I don't know, I haven't been following this that closely. I just noticed what you said about antitype and commented on that. Do with it what you will.
So, baptism is the fulfillment of the type, and also saves.
Titus 3:5
not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
We are not saved by good deeds. period. we are saved by grace THROUGH faith, not of works lest anyone should boast.
You can;t save yourself.
Their "belief" at this point was "mental assent" that Jesus was the Messiah and they were guilty of crucifying Him. That is not saving belief yet. Nothing is mentioned here about them trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for salvation, which explains why they still needed to repent and believe the gospel in that order.
In Acts 2:38, "for the remission of sins" does not refer back to both clauses, "you all repent" and "each one of you be baptized," but refers only to the first. Peter is saying "repent unto the remission of your sins," the same as in Acts 3:19. The clause "each one of you be baptized" is parenthetical. This is exactly what Acts 3:19 teaches except that Peter omits the parenthesis.
*Also compare the fact that these Gentiles in Acts 10:45 received the gift of the Holy Spirit (compare with Acts 2:38 - the gift of the Holy Spirit) and this was BEFORE water baptism. (Acts 10:47)
In Acts 10:43 we read ..whoever believes in Him receives remission of sins. Again, these Gentiles received the gift of the Holy Spirit - Acts 10:45 - when they believed on the Lord Jesus Christ - Acts 11:17 - (compare with Acts 16:31 - Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved) BEFORE water baptism - Acts 10:47. This is referred to as repentance unto life - Acts 11:18.
*So the only logical conclusion when properly harmonizing scripture with scripture is that faith in Jesus Christ "implied in genuine repentance" (rather than water baptism) brings the remission of sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38; 3:19; 5:31; 10:43-47; 11:17,18; 15:8,9; 16:31; 26:18). *Perfect Harmony*
Those who gladly received his word (upon repentance/faith) were "afterwards" baptized. So they were added to the Lord upon repentance/faith prior to receiving water baptism, just as we see in Acts 10:43;47.
Acts 4:4 - However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand. *What happened to baptism?
Acts 5:14 - And believers were increasingly added to the Lord, multitudes of both men and women. *What happened to baptism? *Hermeneutics.
For the same reason the Gentiles did in Acts 10:43-47.
Dear Mailman,
Thank you very much for taking the time that you did to respond to my message. I would like to comment on the following which I copied and pasted here.
Acts 2:36-41 "Therefore let all the house of Israel know for certain that God has made Him both Lord and Christ--this Jesus whom you crucified." 37 Now when they heard this, they were
pierced to the heart,
(at this point they believed) and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Brethren, what shall we do?"
Their "belief" at this point was "mental assent" that Jesus was the Messiah and they were guilty of crucifying Him. That is not saving belief yet. Nothing is mentioned here about them trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Christ for salvation, which explains why they still needed to repent and believe the gospel in that order.
First of all, concerning the word "belief". When the King James Bible was being translated into English, they had a problem of translating the Greek word "pistis". Faith has no verb and so another English word was used for the verb (believe) and at times, unbelief (which is the noun for the verb believe) was used instead of "faith".
Secondly, I find no place in the New Testament where the word belief is defined as just "mental assent". Mailman, would you read through the following concerning hope, faith and works. I would like to hear what you think of this.
HOPE, FAITH, WORKS
What is Hope? We get hope when we receive knowledge and we trust that this knowledge is true. The knowledge we gained can be true or false, but nevertheless, people do trust in the knowledge (true or false) and thus have hope. So hope is trusting in the knowledge you have come to know.
How is Faith like hope and how is faith different that hope? Like hope, faith has trust in the knowledge that we have received whether that knowledge is true or false. Faith is different than hope. This is described in James 2:14-16, there are three levels of faith:
1.
A dead faith - It has no works.
James 2:24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone.
2.
A unperfected faith - It will obey God when God so commands us to do so The example given is Abraham in Genesis 15 and Abramam's faith was reckoned unto Abraham as righteousness. God knew that Abraham would obey Him.
Genesis 15:4-6 Then behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, "This man will not be your heir; but one who will come forth from your own body, he shall be your heir." 5 And He took him outside and said, "Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them." And He said to him, "So shall your descendants be." 6 Then he believed in the LORD; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
3.
A perfected faith - It is a faith that has trusted in God and obeys God like Abraham obeyed God and went to sacrifice Isaac when God commanded him to do James 2:
James 2:22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected;
Also, faith CAN be seen, and hope CANNOT be seen.
Matthew_9:2 And they brought to Him a paralytic lying on a bed. Seeing their faith, Jesus said to the paralytic, "Take courage, son; your sins are forgiven."
Mark 2:5 And Jesus seeing their faith *said to the paralytic, "Son, your sins are forgiven."
This also brings us to the fact that there are two different types of works:
Works of faith -
1Thessalonians 1:3 constantly bearing in mind your
work of faith and labor of LOVE and steadfastness of hope in our Lord Jesus Christ in the presence of our God and Father,
2Thessalonians 1:11 To this end also we pray for you always, that our God will count you worthy of your calling, and fulfill every desire for goodness and the
work of faith with power,
An example of how our faith in God works is found in Colossians 2:12:
Colossians 2:12 having been buried with Him in
baptism, in which you were also
raised up with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
Also, in the conversions in the Book of Acts, faith is
NEVER in the
Active Voice (something you do). We do not baptize ourselves. Someone else always baptizes us. They are doing the work.
Thank you for listening.
One more thing concerning Acts 2:38. Mailman, if you look at a Greek sentence, the words that modiefy a noun, the verbs, are rearranged so that when we read it in English, it is easier for us to understand. So, Mailman, if what you say concerning Acts 2:38 is true, would you rearrange the words so that it would say what you believe it to say. If what you say is true, how come in all the translations that I have ever seen, the translators have arranged it so that as we read it, we see that when we are baptized, we receive the forgiveness of our sins and receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
God bless you, Mailman!
Wayne