Who was Acts 2:38 addressed to?

[garya123]

Originally Posted by Mike555

Prairieparson, the promise refers to the indwelling and baptism of the Holy Spirit (Acts 1:5,8; 2:33) which is universal to all church-age believers. The ones who are far off refers to the Gentiles. I have already shown in Acts 8:12-17 and Acts 10:43-47 that receiving the Holy Spirit was not tied to water baptism for the Samaritan's and the Gentiles. Eternal salvation is never tied to water baptism or anything other than faith in Christ.




Jesus was speaking to a Jewish Pharisee using terms that a Pharisee would understand. To a Pharisee, water had three different spiritual connotations. To a Pharisee water could mean ...

1). Salvation as in Isa 55:1 ''Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;

2). The water of the word as in Eph 5:26 'that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the water with (en - in) the word (rhéma - the spoken word).' Water here is referring to the spoken word of God.

3). Water could refer to the Holy Spirit as in John 7:37-38. ''He who believes in Me, as the Scripture said, 'From his innermost being shall flow rivers of living water.' '' 39] But this He spoke of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in Him were to receive; for the Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.'

In John 3:5 water is a reference to the gospel message. A person must respond to the gospel message by placing his trust in Christ. The Holy Spirit then makes that non-meritorious faith effective for salvation. This is efficacious grace. The Holy Spirit also regenerates the one who has placed his faith in Christ.



It should be obvious that this passage is not referring to water baptism. 'The washing of regeneration' is spoken of as a washing from the filth of sin. Regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit in which He creates a human spirit to which God the Father imputes His Perfect Righteousness, and His Eternal life.



John's baptism in which water represented the kingdom, and John's converts were identified with Jesus and His kingdom, received forgiveness for their sins as a result of repenting which is a change of mind concerning Christ. The water baptism which followed the repentance was a testimony and a pledge of their faith in Christ.



The reference was to being saved from a bad conscience as a result of not getting baptized out of fear of persecution. It was not referring to eternal salvation. More often than not the New Testament refers to some form of deliverance in this life, rather than eternal salvation. For instance, being saved from persecution, or being saved from a useless and non-productive spiritual life as in the book of James, or being saved from divine discipline, or as in 1 Peter 3:21, being saved from a bad conscience. Simply read from 1 Peter 3:13 and consider the context.


I hope that as a pastor or former pastor you are not unwilling to listen to other pastors. You might find what pastor Mike Smith has to teach on the subject to be quite informative. ---> Baptism (Audios) : Country Bible Church - Brenham, TX

What matters here is that we not destroy His command to believe and be baptized. All this theological battering destroys the simplicity of what Christ said.

[atomtkirk]

Originally Posted by garya123

What matters here is that we not destroy His command to believe and be baptized. All this theological battering destroys the simplicity of what Christ said.

Yo!