Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

To: LearsFool

Sounds like the water, a creation, is a miraculous element for you.

Perhaps getting in the water the answer of a good conscience toward God, by the resurrection of Jesus Christ?

Frankly IMO we should not be separating the works of Christ’s righteousness into some formula.

We know we are justified by faith and saved by God’s Grace. That the Blood of Jesus Christ cleanses us from all sins.

We know whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.

Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified.

We also know that those in the NT and ages which followed who had faith/trust in the aforementioned got in the water to share in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

If a person administering water saves another person, then we should head to the prisons and saloons with fire hoses and get them wet.


130 posted on 02/22/2015 8:34:50 PM PST by redleghunter (He expounded unto them in all the scriptures the things concerning Himself. Lk24)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 128 | View Replies ]


To: redleghunter
No, water is not a miraculous element - no more for us than for Naaman. Just as water was the means God chose for cleansing Naaman's leprosy, it is the means He chose for cleansing our iniquities.

Why did He choose water instead of something else? Or why did He choose baptism instead of a shower or a splashing from a fire hose? He didn't tell us. (Though He does explain to us some aspects of baptism - as in Romans 6, for instance.) Rather, He simply commands, and we either believe and obey, or disbelieve (Mark 16:16).

Does this mean we're concocting some sort of "formula", as you put it? Well, was Elisha concocting some formula for Naaman? Let's look at that story again, and see if perhaps there are some similarities between our attitude and Naaman's:

Then Naaman went with his horses and chariot, and he stood at the door of Elisha’s house. And Elisha sent a messenger to him, saying, “Go and wash in the Jordan seven times, and your flesh shall be restored to you, and you shall be clean.”
But Naaman became furious, and went away and said, “Indeed, I said to myself, ‘He will surely come out to me, and stand and call on the name of the Lord his God, and wave his hand over the place, and heal the leprosy.’ Are not the Abanah and the Pharpar, the rivers of Damascus, better than all the waters of Israel? Could I not wash in them and be clean?” So he turned and went away in a rage.
And his servants came near and spoke to him, and said, “My father, if the prophet had told you to do something great, would you not have done it? How much more then, when he says to you, ‘Wash, and be clean’?”
- II Kings 5:9-13

What if Naaman had gone to Damascus and dipped seven times in the Abanah or the Pharpar? Would his leprosy have been cured?

What if he had dipped four times in the Jordan instead of seven?

What if he'd had his servants splash him seven times with buckets of water from the Jordan?

And finally, what if a leper today dips seven times in the Jordan?
131 posted on 02/23/2015 3:53:58 AM PST by LearsFool ("Thou shouldst not have been old, till thou hadst been wise.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 130 | View Replies ]

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article


FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson