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NASB | Acts 2:38 Peter said to them, "Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Acts 2:38 And Peter said to them, "Repent [change your old way of thinking, turn from your sinful ways, accept and follow Jesus as the Messiah] and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ because of the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. |
Subject: How is the Holy spirit given to you |
Bible Note: Hello armond, It's not a matter of simply disagreeing with you. We're dealing with core interpretive issues. With all due respect, your hermeuetic is missing something. I know what Acts 2:38 says. However, it's not the sum-total of what the NT let alone scripture teaches on the "requirements" for salvation! Proponents of baptismal regeneration tend to focus on this verse and isolate it from the rest of scripture (particulalry the Pauline corpus). This is what I mean by "analogy of scripture"? All the references you gave were from the Gospels and Acts! Did you purposefully neglect the other epistles? If so, why? Both the Gospel of John and Romans present the Gospel- and it's necessities clearly. Why do you not cite references from them? Again, I would think, since Romans- being a doctrinal epistle that lays out the doctrines of condemnation, salvation and santification- would be a key source. My question remains: What did Paul neglect (under inspiration) in his teaching on salvation (Soteriology)? I find it interesting that those like yourself who (seem to) promote baptism as a requirement for salvation leave out the Pauline epistles! Paul wrote essentially half the NT,(most all of them being doctrinal in nature) so how can one ignore the weight of this significant portion of scripture? Possibly you would address this question? You also cannot neglect the grammar of the NT to build you case. Consistent with both Searcher's post and Tim Moran, here's what Kenneth Weust, late NT Greek scholar- and one of the translators of the NASB had to say. "The words “unto” and “for” in Matthew 3:11 and Acts 2:38 are from the Greek preposition 'eis'. Dana and Mantey in their excellent treatment of Greek prepositions based upon the papyri findings, give as one of the uses of this word, “because of.” This usage is found in Matthew 12:41 where the men of Nineveh repented at or because of the preaching of Jonah, and in Romans 4:20, where Abraham did not stagger in unbelief, because of the promise of God. In the case of the men of Nineveh, Jonah’s preaching was the cause of their repentance. In the case of Abraham, the reason why he did not stagger in unbelief, was because of the promise of God. The word “stagger” here is from a Greek word which means “to vacillate between two opinions.” Thus it was the repentance of those who received John’s message which was the cause of their baptism. The same was true of Peter’s at Pentecost. John’s words were, “I indeed baptize you with water because of repentance,” and Peter’s, “Repent, and be baptized everyone of you in the name of Jesus Christ because of the remission of sins.” That this is the correct translation and interpretation of our texts is also seen from the testimony of Josephus to the effect that John the Baptist baptized people only after they had repented: “Who (John) was a good man, and commanded the Jews to exercise virtue, both as to righteousness towards one another and piety towards God, and so to come to baptism; for that the washing (with water) would be acceptable to him, if they made use of it, not in order to the putting away of some sins, but for the purification of the body; supposing still that the soul was thoroughly purified beforehand by righteousness.” John’s words, “Bring forth therefore fruits meet for repentance” (Matt. 3:8), clearly show that he demanded some evidence of salvation before he would baptize a person. Thus, we have the scriptural meaning of water baptism. It is the testimony of the person to the fact of his salvation. The only proper recipient of water baptism therefore is one who has received the Lord Jesus as his personal Saviour, and is trusting in His precious blood for salvation from sin. The Greek text thus clears up a difficulty found in the English translation. Baptism is not the prerequisite of repentance, much less its cause, but the testimony of the one who has entered the door of salvation." (cf Eph. 1:13) [Wuest, K. S. (1997). Wuest's word studies from the Greek New Testament] In summary, Acts 2:38 does not say or teach what YOU say it does! Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |