Baptism Before the Church

Good question. For the Jews who were under the Kingdom Gospel, water baptism was the mechanism for the remission of sins AND the filling of Holy Spirit.

Acts 2:37-38
37 Now when they heard [this], they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

For us who are now under the Gospel of Grace:

2 Corinthians 1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.

See the differences? Those under the Kingdom Gospel are nowhere said to be sealed by Holy Spirit through water baptism. Jesus said of them that they will have to "endure unto the end" to be saved. That never was applied to us under the Gospel of Grace. For us, it is not by water baptism, but by simply believing in the death, burial and resurrection on the third day of Christ Jesus. I just like to point that out for the benefit of others who have never read these passages carefully enough to pick up on the elements within.

Ephesians 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise...

See that everyone? The gospel of our salvation is not through baptism, but simply believing, which then seals us with Holy Spirit. Nothing that we may DO through effort or will can ever replace what is given simply on the basis of faith in what Christ Jesus accomplished on the cross as an offer to all of mankind, and within which we are sealed, given the EARNEST of the spirit, which is very much like economics and earnest money. The Greek term has the same parallel meaning, in that we receive and EARNEST of Holy Spirit, guaranteeing our salvation that those who will fall under the Kingdom Gospel will not have should they fail to persevere.

For those under the Kingdom Gospel, water WAS the required beginning for them, and it was also a matter of obedience. Those who would refuse to be water baptized did not receive remission of sins nor Holy Spirit until they obediently were baptized; just as Noah, had he not obeyed the Lord in building the ark, well, he was subject to drowning until he obeyed.

The spirit baptism is indeed an amazing event in the life of a believer. Amen.

MM

BTW, Satanclause and his elves stole our van Christmas morning...

MM

LOVE your name.. MusicMaster.. haha. YES! You know your post reminded me when I was young of .. always reading about John .. and I never understood where that all started. I thought did they do that in the OT and I missed it haha

Thanks. I appreciate that. I dreamt up the name on the basis of my compositions and performance of music without a band or orchestra.

https://soundcloud.com/fourwindsangels

MM

Just a bit of context around a few things:

'he who endureth to the end will be saved '

The context isnt deliverance from sin..being given eternal life.

It's being delivered in the sense of 'rescue'... 'recovery'

It's deliverance from trials and tribulations in end times. That is the context.

Regarding baptism... in Acts, we can see an entire group of already converted believers..'receive the Spirit'

This again doesn’t have context of receiving eternal life, but the role of the Holy Spirit being 'in the midst' of a congregation.

Context....context...context

Good point. Context is king. When Jesus spoke those words to His disciples, that was under the Kingdom Gospel to Israel in particular:

Matthew 10:21-23
21 And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against [their] parents, and cause them to be put to death.
22 And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.
23 But when they persecute you in this city, flee ye into another: for verily I say unto you, Ye shall not have gone over the cities of Israel, till the Son of man be come.

According to Thayer's Greek Lexicon for "sozo" translated "saved," this is the meaning in that context:

"b. to save in the technical biblical sense; — negatively, to deliver from the penalties of the Messianic judgment, Joel 2:32 (Joel 3:5); to save from the evils which obstruct the reception of the Messianic deliverance:...— as a thing still future, Matthew 10:22; Matthew 24:13; (Mark 13:13); Romans 5:10; 1 Corinthians 3:15; 1 Timothy 2:15; James 4:12 "

We see parallel context utiolizing the same phraseology when again speaking specifically of the tribulation period:

Matthew 24:13 But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

Mark 13:13 And ye shall be hated of all [men] for my name's sake: but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.

You are one of the few people among others of us who dare state that the disciples believed the end times were soon upon them, given that the Lord told them that there were some standing in His midst who would see ALL those things fulfilled...but they were not, and those people died without seeing all those things fulfilled. That's the Sovereignty of God that so many out there hate about how the Lord did and does things, and will do things.

More specifically, we can see in Acts 2 Peter declaring this to Israelites like myself:

Acts 2:37-39
37 Now when they heard [this], they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men [and] brethren, what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
39 For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

So, they received the gift (freely given) once the expression of obedience through works. That is not the case for us today. Entrance into the body of Christ and sealing with Holy Spirit are now independent of any work such as water baptism. Isn't that wonderful?

MM

Assuming your claim about water baptism is true, which is debatable, what's wonderful about not having to be water baptized? Are you water phobic or something? It would seem anyone who loves God would be willing to do any and every thing that would, or might, please him. Believers do all kinds of things that they think please God, like observing sabbaths, festivals, tithing, using Hebrew names for God, etc that are not even mentioned in NT writings, yet they eschew water baptism that is mentioned numerous times in the NT and was even commanded by Jesus to his disciples to do. Your claims that only Peter commanded water baptism for Jews and Paul didn't for gentiles is contradicted by the facts that Peter baptized gentiles in Acts 10 and Paul baptized Jews and gentiles throughout Acts.

It obviously has connotations of rebirth, (ritual) purification, but also annointing (as with oil, and that is, of course, what Christ literally could be translated as, anointed).