2021-08-13 04:16:33
... Yahshua goes on to discuss those things which truly defile a man, which come from within him, and not from without.
For some time the apostles continued to baptize people with water. This is, of course, evident at Acts 8:36-38, where Philip is found baptizing the eunuch from Ethiopia (who was obviously an Israelite living in Ethiopia, since he was found reading Isaiah and had traveled to Jerusalem to worship), and at Acts 10:44-48, where even though, “While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word”, Peter still sought to baptize those people with water. Many Christians defending water baptism point out these two places in Acts, yet they neglect to consider the rest of the story!
Later Peter realized what had happened in Caesaria (at Acts 10:44-48), and he related it to the other apostles who were in Jerusalem: “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning. Then remembered I the word of the Prince, how that he said, John indeed baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost” (Acts 11:15-16). From this point on, water is not again mentioned in connection with baptism, anywhere in the rest of Acts. Rather, we shall see in the epistles of Paul and of Peter something quite different! Yet first, at Acts 18:24-26, Aquila and Priscilla met a certain man named Apollos, who “was instructed in the way of the Prince; and being fervent in the Spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Prince” yet he knew “only the baptism of John.” So did Aquila and Priscilla again use water baptism, to baptize Apollos in the name of Yahshua? No, they only “took him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of Yahweh more perfectly.”
Ritual cleansing, of which the baptism of persons was a form (see it of the priests at Ex. 29:4-7; 40:12, and at Lev. 8:6), like the other “works” (rituals) of the law, had its time and place. Yet Paul tells us time and again that the “works” (rituals) of the law have been done away with, for which see Rom. 3:19-28; 4:1-9; 9:11, 32; 11:6-7; Gal. 2:16; 3:2-10; Eph. 2:15; Col. 2:14; Heb. 6:1-2 and 9:1-14. Of course, Paul did not, as so many suppose, teach that the law itself was done away with. Quite to the contrary: “... yea, we establish the law” (Rom. 3:31). The moral laws of God are eternal and cannot be done away with. However under the New Covenant, Israel is under the favor (grace) of Yahweh, and is not to be judged by the law, but by that favor (i.e. Romans 6:14, 15).
Yahshua Christ Himself has told us that it is the Word of Truth that cleanses: “Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth” (John 17:17-19).
As a matter of prophecy, Yahweh told us that He would cleanse Israel. John 17 tells us that His Word is the manner by which He sanctifies, along with the ultimate sacrifice in the body of Christ (Heb. 9:12, 10:10). Yahweh has told us “I will cleanse them from all their iniquity” (Jer. 33:8) and “I will save them out of all their dwelling places, wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be my people, and I will be their God” (Ezek. 37:23). Now, how could we possibly continue to suppose that some ‘priest’ or ‘minister’, in the manner of the pagan Greeks or of the Pharisees, could cleanse us with water, if Yahweh has already cleansed us? Note Luke 11:39-41, and John 13:10-11. Unless Yahweh has cleansed us, such cleansing is futile, and the event at John 13 is symbolic of this fact. Yet He did not cleanse Judas Ish Kerioth, the Canaanite traitor. (The word “washed” at Luke 11:38 is also from the verb βαπτίζω, “to baptize.”)
Cont.
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