Call-In Classic Christianity Radio – Bob George P487 (10-31-19)
Synopsis
Bob answers the common questions that are asked today. Many times people attend a certain denomination but do not check out if what is being taught is true. If you are born again, you have the Holy Spirit living in you. So now, you have the mind of Christ and can discern the things of God. But do you read God’s word so that your mind can be renewed? How do you know if Bob George, or whoever you listen to, is teaching you correctly? How do you know if your pastor or Sunday school or denominational persuasion is teaching you correctly? You cannot know if you do not open up the word of God and allow the Holy Spirit to teach you.
Many times we will let our children see something on television, listening to some self proclaimed experts, who proclaim things as if they are true. A parent came home to find out his 14 year old son being taken in on someone speaking from the gospel of Judas. First of all, we do not know who wrote the book of Judas. He certainly was not an apostle and was never quoted by Jesus. So we should not trust such sources and stay away from such things. We have the 66 books of the bible, proven to be the word of God, the scriptures that came to us, not by the will of man, but by men who were carried along, or taught by the Holy Spirit of God. Such scriptures have been discerned to be inspired of God. There are many books, such as the Deutero-canonical books, or Apocrypha, that are found in the Catholic bible, but are not inspired scripture.
So, if you are a parent, are you directing your child to the word of God for truth, reading to them the scriptures, and explaining its meaning? Are you reading the word of God yourself, or are you getting your information only by listening to teachers on radio programs? If you do listen to preachers on radio programs, do you search the scriptures to see if what he is saying is so? Follow the example of the apostle Paul, who commended the people of Berea for diligently studying the scriptures available to them in their day to see if what he said was true?
Acts 17:11
11 Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true.
When you study the scriptures, avoid reading too much into scripture. Do not get doctrine from the book of Acts and do not try to read too much into things of apocalyptic or symbolic nature, as in Ezekiel or Revelation. If it is not spelled out in scripture, then all you have is speculation. But the things that are absolutely clear, such as the message of the gospel that saves, there is clear and discernible truth. Look at the epistles of Paul, that are written for the purpose of doctrine, as truth you can hold onto.
Many people call because they hear incorrect teaching. They hear incorrect teaching on baptism and speaking in tongues and on the Lord’s supper. If water baptism was so important to save you, then why did the apostle Paul say he was glad he did not baptize anyone? Many people think you have to get baptized a second time, particularly among the charismatics. Many even incorrectly teach that to have the Holy Spirit, you must have evidence of speaking in tongues. Such teaching is false as you can readily come to understand by the word of God. Once someone is born again, the Holy Spirit immediately takes residence in you. So it makes no sense to get the Spirit a second time. You either did not have the Spirit the first time, because you did not understand the gospel message, and were not born again. Or, if you were born again, then you already have the Spirit of God and you belong to Christ and have become a member of the body of Christ. You cannot get the Spirit a second time. The Spirit was sealed in you the moment you believed.
Also, this speaking of tongues is often used as an emphasis on what I am doing and not on what He did. So it is really a way of being puffed up with pride. There is no boasting except in Christ alone. Tongues is shown in the book of Acts, where so many form false doctrine. Acts is not meant as book to form doctrine. It shows the history of the early church, what happened among the eleven apostles in proclaiming the gospel to peoples of foreign tongue. They were speaking a language they never learned to a people who heard them speaking in their own native tongue. It was so people could hear the gospel and be set free with the truth.
Again, get in the word and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth to you. Keep in mind that the only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love. By knowing this truth, you can avoid many snares and traps. By holding onto truth, you avoid being deceived by the subtle ways of Satan, counterfeiting the truth, just like the magicians of Egypt counterfeited the miracles God performed through Moses.
Bob George explains the concepts of baptism, both water baptism, that does not save but is a picture of how someone is born again of the Holy Spirit, a picture of immersion, of dying to the law, of being buried with Christ, and being raised to new life, a picture of what already happened, and spiritual baptism, the baptism that really saves, and is by way of placing your faith alone in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ, in what he alone did. We have the testimony of John the Baptist on this, as well as clear writings from the apostles Paul and Peter, to make all this clear.
Bob George explains the Lord’s supper and explains the picture of becoming a new member of the body of Christ as you take and eat from one loaf. The loaf represents the body of Christ, that was once on earth, but then died and has gone to be with His Father in heaven, but then left us the Holy Spirit to live in us. So we became a part of a new body, the body of Christ, with Christ as our head. That celebration is a celebration of the New Covenant God made with man through the finished work of Jesus Christ and through his resurrection from the dead. It is not meant as an introspection of sin to see if we are found worthy to partake. No, we celebrate that we died to the law and serve in the new way of the Spirit of life. Again, we have the writings of the apostle Paul to make this very clear.
