Which spiritualization of baptism contradicts your contention at hand, that baptism is essential for the washing of regeneration, “that water baptism in the name of Jesus was for the remission of sins.” Again, why not just admit that the clear testimony of Peter is that of hearts being purified by faith before any immersion, only the abasement of heart in faith?!
. Physical action proves faith,
Exactly, it manifests the faith that is in the heart, when with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, (Romans 10:10) and which reality is confirmed by confession. But action is that of any response, including with the mouth, while baptism is one of that in body language. And it remains that Cornelius and company evidence the washing of regeneration BEFORE baptism. Before any immersion. Which is your problem.
Men tore open a roof to lower their crippled friend in hopes that Jesus would heal him. “When Jesus SAW their faith...” (Mark 2:5),...That miracle is also a great shadow of rebirth: The man was ‘buried’ by being lowered into the house. Who was down there? Jesus (we are buried with him in baptism). The man was forgiven of sins at that point, and received healing
This is more desperation, and yet if you are going to allow that some sort of going down signifies baptism then any manner of incline might suffice. Yet even in the flood there was no going down, but getting into the ark to stay above the water, which ark is Christ, which saves by His life, and not only His death, as explained.
even if it’s a man secured to a cross asking Jesus for forgiveness. (Jesus had not died and rose again, therefore the new covenant was not yet in effect.)
Which is consistent with the heart being purifies by faith, believing unto righteousness before baptism, and contradicts your attempt to make the man being ‘buried’ by being lowered into the house into other to obtain forgiveness. Your utterly fails to establish the contention at hand, that baptism is essential for the washing of regeneration, “that water baptism in the name of Jesus was for the remission of sins.”
After Jesus makes his way toward the centurion’s home, and hears the message of his not needing to come into the house, Jesus announces that the man has greater faith than anyone in Israel.
Yes, the heart being purified by repentant faith, believing unto righteousness, and confirmed by confession. Abraham? When was he finally commended for his faith? Not at his departure point of Haran. No, it was after traveling several hundred miles (the old fashioned way), also building three altars and offering sacrifices on them.
Wrong: By counting his faith for righteousness then God was truly commending for his faith:
And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sara’s womb: He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; And being fully persuaded that, what he had promised, he was able also to perform. And therefore it was imputed to him for righteousness. (Romans 4:19-22; cf. Gn. 15:6)
Imagining that Abraham was not counted as righteous until about 25-30 years after he believed this promise is absurd.
For if Abraham were justified by works, he hath whereof to glory; but not before God. For what saith the scripture? Abraham believed God, and it was counted unto him for righteousness. (Romans 4:2-3)
However, consistent with heart-purifying, regenerating justifying faith in the heart being confirmed as salvific by manifest obedience, then his offering of Issac was a profound confirmation, a "full-fillment," of what God had already declared. (cf. James 2:23)
Cornelius was commended for his faith (prayers and alms) before being instructed to send for Peter, who upon arriving, knows that Cornelius has surely heard of Jesus (Acts 10:37, 38). Since they were promptly baptized immediately after receiving the Holy Ghost, it shows that as Matt. 28:19, Mark 16:16, Luke 24:47, John 20:23, and Acts 2:38 all indicate water baptism to be part of the water and Spirit rebirth (John 3:5);
What?! Men whose heart was already purified by faith, who were already regenerated BEFORE baptism, indicate water baptism to be part of the water and Spirit rebirth (John 3:5)?! How can water baptism to be part of something that already occurred. Only as testimony confirmatory of what had already occurred!
And in context, John 3:5 differentiates btwn two kinds of birth, as the Lord next states,
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. (John 3:6)
Which flows from the context of Nicodemus asking about physical birth, but being ignorant of Spiritual birth. And of John who repeatedly contrasts the physical and earthly, from the Spiritual and Heavenly, and emphasizes the incarnated physicality of Christ (versus mere appearance) which the water of birth testifies to, and of His literal death, the blood, and resurrection by the Spirit.
And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one. (1 John 5:8)
It is simply a fact that it wasn’t until AFTER Jesus died and rose again that water baptism was commanded for remission of sins.
Meaning you have Abraham being justified by faith before baptism, being set forth as the example of faith being imputed for righteousness (Rom. 4) and not due to "works of righteousness which we have done," (Titus 3:5) and with clear statement that "To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins." (Acts 10:43) And that "God, which knoweth the hearts, bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith.'' (Acts 15:8-9)
Yet you persist with the lie that baptism was commanded for - in order to obtain remission of sins, versus as a promise of regeneration by effectually repentant faith, (Acts 2:28) consistent Peter's later message.
Otherwise, why all the examples of its urgency in Acts?
What urgency? Baptism as commanded as act signifying faith and confirmatory of and normally concomitant with it. To believe is to obey, beginning with confession of Jesus as the risen Lord. Which is expressed both by word and in deed as believers.
