And yet the entire core of CoC belief can be said by a parrot over and over again!
Acts 2:38
Acts 2:38
Acts 2:38
Acts 2:38
without ever asking why Paul was already chosen by God before he was ever baptized (He is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name...), or why Cornelius exhibited the “signs” that FOLLOWED baptism before he was baptized ACTS 10: 43-45
Do you have a problem with baptism? Is it an offensive stumbling block for you?
Why is it so many people resist the clear instructions regarding baptism, yet will embrace all other commands?
Answer a question, PLEASE, instead of glossing it over. Look at Acts 19.
1 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?” “John’s baptism,” they replied. 4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.
Paul links receiving the Holy Spirit with baptism. His immediate question after learning these men did not have the Holy Spirit was “Then what baptism did you receive?” Getting dunked in water was not enough, or John's baptism would have been sufficient. Paul took it seriously enough to re-baptize these believing men in the name of Jesus.
Your mocking tone regarding Acts 2:38 is disturbing. God's Word is serious business and should be discussed with discovering His will for us, not with disdain for what others have concluded.
So here's the question: Have you been baptized? I find that people who resist baptism don't want anyone else to think it is a command or important.
Baptism is NOT a work BTW, it is an obedient response to God's clear command. IOW, I can't baptize myself, I must submit to it and demonstrate publicly that I have symbolically died to my old life.
1 Peter 3:21 is pretty clear:
21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Baptism SAVES you??? Clearly not the act of getting wet, but appealing to God to save us by the resurrection of Jesus.
Baptism is a pledge and an expression of the believer to be joined into the resurrection. The act of baptism being our symbolic joining in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus is detailed in Romans 6:3 and following:
3 Or don’t you know that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? 4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life. 5 For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we will certainly also be united with him in a resurrection like his. 6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with,[a] that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin.
So, Ruy, is baptism necessary?
This is not a convincing argument. All of us were chosen before the foundation of the world, long before we knew sin. (Ephesians 1:3-14)
Read Paul's own account of his conversion in Acts 22:
14 “Then he said: ‘The God of our ancestors has chosen you to know his will and to see the Righteous One and to hear words from his mouth. 15 You will be his witness to all people of what you have seen and heard. 16 And now what are you waiting for? Get up, be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’
Paul had been selected for sure, but he still had to have his sins WASHED AWAY.