Transcript
Grace from Slide, TX
Grace: Hello, how are you today?
Bob: Doing good, grace.
Grace: I had a discussion one time in a group and there was no way to address without a confrontation. I did not want to do that. She made a statement that she believed the Holy Spirit was only connected to speaking in tongues. Her take was that every place the Holy Spirit was mentioned, tongues had a link to it.
Bob: Oh, really.
Grace: The Holy Spirit could not only be linked with tongues and she persisted that unless tongues is present in your life in some form, you cannot claim the Holy Spirit. I was pretty against the statement she made. A lot of people there were kind if nodding. I have never quite heard it that severe, to say the least.
Bob: Well, Grace, that is all nonsense. Paul said if I could speak in the tongue of men and angels but I do not have love then I am a noisy gong and a clanging symbol.
1 Corinthians 13:1
1 If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.
Bob: It would be hard to be filled with the Spirit and call somebody a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. Her interpretation has come from what he has been taught and she is also proud of the fact she is speaking in tongues. I can guarantee she is not speaking in biblical tongues at all. Biblical tongues is a known language. It is a language that was given to the people on the day of Pentecost for the purpose of the proclamation of the gospel.
Acts 2:1-11
1 When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. 2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.5 Now there were staying in Jerusalem God – fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. 6 When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard their own language being spoken. 7 Utterly amazed, they asked: “Aren’t all these who are speaking Galileans? 8 Then how is it that each of us hears them in our native language? 9 Parthians, Medes and Elamites; residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, 10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome 11 (both Jews and converts to Judaism); Cretans and Arabs – we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues!”
Bob: In the city of Jerusalem, were people of all types of tongues, or languages. The miracle was that they all heard these eleven men standing up and proclaiming the gospel in their own individual languages. They were saying, “What is this, aren’t these people Galileans?” These men, Galileans! They are not educated people. They are fishermen, most of them. How can this be? It was a sign as it says in Corinthians.
1 Corinthians 14:21-23
21 In the Law it is written:“With other tongues
and through the lips of foreigners
I will speak to this people,
but even then they will not listen to me,
says the Lord.”[Isaiah 28:11,12]22 Tongues, then, are a sign, not for believers but for unbelievers; prophecy, however, is not for unbelievers but for believers. 23 So if the whole church comes together and everyone speaks in tongues, and inquirers or unbelievers come in, will they not say that you are out of your mind?
Bob: It says tongues is the sign to the unbelieving Jew. The issue is, it is a sign that is no longer necessary today, quite frankly, because we do not need a sign. God gave us a sign through his resurrection. If that is not good enough, then nothing is going to work. We are also told of a scripture where Jesus spoke to the religious Jews that they are an adulterous generation, always looking for signs and wonders.
Matthew 16:16:1-4
1 The Pharisees and Sadducees came to Jesus and tested him by asking him to show them a sign from heaven.2 He replied, “When evening comes, you say, ‘It will be fair weather, for the sky is red,’ 3 and in the morning, ‘Today it will be stormy, for the sky is red and overcast.’ You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. 4 A wicked and adulterous generation looks for a sign, but none will be given it except the sign of Jonah.” Jesus then left them and went away.
Bob: And that is not faith. It is presumption. And so you have people who have taken what was given to the early apostles to proclaim the gospel to the nations. These people did not speak in all these different languages. They spoke in Hebrew or Arabic. You had people speaking in Greece and all over the place. In the book of Acts, it names them. How were they going to hear the gospel when the people proclaiming it did not know how to speak their language? They did not know how to speak Hebrew. How are you going to proclaim that. So God gave them that gift of the proclamation.
Bob: As man always does, we have taken that and turned it into a show business type of deal, and twisted the meaning of it to mean that it is a sign of spirituality. Well, it is not any sign of spirituality. Her statement that every time the Holy Spirit is mentioned, tongues is mentioned, is nonsense. Again, it is evidence of people who do not read the bible. What scripture says they have a zeal for God but not in accordance with knowledge?