That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. (Romans 10:9-11) For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Romans 10:13)
Since obedience baptism requires and examples faith, thus souls are promised that if they do repent and are baptized then they shall receive the Spirit. (Acts 2:28) Your doctrine makes Peter misleading souls in Acts 10, or falsely insisting that baptism was essential for regeneration, while my explanation is is consistent with faith being what is counted for righteousness, as the cause behind the effect. With effectual faith(as the cause) precisely being what justifies, being imputed for righteousness, and confirmed by obedience (the effect)
And why the wording by Paul: “buried with him in baptism”? Simple. If you are ‘buried with him’, his blood is there too..
"Why?" Because as with other symbolism, baptism is referred to as due to what it represents. And as explained, to properly take part in the Lord's supper is to shew the Lord’s death (by showing the union with Christ and believers purchased by His death via a close-communion meal, as being "one loaf") till He come. "For as often as ye eat this bread, and drink this cup, ye do shew [declare, proclaim] the Lord’s death till he come. "(1 Corinthians 11:26)
Thus, to selfishly indulge oneself and ignore others was to not "come together not for the better, but for the worse....When ye come together therefore into one place, this is not to eat the Lord’s supper." (1 Corinthians 11:17,20)
To be baptized is to identify oneself with the Lord in His death and resurrection, and therefore the same are to live accordingly. Paul thus explains this in Rm. 6. When you put that ring on your bride in marriage you signified the intended union, so treat each other as being of one body. (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:4)
If it is for remission of sins, but denied to be so by many, then isn’t that (at minimum) a lack of faith? No, since it is not the act of baptism that procures remission of sins today any more than it was in Acts 10, it is actually faith in baptism that more people are damned with, versus those who believe and are baptized in confessing the Lord.
But the marginalization of baptism is more due to ignorance, and superficial faith, as well as a over reaction to Catholicism. In which it is imagined that the act itself effects regeneration, even by proxy faith, without repentant faith by the subject of it.
Presuming you do not belief this, but that conversion is by faith which is made manifest in baptism, then thus I can surmise that you are redeemed, but with our contention is whether one can be forgiven and born again prior to baptism - which Scripture indisputably affirms - without marginalization of it.
However, if you imagine that all those who believe the gospel as Peter preached it in Acts 10:36-43 and were baptized are not saved since they didnot believe that the act of baptism itself is required for forgiveness and regeneration, then you are preaching a different gospel. (Gal. 1:8)
And with that, then I think this disputation needs to end.
You make condescending comments (like some of the ones below in asterisks), and believe you have proved your case, therefore you choose to end this debate. That’s fine (I’m a pretty patient and longsuffering guy), but I am going to TRY to briefly answer some of that post. Afterward, I will possibly post to myself on this thread, on this issue (but not using any of your wording), since I am aware that other viewers are maybe still lurking.
**This is more desperation**
So you don’t believe the miracle of the palsied man to have any symbolism of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ, which the new birth shows as a spiritual death, burial, and resurrection (which happens while the convert is alive in the flesh, responding according to the preacher sent by God).
**Yet you persist with the lie that baptism was commanded for - in order to obtain remission of sins,**
Jesus declared to the disciples that THEY would be remitting sins. Therefore, whosoever sins they remit are surely remitted in heaven. Peter said, when speaking of Noah and the flood, “The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” 1 Peter 3:21
What gives the good conscience? Knowing your sins are washed away, from obeying “from the heart that form of doctrine” one receives from God-ordained ministers; not doing it insincerely, (yet foolish people do so). And by doing so, “being then made free from sin...” Who gave us that doctrine? Jesus Christ, who rose from the dead, and sent men out to institute it. (quote clips from Rom. 6:17,18)
**What?! Men whose heart was already purified by faith, who were already regenerated BEFORE baptism,**
The last half of that sentence is your opinion. The testimony from Peter you refer to was made some time after those Gentiles had received the Holy Ghost and had been water “baptized in the name of the Lord” (Acts 10:47,48). So yes, they obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine delivered to them. Do you think Peter didn’t explain to Cornelius and household WHY they were being baptized? I’m rather confident he didn’t say this....
**Baptism as commanded as act signifying faith and confirmatory of and normally concomitant with it**
Chapter and verse please (if you reply).
**Wrong: By counting his faith for righteousness then God was truly commending for his faith:**
And Abraham’s faith was based on his obedience (Heb. 11:8). He had to leave Haran in order to receive those promises.
Hebrews 11:1,2 “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. For by it the elders received a good report.”
Neither you or I can see the ‘heart’. It’s honestly meeting the requirements (whatever they may be) to receive those things hoped for, that is the evidence of faith in the unseen God.
**...the incarnated physicality of Christ (versus mere appearance) which the water of birth testifies to...**
That’s private interpretation. John says nothing about water when comparing physical birth with spiritual in John 1:13. Also, to make that case, it would help offset John 1:13 if Jesus had said in 3:6 that “That which is born of water is flesh...”, but he didn’t.
I close with Jonah, the type and shadow of death, burial, and resurrection mentioned by Jesus.
Jonah was a sinner who had rebelled against God. He knew he had sinned, admitted his guilty condition, and men threw him into the sea (you don’t bury or baptize yourself). In his watery grave (kept alive by the whale), his sin was forgiven, and he was released from that prison a new man, ready to do the will of God with vigor (Yes, he still had a chip on his shoulder about the Ninevites, but God opened his eyes to that wrong thinking.)