Water Baptism passed away in this dispensation

[Bob Hill]

God told Israel in Ezekiel 36:24-27 that He would baptize them with water, cleanse them from all their filthiness and establish the new covenant with them.
Ezekiel 36:24-27 For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries, and bring you into your own land. 25 Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. 27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

When we look at the OT, under the law, the priests were baptized when they were thirty years old (1 Ch 23:3). This was in preparation for their consecration as priests (Ex 28:41-29:9). But God had promised to make all of Israel a kingdom of priests in Exodus 19:5,6, Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. 6 And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.
So when John the Baptist came, he baptized great crowds from all the tribes of Israel for the Lord not just from the tribe of Levi. Mat 3:5,6 Then Jerusalem, all Judea, and all the region around the Jordan went out to him 6 and were baptized by him in the Jordan, confessing their sins. Let me reiterate, God wanted Israel to be a kingdom of priests according to His prophecy of Exodus 19:5 Because John was baptizing with authority, the whole nation of Israel went out to him to be baptized.

From Luke 3:15, we see that they were expecting Christ, that is the Messiah: “Now as the people were in expectation, and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not.”

Remember, God had promised in Eze 36 to sprinkle them with water to make them clean. When John came as the forerunner of Christ, he was preaching that his baptism was for the remission of sins.
Mark 1:4 John came baptizing in the wilderness and preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.
Luke 3:3 And he went into all the region around the Jordan, preaching a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.

Because of the information in Exodus 19:6, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation”, we see that, by his baptism, John was preparing the nation of Israel to be a kingdom of priests.

That’s why the believing Jews were called a royal priesthood by Peter when he wrote to them in 1 Peter 1:1; 2:5,9 Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, To the pilgrims of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, 5 you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. 9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light.

Therefore, we see water baptism was mandated for Israel in Numbers 19 and would result in a whole nation of priests according to 1 Pe 2:5,9.

They were baptized by John the Baptist for the forgiveness of sins in Mark 1:4 and Luke 3:3. This baptism was associated with the Messianic kingdom promised to Israel according to Ezekiel 36:24-28.

After Christ’s Ascension and the day of Pentecost, we find that water baptism was still essential for salvation. Why is that? We can see that water baptism continued after Pentecost because God was offering the kingdom to Israel.

If Israel repented, God would send Christ back according to Acts 3:19-21 Repent therefore and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, 20 and that He may send Jesus Christ, who was preached to you before, 21 whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.

Because God was still dealing with Israel on the day of Pentecost in Acts 2:38, water baptism was still necessary for salvation. Peter commanded water baptism for the remission of sins: Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

Later, when Paul was seized and was about to be led into the barracks, he asked the commander for permission to speak to the Jewish crowd in Jerusalem.

During his talk, in Acts 22:16 he explained how Ananias had commanded him to be water baptized to wash away his sins. “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”

To show how baptism was related to Israel, we see from Heb. 9:10-14 that water baptism would be imposed on Israel until the time of reformation.

That’s when Christ would set up the kingdom for Israel. Heb 9:10. “concerned only with foods and drinks, various washings [Greek, baptisms], and fleshly ordinances imposed until the time of reformation.”

We see the importance of Acts 2 when we see what happened in 2:38.
Acts 2:38, “Then Peter said to them, ‘Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.’”

We see at this point, there was an added dimension. Again, for the first time, there were 2 baptisms. After a Jew believed and was water baptized, we have just read in Acts 2:38, he would receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. I want to emphasize this, for the first time, there were two baptisms, water baptism, first, then Holy Spirit baptism.

But then came the dispensational turning point where we, the Gentiles are included as equals.

The Apostle Paul was saved in Acts 9.
He was commissioned by the ascended Christ to be the apostle of the Gentiles.

God also showed Peter there was a dispensational change. Here’s what happened.
After Paul got saved, God gave Peter a vision in Acts 10:9-17.
When Israel was made God’s chosen people, God made certain animals clean and unclean to them according to Leviticus 20:22-26. In Peter’s vision in Acts 10, he was shown there were no more clean and unclean animals for Israel.

