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God looks on the heart of the baptized, not the baptizer. I know a woman who had zero respect for her pastor but didn't know what to do about it. She had some kind of disease and wanted to follow God's Word in James. She went to them and asked to be anointed with oil in the Name of Lord. She was healed.




Is this authority enough?

Acts 8:26-40

�But an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip saying, �Get up and go south to the road that descends from Jerusalem to Gaza.� (This is a desert road.) So he got up and went; and there was an Ethiopian eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure; and he had come to Jerusalem to worship, and he was returning and sitting in his chariot, and was reading the prophet Isaiah.

Then the Spirit said to Philip, �Go up and join this chariot.� Philip ran up and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet, and said,
�Do you understand what you are reading?� And he said,
�Well, how could I, unless someone guides me?� And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. Now the passage of Scripture which he was reading was this:

�HE WAS LED AS A SHEEP TO SLAUGHTER;
AND AS A LAMB BEFORE ITS SHEARER IS SILENT,
SO HE DOES NOT OPEN HIS MOUTH.
�IN HUMILIATION HIS JUDGMENT WAS TAKEN AWAY;
WHO WILL RELATE HIS GENERATION?
FOR HIS LIFE IS REMOVED FROM THE EARTH.�

The eunuch answered Philip and said,
�Please tell me, of whom does the prophet say this? Of himself or of someone else?� Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning from this Scripture he preached Jesus to him. As they went along the road they came to some water; and the eunuch said,
�Look! Water! What prevents me from being baptized?� And Philip said,
�If you believe with all your heart, you may.� And he answered and said,
�I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.� And he ordered the chariot to stop; and they both went down into the water, Philip as well as the eunuch, and he baptized him.

When they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord snatched Philip away; and the eunuch no longer saw him, but went on his way rejoicing. But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he kept preaching the Gospel to all the cities until he came to Caesarea.�

� You can't interpret one passage in such a way as to negate other passages. �

There are Seven Baptisms in Scripture

Paul taught the "doctrine of baptisms" (Heb. 6:2). There are five different elements people have been baptized or immersed into. [italics added � KEH] The seven baptisms and the five different elements used in baptism are as follows:

1. The baptism "unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea" (1 Cor. 10:2). This refers to the crossing of the Red Sea when Israel was hid from Pharaoh in the sea on both sides and the cloud in front and back and all over them to protect them from the Egyptians. They were completely covered by the clouds and went through the sea. This was a true baptism in the cloud and in the sea. Cloud and water are the elements used in this baptism.

2. John's baptism in water (Mt. 3; Lk. 3; Acts 1:5; 19:3-4). This was immersion in water (Mt. 3:16; Mk. 1:10).

3. Christ's baptism in water (Jn. 3:22-23; 4:1-2). These last two baptisms were not continued, because they were in the name of the Father only and not in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, as Jesus authorized in Mt. 28:18-20. Both John and Jesus did work in the name of the Father only (Jn. 5:30-36; 5:43; 10:25; 17:1-6). Paul rebaptized the disciples of John thus proving that baptism in the Father's name only was not recognized after Christ died (Acts 19:1-7).

4. Baptism of suffering (Lk. 12:50). This was a baptism that Christ was yet to be baptized with after He spoke of it in this passage. It refers to His sufferings and the element He was to be baptized into speaks of the overwhelming agonies that He was to go through in taking the sins and sicknesses of the race (Isa. 52:14; 53:1-12; Mt. 8:17; Lk. 22:44; 1 Pet. 2:24).

5. Baptism "into Christ" and into His body, the church (Rom. 6:4; 1 Cor. 12:13; Gal. 3:27; Eph. 4:5; Col. 2:12). These Scriptures have been taken to refer to water baptism but not one of them mentions water as the element the believer is baptized into. If they referred to water baptism it would read "buried with him by baptism into water" but they plainly say "baptism into Christ," "baptized into one body," and "baptized into Christ." In Col. 2:12, Paul says men are saved by being "buried with him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen with Him through faith of the operation of God" and not through water administered by man. Whatever baptism this passage refers to, it is one by "the operation of God" and not through the operation of man. It, therefore, could not possibly refer to water baptism by man.

