Interestingly, the NIV translation is missing Acts 8:37 (along with a bunch of other stuff).
**Interestingly, the NIV translation is missing Acts 8:37 (along with a bunch of other stuff).**
I’m not surprised. The incomplete teaching mentions of Philip only requiring that the Ethiopian believe. After being convinced that he was sincere, Philip wasted no time in baptizing him. He knew that baptism in the name of Jesus for the remission of sins was the Lord’s ordinance (Acts 2:38). He wasn’t going to baptise him if he was just ‘straddling the fence’. The eunch obeyed the Lord’s command of believing and baptism (Mark 16:16).
Obedience to the Lord’s command of baptism is believing in his words, which he requires. There are plenty of folks that are satisfied to believe some of what he commanded, but not everything, the actions by which some unbelief is revealed.