Results 1 - 11 of 11
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Results from: Answered Bible Questions, Answers, Unanswered Bible Questions, Notes Author: jrcannon Ordered by Date |
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Results | Verse | Author | ID# | |||
1 | What about the thief on the cross? | 1 Pet 3:21 | jrcannon | 5368 | ||
I am not so sure that I like this format as I am not sure what you are referring to. Are you referring to what I said or the level just above me? If you are referring to what I said, don't take what I said wrong, I was just merely asking some questions to have a better idea, but it is still about simple faith, but don't that wrong, because I believe you still have to demonstrate that faith. | ||||||
2 | What about the thief on the cross? | 1 Pet 3:21 | jrcannon | 5281 | ||
Yes, it is, what exactly is your question? Is it if the criminal on the cross can be saved by a statement of faith, why can't I? Is baptism really a necessary requirement to be saved, especially in light of what happened that day on the cross when the thief was forgiven? Is this what you are illuding too? A little more clarity so that a proper answer can be given. | ||||||
3 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2653 | ||
Why is it continued to be insisted that the Sabbath was changed to Sunday? It has not been changed to Sunday. Sunday, the first day has its own meaning and purpose. Be careful of your usage of Acts 21 that you do not take it out of context or give it meaning that it doesn't have. Why did they shave their heads? What was the point? If they were trying to reach their Jewish brothers, but those brotheres believed that they were not keeping the law, would they have listened to their message? Of course not, Paul wanted the message to be understood. Not that he was preaching rebellion to the mosaic law and traditions, but the fulfillment of the law. Those he was trying to reach would have never received him if he didn't keep the law. Remember what he said in 1 Corinthians 9:20? | ||||||
4 | Is baptism needed for salvation? Part 0 | 1 Pet 3:21 | jrcannon | 2610 | ||
Okay, I have read through your response, but you didn't answer one vital question, in fact, you ask the very same from me. Let's cover your points one by one. 1. You are right in that those verses you point out speak nothing to the necesity of baptism, but talk about the root core of the salvation process, it is grace through faith. But it doesn't end there, nor can it end there, otherwise you "leave out" unrefutible evidence that baptism is a necessary component of that salvation. You need also be careful to not take out of context these verse and truly examine what the teachings are here. You will find that a majority of these verses deal with the problems between Jew and Gentile and the fact that Gentiles are not circumcised. 2. You point out the fact that Peter refers to baptism at pentecost in chp 2 but not in chp 3. Well, let me turn the point back around once more and ask you the same thing as I asked before, if baptism is not important to salvation, why did he include it in chp 2? To answer your question, probably the reason why is two fold, first a great deal of them probably already heard it in chp. 2 and second, the were dragged away before they had a chance to finish. What would he have said if he would have been able to finish? 3. Your next point you should go back and re-study before everything else. He did speak about baptism and he did baptize. Be care you don't take out of context what he says in 1 Cor. chp 1. He did baptise which he himself points out, but the message that he is getting across is that it is not important who baptized you, in authority issues, but that the body of Chirst is one. He is not down playing baptism at all, in fact I think it is a reinforcement of the idea that baptism is between the person and God and no one else. Don't put things into this passage that are not there. One last thing for this point before I go onto the next, if he wasn't referring to baptism, what was he talking about in Romans 6? 4. In this point, you fall into a very common trap, those were all before pentecost which I stated in my previous note. Jesus had the power to forgive sin as he was, and is God. Only the father has the power to forgive sin, and thus we see several examples of Jesus not only healing but forgiving sin. You should note that all of those occurrances happened after a demonstration of faith by the person, healed for forgiven. What is baptism? Is it not a demonstration of faith? 5. This one is probably your best point and it is the hardest to refute, however, I challenge you to find where it says they were saved, even though they were filled with the Holy Spirit. Further, if you read on, you will note that they were baptized immediately. Just because a person is filled with the Holy Spirit does not necessarily mean that they are saved. We do not have evidence that makes that abundantly clear, you are going on assumption, and not evidence. But like I said before this is the most compelling of your argument so far. However, if it is just this one point, with all of the other evidence that points to the necessity of baptism, assumptions are not enough. 6. If I were to take the same way of examining scripture as you have, then our faith alone does nothing for us, as James 2:26 states. Faith by itself is dead, james tells us, and thus if our faith is dead, how can we ever receive that grace of God? This is a feeble argument that shows no study of the truth in that passage. Don't look to interpret and harmonize, search for the truth and nothing but the truth, being careful to rightly divide the word and give an accurate representation of what is written and not what is assumed or what we want to believe. |
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5 | Do you have to be baptized to be saved? | 1 Pet 3:21 | jrcannon | 2605 | ||
But what about those places that it is part of the condition for salvation? The most widely used scripture for the baptism requirement is Acts 2:38. It is undeniable that baptism is a requirement for forgiveness of sin in that scripture. I am with you in most of the references, but we can not pick and choose what we like and leave out the rest. 1 Peter 3:21 makes it abundantly clear that baptism saves, and it is baptism by water. There is not one example of someone, after pentecost, being saved without baptism. So, I am curious, how do you explain 1 Pet 3:21, Acts 2:38, John 3:3-, the numerous examples of baptism immediately after hearing the Gospel? | ||||||
6 | This is true... | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2600 | ||
