David Pawson - The Key Steps to Becoming a Christian Pt4. Baptism in Water

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 Thoughtful Thoughts 15.8.25 by John Dunning.

Finding peace with God; Part 3; Believer’s immersion

The link to “The Pilgrim's Progress” follows this study…

1). PROLOGUE; A tale of two schoolboys…

David Pawson tells the story of an atheist whose life fell apart. He remembered that there was a boy from his schooldays who was a Christian who he wanted advice from…

He had no idea how to contact him, so he went to a fortune teller to ask how to find him. She told him he had died on such and such a date, but described the house in a leafy suburb of London he had lived in. 

Following the description of the location, he went in search of a house like the one she described. Unbelievably the man found it and knocked on the door. A Baptist pastor opened the door. 

The atheist told his story to the pastor about meeting the fortune teller in order to find his previous schoolboy friend. The Baptist pastor who he was at school with, asked what the date was, given for his death. “Oh," said the pastor, "that's the date I had believer’s baptism…”

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2). INTRODUCTION… WHAT does the Greek word mean in English?

The Greek language word which the church transliterated as “baptism” is used in Greece when;-

a). wool is washed in ‘dye’ to give it a colour, 

b). or when sheep are dipped by farmers to keep them free of insects,

c). or when ships sink,

because the Greek word simply means to ‘immerse’ something into a liquid, (like a sheep). It is a very commonly used word to describe anything sunk under a liquid. 

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Because Greek Orthodox priests understand the meaning, they immerse the whole baby under the water during “christening”, because they know that the Greek word means to “immerse”. But what they get wrong is what stage in life to do it. They copied Catholicism.

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3). WHY… is the word “baptizo” not translated into English? 

David Pawson tells the story of the Anglican church having a clause written into the first constitution of what was then called the British and Foreign Bible Society, forbidding the Greek word “baptizo” from being translated properly as “immersed”, which is the English translation. The church didn’t want the public to learn that the practice of Christening which they called “infant baptism”, was not in the Bible. By tweaking the Greek word without translating it, the church was able to conceal the English translation of the word, as it means to “immerse”, which would support the Baptist church position.

As Bible publishers needed to sell the church their Bibles, they needed to only print the version the church was prepared to buy. So, the word ‘baptism’ was created as a Greek transliteration. (The “Complete Jewish Bible” does provide a proper translation as meaning “immerse”.)

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4). WHY must we receive believer’s immersion?

a). Jesus told us to! (ie. It’s a question of obedience…)

Jesus said that His Father loves those who obey Him. 

Jesus set the example, (even though He was the only person who did not need to.) He obeyed His Father to go ahead with it. Now no one can say it doesn’t apply to them.

Obedience from us leads to our heavenly Father promising the offer of His Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38). 

I like David Pawson’s analogy that without a believer’s baptism by immersion, we operate like a car with only one cylinder working. There are four cylinders needed to make a car work properly… We must not only believe, but also repent, and then be immersed and receive His Holy Spirit. 

Many Christians only reached the point of taking the first or second steps.

Jesus set the example. 

Now no-one can say they don’t need Baptism by immersion!

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b). The early church saw it as a matter of obedience by practising and teaching immersion to the believers. 

Jesus and the Apostles made immersing believers a priority…

-i). Jesus had His disciples immerse repentant believers. (John 3.22 and Mark 16.16). 

People even said that Jesus’ disciples were immersing more than John the Baptist.

-ii). The Apostles then practiced believer’s immersion as a priority, thus setting the example for others. 

-iii). Peter made it a priority as we see in Acts 2:38. After Peter finished his sermon at Pentecost, the crowd cried out, ‘When the people heard this, they were cut to the heart and said to Peter and the other apostles, “Brothers, what shall we do?” Acts 2:37.

Then in Acts 2:38, Peter replied “Repent and be immersed, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off—for all whom the Lord our God will call”.

-iv). Ananias immersed Paul (Acts 9:18.) after his conversion, and it was God Himself who directed Ananias to go to Paul’s house, and do it.

-v). Paul not only had it done to him after his conversion but he always immersed his own  converts. (Google the references.) That was the priority given to converts receiving believer’s baptism by immersion by St Paul.

-vi). Paul even rushed to immerse other believers who were not yet baptised in Ephesus… Acts 19:3 So Paul asked, “Then what baptism did you receive?”

“John’s baptism,” they replied.

4 Paul said, “John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 When Paul placed his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they spoke in tongues and prophesied. 7 There were about twelve men in all.”

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5). WHEN should ‘immersion’ take place?

Believers immersion, (baptism), V. “Christening”

A). Believers immersion

-I am showing in this study that New Testament “believer’s baptism” is immersion as a repentant disciple of Jesus. 

-There is no record in the New Testament of babies being ‘baptised’. Believers are told to be immersed in water after repenting of sin and deciding to follow Jesus.

-Converts were only baptised after they had repented. (Pharisees were rejected by John the Baptist for baptism as they had not repented.)

-Peter at Pentecost tells an honest enquirer to be immersed AFTER repenting of sin; (Acts 2.38). It was ALWAYS taught that way around in the New Testament, and there were no exceptions. 

-It was not just Peter who taught that, but everyone repenting of their sin in the New Testament were immersed AFTER they repented. 

V. 

B). Christening 

Established churches ‘Christen’ babies, calling it “infant baptism”. When they do it, they  welcome the baby into the family of God! That misleads everyone, making the church a signpost pointing in the wrong direction. Why?

-At one time, the Roman church provided death bed christening, believing that baptism itself wiped away all sin. Then parents pressured the church to ‘baptise’ their infants, due to the high child mortality rate. It is based on the act itself wiping away sin. 

-Like me, many readers will have been ‘christened’ by the established church as an infant, so this question is therefore relevant. 

All the various “orthodox” churches simply copied the Roman Catholic position after they split from the Pope. 

So, for example, the Greek Orthodox Church understands the Greek language, so they get the METHOD of immersing the whole baby under the water correct, but that is all, because they get the TIMING wrong about WHEN in life to do it. They do it as they inherited the Roman Catholic practices, and so the churches continued infant christening. The church argues its case using church tradition and not the Bible!

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6). THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BELIEVER’S BAPTISM…

THE SIGNIFICANCE OF BELIEVER’S BAPTISM IS THAT;-

-a). Peter says believer’s immersion cleanses us of a bad conscience. (1 Peter 3.21).

-b). Also note from Acts 2:38 that immersion is considered so important for disciples that God promises to offer us His Holy Spirit after we get immersed. 

It is AFTER immersion that God offers His Holy Spirit for us to receive… 

-c). Paul tells us; “I have been buried and raised with Christ”, identifying with Him; (Col. 2.22). Dirty people need a bath. Dead people need a burial.

-d). Paul also adds “I have been buried and raised with Christ”. We die to our past, and live for Jesus who made it all possible by paying for our own sin. (Col. 2.22)

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7). EPILOGUE

If we choose to be disciples of Jesus as Lord and Saviour, that means obediently following what He says. Now obviously the thief on the cross had his life cut short, so there was nothing further he could do. It was a kind of “death-bed” conversion…

Obedience is the application here… Jesus is not our Lord if we do not obey Him.

The Bible says “TODAY is the day of salvation”. So let us act when the Bible challenges us. 

King David’s Psalm 51 may help, if you have not yet started the journey…

Just as I am I come to Thee

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This is John Dunning signing off from “Thoughtful Thoughts” for another week.

“The Pilgrim's Progress” in English follows…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ksu-zTG9HHg

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(Note; “The Pilgrim's Progress” in Hindi is on our devotional page…)

This link takes you to our devotional https://blog.inspirationalmedia.org.nz/

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