Posted on 06/24/2005 6:52:11 PM PDT by RaceBannon
To say that baptism comes after salvation is not consistent with looking at the New Testament as a whole. You can't have salvation coming at the point of faith, and therefore the washing away of a person's sins at that point, and then reconcile that with Ananias, who was sent by God to Paul, telling him to wash away his sins. Ananias did not say his sins were already washed away, he told him to wash away his sins.
Also, "be baptized" and "wash away your sins" are both imperatives. Therefore, Paul was commanded to both be baptized, and have his sins washed away.
I do realize that you are not about getting rid of baptism, but we still disagree as to it's purpose.
You have made many statements above concerning baptism. I'm just asking for the scripture dealing with the Lord's Church that states that baptism is 'an ordinance to show public profession of faith'. You already have the scripture that states what baptism is and does.
As for salvation occurring at the moment of faith (I'm so glad you didn't say 'belief') we again come back to my previous post on what you so aptly called 'Saving Faith'. The question is and always will be: "What does it mean to have Bible (Saving) Faith?".
The correct term would be Biblical Doctrine. You do realize that the term 'church of Christ' is a description not a name, don't you.
The cross provided for our positional sanctification when we have faith in Christ. Once that occurs, sin is no longer an inhibitor from God being able to act in grace and provide us with eternal life. Neither do we have to worry about ever losing that life, although we might fall out of fellowship and not advance in continuing sanctification. The Bible stresses for the Christian to continue in the sanctification process, but doesn't indicate that since we are sinners by the old sin nature, that we always risk loss of salvation after we've received it.
Sins were removed from us a the Cross.
Grab the e-sword software and run a search on pisteo, believe, and faith. The meaning of faith in the Greek isn't always well communicated in colloquial English.
I used e-sword daily. I know that faith in the Bible is not merely a mental acknowledgement of something. The faith that is related to salvation in Scripture is always an obedient faith.
The sacrifice of Christ at the cross brought atonement for all mankind. However, not everyone will be saved. Only those who believe and obey will receive salvation(Hebrews 5:9).
The church is not a denomination.
And thank you very much. May God bless you also.
These "distinct dotrinal positions" you refer to are only distinctin the sense that they are from the Word of God.
I'm very sorry if someone claiming to be COC has given you problems in the past. I wish I could say this is the first that I've heard of this, but since I also experienced some situations first-hand, I can't. My only intention was to inform you I don't belong to any denomination called the 'Church of Chirst', and the statements of these individuals can be attributed to them and them alone. Their statements and opinions have no bearing on me nor the local congregation of believers with which I worship, which is all that I can attest to. The elders of their local work and the elders of our local work have no formal relationship other than that of fellow believers in Christ (the Universal Church).
Until I came to understand that all local congregations were autonomous and actually saw that autonomy working in my area, I was reluctant to align myself with any such group. Once I found a body of believers who actually 'practiced what they preach', I joyfully joined with them in work.
There can be Catholic doctrine, Methodist doctrine and any other doctrine you can imagine. But if the church is working as intended, there should be no such thing as Church of Christ doctrine.
I just wanted to clarify that point and not to continue any presumed argument.
May God also richly Bless you.
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