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NASB | 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if anyone is in Christ [that is, grafted in, joined to Him by faith in Him as Savior], he is a new creature [reborn and renewed by the Holy Spirit]; the old things [the previous moral and spiritual condition] have passed away. Behold, new things have come [because spiritual awakening brings a new life]. |
Subject: why is baptism important |
Bible Note: Dear Nolan. I know I said I was going to lay this to rest but some of your comments made me look at a few things this weekend. (Actually had a lot more I would have like to have done but on Saturday morning the wife of our Sunday morning preacher phoned to tell me that her husband was terribly ill with bronchitis and would not be able to preach Sunday Morning and his son baled out at the last minute on the Sunday evening sermon at the house church we assist on Sunday evenings. I found myself in a situation where I needed to dedicate some time to lesson preparation instead of personal research. On top of that my wife came down with the same condition so I was cooking, cleaning and changing nappies as well. Quite a hectic weekend!) Looked at 2 different grammars to investigate the usage of 'eis' in the new testament. Moulton stated that Acts 2:38 could either be translated "because of" or "with a view to" DEPENDING ON YOUR DOCTRINAL BIAS. (Paraphrase). Dana and Mantey (well known baptist gramarians) state that 'eis' is used over 1700 times in the New Testament. Yet they could only quote 2 possible places where this should be translated "because of" -- Acts 2:38 being one of these (sorry, cant remember the other right now). In the writing of Luke (Luke and Acts) this usage only occurs once. This puts serious doubt on the usage to me and looks like a case of a grammatical rule being created to support a pre-decided doctrine. Unconvincing to say the least. As I have mentioned before (I think), there are two aspects to Salvation. The important part is God's part. When explaining God's part it is not always necessary to mention Mans's part (Belief/repentance, baptism). For example I have no problem with Acts 4:12 which explains that salvation is in no one else but Christ. That is not talking about belief or faith either! I started writing something on Friday and don't recall whether I ever completed and submitted it -- Friday started getting crazy. The gist of what I wanted to say is that just like Abraham had to sacrifice Isaac, to prove his faith, so in a sense is baptism a proof of our faith. Popular doctrine says baptism is a symbol of salvation already received. I think it is more a symbol of a person's faith (as per your own comments on James 2). I believe baptism and belief are essentially tied together. In the same context as Romans 5:1-2 we are told in verses 6, 8 and 10 what this is about. Christ's part in salvation was done BEFORE we were saved. Romans 6 gives a very detailed account of the process -- Baptized into Christ equals Baptized into his death v3. Baptism equals burrial v4. New life comes AFTER death and burrial therefore AFTER baptism. I am trying to not over-strees the importance of baptism but IT IS ESSENTIAL. It is something that we have to do when we believe. We are doing a course on personal evangelism for some of our newer members at the moment. The brother who is conducting the course commented that he has almost never converted "Bible Schollars". Can we be deceived by preconceptions and doctrines we have grown up with. I believe so and of course am in the same boat. My belief structures are also influenced by my own background, experience and training. But I do try to keep an open mind. If you are right and I am wrong, I pray God will forgive me and help me see the light. I pray He will help me to keep a 'love of the truth'. I pray the same for you and all others on this forum. I think I'm right, and you think you are. We can't both be right, but we could both be wrong. The only chance we have is to seek earnestly for the truth. In Christian Love My prayers are with you Tim |