Bob Hill said:
Now, when it comes to water baptism, what do you think?
We don’t have to be baptized.
Acts 16:30,31 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”
That is all the jailor had to do – believe.
If you are going to
limit ALL you have to do to be saved and conclude that it is this word "believe" it is important to understand what this word meant from the Greek as apposed to the fair tale meaning the word has in English speech today eg. "belief in the tooth fairy"
To not do so is a dangerous avenue to travel IMHO.
The word used in the particular passage is:
pisteuo: to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one's spiritual well-being to Christ):--believe(-r),
commit (to trust), put in trust with.
Notice the word "commit" to trust used here as part of the definition from Strong's Greek concordance. This implies a forward
action of commitment to trust.
And when we trust someone we believe what they say say as truth sometimes even above what others say.
But it derives from this word which gives a deeper understanding:
pistis: persuasion, i.e. credence; moral conviction (of religious truth, or the truthfulness of God or a religious teacher), especially reliance upon Christ for salvation; abstractly, constancy in such profession; by extension,
the system of religious (Gospel) truth itself:--assurance, belief, believe, faith, fidelity.
and at the time quiet possible meant the same thing in context.
Notice the word
"Gospel" used to define this root word for pisteuo.
To put this in perspective to our language it would be similar to the words canine and dog.
They are too words which mean the same thing generally, but one is more descriptive. Just as it is common for more people to use the word dog when speaking of a dog both words describe the same thing.
And if anyone 2000 years from now would want to know what the word dog meant they would naturally come across the word canine in the the clarification of that definition.
And what was the
Gospel of Christ?
Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God, and saying, The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent ye, and believe the gospel. -- Mark 1:14,15.
JN 14:15 If ye love me,
keep my commandments.
JN 15:10 If ye
keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as
I have kept my Father's commandments, and abide in his love.
So to "believe" in Jesus is to commit to Him and to accept
His Gospel.
And it was not just for the Jews, there was not a different one for the Gentile as suggested by a few here.
As the gospel writer or the source of oral tradition which attributes these words to Matthew:
MT 12:18 Behold my servant, whom I have chosen; my beloved, in whom my soul is well pleased: I will put my spirit upon him, and he shall shew judgment to the
Gentiles.
This is a quote from Esaias a prophet.
Matthew places that prophecy as being fulfilled by
Jesus
In addition pistis is a derivative of this word:
peitho :a primary verb; to convince (by argument, true or false); by analogy, to pacify or conciliate (by other fair means); reflexively or passively, to assent (to evidence or authority), to rely (by inward certainty):--agree, assure, believe, have confidence, be (wax) conflent, make friend,
obey, persuade, trust, yield.
Which goes into further detail of the root meaning. To put this into perspective it would be akin to the genus of a dog, Carnivora Canis for example is a dog, but more a detailed description and not a common word used in every day language essentially they
mean the same thing.
The importance of this is the meaning
obey that is included in this root words definition.
So it would seem to anyone interested in what they were talking about concerning "believing in Jesus" to include ALL the relevant definitions of this word as it was used in those days.
To recap "believing" in included:
to
commit (to trust), put in trust with., and the system of religious
(Gospel) truth itself, and to
obey, Jesus.
Even Demons
believe in the sense that they admit Jesus was who He said he was.
However they do not do the rest of what is required by Him and His gospel.
keep shinin'
jerm