Tackling Tradition 82: Acts 19:1 - 7

Those who make much of New Testament baptism have been known to assert that one must be baptized in the name of Christ in order to have received the Holy Spirit.       Some go so far to say that one must be baptized in order to do so.   One of their major prooftexts is Acts 19: 1 - 7. 19 While Apollos was at Corinth, Paul took the road through the interior and arrived at Ephesus. There he found some disciples 2 and asked them, “Did you receive the Holy Spiritwhen you believed?” They answered, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 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 prophe...
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What is the Gospel? (Part 4)

What is the Gospel?  That depends on the meaning of the question.  

1. What must I do to be regenerate?  Answer: Nothing! Regeneration precedes both saving repentance & saving faith.  (I John 5, Romans 8)

2. What must I do to be justified?  Answer: (1) Be regenerate (2) Lay down your rooted works righteousness. (Romans 9:30 - 10:4) turn to the LORD (ONLY!!) Romans 10:5 - 13, Joel 2:32) because of what Christ has accomplished (Hebrews). 

3. What must I do to be salvifically sanctified?  Answer: (1) Be regenerate (2) Lay down your rooted works righteousness. (Romans 9:30 - 10:4) turn to the LORD (ONLY!!) Romans 10:5 - 13, Joel 2:32) because of what Christ has accomplished (Hebrews).  Depend on God’s grace (Ephesians 2:8,9; Phil.2:12 - 13, 2 Corinthians 7:1)

4. Is it really true that Christ rose from the dead, or is it a myth?  Also, if Christ really did rise from the dead, did He rise figuratively or literally, and was His resurrection ghostly (spiritually) or physically (corpo-pneumatically).  Answers:  According to 1 Corinthians 15: (1) It is a historical fact.  It is no myth. (2) He rose literally & tangibly.  His resurrection is figurative only insofar as the language we use about its meaning is sometimes ufigurative.   For example, His death & resurrection make Him the Gate to eternal life (John 10:7), but that doesn’t mean He Himself is a literal gate. (3) His resurrection is physical & bodily.  He was not a ghost when He appeared to the witnesses listed in the Bible.  

Why write this article?  Because we live in an age in which Ecclesiastical Tradition has a stranglehold on the Evangelical mind, & since the days of Athanasius’ Creed (the 5th or 6th century AD\CE) Christians have so emphasized Christology that they have become notorious for saying, “This is the catholic faith:one cannot be saved without believing it firmly and faithfully.”   The result is that in answer to the question “What must I do to be regenerate &|or justified?” They answer with “believe a species of theologically accurate Christology,” on the one hand, yet deny that doctrinal propositions constitute a (or the) proper object of faith relative to justification.  

May God bless us all, each & every one and “Go & sin no more.”

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