All About GOD - Growing Relationships with Jesus and Others
Infant baptism
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Permalink Reply by David Velasquez on
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Brad,
I am in agreement with LT's comment. You have nothing to lose being baptize as an adult, but much to gain.
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Permalink Reply by Gmaw Pradeep on
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Bradley, dear friend in Christ,
There are four things that are involved in baptism according to the bible. I bring to you the double-edged sword.
Belief(Understanding), Repentance, Confession and Obedience.
“Sin is the transgression of the law” (1 John 3:4).
Are Infants sentenced to Jail for (transgressing the law)???? No…..bcos they have not that we call ‘Common Sense’.
1.Belief (Understanding) – Acts 8:12 – “When they believed ….. the good news about the kingdom of God ….. ….. they were baptized”.
2.Repentance (Change of heart) – Acts 2:38 – “Repent, and be baptized ……….. for the forgiveness of (your) sins.
3.Confession (Declaration) – Matt 3:6 – “And when they confessed their sins, John baptized them in the Jordan river. Ref. Mark 1:5.
Did John baptize in the name (authority) of Jesus?
Yes….. Acts 19:4 – Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus."
4.Obedience(Doing what the word says) – James 2:24 – “A man is justified by works (obedience) and not by faith alone”.
Romans 6:4 – “After baptism, we should walk in the newness of life”.
BAPTISM : INTERCESION IS INVALID.
Why did paul re-baptize those believers already baptized by John?
John baptized correctly, telling them to believe in Jesus.(Acts 19:4).
But, they didn’t care all this, and were just dipped (They saw John, not Jesus).
Now, paul re-baptized(Acts 19:5) these believers in the name our Lord.
Why was not the first baptism valid? The difference is “their understanding”.
An Infant cannot believe, repent, confess or obey.
INTERCESION IS INVALID
“WHOM WILL YOU FOLLOW – CREEDS AND MAN’S OPINIONS OR THE COMMANDMENT OF THE LIVING GOD, WHO IS A CONSUMING FIRE.”(Heb 12:29).
Heb 2:3 – “How will we escape if we neglect such a great salvation?” …..Yosef.
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Dear Friend,
For your question, "Does one have to be baptized to be saved?".
Take this verse,
4.Obedience(Doing what the word says) – James 2:24 – “A man is justified by works (obedience) and not by faith alone”.
So, if your own conscience is against you for neglecting baptism, you'll surely be in hell.
Even then, it is not your conscience, but the word of God that will judge you.
1 Cor 4:4 - "My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me."
God is not the author of Confusion. (1 Cor 14:33).
He is Clear. "Be baptized for the remission of your sins". (Acts 2:38).
"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.” (Matt 18:3)
1 John 1:7 – “But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin.”
But, if we neglect his word,
2 Tim 2:12 – “If we deny Him, He also will deny us.”
"The LORD our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. (Deut 29:29).
'Now why do you delay? Get up and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name.' (Acts 22:16).
Say like the eunuch, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” ….. Yosef.
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Permalink Reply by ScribeD on
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Gmaw, in your first post on this topic, I would find hearty agreement. However, in the case of "baptism" itself being efficacious for salvation, I see that you are taking scripture out of context.
But, actually the language of Acts 2:38 is not "clear" it can also be translated "...be baptized because of the remission of your sins..." or "...as evidence of...". It is actually much more to the point that Peter is compelling them to repent and believe, then to make a public proclamation because of that act of Faith - eg. placing trust in Jesus as Messiah.
James is talking about obedience as a style of living, not as specific to baptism. Yes, I agree with you that Baptism is an act of obedience, and in my opinion it should be the first act of obedience of the believer.
however, if you take that position to extreme, Jesus could not have said to the (repentant) thief on the cross "today, you will be with me in Paradise". So, there is more to the Baptism issue.
I would say however, that the repentant thief was honoring the intent of baptism, which is that he was making a public proclamation of his belief that Jesus was a righteous man, and subsequently he stated that he believed Jesus was "Lord" and had a Kingdom to come into. Thus, he was proclaiming that he believed:
1. Jesus is Lord and Messiah
2. Jesus is righteous and undeserving the punishment of the Cross
3. Jesus has a future Kingdom where he will reign
4. That Jesus would be resurrected
5. That Jesus was mediator for him.
Surely, all of those came to the thief by revelation from the Spirit of God, as it did previously to Peter in Matthew 16. Thus we know that a person can be born of the Spirit, apart from Baptism. And when Jesus said "today, you will be with me in Paradise", we know that Jesus confirmed that.
There are many more instances where we can demonstrate such things; Therefore we say that this act of Baptism is one of many forms of obedience, and I believe it is one of the most vital. So, while I agree with you that James is saying that it is obedience that demonstrates that our faith is real, it is not scriptural to say therefore that you cannot be saved without being baptized.
Baptism is, in my opinion, the first and foremost act of obedience for a believer. But, we ought not say this saves you. Because there are many persons who have been Baptized who act as enemies of the cross of Christ. And also, this leads to the very conviction which Bradley has brought in the first place, that is - if Baptism saves you, then baptizing someone at infancy is somehow efficacious for their entire life, apart from what they do in the future as to having a relationship with God.
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Great posts Scribe and Ama.