If these Scriptures speak of being "baptized into Christ" and "into one body" the body of Christ, which is the church, then the element the believer is baptized into is not water but Christ and His body. If we take these passages to refer to water baptism we make Christ and His church mere water. Is Christ water? Is His body water? If not, then Christ and His body are the elements believers are baptized into and not water. We must not insert a meaning into any Scripture that is not there, to teach something contrary to what is plainly written. Water baptism does not bring one into Christ or into His body. Man has nothing to do in this operation. It is solely an operation of God by the Holy Spirit. On the other hand, water baptism is not by God, Christ, or the Holy Spirit, but solely by man.

6. Christian water baptism (Mt. 28:19; Mk. 16:15; Acts 2:38, 41; 8:12-16, 36-38; 9:18; l0:44-48; 16:15, 33; 18:8; 19:1-5; 22:16; 1 Cor. 1:13-17; 1 Peter 3:21). These 15 passages are all the Scriptures teaching water baptism. The element used is water and the administrator is man. Candidates are supposed to be already saved and disciples of Christ (Mt. 28:19). Water baptism testifies outwardly of an inward work and is merely a "figure" (1 Peter 3:21) and a "witness" of the change previously made in the life of a candidate through faith in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Jn. 5:6-10).

Water baptism does not remit sins. This is a work of God and a gift through faith (Eph. 2:8-9; Rom. 10:9-10; Acts 15:8-9). It is faith in the blood of Christ that remits sins, not water administered by man (Rom. 3:24-25; Eph. 1:7; Rev. 1:5; 1 Jn. 1:7; 1 Pet. 1:18-23).

Men have been and will yet be saved before and without water baptism. All Old Testament saints before John the Baptist were saved before and without water baptism. Many were saved from sin during the ministry of Christ before and without water baptism (Mt. 9:1-8; Lk. 7:36-50; 18:9-14; 19:1-9; 23:43; Jn. 4:49-53). Since the day of Pentecost many were saved from sin and some even baptized in the Holy Spirit before and without water baptism (Acts 9:17-18; 10:44-48; 11:14-18; 15:7-11). These last three passages state that Cornelius and his house were not saved until Peter preached to them. Then while hearing the Word the Holy Ghost fell on them as at Pentecost and only then was the question of water baptism brought up. Even Christ was baptized in water as a witness and a testimony of His own death, burial, and resurrection. He had no sins to remit by water. He is our example so if water did not remit His sins it does not remit ours (1 Pet. 2:21).

The "water" of the new birth of Jn. 3:5 does not refer to literal water, but to spiritual water of the Word, as proven in Jn. 16:3; 17:17; Eph. 5:26; 1 Pet. 1:18-23; Rom. 1:16; Jas. 1:18. These passages state that the new birth is by the Spirit and the Word of God. Water is used in a spiritual sense in Jn. 4:14; 7:37-39, etc. Since it is used in a spiritual sense and since Jesus was speaking to Nicodemus of a spiritual birth and of "heavenly things" it is very clear that the water of Jn. 3:5 could not refer to literal water.

7. Baptism in the Holy Spirit (Mt. 3:11-16; 20:20-23; Lk. 24:49; Jn. 1:31-34; 3:34; 7:37-39; 14:12-17; Acts 1:4-8; 2:1-4, 33, 38-39; 5:32; 8:14-22; 9:17; 10:38, 44-48; 11:14-18; 19:1-7; Rom. 15:29; Gal. 3:1-3, 14; Eph. 3:19; 2 Tim. 1:7; Heb. 6:2; Isaiah 11:2; 28:9-11; 42:1-7; 61:1; Joel 2:28-29; Hab. 1:5).

You didn't read the Dake quote, did you?

Baptized means simply "immersed" � thus my old essay "Plunged and Soaking." Water isn't the only thing that the New Testament speaks of being dunked into �

" the constant tradition of the Church".......... .

