Subject: Teacher, when were the 11 rebaptized? |
Bible Note: "In Acts 22:16 we read-AND NOW WHY TARRIEST THOU? ARISE, AND BE BAPTIZED, AND WASH AWAY THY SINS, CALLING ON THE NAME OF THE LORD. Here it is clear, that water baptism after believing on Jesus is a commandment." Absolutely true. "Your below answer was all that needed to be said." Well, you did make some questionable statements in your previous post regarding whether God's grace depends upon our repentance, obedience and faith; or whether repentance and obedience and faith depend on God's grace. "Jesus warned us that the traditions of men make God?s Word of none effect. In other words, Jesus was saying, the traditions that you are doing are not from God?s Word, but are only of men; and being only of men, you are sending people to hell by your traditions." Actually, what Jesus warned about was supplanting the law of God with the traditions of men. We all follow traditions, and some of them, while not in the word of God, do not contradict or take the place of the teachings of Scripture. My church sings songs that are not part of Scripture; does yours? My church celebrates Easter and Christmas; does yours? My church has pews; does yours? My church has Wednesday night services; does yours? We pass around the offering plates during the service; does your church do the same? All of these are examples of things that are not commanded in Scripture, but are glorifying to God (or at the very least do not dishonor Him). Traditions of men, in other words. Simply put, we do not have a clear-cut set of procedures for worship like can be found in the Torah for temple ceremony. While it is certainly not a case of "anything goes," it is also rather simplistic to think that any church today does things EXACTLY the same way things were done by the apostles, or even that the apostles were uniform in the churches that they oversaw (e.g. the differences between primarily Jewish congregations and primarily Gentile congregations). "Thanks for you responce Joe!" You are quite welcome! --Joe! |