Yes, you are making sense, however, be sure that you do not put us in such as a position as to make it seem like we are his slaves. You should also be careful not to misuse the word "predestined" that Paul uses in the new Testament. Further examination of these passages are needed (Rom. 8, Eph 1) in order to better understand. I am not going to lay out for you my viewpoints on this historically controversial subject, but I would like to invite you to study these passages further and don't just take them a first glance value. You would be cheating yourself. | ||||||
7 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2584 | ||
You are right, we are on the same page now, but to clarify, everything we have been talking about up until now was about a Christian. About the motives and desires of a Christian, not an unbeliever. We began talking about you and what you are doing now, after your convertion. A whole different set of circumstances encompass a non-believer, but don't fool yourself, God still doesn't "need" to work in the hearts of anyone, there has to be an initial move on our part. You said it yourself, that God was in your head, but not in your heart. God may have nudged you in his direction, but I am sure it was you that made the first step. And it could have been a simple as asking "God are you really out there?" The father didn't go out to find the son in the story of the prodigal, but when he saw him on the road, he ran to meet him. The decision is ours and he is ready and willing to receive us. Anything other than this is a denile of the very thing that makes us special, more special than any of God's other creations, a free will. | ||||||
8 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2511 | ||
I understand what you are saying. I know exactly what you are saying when you say "You can not spread the gospel of Jesus Christ if you do not know it." I am a missionary (literally, not just because I am a christian, it is what I do for a living) and so I share with people daily from the Word. But it is more than just knowing his word, it is more than just living his word. It is feeling his word so that it dwells within you. I never meant to imply that God does not desire a relationship with us, quite the contrary. He loves us deeply and so desires us to be with him. However, while he does desire these things, he does not half to have them. There is a very real difference between the words need and want. God does not need, but he does want. I think we might be just touching the main point here in our conversation, and that real point is love. Faith and love in many instances are one in the same. Because we love God we have faith in him and our faith that God is who he is almost demands that we love him because of everything he has done for us. Remember James as he spoke about faith and works. He said that faith without works is dead (2:17) and a little further on he says that a person is justified by his works and not by faith alone. He talks about how faith produces action and that is why we do the things we do. Replace the word faith, with love and maybe you begin to see my point. It is not our faith alone that produce the works that we do. It is not our faith alone that causes us to study God's word, it is our love. I love God with all of my heart and I like to think of him as that father running toward his son and receiving him with open arms as we read in the story of the prodigal son. I don't do the things I do because I am ordained to do them. I don't do them because that is what God expects. I do them out of the pure love that I have for him. It stimulates my actions. Ain't no rock going to cry in my place, as long as I'm alive I will glorify his name. Not because he deserves it, not because I should do it, not because of any other reason, other than love. And that really was Jesus' message wasn't it? The greatest command is left up to our own will. Love the lord your God with all your heart. He can't make me do it, but then again he doesn't need to does he? | ||||||
9 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2351 | ||
Just to be clear on this, you wrote that you are also aware that "God does need our study times, services, etc." Do you mean that He needs us to do these things or are you stating that you realize that he does not need us to do these things? If God "needs" us to do these things I am curious as to where I might find that in the scriptures, especially in light of Acts 17:24-25? Further, your quotation of 2 Tim. 2:15 only shows our need for study, not God's. The decision to have an intimate relationship with God is entirely ours. | ||||||
10 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2230 | ||
It may help you to do some research into the literary devices used by Luke when he was writing in Acts. I do not contest your "tithing of your time," however, that, I do not believe, is the purpose for meeting on the "first day." I do not believe that Sunday is the new sabbath. I don't think it has much to do with the sabbath at all. I think if you do some investigation into Luke's style of writing and exactly what he was referring to in his devices, you will come to a better understanding of what Sunday is all about. Worship is to be done 7 days a week, which I am sure you will agree with, and is not just something done on Sunday. Further, "offering your time" or "tithing your time" for different thing is okay, but be careful that you do not fall into the trap of thinking that all of these things you do are for God. God doesn't need your Bible study time, he wrote the book, that time is for you, it is something you need, like water. Prayer services are the same. Sunday worship is the same. These time were not designed for God, he doesn't need them, but we do. Never should we forget just how wretched we are and how much we are in need of his grace. | ||||||
11 | Why do we not keep the 7th day Sabbath | Col 2:16 | jrcannon | 2227 | ||
I am curious as to where you find that the apostles kept the sabbath long after Jesus' resurrection? I do not find anywhere where it states that the apostles continued to observe the sabbath. We do see throughout acts that they went to the synagogue to teach and reason with the scriptures, but not that they observed the sabbath. Further, the sabbath was never changed to Sunday. The meaning of the sabbath is completely different to that of the first day gathering of the first century christians. You may want to study exactly what each day means and what it represented, then ask the question, why don't Christians observe the sabbath also? I personally think you will find the answer to why Christians do not observe the sabbath is found in Colossians 2:16. In terms of why the first century Christians met on the first day of the week, you may also want to be aware of literary devices used by Luke when he refers to their coming together. | ||||||