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Infant Baptism

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another interminable baptism argument.
nothing interminable about it scripture does not support infant baptism . baptism follows salvation not precedes. so why does a infant need baptist ? a child is safe up untill they start understanding the need to be saved and that varies
 
What do you believe is required for a person to be saved?

JLB my brother in Christ.
This for me is a very deep and "LOADED" question because there has been such a devisive and hateful commentary of opinions for centuries over this topic.
I'll qualify my statement by quoting a warning from God - Romans 14:22, "The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God, happy is he who doesn't condemn himself in what he approves."

Over my more than 40 years of reading scripture, studying scripture, researching scripture, studying the history of the bible, studying the history of Christianity, and world history of different era's, and through all of that creating a personal library of over 550 volumns of commentaries by reputable scholars and my commentary conclusions of what i believed after studying their opinions, and studying every topic God brought to me through the Holy Spirit.
Mu biggest topic and focus, like a major when I was in college, is salvation, which I have created over 60 volums of study.

I am what is known as a soteriologist (Greek transliteration for a person who studies salvation in the Koine Greek language of Jesus time).

After I found the Lord (Because He had called me through caring, loving believers), and accepted Him as my savior, during the first year of walking with the Lord, I noticed in my church and other Christian functions, that what was preached and said didn't always seem to be in harmony with Gods word, and that greatly concerned me.
Was I really a Christian, and was I in the right church?

So I began a "Quest" to find the answers I needed to find peace and satisfaction that whatever I ended up believing would be the truth, that I would be lead to by the Holy Spirit, not by the falibility of man.

42+ years of study has takin' me through many changes in my beliefs about salvation, especially, - my favorite topic by a large margin. So much is connected to it.

At my advanced age now, I have been blessed with the answers I sought for decades, feeling blessed to have been allowed to have the time to study in my many years of retirement, and feeling blessed to have lived so long in amazingly good health to properly search out His word, and today, believe I have many good years left to continue to add to defining in my research the details of salvation that God continues to add as I study.
Wanting the truth has always been an intense and passionate part of my search and I think they have both served me well.

Now to answer your question, and to make sure everyone understands that my answer isn't meant to stand in judgement or criticism of anyone else's faith and personal beliefs
My personal opinion of what salvation is and how to practice it changed several times as God was patient with me until the "Knowledge of the truth" was REVEALED to me in total over many years by the Holy Spirit, and today I find great joy and peace in this BEAUTIFUL and GLORIOUS on-going growth in "my process and stages" of salvation.

At 77 years of age, I believe simply that..............................................................................................................

Acts 2:38, "Repent, and let each of you be BAPTIZED in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," is the foundation of my faith.

He didn't say believe here, although I do think and know that believing is necessary, not as a way of being saved, but a precursor to salvation, by believing, we are lead to the next stage to being saved through immersion water baptism INTO CHRIST, Romans 6:3, and HIS DEATH, Romans 6: 3-11, and receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:38, to lead us, and be a reminder to us, and guide us in our growth for a lifetime.

This is my foundation of faith that I will live by and die by at this stage of my life and my faith,!!!

God bless you for asking JLB.
May we all be blessed by our Lord as we LOVINGLY seek out His truth for our faith, and the true salvation we can all be confident in for the gift of our eternal glory.

My name is OLIGOS
 
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I'll qualify my statement by quoting a warning from God - Romans 14:22, "The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God, happy is he who doesn't condemn himself in what he approves

:nod
JLB my brother in Christ.
This for me is a very deep and "LOADED question because there has been such a devisive and hateful commentary of opinions for centuries over this topic.
I'll qualify my statement by quoting a warning from God - Romans 14:22, "The faith which you have, have as your own conviction before God, happy is he who doesn't condemn himself in what he approves."

