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NASB | 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 1 Corinthians 12:13 For by one [Holy] Spirit we were all baptized into one body, [spiritually transformed--united together] whether Jews or Greeks (Gentiles), slaves or free, and we were all made to drink of one [Holy] Spirit [since the same Holy Spirit fills each life]. [Rom 3:22; Gal 3:28] |
Subject: Baptized before serving in choir |
Bible Note: Dear Justme, Your optimism sounds downright Panglossian! The American church is not healthy at all! Quite the contrary! How can I make this assertion? Simple. The American church increasingly embraces the values of the world more than the values of the heaven. Your assertion that the gospel is being preached is equivalently problematic. The American church, in its effort to reduce the gospel to its bear essentials and render it inoffensive, now preaches another gospel, but one alien to that taught by Christ and the apostles. James I. Packer writes that "The sum of the gospel is this, that all who, by repentance and faith do forsake the flesh, the world and the devil, and give themselves up to Father, Son and Holy Spirit, as their creator, redeemer and sanctifier, shall find God as a father taking them for His reconciled children, and for Christ's sake pardoning their sin, and by His Spirit giving them His grace; and if they persevere in this course, will finally glorify them, and bestow upon them everlasting happiness." The modern American church member, when he attends church at all, doesn't want to forsake the flesh, the world, or the devil. He'll devote himself to God as long as God doesn't expect anything of him. He is unwilling to be placed under the knife of a life-changing gospel. He garners to himself ministers who are equally unwilling to deal with their own sin. The whole system renders something that looks no different than any other organization of lost people. No wonder it offers no appeal to the world. The world rightly sees it as no different than itself. In summary, if we are NOT talking about the Scriptural definition of the gospel, the church, the flock, and its ministers, then you're right. In Him, Doc PS My apologies, sister Azure, but I couldn't just leave this alone. "Wrong ideas about God are not only the fountain from which the polluted waters of idolatry flow; they are themselves idolatrous. The idolater simply imagines things about God and acts as if they were true. "Perverted notions about God soon rot the religion in which they appear. The long career of Israel demonstrates this clearly enough, and the history of the Church confirms it. So necessary to the Church is a lofty concept of God that when that concept in any measure declines, the Church with her worship and her moral standards decline along with it. The first step down for any church is taken when it surrenders its high opinion of God. "Before the Church goes into eclipse anywhere there must first be a corrupting of her simple basic theology. She simply gets a wrong answer to the question, 'What is God like?' and goes on from there. Though she may continue to cling to a sound nominal creed, her practical working creed has become false. The masses of her adherents come to believe that God is different from what He actually is, and that is heresy of the most insidious and deadly kind." --A. W. Tozer "A great many Christians at the end of the twentieth century appear to be interested in everything except Christ. You name it, we've got it! But the one thing we no longer believe in is the gospel. There's no room for irrelevant dogmas about original sin, total depravity, guilt, atonement, propitiation, substitution, justification, the sovereignty of God, regeneration and sanctification, judgment, heaven and hell. Nearly every one of these doctrines in our day is up for grabs; one does not have to hold a narrow position on these issues to wear the evangelical label." --Michael Horton |