By this vision, He showed Peter that Israel was no longer His chosen people.

However, He did not show him the mystery he had given to Paul, and its ramifications.

He revealed this only to the Apostle Paul.

He also did not show Peter what the new method of salvation would be.

That’s why Peter preached the same message Christ had given him from the beginning, the circumcision gospel, as shown in Acts 10.
Acts 10:34-37 Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality. 35 But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him. 36 The word which God sent to the children of Israel, preaching peace through Jesus Christ; He is Lord of all; 37 that word you know, which was proclaimed throughout all Judea, and began from Galilee after the baptism which John preached.”

The gospel Peter preached was the same gospel of faith plus works and endurance for salvation which Christ taught while on earth in Mathew 24.
Mat 24:13,14 “But he who endures to the end shall be saved. 14 And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all the nations, and then the end will come.”

While Peter was still preaching in Acts 10, the Holy Spirit baptized these Gentiles before they were water baptized.

God showed that water baptism was no longer necessary for salvation.

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

Now, there was a dispensational reason God changed the program of salvation. God started something new with Saul’s salvation.

The body of Christ had started with Paul’s salvation. God had a new plan or method called The Dispensation of Grace.

Again, how did the Holy Spirit show this new plan? The Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word while Peter was still preaching, before they were baptized.

Acts 10:44,45 “While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell upon all those who heard the word. 45 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.”

The Holy Spirit’s work here would convince the circumcision believers.

God had opened the door of salvation to the Gentiles.

Remember, at Paul’s conversion in Acts 9, Paul was sent to the Gentiles. Shortly after Paul’s conversion, the two baptisms of Acts 2:38 were reversed for the first time. Water baptism was performed after Holy Spirit baptism.

Now, the Holy Spirit baptism was the one necessary for salvation. Water baptism became secondary for the first time. We’re not even sure that God wanted these new Christians to be baptized. Peter did a number of things here for the simple reason that the Lord had previously commanded them.

Now, why did these changes take place? Because Paul was converted, given a new stewardship called the Dispensation of the Mystery, and a new gospel, the Uncircumcision Gospel. When Paul had sent out on his first missionary journeys, we find that he baptized at least Crispus, Gaius, Stephanus’ household, Lydia and her household, and the jailer and his household.

Why did he baptize these people? We don’t know for sure. But it seems that because Ananias had commanded Paul to be baptized, he carried on the practice until God revealed to him that he was not sent to baptize. So, even in the dispensation of grace there were two baptisms for a while. But then it was revealed to Paul according to 1 Co 1:17, that water baptism was not part of his commission. “For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel, not with wisdom of words, lest the cross of Christ should be made of no effect.” After that, he no longer baptized. But we must remember that water baptism definitely was part of the circumcision apostles’ commission (Mat 28:18-20; Mk 16:15-18).

When Paul wrote that he was not sent to baptize, he also was inspired to write: By one Spirit we were all baptized into one body (1 Co 12:13).

According to Col 2:11,12 we see that as physical circumcision gave way to spiritual, “made without hands,” water baptism gave way to spiritual baptism, “through the faith of the operation of God.”

Why did water baptism give way to spiritual baptism? It was because God set Israel aside in Acts 7 when Christ stood in judgment at the stoning of Stephen. We find in the OT that the Lord stands when He judges. One example is Isa 3:13, “The LORD stands up to plead, and stands to judge the people.”

Part of Paul’s ministry had been to show Israel that they had been set aside.

Now, God pronounced for the final time through Paul in Acts 28:28 that Israel had been set aside.

This happened when Paul made his inspired judicial decree quoting Isaiah 6:9,10. Acts 28:28 “Therefore let it be known to you that the salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles, and they will hear it!”

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

What can I say?

Praise the Lord!!!

