Welcome to Christianity Haven, thank you for visiting! If you have not already, we invite you to create an account and join in on the many discussions we have!
Please be aware that when registering you must not register while using a VPN. Any registrations made using a VPN will be rejected.
Additionally, registration emails are not being sent out which is an issue that is being worked on. Your registration may go into an approval queue for admin approval. We work to send manual emails to the email on file, so please ensure the email you use is one you can readily access!
So two questions:
1: What is the Call of God? [vis a vis Salvation and its human response]
2: What is the initiating role of repentance unto Salvation...
Because the first word of the Gospel is: "Be ye repenting..."
And this because the Kingdom of Heaven is here and now...
And IF this means...
A marvelous Mystery of two paradoxical apperceptions:
1) God is all powerful...
2) Man chooses...
So that every man is totally responsible for his Salvation...
And man has No power to give himself Salvation...
Each person has total responsibility and no Power but God...
Be ye repenting, for...
To repent from sin is indeed a work, but it is the person who fundamentally, in this life, chooses to do so... How efficacious he or she may be in doing so is God's... Even will power... The prayer: "Lord, help me to be willing to do good" is a prayer that seeks what is good by turning from...
(OK - So I edited my non-recollection from "recall" to "recollect"... Poetic license I say!)
There is much that can be said about Baptism and vast lists can be compiled about all its various properties...
But there is only ONE question I would ask of the Sola folks:
Does the Bible affirm...
Did Ananias DECIDE to baptize Saul?
Indeed he did, in obedience to God...
So too do the Apostolic Churches...
Not imposing their will on God...
But receiving God's will in this Holy Body Whose Head is Christ our God...
Arsenios
Your point was so incisive that I wanted to offer a follow-up...
This is the singing of the Thrice-Holy Hymn in the Republic of Georgia...
An Apostolic Christian Country next to Russia...
Sung in the Aramaic which Jesus spoke...
Holy God...
Holy Mighty...
Holy Immortal...
Have Mercy on us...
Does Scripture say we are baptized into Christ...
Did Christ command the 11 to
We baptize by Christ's Commandment:
"Disciple all the nations, baptizing them..."
Christ commanded 11 human beings to baptize...
Arsenios
Because Christ was baptized in the waters of the Jordan River...
AND... For instance...
Act 8:36
And as they went on their way,
they came unto a certain water:
and the eunuch said,
"See, here is water;
what doth hinder me
to be baptized?"
Perhaps you will hear God's Word in these holy...
You could just keep repeating the same words over and over with cut and paste, I suppose...
OR...
You could engage the Biblical Text you accuse us of violating...
I have done so for you, my Brother...
Arsenios
That was a weak complaint...
Here, let me help you:
"As many as have been baptized INTO Christ have PUT ON Christ..."
Remember? Would you like chapter and verse??
By means of the hands of His Servants, for it was Ananias who baptized Saul into Christ...
And Peter baptized Cornelius and his...
The Church historically has held that this fire is the fire of the temptations of the world...
After Baptism, Christ went into the wilderness fasting for 40 days and nights...
THEN He was tempted by the Devil...
IF we are baptized INTO Christ, then we too ARE ABLE to overcome these...
Ephesians 2:8
For by (His) Grace ye exist
having been saved
through the Faith;
and that (Salvation) not from yourselves:
Of God the Gift...
The Faith of Christ which He discipled to His disciples...
IS...
The work of repentance from sin...
AND...
The work of turning to God...
It is God...
Literally to dip...
In Ruth 2:14 Boaz invites Ruth to baptize (dip) her morsel of bread into the vinegar...
Baptism literally means to saturate in liquid by total immersion...
That is very weak...
Do you not know that we are baptized into Christ's Death on the Cross?
He would know...
Yes it does - Literally to dip- (eg bapt-) -ize
It washes away the filth and the stench of sin in a Christian Baptism...
I am in ever-amazement at the inability of the Sola Scripture folks to read the Greek that is NOT some VERSION of the Bible... If all must be based on the holy words of...
I like to follow the literal Greek in these texts:
Acts 1:5
oti Iwannhv men ebaptisen udati
Because John baptized BY water
BY WATER - Generic dative of agency - So he ONLY baptized by water...
umeiv de baptisyhsesye en pneumati agiw
but you (emphasized) shall be baptized IN the Holy...
John 3: 5.
Jesus answered,
"Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
Except a man be born out of Water and (out of) the Spirit,
he is not able to enter
into the Kingdom of God." [my more literal edits of the translation]
The Water is the purifying water of the Baptism unto remission of all one's...