe to be saved, as the above verse says that “he who does not believe will be condemned”, but does not say that he who is not baptized will be condemned. However, they disregard the beginning of the verse and fail to see that the first “and” in Mark 16:16 is a logical AND.

What is a logical AND? In Computer Science a logical AND used in an if-statement means that both values need to be true for the entire statement to be true. In the above code, if a person does not believe, the program would not even check to see if the next condition is true. This would translate to meaning that regardless of whether or not a person is baptized, if that person does not believe then he/she would be condemned. This fits the latter part of Mark 16:16.  Of course, with a logical AND both conditions must be true. Therefore, it is implied that if a person is not baptized, does not believe, or both conditions are false the first statement will not be executed—the person will not be save. Instead the “else” will catch the person, and he/she will be condemned.

                -- John Thrower Jr.