What Water Baptism Is And Isn’t

 

Thoughts on Acts 19

These next couple of blogs were difficult ones to write, and for some, I imagine will be hard to read. Written to be introspective, all I can say, I have already written in A Warning - Straight From My Heart. Link to this and it will tell you the reasons I write my Bible thoughts for others to read.

When we are water baptized, we are baptized with the, “Baptism of Repentance “... John’s Baptism. The, ‘Baptism of Repentance’ is not an new term, it has just fallen out of use. There were a number of stories about this in the New Testament. It happened to Paul, Philip, and Peter.

Acts 19:3-4

“And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus.”

Water Baptism did NOT bring remission of sin, or save them. It prepared the people for Jesus…  the One who actually took away the sin of the world. Repentance (demonstrated through water baptism) is a step that prepares people for the remission of sin in order that they might enter the Kingdom of God.

Mark 1:3-4

“The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight. John did baptize in the wilderness, and preach the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” In a nutshell, John said water baptism was preparation for the remission of sins.

John 1:29

The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.

Acts 4:12

“Neither is there salvation in any other: for there is none other name under heaven given among men, whereby we must be saved.”

John 3:16

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

For salvation, all it takes is belief in Jesus. Water baptism is a step after.

1 Peter 3:21 ARTB

“… by baptism… you-are declaring God with a clean conscience and in the raising-up of Jesus the Messiah.“

We show repentance through water baptism as the Lord asks. It is non-negotiable. If one cannot publicly stand for righteousness, then He wont stand for them.

Matthew 10:33

But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.

Matthew3:14-15

But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me? And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer it to be so now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

There is a difference between salvation, water baptism, and entering the Kingdom of God.

Leaping for Joy

 

For the last several days, I have been lamenting on how I am unable to share my Bible thoughts with my fellow parishioners on the Bible app, and thinking about how the Lord used my frustration to pursue and open up the access to my blog posts that I haven’t had for years. But still, I was very sad that they did not want to hear the words I read and how that gives me life and excitement in Christ.

I wondered why they were unable to experience the value I wanted to share. It was then that I realized they believe in the Holy Ghost only as an entity, just part of God Himself without being baptized in the Holy Spirit, speaking with a Heavenly language and the power that comes with that. I have grown to love them, and realized they are very devout, but they cannot experience what I have without being soaked in the Spirit… not just water.

John 3:3 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:5 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” This means to SEE the Kingdom, one must be born again, but to ENTER it, one has to be baptized in water and the Spirit.

Luke 24:49

And, behold, I send the promise of my Father upon you: but tarry ye in the city of Jerusalem, until ye be endued with power from on high.

This is the power we get from God that not only taps into His power to live above sin, but it opens His word that brings the Bible to life in that you can see how it applies to your life.  

Not only that, but because the Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, when you hear or read something that God has given someone else, the Holy Spirit inside you recognizes it and something inside leaps for joy at that recognition, like John the Baptist leapt in his mother’s womb when Jesus (also unborn) came near.

Luke 1:41

And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost:

This is the scripture God gave me this morning.

John 6:63

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Is Lying a Sin?

 

Thoughts on Genesis 12

By the word of Sarai. What a strange thing to say.

KJV in vs 17 says, “But the LORD afflicted Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai, Abram's wife.” The ARTB (Ancient Roots Translinear Bible), a word for word translation from the original Aramaic fleshes this out a bit. It says, “Yahweh touched Pharaoh and his house with great plagues by the word of Sarai the woman of Abram.”

“By the word of Sarai”. She must have said something. So, either she cursed Egypt, or let the cat out of the bag by rejecting Pharaoh when he tried to sleep with her… probably both. The plagues would take time for Pharaoh to recognize, so he was probably a persistent fellow, used to getting his way, and would not leave her alone. When he did finally recognize and fear Yahweh as the One God sending the plagues, Pharaoh was serious about getting them out of Egypt. He didn’t take any of the gifts to Abram back.

Abraham asked his wife to lie and God did not punish him, but instead sent plagues on Egypt because Sarai’s word. I don’t know why God did not punish what we now would call a sin, but remember, Moses had not come along yet, and the 10 Commandments had not been given yet. Let’s explore it.

Digging into that further, Exodus 20:16 is the verse that deals with what we call lying, but if you read your Bible closely, it doesn’t say that. Every version I have checked says we must not, “Bear false witness against your neighbor”. So did Abram bear false witness? I don’t think so.

Now I don’t think it’s a good practice to lie, and I don’t recommend it. We should NOT be subtle like the serpent by obscuring the truth, but we should, “… let your communication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh of evil.” Jesus said that in Matthew 5:37. We ARE also to be, “Wise as serpents, and harmless as doves”. Matthew 10:16

Acts 5:3 talks about lying. Ananias and Sapphira, “Lied” and were struck dead. The word, “Lying” is used both in the KJV and ESV. In the ARTB, the words are, “being-phony” with the Holy Spirit-Wind. It seems that lying to God is different than lying to man.

In addition, lying is talked about in Proverbs 12:22 “ Lips of falsehood are- an abomination to Yahweh, but he accepts doers of faith.” and Proverbs 6:17 “… a tongue of falsehood;…”. So, even though Genesis 12 doesn’t come out straight and say lying was a sin, other references in the Bible do, because lying is something God hates. I do like the continuation of 12:22 because it says, “But he accepts doers of faith”. Abram definitely was a man of faith.

