NO!
You do not have to make a public spectacle of something that God has convicted you of. Your actions will tell everyone what you have decided internally!
Unified Belief
- Thread starter LearningToLetGo
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You do not have to make a public spectacle of something that God has convicted you of. Your actions will tell everyone what you have decided internally!
1. YES!
I personally believe that water baptism is an important step of obedience for a Christian, but I adamantly reject baptism as being required for salvation. As we are seeing right here in front of us, there are those who say that we must be baptized to be saved. May I say in plain English that that kind of thinking is 100% opposed to Bible teaching. Requiring anything in addition to faith in Jesus Christ for salvation is a works-based salvation and is false teaching!!
2. NO!
The baptism of the Holy Spirit is in the life of every believer, and that takes place at the moment of conversion.
Romans 8;9......
"You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you. Anyone who does not have the Spirit of Christ does not belong to him" .
Ephesians 1:13-14.........
"In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until we acquire possession of it, to the praise of his glory".
So, Biblically, there is no gap between belief in Christ and the receiving of the Holy Spirit. Anyone who says differently simply does not know what the Bible actually says.
Lie detectors relay upon the fear of the person being tested. The idea that a machine will know what a lie is means the person will confess to the operator.
Confession of sin does little good when it is coerced or insincere because it is not true agreement with God but a temporary effort to appease a guilty conscience or pacify someone else.
That is really good advice.......most of us know that, but YOU did not answer the 2 questions asked of you!
One of the delusions is that a man must be baptized in water to be saved!
1 Corinthians 1:17: .........
“For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel…..
Romans 1:16..........
” We know the gospel is the Good News—the power of God unto salvation.
Therefore, according the Word of God we see Paul’s own testimony makes it very clear that baptism is not part of the gospel.
I wholeheartedly believe that baptism is important, but it is not a requirement for salvation. It is the way we as believers testify to others that we have trusted Christ and intend to follow after Him as His disciple: “Then those who gladly received his word were baptized” (Acts 2:41).
Anything different that what God has said is a deception.
Jesus does not include baptism or water because it does not cleanse a person from their sins – believing in Jesus does. God’s forgiveness of our sins does not depend on something we do but on Jesus’ sacrificial death (Rom. 4:5; James 2:14-26).
Actions = way of life!
Are you loving, forgiving attentive and caring!
James 5:16..........
"Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.?
Confession of sin, I think the principle is that the extent of the confession should match the extent of the sin.
In other words, if I got really angry at you right now, said something ugly, like I hate your stupid dog!
Then was convicted ten minutes later and said, "Via I am so sorry. What an awful thing to say to you. It was mean and stupid and I am sorry as I can be".
I don't think I need to go to any group outside of YOU and ME and talk about it. It was just you and me. Nobody heard about it. Bang, it's over. I do not need to stad publicly and apologize to the church or to the world.
However, lets say the Pastor is found guilty of stealing from the church. Then he must publicly apologize to the whole church as it was from them he stole the money and it was with God watching!
With a reply like that, how do you see the end times? this is serious.
We tend to fall in love with the Scriptures that we think support or agenda and position and we forget about the others as if they did not exist. That is a very dangerous position to be in. Allow me to demonstrate this to those who are convinced that a man must be baptized to be saved.
Romans 4:14.........
"For if they which are of the law be heirs, faith is made void, and the promise made of none effect:"
In Genesis 12:1–3, God gave some promises and Paul has written, they amount to Israel being heirs of the world.
Paul is now saying that this inheritance will not come by following the law.
WHY?
Well for one reason those promises were given by God BEFORE the law was given to Moses. So what Paul is saying is that if the inheritance is to be given to those who follow the law, then faith does not matter.
Worse, the promises of God don't matter—because not all of Abraham's descendants had the law!
So then In other words, Paul has already shown that nobody can keep the law. All have sinned and fallen short of God's glory (Romans 3:10; 3:23). So if God's promises to Israel are only for those able to follow the law, those promises will not be given.
THINK........ When law is a requirement for salvation, faith serves no purpose!!!
THINK.........The same think would apply to "works/Water Baptism." If they are required to be saved, then FAITH serves no purpose!!!
The Bible is about 1,200 pages. That's a lot of text. Now, I know some people enjoy digging into the details by analyzing specific words and phrases -- and I admit I do enjoy that too -- but I believe that faith is not about specific details. Details are the genesis of legalism, not faith.
Right about this time some of you are throwing down your coffee or tea and thinking of many ways to correct me using this verse or that. That's fine. I accept that but keep in mind what I wrote in paragraph one: details are the genesis of legalism, not faith.
So what are we to do if we ignore details? Well, the obvious answer seems to look at the larger picture. See the forest, not the trees. And what is the forest? Well, it's this:
God created everything, including us, for his benefit.
We rejected God, desiring instead to take his creation for our benefit.
God made himself human to walk among us and demonstrate in words and deeds how to live a Godly life.
Now we are without excuse and must choose to accept or reject God.
The rest are details -- important details to be sure, and we may argue over them -- but they are not central to the story. We must not allow them to serve as wedges to drive us apart from one another.
Right about this time some of you are throwing down your coffee or tea and thinking of many ways to correct me using this verse or that. That's fine. I accept that but keep in mind what I wrote in paragraph one: details are the genesis of legalism, not faith.
So what are we to do if we ignore details? Well, the obvious answer seems to look at the larger picture. See the forest, not the trees. And what is the forest? Well, it's this:
God created everything, including us, for his benefit.
We rejected God, desiring instead to take his creation for our benefit.
God made himself human to walk among us and demonstrate in words and deeds how to live a Godly life.
Now we are without excuse and must choose to accept or reject God.
The rest are details -- important details to be sure, and we may argue over them -- but they are not central to the story. We must not allow them to serve as wedges to drive us apart from one another.
Be reminded of the definining of "argue"....Correctly....only when one repeats the same answer and without fact....is it "argument".
We see that here.
...and with some 32000 verses.
Disagree...details are critical in reflecting God's word.
I cannot and will not associate with those who ignore God's word substituted with their own wishful thinking. New age religion practitioners are easily identified by that character.
I see the "end times" exactly as they are described in the Scripture.
Real, and in fact we are in the end times right now. The only ent time event in the Bible that has not happened yet is the Rapture and it can take place any day.
Everything else, prophetically in the Bible happens after the Rapture. THAT is how I see the end times.
Via..........are you speaking to Me? It reads like you are talking to someone else!
I am not throwing down anything............I agree with YOU!
Again..........I do not wish to argue with you. I do not wish to confront or correct anyone anytime.
However.......are you comfortable ignoring the over 100 Scriptures that say we are saved by grace through faith and nothing else by digging in with the 4 or 5 that "seem" to say that we need to be baptized to be saved. Isn't that exactly what you just said you would not associate with???? WISHFUL THINKING!
Now, of course those 5 Scriptures DO NOT say that when we correctly do the hermeneutical examination of them but that is another question altogether.
Agreed!
What is it called when someone makes the same mistake over and over and over again?????
Who are you askin this of?
Stubborn?