Over my more than 40 years of reading scripture, studying scripture, researching scripture, studying the history of the bible, studying the history of Christianity, and world history of different era's, and through all of that creating a personal library of over 550 volumns of commentaries by reputable scholars and my commentary conclusions of what i believed after studying their opinions, and studying every topic God brought to me through the Holy Spirit.
Mu biggest topic and focus, like a major when I was in college, is salvation, which I have created over 60 volums of study.

I am what is known as a soteriologist (Greek transliteration for a person who studies salvation in the Koine Greek language of Jesus time).

After I found the Lord (Because He had called me through caring, loving believers), and accepted Him as my savior, during the first year of walking with the Lord, I noticed in my church and other Christian functions, that what was preached and said didn't always seem to be in harmony with Gods word, and that greatly concerned me.
Was I really a Christian, and was I in the right church?

So I began a "Quest" to find the answers I needed to find peace and satisfaction that whatever I ended up believing would be the truth, that I would be lead to by the Holy Spirit, not by the falibility of man.

42+ years of study has takin' me through many changes in my beliefs about salvation, especially, - my favorite topic by a large margin. So much is connected to it.

At my advanced age now, I have been blessed with the answers I sought for decades, feeling blessed to have been allowed to have the time to study in my many years of retirement, and feeling blessed to have lived so long in amazingly good health to properly search out His word, and today, believe I have many good years left to continue to add to defining in my research the details of salvation that God continues to add as I study.

Now to answer your question, and to make sure everyone understands that my answer isn't meant to stand in judgement or criticism of anyone else's faith and personal beliefs
My personal opinion of what salvation is and how to practice it changed several times as God was patient with me until the "Knowledge of the truth" was REVEALED to me in total over many years by the Holy Spirit, and today I find great joy and peace in this BEAUTIFUL and GLORIOUS on-going growth in "my process and stages" of salvation.

At 77 years of age, I believe simply that..............................................................................................................

Acts 2:38, "Repent, and let each of you be BAPTIZED in the name of Jesus Christ, for the forgiveness of your sins, and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit," is the foundation of my faith.

He didn't say believe here, although I do think and know that believing is necessary, not as a way of being saved, but a precursor to salvation, by believing, we are lead to the next stage to being saved through immersion water baptism INTO CHRIST, Romans 6:3, and HIS DEATH, Romans 6: 3-11, and receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, Acts 2:38, to lead us, and be a reminder to us, and guide us in our growth for a lifetime.

This is my foundation of faith that I will live by and die by at this stage of my life and my faith,!!!

God bless you for asking JLB.
May we all be blessed by our Lord as we LOVINGLY seek out His truth for our faith, and the true salvation we can all be confident in for the gift of our eternal glory.

My name is OLIGOS

Thank you for sharing.



Are you familiar with an Evangelist by the name of Rheinhard Bonnke?
 
I once heard.....to become as little children is to be dependent on your parent. Similarly, A Christian must become dependent on Christ and what He did.

And how does that work when practically all Bible-believing Christians disobey Christ to their hearts content, teach others to do likewise and condemn the few that do try to obey Christ?

Man baptizes us in water.
Jesus Baptizes us with the Spirit.
The Spirit baptizes us into Christ.
We are saved when the Spirit baptizes us in Christ.
Afterward we are baptized in water by man.
Then we are baptized by Jesus with the Holy Spirit.

Your theology is not only unscriptural, it is rather complicated as well. Do you expect to see many others in heaven with you, or is salvation only for the smart guys that can figure it all out like you have done?
 
And how does that work when practically all Bible-believing Christians disobey Christ to their hearts content, teach others to do likewise and condemn the few that do try to obey Christ?



Your theology is not only unscriptural, it is rather complicated as well. Do you expect to see many others in heaven with you, or is salvation only for the smart guys that can figure it all out like you have done?



Tradidi my brother.
Be a little kinder and loving in your responses. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord here, and God says in
John 13:35" we are known by the love we have for one another." :thumbsup

God bless you my brother.
My name is OLIGOS
 
Tradidi my brother.
Be a little kinder and loving in your responses. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord here, and God says in
John 13:35" we are known by the love we have for one another." :thumbsup

God bless you my brother.
My name is OLIGOS
What did you find unkind about my post? That I am honest? That I disagree? That dare to I express my disagreement?
 
Be a little kinder and loving in your responses. We are all brothers and sisters in the Lord here, and God says in
John 13:35" we are known by the love we have for one another." :thumbsup
What is the "love" that John talks about? Is it a feeling? Is it wearing velvet gloves? Is it hiding the truth so as not to upset anyone? Something else maybe? Please explain.
 
What is the "love" that John talks about? Is it a feeling? Is it wearing velvet gloves? Is it hiding the truth so as not to upset anyone? Something else maybe? Please explain.


Hi again Trdidi my brother.
Love is speaking in kindness and a tone that can be felt over the internet.
You can still share your concerns , questions or differences of opinion, but
speaking to others the same way you want to be spoken to with respect,
and have comments worded without the feeling of harshness.

Not to be critical or demeaning in any way, but your question here to me has a tone of that harshness I spoke of above.

The wording of your question to me about love has an unmistakable "edge'" to it that presents someone with a less than caring , unloving presentation, with a lack of kind feelings for others.

We enjoy a light hearted relationship here among the members, and a sense of humor here, and deeply care for each other with much love.

I see your fairly new here, and we are delighted to welcome you, and hope that you can find your way to be another loving, kind member that fits right in to our warm family.

If you have been on other forums that have a lot of devisiveness and harsh interactions, we're not like that here.

If you like the more unempathetic approach, you may not like it here and want to find a place where your kind of confrontational style of communication is more appealing to you.

God bless you my brother and friend, as you walk this path of glory with all of us seeking God's will for our lives.
My Name is OLIGOS

PS-I'm here to be privately messaged if you want to talk without an audience.
 
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Hi again Trdidi my brother.
Love is speaking in kindness and a tone that can be felt over the internet.
You can still share your concerns , questions or differences of opinion, but
speaking to others the same way you want to be spoken to with respect,
and have comments worded without the feeling of harshness.

Not to be critical or demeaning in any way, but your question here to me has a tone of that harshness I spoke of above.

The wording of your question to me about love has an unmistakable "edge'" to it that presents someone with a less than caring , unloving presentation, with a lack of kind feelings for others.

We enjoy a light hearted relationship here among the members, and a sense of humor here, and deeply care for each other with much love.

I see your fairly new here, and we are delighted to welcome you, and hope that you can find your way to be another loving, kind member that fits right in to our warm family.

If you have been on other forums that have a lot of devisiveness and harsh interactions, we're not like that here.

If you like the more unempathetic approach, you may not like it here and want to find a place where your kind of confrontational style of communication is more appealing to you.

God bless you my brother and friend, as you walk this path of glory with all of us seeking God's will for our lives.
My Name is OLIGOS

PS-I'm here to be privately messaged if you want to talk without an audience.
Dear Oligos,

Please allow me to briefly explain my definition of love.

When we love someone, it means that we want good to happen to this person. The highest good to a man is to be saved. Therefore, to love someone is to help him work out his salvation. And this can only be done in the truth, as the truth will set us free, not error or lies. (John 8:32)

So how does that work in practice? St. Paul gives us a clue: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not able as yet. But neither indeed are you now able: for you are yet carnal." (1 Corinthians 3:2) And Jesus gives us some examples. He is gentle to those who are of good will, but harsh to those who have hardened their hearts.

Putting the two together now, I have tried to be very gentle on this forum in the hope of finding some that are of good will. At the start this gentle approach was returned with the kind of "love" you speak of. But this "love" only lasted as long as I didn't speak openly. But if and when we want to bring others to the truth, at some point we need to tell them they are in error. Those who see their brother run towards a ravine, do they love their brother by smiling at him and wishing him well? Or do they love their brother by trying to warn them, even trying to force them to look more carefully?

