The doibt
The doubt is mine. I don’t believe your doctrine. You don’t want to teach it to people? Where did the gospel ever change. There must be some point where the gospel went from baptism to no baptism.
'Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
There is -
one body, and
one Spirit, even as ye are called in
one hope of your calling;
One Lord,
one faith,
one baptism,
One God and Father of all,
Who is above all, and through all, and in you all.'
(Ephesians 4:3-6)
Hi
@CNKW3,
I don't ask you to believe me: I have simply told you what I believe as a result of my own Bible study. I am a dispensationalist, and therefore take into consideration the changes in administration that take place in God's Word, in His dealings with man. I believe that the Acts period, with the epistles written during those years by Paul (
1 & 2 Thessalonians,Galatians, 1 & 2 Corinthians, Hebrews and Romans) are transitional, and largely concerned with the response of Israel as a nation to the call of God by Peter in Acts 3:19-20, and the possibility of the imminent return of Christ, as promised in that address. Baptism is associated with Israel, and during that period water baptism unto repentance, and baptism of the Spirit were closely aligned.
However, when that period ended at Acts 28, with the rejection of the Jews of the diaspora of the ministry of the twelve, and of Paul (
apart from the believing remnant), and their fall into consequent blindness, marked by the quotation from Isaiah 6:10, by Paul: the revelation of God concerning the mystery of the church which is the Body of Christ was revealed to Paul and administered by Him
*, as it's Steward; in which water baptism has no place, but all is of the Spirit. This is markedly clear in Ephesians 4, in
'The Sevenfold Unity of The Spirit', which we are told to 'keep': of which, the '
One Baptism', which is Baptism of (
and by) the Spirit, identifying the Believer with his Lord, has it's part.
Praise God!
Thank you
In Christ Jesus
Chris
* In Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, 1 & 2 Timothy, Titus and Philemon