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“Water
baptism is not necessary for salvation. Cornelius "received the Holy
Spirit" (Acts It is not uncommon to be confused over this issue. Let’s examine more carefully the subject of water baptism and Holy Spirit baptism. Water baptism was commanded by Jesus before his ascension back to Heaven. He told the apostles, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. He who believes and is baptized will be saved; he who does not believe will be condemned.” (Mk. 16:15,16) However, in Luke 24: 47-49 Jesus told them that before “repentance
and remission of sins should be preached to all nations, beginning at The answer is in the Lord’s instructions to the apostles given before His
crucifixion. In John “And I will pray the Father, and He will
give you another Helper, that He may abide with you forever—the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive…”
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My
name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things
that I said to you.” “But when the
Helper comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth
who proceeds from the Father, He will testify of me. And you also will bear witness, because you
have been with me from the beginning.” From these verses it is clear that the apostles were to
wait in The apostles did wait in But what about the curious case of Cornelius and his household in Acts 10? In Acts 10:9-19 Peter, who was staying in Joppa, had a very troubling vision in which he was commanded to eat common and unclean meat. Peter, being raised in the Jewish religion, responded to the command with these words, “Not so Lord! For I have never eaten anything common or unclean.” But the Lord responded, What God has cleansed you must not call common.” What does this have to do with Cornelius? Cornelius was a Gentile!! Jews did not associate with Gentiles—they were considered unclean. Cornelius had sent messengers to get Peter to come to his house for he had been commanded, “…send for Peter… He will tell you what you must do.” This vision was necessary for as Peter later explained in verse 28, You know how unlawful it is for a Jewish man to keep company with or go to one of another nation. But God has shown me that I should not call any man common or unclean.” Peter then preaches the gospel to these Gentiles. As he does so, the Holy Spirit falls upon those Gentile listeners. Was it for the purpose of salvation? Absolutely not! Verse 45 says of Peter’s Jewish companions, who saw this event, “and those of the circumcision who believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out on the Gentiles also.” This outpouring of the Holy Spirit was to convince the
Jews that truly the gospel was for “whoever fears and works righteousness is
accepted by Him.” (Acts Then how were Cornelius and the other Gentiles saved? Acts 10:47, 48 Peter says, “Can anyone forbid water, that these
should not be baptized who have received the Holy Spirit just as we
have? And he commanded them to be
baptized in the name of the Lord.” Additional comment:
The reader cites Romans 8:9, etc. to try to prove his case that
baptism is not required for salvation.
These verses speak to the reception of “the gift of the Holy Spirit”,
not “baptism of the Spirit”, that each one receives WHEN he is baptized for the “remission of sins”. (Acts Lastly, consider what the apostle Peter said, when he by
inspiration wrote these words in I Peter “…when once the Divine longsuffering
waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few,
that is, eight souls, were saved through water.
There is also an antitype which now saves
us—baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer
of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,” |
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