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Permalink Reply by Leonard T on
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No. I was baptized as an adult after my rebellious years.
Lord Bless,
LT
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Bradley, I was baptized as a new believer and was very committed from that point forward. However, I won't tell you that I have never succumbed to temptation since then. I will tell you that my walk with the Lord really took off and I was clearly walking in a new level of faith from that point forward.
I have seen many people struggling with their faith, who upon committing to make the public proclamation of baptism, have seen their faith and their walk grow substantially.
This is a vital step for a believer, in my opinion. As I have said before, it is the first act of obedience and faith, to make a public declaration of your faith in Christ. There are others that will come, but this one is vital.
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Dude -
After being baptized, heavily involved in ministry and going to the bible institute, I felled into fornication with my fiancé. God had been so amazingly beautiful in my life that at that point I felt like Judas must have felt. I felt like I had let the Lord down completely for I betrayed him, his love, his mercy, his grace and trust... I got hit from every side (challenges and temptations) and I ended up back using drugs, in the mud. I was gonna do as Judas and end it all. The Lord told me, no son, you remain my son, I love you just as much as the day I saved you; you can still bring me glory. He gave me the strength and desire to enrolled into a rehab (Teenchallenge, did 4 months) and got strong in the Lord again. Went back to school and God restored my ministry. The consequences of my sins, still to this day have carry consequences. God is good, forgiving but the consequences of disobedience at times linger for the rest of our lives.
Whatever you are into beloved, He loves you just the same, but enjoying the benefits of being in Christ is much better than being in His correction.
Break free with the word bro, abide in it and it will renew your mind and increase your faith. Brad - my brother, repent, a contrite heart the Lord will never turn away, surrender to His will once again.
He loves you...
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All the time beloved. God is good all the time.
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Thanks for the full disclosure of your testimony, brother David. I know that takes courage, because some people will judge you.
I would remind everyone that according to Jesus, denying him IS as serious a sin as anyone can commit, but Jesus restored Peter.
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Brad-
>>I think my problem is that I believe I have to completely change my ways before I can fully allow Christ into my life.
Knowing what the problem is, is half the battle, now work on the other half. Ask God to help you do what you know, you should do. That is to abide in Christ through daily bible study, communication throughout the day with God (prayer) and a lifestyle of worship.
>>Why can't I switch the two around and first give myself to Christ, then allow Him to change my ways?
God will allow us to experience a lot of failure in our attempts to follow him, so we can come to the place where we understand that it is impossible to follow him using only will power or only our own strength. It is a good thing that we involve our will power in the struggle of the Spirit against the flesh, but that alone will not cut it. We must surrender to the guidance of the Spirit of the Lord, abide in God and allow him to live through us.
1. Understand that God sees every time you lust for a woman and start to hate it, for you love God and do not want to offend Him. Also ask God to help you honor your wife not only with your physical faithfulness, but also with your mind. You would not want her being unfaithful even in her mind, so ask God to help you do the same for her.
2 – I asked the Lord to help me look at woman for what they are – either a daughter of my king or creation of the King, so when I see beautiful sisters in church I treat them as such in my mind. I see a beautiful sister and tell myself, this is a daughter of my King – my Lord is her Lord. For the unbelievers I have through Christ’s help gotten to the point where unbelievers are not attractive to me. Especially if they are teasers, God has helped me see the ugliness in such attitudes and to see the beauty in Godliness. In other words I am not attracted to bad girls. There is nothing sexier on the face of the earth then Godly woman. I actually feel compassion for girls who do not value themselves, who give themselves (through provocative dressing or fornication) to find approval etc. I am able to think like this due to daily abiding in Christ, who has helped me appreciate true beauty and not the okey doke.
3 - I have committed my mind and heart to wait for sex in my mind and physically, to be with the woman I marry (this may come off as selfish and it probably is, but… haha), so God can blessed me with a beautiful Godly woman. I do not want to cut my self short by lustful thoughts that if entertain too long, most likely will drive me to wrong actions, sin.
4 - I practice through discipline, but mainly through the empowerment of the Holy Spirit, taking thoughts captive immediately as they pop in my head. (2 Cor. 10:4-6) The majority of men are visual, so we need to resolve to guard our mind against the tendency to entertain lustful thoughts that will automatically pop up in our mind due to our flesh and the fiery darts. I have a method that works for me, which may appear foolish to many, but it works for me. If a woman is dressed extremely provocative and she enjoys seeing men worked up about her attributes, personally that is a big turn off for me, but it does not stop our minds at times from wanting to wonder, at the point of bith of lust I take the thought captive immediately and in my mind either a machine gun or a sword would appear and tear that thought to pieces That may be supper silly to most, but it works for me. As soon as a sinful thought appears I take it captive, for I know that if I entertain it it will eventually birth sin and sin will lead to death. James 1:13-15.
Basically all I said can be summarized by saying we defeat the lust of the flesh though a renewing of our mind, which is accomplish to the word of God. analyzing this matters and asking God to help is a must though to over come them. Blessings to you bro and keep asking about this and any other topic.
Romans 12
1 Therefore, I urge you, brothers and sisters, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God—this is your true and proper worship. 2 Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
Philippians 4:13 New International Version (©1984)
I can do everything through him who gives me strength. -
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