Is it possible that you haven't picked up on the fact that a whole bunch of us don't grant that element ANY authority in spiritual matters?

Christianity began in Jerusalem
�
After the Holy Spirit descended on those first 120 disciples in Jerusalem (Acts 2:1�4), and the news got spread around the city (Acts 2:5�11), He added about 3,000 more (Acts 2:41) and even later about 5,000 (Acts 4:4) to this ekklesia in Jerusalem. No doubt these enthusiastic new Christians also kept the news going. And the word then spread from Jerusalem to other parts of the then-known world. (There were, as well as modern scholarship can estimate, 50,000 to 100,000 Christians in Jerusalem alone by AD 100.)

One result was resistance, of course, eventually even a great persecution, and the Jerusalem Christians were scattered throughout the foreign regions of Judaea and Samaria � but not the apostles (Acts 8:1). Those who were least familiar with Jesus�s way of doing things were spreading the news everywhere, and those who knew His ways remained behind in Jerusalem. If Peter ever went to Rome, that trip doesn�t seem to have been important enough to have been recorded in the New Testament. Paul went there, much later, when there already were a number of ekklesiai in Italy.

By the end of the first century (AD 100), there were dozens if not hundreds of ekklesiai throughout the vast Roman Empire, from Egypt through Greece, Macedonia, Italy, France, Spain, and throughout Europe � no doubt many, many more by the time when Emperor Theodosius decreed in AD 380 that Christianity was to be the official religion throughout the Empire.

In those other lands, they found themselves in the midst of and up against long-established paganism, Roman rule, and Greek intellectualism � all of which in one way and another wrought changes in the ways that the ekklesiai were organized and operated in those places. Like any normal humans anywhere, they wanted to �fit-in� amiably with their neighbors, wherever they were, so they were very naturally sensitive to their neighbors� ways.

Pagan religious practices emphasized buildings, places, and appearances. Roman rule emphasized hierarchy and power along with paganism. Greek intellectualism emphasized knowledge and logic as well as paganism. (A good many Greeks eventually became Christians � Acts 14:1, 17:4, 12, 18:4, 19:17 � but most Greeks considered Christianity foolish, as Paul wrote in chapter 1, verse 23 of his first letter to the Christians in Corinth.)

In the midst of these very strong outside influences, these early ekklesiai underwent significant modifications, changes that the apostles later had to counter, questions that they had to answer, mistakes that they had to correct, problems that they had to solve as The Holy Spirit directed, to conform to Jesus�s plan for His ekklesia. (The Greeks also loved spirited debates, so the divisive influence of fervent arguments also pervaded these early, widely scattered international ekklesiai.)

When Theodosius in AD 380 declared Christianity the official religion of the vast Roman Empire (with Rome its capital and including much of fourth-century Europe), the radical Roman modifications of the ekklesia, with all its pagan influences and its resulting revisions and abandonments of what Jesus and the Holy Spirit had established, became the template for �Christianity� � not the original Jerusalem version with its emphasis on the spiritual.

Today, we see the same thing happening when �Christian� missionaries to pagan lands come home excited about the pagan notions and practices that they�re bringing home for the church�s benefit.

"...whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved."

God intrudes. The life of Jesus is bracketed by two impossibilities: a virgin's womb and an empty tomb. Jesus entered our world through a door marked "No Entrance" and left through a door marked "No Exit."

That first Christmas, there was no room for Him in the inn. The world never wants to make room for Christ at Christmas and in everyday life. Man killed Him and sealed the tomb with a huge stone to shut Him out of our lives once and for all. But God removed the stone to prove Jesus will not be shut up or shut out of His plans.

One day Jesus will intrude on history again.

pahick,



It is not enough. If you love Him with all your heart you will obey Him. Jesus is the One Who wrap arms around. He says,

Matthew 28: 18-20

"And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, 'All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.'�

Mark 16:15-16

"And He said to them, 'Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. He who has believed and has been baptized shall be saved; but he who has disbelieved shall be condemned.'"

John 14:15

�'If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.'"