Bob Hill

 

[godrulz]

Spitfire,

Yes! But the gospel that Christ gave to them was different from the gospel He gave to Paul.

Bob Hill

Heteros? Allos?

 

[Bob Hill]

Heteros!!

Bob

 

[godrulz]

Heteros!!

Bob

Hmm. The Mormon and JW false gospel is a heteros (another of a different kind) from the NT evangelical gospel. The gospel taken to Jew or Gentile AFTER the cross and resurrection announces that they become one in Christ in His Church. The conversion of Paul was not the dividing point. The gospel taken to those of Jewish background is the same as the gospel taken to those of Gentile background (allos). The death and resurrection of Christ (Christocentric) is the defining point, not the conversion and commissioning of Paul to take this gospel to Jew AND Gentile alike.

The Holy Spirit is another (allos= another of the same kind) Comforter sent after Jesus, the Comforter.

 

[Bob Hill]

Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”.
Paul was the first person that God saved in the new Dispensation of Grace.

Acts 16:30,31 is typical of the message of salvation for our Dispensation of Grace.
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.”

Peter’s message of salvation before God started the Dispensation of Grace required baptism for the remission of sins.
Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Peter said repent and let every one of you be baptized, because Peter was not under the Dispensation of Grace.

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

The conversion of Paul was the dividing point!!

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

In his first epistle, Peter wrote the requirement for Israel to be saved. 1 Peter 3:20,21: who formerly were disobedient, 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. 21 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.”

Baptism!

But that passage does not apply to the Body of Christ.

Bob Hill

 

[Bob Hill]

The proclamation of the gospel of the kingdom started when God sent John the Baptist to Israel. His message was, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand” (Mat 3:2)!

He preached “the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:3).

Do you believe that he preached baptism for the remission of sins?

John preached that a person had to be baptized to be saved? Yes!

Here are the basic methods of Bible study:
1. Find out who is speaking.
2. Find out to whom they are speaking.
3. Find out what under which dispensation it is being said.

To whom was John the Baptist sent? It says in John 1:31 that John was sent to Israel: “I did not know Him; but that He should be revealed to Israel, therefore I came baptizing with water.”

That’s very clear. John came to Israel to show that Jesus was the Messiah or Christ. It was at a time when God was only dealing with the Jews. The method of salvation was repent and be baptized for the remission of your sins. This was the message of the kingdom gospel.

Luke 16:16 shows when the kingdom gospel started: “The law and the prophets were until John. Since that time the kingdom of God has been preached, and everyone is pressing into it.”

Did Christ and the apostles preach the same gospel that John preached?
Yes, for it says that they did in Matthew 10:5-10 and Mark 1:14,15.
Matthew 10:5-10 These twelve Jesus sent out and commanded them, saying: “Do not go into the way of the Gentiles, and do not enter a city of the Samaritans. 6 But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. 7 And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ 8 Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give. 9 Provide neither gold nor silver nor copper in your money belts, 10 nor bag for your journey, nor two tunics, nor sandals, nor staffs; for a worker is worthy of his food."


Notice that baptism was linked with the message of the kingdom. This was the good news of the circumcision, the circumcision gospel: Gal 2:7-9 But on the contrary, when they saw that the gospel of [Genitive] the uncircumcision had been committed to me, as the gospel of [Genitive] the circumcision was to Peter 8 (for He who worked effectively in Peter for the apostleship to the circumcised also worked effectively in me toward the Gentiles), 9 and when James, Cephas, and John, who seemed to be pillars, perceived the grace that had been given to me, they gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship, that we should go to the Gentiles and they to the circumcised.

There was one kind of baptism when John started his ministry. Yes, Only One.

Was it necessary for salvation? Yes!

We even find Jesus saying to Nicodemus in John 3:5 that if a man wants to enter into the kingdom of God, he must be born of water and of the Spirit. This requirement of water (baptism) fit right into the message John began and the apostles continued after Christ's resurrection and Pentecost.

Christ commanded the Eleven in Mark 16:15,16: “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.”

