TO ALL,
LOVE TO ALL IN THE HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!! First, I have to say that I am not sure who actually runs these websites on the internet. Sometimes I think it's just a group of people on each website, because these answers can't be serious. I say this without judgement. I say this more in a surprising kind of way. My job takes me to different parts of the world every month for many years now, and every church function, service, bible study, or meeting with believers; there is always some discussion with a simple answer.
Let's go back to the beginning of the BIBLE. Everyone do research. How many times did GOD change HIS laws from OT to NT because of our sins and weaknesses?? If you dont know, then, this is a great exercise to read the WORD all over again, and learn more through your personal relationship with HIM, not just through what someone on a pulpit tells you ( priest, minister, pastor, etc..). YES, they are needed, so, please dont think I look down on them. But, we are ordered by JESUS to search the scriptures ourselves:
JOHN 5:36-40
36 “I have testimony weightier than that of John. For the works that the Father has given me to finish—the very works that I am doing—testify that the Father has sent me. 37 And the Father who sent me has himself testified concerning me. You have never heard his voice nor seen his form, 38 nor does his word dwell in you, for you do not believe the one he sent. 39 You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, 40 yet you refuse to come to me to have life.
Some people dont realize that if your teacher, pastor, minister, etc... WHO IS HUMAN and is imperfect. If they teach you wrong, and you dont search the scriptures, then, whose fault is it?? Theirs?? No, yours.
The greatest commandments that GOD brought through JESUS were these:
MARK 12:28-31
28 One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?â€
29 “The most important one,†answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.â€
So, if we love GOD and our neighbor, then, we do anything to win over our neighbor to CHRIST!! Just like GOD changed HIS laws for us, gave us many chances, and constantly forgave us of our sins. We should do the same with each other. The wise man or woman should be more humble in their approach to someone that is not a wise ( in the spirit I am talking about, not just scholaticism).
First that person trying to give the " gospel", must be a living representation of it. If they are not, then, their words are futile. Since we are here on the internet, no one knows or sees each other. So each man and woman is stuck to their impression of their comprehension of the words that each person uses. This doesnt mean their comprehension is right about the person; because only GOD knows the hearts and movement of people we can't see. GOD can change anyone in a second. Thats why we must walk and treat all people in love until CHRIST comes again. Loving believers, non-believers, and enemies; love all of them. Treating your Christian brother and sisters special:
ROMANS 16:16-19
16 Greet one another with a holy kiss.
All the churches of Christ send greetings. 17 I urge you, brothers and sisters, to watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Keep away from them. 18 For such people are not serving our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. By smooth talk and flattery they deceive the minds of naive people. 19 Everyone has heard about your obedience, so I rejoice because of you; but I want you to be wise about what is good, and innocent about what is evil.
So, in this discussion in treating each other special, we have to remember what JESUS says about edifying one another:
ROMANS 14:5-9
5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.
So in this baptisim case, both sides are right. If there are people that believe in the water baptism, then, they follow and understand that doctrines of the OT and the law that JESUS established on the church buildings to baptize. Baptism of water was supposed to mean that you are washing away your sins ( your old self), and moving forth in your new creation in HIM ( JESUS). This is an open admittance whether we see like this or not. In a church you are in the open, in the Bible you were in a lake in front of people waiting behind you; an open admittance that you were a sinner and needed to be clean. This is also a great way to boost the confidence of a person. They realize they are not alone in their new life in CHRIST and in shedding their old wicked self. Really beautiful and amazing.
Then, there is the baptism of the HOLY SPIRIT that JOHN mentions that JESUS is greater and has came to do:
John 1:29-34
29 The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world!
30 This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’
31 I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.â€
32 Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him.
33 And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’
34 I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.â€
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ACTS 8:14-17
14 When the apostles in Jerusalem heard that Samaria had accepted the word of God, they sent Peter and John to Samaria. 15 When they arrived, they prayed for the new believers there that they might receive the Holy Spirit, 16 because the Holy Spirit had not yet come on any of them; they had simply been baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 17 Then Peter and John placed their hands on them, and they received the Holy Spirit.
Here we learn that the HOLY SPIRIT can come to anyone at its will. But it's the heart that GOD puts the HOLY SPIRIT to chase after. CHRIST sending the disciples and not HIMSELF is good. The workers need to work because of their sin nature; which goes all the way back to a law GOD made after Adam and Eve sinned. We will have to labor to get anything; mentally, spiritually, or physically. JESUS who is the living WORD did not have to baptize; HE is not a sinner. HIS job was sacrifice, spread, and heal.
Remember that if the lame, dumb, blind, cripple, or other physical setbacks that stops someone to walk can't make it to church. OR in some places their is no church. Or if you were on the desert and wanted to be baptised. Even think the criminal on the cross that was with JESUS that JESUS said was forgiven and will go to heaven, he wasnt baptised by water. This is the baptism of the HOLY SPIRIT.
BOTH ARE RIGHT!! Stop proving and start loving each other in the HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!! UNLESS, and I say again that this is just people who create this websites just to stir each other up. Either way LOVE TO ALL IN THE HOLY PRECIOUS NAME OF JESUS CHRIST!!
jesus4life