After further searching, I realized Abram did it again, this time in Genesis 20 instead of Genesis 12. Evidently, Sarai must have been very beautiful, because Abimelech was the 2nd king that took her. Here we also find out that Sarai was actually Abram’s step sister. They had the same father, but different mothers. Although what Abram said was technically true, the guile made it difficult for all those around and harmed the relationship with his neighbors.

Abram’s journey through Canaan is a precursor to the experiences of the Children of Israel much later in history. Egypt wanted them to leave so bad because of the plagues, that they gave them everything they would possibly need to get them through the dry land (Desert) and in Abram’s case, famine (which is also dry), on their way back to the Promised Land. Egypt enriched them in both cases. They became rich in livestock, silver and gold.

Was John The Baptist Saved?

 

Thoughts on Matthew 11:11

“Verily I say unto you, Among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist: notwithstanding he that is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.” 

I want to know why John the Baptist was worse than the least in the Kingdom of Heaven when Jesus just gave him kudos, saying that he was the greatest. I suppose it all has to do with the definition of being an active part of the Kingdom of Heaven. Is it different than being saved?

My mind goes back to Jesus speaking to Nicodemus in John 3:3 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” John 3:5 “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” 

Seeing and entering the Kingdom then calls into question whether John the Baptist had been baptized and had entered the Kingdom. According to Matthew 3:14, he had not. “But John forbad him, saying, I have need to be baptized of thee, and comest thou to me?” John had not yet entered the Kingdom of God because he had not been water baptized or received the Holy Spirit which happened on the Day of Pentecost. John knew the Kingdom of God was at hand, perhaps he could feel it, but John could not see it. John 3:2 John the Baptist preached, “Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” 

While he was in jail, John sent his disciples to Jesus to ask if he was the Messiah (Matthew 11:2-3). John didn’t know. 

John 1:33

John the Baptist said, “And I knew him not: but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, Upon whom thou shalt see the Spirit descending, and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizeth with the Holy Ghost.” Why would God tell him about the Holy Ghost if He didn’t intend for John to be born of the Spirit? Keep reading to the end.

So if you don’t know for sure who Jesus is, you are not saved. John was eventually saved, but not born again. 

There is a difference. 

I think when John realized he didn’t know for sure, he asked. When he heard the answer, he became a believer and was saved. John the Baptist was beheaded and died without entering the Kingdom of God, and Jesus spake truth. 

I do not think John got left behind, because we read in Matthew 27:52 “And the graves were opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose, And came out of the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city, and appeared unto many.” I believe John earned his resurrection because he walked in faith just like so many others had in Hebrews 11:13 “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.” 

Because of these scriptures, I believe John’s faith qualified him for a resurrection, he was counted among the faithful, rose and was baptized after Christ died on the cross, and received the Holy Ghost on or after the Day of Pentecost. John became a part of the Kingdom of God after his resurrection. 

The Bible kinda shows us that death is not an obstacle to God. 

Revelation 20:4

“ And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given unto them: and I saw the souls of them that were beheaded for the witness of Jesus, and for the word of God, and which had not worshipped the beast, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads, or in their hands; and they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years.”

What Happens When Men Challenge God?

 

Thoughts on Genesis 11

Genesis 11:4  The purpose of the Tower of Babel was to make a name for themselves. Why did God take affront to this? Proverbs 18:10 starts giving me a clue. “The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous man runs into it and is safe.” So building their own tower was not righteous, or rather, they were building their own righteousness… they were challenging God. 

It was the first time in history that mankind was organized into a cohesive unit, but with man as the head instead of God. It was the first pyramid scheme. Nimrod (the king at that time) is usually credited with bringing all the people together and organizing them them into a cohesive unit with one purpose. He did this by employing with what I would call an earmark or identifying feature of mankind’s society even today. With himself at the top, he gathered other men under him, that he was the boss over, who helped him in organizing the people. In turn, these men had others underneath them, continuing downwards and getting larger with each successive level. Everyone had a boss or was the boss of someone else… man, over man, over man until all were busy and working as a cohesive unit. With each higher level came greater responsibility, power, control and privilege. But it had man at its top in place of God. To accomplish this, their tools were not built on righteousness, they were built with pride and fear. They began by wanting to make a name for themselves, and they were afraid to be alone and to be scattered across the face of the earth. But scattering is just what God did. Pride is the first thing listed in Proverbs 6:16-17 that God hates, while the spirit of fear is NOT given by God (2 Timothy 1:7), it is given by man.

I am beginning to realize God may have a principle, implied but not written down. If something isn’t right, He divides it until it becomes good in His sight. This happened at day one when He divided light from darkness, it happened in all the other days of creation too. He even divided Adam into Adam and Eve when Adam’s situation became, “Not good”. He divided Cain from society, Abraham from his homeland,  and instructed him how to divide sacrifices, Joseph was divided from his family for good… the survival of the famine and enrichment of the Children of Israel. God separated the animals 2 by 2 and Noah from the rest of the world that perished. He divided the Red Sea to let the Children of Israel escape to the Promised Land, HE was the One who rent the veil in two at Jesus’ death. HE used all these things and many many more for HIS reason, not ours. Division is the tool HE uses when something is not right. We have no choice in HIS judgment. It is HIS right as God… and He is still doing it today.

It may seem grievous at the time, but dividing is not a bad thing as God sees it. God keeps dividing and we keep getting another chance to get things right. Look even in more, modern-day history and see God’s hand. History repeats itself because God is refining His people. Yes, we can learn from history.