In Christ,
Bob Hill

 

[amosman]

After Paul got saved, God gave Peter a vision recorded in Acts 10:9-17. This was important, because when Israel became God’s chosen people, He made animals clean and unclean to them according to Lev 20:22-26. God’s vision to Peter showed him there were no more clean and unclean animals for Israel. By this vision, God showed Peter that Israel was no longer His chosen people.

There were clean and unclean animals on the ark before Israel.

If there are no more clean or unclean animals how do you explain Isa 65:4 Which remain among the graves, and lodge in the monuments, which eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels; Or Isa 66:17 They that sanctify themselves, and purify themselves in the gardens behind one tree in the midst, eating swine's flesh, and the abomination, and the mouse, shall be consumed together, saith the LORD.

 

[jeremiah]

To Bob Hill:

So your theory is that there are two gospels. Two questions: Were people saved by Peter's gospel? In other words they had faith and works and water Baptism, and endured to the end. Did anyone endure to the end? If so then it is possible to do works of the law, and have faith.

Secondly if that is true, then if someone believed Peter's gospel today, and fulfilled it as Peter and others must have, are you saying they would be lost?

If so, then Paul's gospel, is a gospel that excludes, and makes a distinction between Jew and Gentile in Christ.

 

[godrulz]

The conversion of Paul was the dividing point!!

Bob Hill

The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the dividing point!! (not to mention the birth of the Church at Pentecost in Acts 2).

 

[godrulz]

To Bob Hill:

So your theory is that there are two gospels. Two questions: Were people saved by Peter's gospel? In other words they had faith and works and water Baptism, and endured to the end. Did anyone endure to the end? If so then it is possible to do works of the law, and have faith.

Secondly if that is true, then if someone believed Peter's gospel today, and fulfilled it as Peter and others must have, are you saying they would be lost?

If so, then Paul's gospel, is a gospel that excludes, and makes a distinction between Jew and Gentile in Christ.

There is an Old and New Covenant. There is one NT gospel with Jew and Gentile becoming one in Christ, even before Paul's conversion.

 

[Sozo]

The cross and resurrection of Jesus Christ was the dividing point!!

Sorry Bob, but I'm with the wacko on this one.

 

[godrulz]

In his first epistle, Peter wrote the requirement for Israel to be saved. 1 Peter 3:20,21: who formerly were disobedient, 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. 21 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.”

Baptism!

But that passage does not apply to the Body of Christ.

Bob Hill

The Ark, not water, saved Noah. The Ark (Christ), not water baptism, saves believers.

Peter did not teach baptismal regeneration nor faith + works.

 

[godrulz]

Paul said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved”.
Paul was the first person that God saved in the new Dispensation of Grace.

Acts 16:30,31 is typical of the message of salvation for our Dispensation of Grace.
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.”

Peter’s message of salvation before God started the Dispensation of Grace required baptism for the remission of sins.
Peter said, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.”
Acts 2:38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.”

Peter said repent and let every one of you be baptized, because Peter was not under the Dispensation of Grace.

Bob Hill

John 1:12; 3:16, 36; I John 5:11-13, etc.

Jesus, John, and Paul all taught salvation by grace through faith, apart from works.

The grammar of Acts 2:38 (based on agreements and parenthetical structure) shows that repentance, not baptism, is linked with remission of sins. It was normative in the early church to be baptized after belief and salvation as a step of public witness and discipleship in obedience to the Lord's command.

 

[Lighthouse]

Sorry Bob, but I'm with the wacko on this one.

The cross was one dividing point, yes. But the dividing point between the law, and grace by faith alone was the conversion of Paul. This can be seen in Acts 15, and in Peter's vision of the blanket of food. Peter was very adamant that he would not eat anything unclean. It was Paul who preached that we could eat whatever, because it was no longer wrong to do so, in any instance.

 

[Sozo]

Do you think God's decision to take the gospel to the Gentiles was an afterthought? Did He decide this after He had set aside Israel?