My short stay on this forum has been a big learning experience for me. At the start I thought Protestants knew the Bible and cared for the truth, and that they were simply defrauded of this truth by circumstances that are out of their control. I have since changed my opinion on this. I see very little concern for truth here, but I do see a lot of hardened hearts, the kind of people that do not love the Truth. All I see is the kind of love that you talk about. Not the kind of love that helps a man find the truth and work out his salvation, but the kind of love that tells a man to carry on walking towards his own destruction.

As you rightly observed, I am not into this kind of love, and hence this is not a good place for me to be. I am appalled at the amount of heresies that are spouted and tolerated on this forum, and if there is no good I can do here I would rather spend my time elsewhere. Thank you for helping me make this decision.

God bless,

Tradidi
 
Your theology is not only unscriptural, it is rather complicated as well. Do you expect to see many others in heaven with you, or is salvation only for the smart guys that can figure it all out like you have done?

It’s actually pretty simple.

These two scriptures say the same thing.


And being assembled together with them, He commanded them not to depart from Jerusalem, but to wait for the Promise of the Father, “which,” He said, “you have heard from Me; for John truly baptized with water, but you shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.” Acts 1:4-5


I indeed baptized you with water, but He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” Mark 1:8


John which is to say, man, baptizes us in water.
Jesus baptizes us with the Holy Spirit.


Why is that so complicated?




JLB
 
Dear Oligos,

Please allow me to briefly explain my definition of love.

When we love someone, it means that we want good to happen to this person. The highest good to a man is to be saved. Therefore, to love someone is to help him work out his salvation. And this can only be done in the truth, as the truth will set us free, not error or lies. (John 8:32)

So how does that work in practice? St. Paul gives us a clue: "I gave you milk to drink, not meat: for you were not able as yet. But neither indeed are you now able: for you are yet carnal." (1 Corinthians 3:2) And Jesus gives us some examples. He is gentle to those who are of good will, but harsh to those who have hardened their hearts.

Putting the two together now, I have tried to be very gentle on this forum in the hope of finding some that are of good will. At the start this gentle approach was returned with the kind of "love" you speak of. But this "love" only lasted as long as I didn't speak openly. But if and when we want to bring others to the truth, at some point we need to tell them they are in error. Those who see their brother run towards a ravine, do they love their brother by smiling at him and wishing him well? Or do they love their brother by trying to warn them, even trying to force them to look more carefully?

My short stay on this forum has been a big learning experience for me. At the start I thought Protestants knew the Bible and cared for the truth, and that they were simply defrauded of this truth by circumstances that are out of their control. I have since changed my opinion on this. I see very little concern for truth here, but I do see a lot of hardened hearts, the kind of people that do not love the Truth. All I see is the kind of love that you talk about. Not the kind of love that helps a man find the truth and work out his salvation, but the kind of love that tells a man to carry on walking towards his own destruction.

As you rightly observed, I am not into this kind of love, and hence this is not a good place for me to be. I am appalled at the amount of heresies that are spouted and tolerated on this forum, and if there is no good I can do here I would rather spend my time elsewhere. Thank you for helping me make this decision.

God bless,

Tradidi
Tradidi my brother
I'm a 77 year old man that has found the same situations you've found here and elsewhere. What you say you have found here and elsewhere in the heresies is a disease that has been spread to all forums, including this one and will give you great frustrations as you have, and as I had on other forums as well as here..

I have nearly left several times as i saw no way to make a difference. The one thing I has going for me is that I love people and realized that I could use that love to tell the truth kindly with Jesus as my model

There are always going to be people who don't want the truth, always has been according to Paul in several verses.
You know that, and always will be until the end..
But with your intensity and passion for the truth, you could make a great difference here, by staying here and learning to understand that most of us are on the same path, but in different places on that path, that leads to the kingdom.

