Revelation 3:20 (NIV)
Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with Me.
Have you ever noticed that on most of the pictures where Jesus is standing at the door and knocking, there isn't a door knob on the outside? I never paid attention to that before. Although He is perfectly capable of coming in without that door knob, He wants us to open it for Him!! From the inside!! Let Him in!!! Open your heart, your life, your home to Him!!!
Hope you are all doing well. Sorry I haven’t been writing lately. To catch up on what’s been going on you can check out my other blog for the latest. Hope everyone has a blessed New Year!!
nice :)
ReplyDeleteThank you both so much!
ReplyDeleteI Peter 3:21...Let's take another look at this controversial Bible verse
ReplyDelete1 Peter 3:21 (ESV)
1 Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a good conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
Ask an orthodox Christian what this Bible passage says and this will be his response, "Baptism saves you." Pretty simple interpretation of the passage, right?
Ask a Baptist or evangelical what this passage says, and he will say something like this: "Water baptism is a picture of our appeal to God for a clean conscience which occurs in our spiritual baptism: our decision for Christ/our born again experience. This passage is not talking about water baptism, it is talking about spiritual baptism."
Ok. Let's take a look at another passage of Scripture:
Hebrews 10:22 ESV
let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, with our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water.
What is it that gives us the full assurance of faith according to this Bible passage? Our decision to accept Jesus into our hearts? Our decision to be born again? Our decision to make a decision for Christ? No. The simple, plain rendering of this passage of Holy Scripture tells us that our assurance of faith is based on God sprinkling our hearts, cleansing us of our evil conscience, AND washing our bodies with pure water!
There can be only one explanation for the "when" of full assurance of salvation: WATER BAPTISM!
Both of these passages talk about having our consciences cleansed, and the verse in Hebrews clarifies that this cleansing does not take place in our mind or as a public profession; it takes place in our heart, our soul; and this cleansing occurs at the same time as "pure" water is applied to our body! This is water baptism, Baptist and evangelical brothers and sisters! Stop twisting and contorting the plain, simple words of God to conform to your sixteenth century false teachings!
Believe God's plain, simple Word.
Gary
Luther, Baptists, and Evangelicals
an orthodox Lutheran blog