No matter what others think here on this forum and in the world, love and kindness is what draws them to Christ like flies to honey.
If you have the truth and share it, few here or anywhere will want to receive it. But if you can touch those FEW with TRUTH and LOVE, then God has worked through you, if that's His plan.
And that's what you must find out, like I had to and many others had to, to.
Is being here Gods plan for you, or should you consider continuing to find His plan by continuing your search??

I wish you well and much love as you take the time and pray in all earnestness to be lead by the Spirit to where He wants to use you.
I've been through the same lengthy process with the lord, and you may be in a training mode with God, getting you ready also just as I went through several times.

God bless you on your Journey as you seek out the Lord and His plan for you.
My name is OLIGOS
 
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But if and when we want to bring others to the truth, at some point we need to tell them they are in error. Those who see their brother run towards a ravine, do they love their brother by smiling at him and wishing him well? Or do they love their brother by trying to warn them, even trying to force them to look more carefully?


Here’s the truth.


Whoever transgresses and does not abide in the doctrine of Christ does not have God. He who abides in the doctrine of Christ has both the Father and the Son. 2 John 9


The words of Jesus Christ are the truth, because He is the truth.


If we are deceiving people to turn away to obey other teachings besides the teaching of Christ, then we are not practicing love.


His doctrine is about love; loving God and loving our neighbor.


Brethren, if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins. James 5:19-20


  • if anyone among you wanders from the truth, and someone turns him back, let him know that he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death


Turning a brother back to the truth, back to the doctrine of Christ, back to the message of Christ is the way of love.


So when I ask you for scripture, it’s to check to see if you are wanting to lead others astray to accept other teachings, and if you are aligned with Christ and His teachings.


This is the way of love.


  • he who turns a sinner from the error of his way will save a soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.


Love covers a multitude of sins.




JLB
 
I totally agree JLB
And as you know, it's the way we present ourselves and present the truth in much kindness and love that will repel a person or draw them to Christ through God's calling on their heart.

My name is OLIGOS
 
I totally agree JLB
And as you know, it's the way we present ourselves and present the truth in much kindness and love that will repel a person or draw them to Christ through God's calling on their heart.

My name is OLIGOS


Thank you for your thoughtful wisdom brother.



JLB
 
Re. infant baptism, the priest in this case is making an appeal for the infant not for himself. Like Peter said,
1 Peter 3:21
Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a clear conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,

The appeal for a clear conscience may be granted years later after the man is grown and he is able to make confession, confessing his sins and repenting. Hearing the gospel, he is washed by the word of God.
 
I was also baptized as an Infant like any self-respecting Italian Baby in Boston generally was. 20 years later, broken and suicidal, I was REALLY Born again by the Holy Spirit, and indwelled by the Holy Spirit, becoming a Christian, and starting life as a NEW Creation in Christ. 58 years later, I've still got His yoke on, and am still learning, as life gets closer to the end.

We had a little Dedication ceremony for each of our kids, when They were young - where both me, my wife, and the congregation promised together to bring 'em up into the knowledge of the Lord and hopefully surrender Repent, and become Christians also (Still waiting on a couple of 'em).
 
I hope we can discuss the scriptures that pertain to this subject.

Maybe through honest dialog we can reach a consensus on what the Bible teaches about salvation.


I asked some questions.

Why don’t we take turns asking each other a question, then answering. Also using scripture in our answers.

If you would like to go first then please do so.




JLB

JLB,
I'm away from home using a little netbook which isn't up the job of complex posts. So I'm going to leave this, and your other posts, until I get home in a couple of days.

Blessings
Mungo
 
JLB,
I'm away from home using a little netbook which isn't up the job of complex posts. So I'm going to leave this, and your other posts, until I get home in a couple of days.

Blessings
Mungo

Ok brother.

No hurry. Take your time.


Thanks for sharing.



JLB
 

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