Bob: It is just in accordance with some kind of experience but not in accordance with knowledge. That is evidence her statement is total evidence that she is basing her knowledge from experience and not truth from God’s word. All through the scriptures, from Paul’s writings, all he is talking about is the ministry of the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, if the Holy Spirit of God does not live in you, then you do not belong to Him.
1 John 5:11-12
11 And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. 12 Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.
Bob: Yet these people teach that you come to Christ and are born again, and then later on receive the Spirit. How can that be when he says that if the Spirit does not live in you, then you do not belong to Him? So that is false teaching. There is no such thing as being born again of the Spirit and then receiving the Spirit later. That is nonsense. So she speaks a horrible representation of biblical interpretation.
Bob: Grace, I spoke about that the best I could. They were just given that gift. We had people all over the known world there. It was the opportunity to speak that word in their language. If they think really they are speaking in tongues, just say “I will get my recorder and I will record your babble and I will send that to people who have a recording of every language in the world, and we will see if anybody can identify this so called language you are speaking. If they do not, then are a liar.”
Grace: Well, I did not think …
Bob: I do not think you need to.
Grace: Her hinge is that every place in her mind that in the New Testament, the Holy Spirit was mentioned, tongues was listed.
Bob: Well, that is nonsense, Grace. Anyone who has ever studied the scriptures knows. She has never got out of the book of Acts, and even there, that is not true. There is no sense in beating that subject to death. Tongues was a known language. People can sit and get hung up on what are you doing. I say to people, “How important would any of that be if you do not have a tongue?” Do you see how simple and subtle Satan is, Grace? In just one hour of time talking, what are we talking about? What you and I are doing and not doing. Is that what the Christian life is about, what we are doing or what He is doing?
Grace: What He is doing. What we do is irrelevant.
Colossians 1:18
18 And he is the head of the body, the church; he is the beginning and the firstborn from among the dead, so that in everything he might have the supremacy.
Colossians 2:18-19
18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you. Such a person also goes into great detail about what they have seen; they are puffed up with idle notions by their unspiritual mind. 19 They have lost connection with the head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow.
Bob: Absolutely! We are the body. And if the body is not listening to the head, then it is flapping around like a chicken with it’s head cut off and we are talking about how much blood is spouted all over. The issue is, there is too much emphasis on what I am doing or not doing. It is very evident in the tongue movement, if just sit down. So they study and quit talking about babbling. Even if talking about being able to speak in a language that I have not learned, how important would it be if no one understood what you are saying? So if you are speaking in tongues, go find a country that does not speak any language you do and go see if you can sit down and communicate the gospel to them in their language. But quit sitting around bragging about that only people with the Spirit of God speak in tongues. That is taking away your and my salvation. That is nonsense. Yet there are people like that all over the world proclaiming if you do not speak in tongues you are not filled with the Spirit are not born again. That is nonsense.
Grace: I did not by into it. I never heard somebody say that is the way they understood it. That is my first experience in that.
Bob: That is very prevalent in the charismatic movement. Not all of them. Some are balanced. But those who take it way beyond that is what they teach.
Grace: There is healing in New Testament. And, tongues, we have it recorded. Lack of it in this generation, how people balance this. I thank you are addressing that. Tongues was for a time. It does not prove or disprove our God. Yet people want to hold shingle out as if it is relevant.
Bob: Remember Moses. Remember Pharaoh. Pharaoh copied everything Moses did. Satan can counterfeit those things as easy as can be. That is why we get back to what Paul said.
Galatians 5:6
6 For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision nor uncircumcision has any value. The only thing that counts is faith expressing itself through love.
Bob: The only thing that matters is faith expressing itself through love. You can sit around babbling in tongues. You can tithe. You can have church attendance. If you do not have love you might as well stay at home and save your money. God is interested in how well you are doing in the love department. To people hung up on tongues, you need to read this statement. If you can speak in tongues of men and angels. That is an hyperbole, an exaggeration to make a point. If you do not have love, you are a noisy gong and a clanging cymbal. What is he saying? “Love is what I am looking for. I am not looking for tongues. I am not looking for healing. I am looking for love. If you do not have love, you do not belong to me.”
Grace: Thank you, sir.
Bob: I would find another study to go to.
Grace: This lady happened to show up, a friend of a friend. I was wondering how anyone would believe it. Her profession is that and so it goes. It was new to me.
Bob: It is not new. It is very, very prevalent. I am glad you have not been exposed to it more.
Ricky from Los Angelos, CA
Ricky: Hi Bob. How is it going?
Bob: Good. Thank you.
Ricky: I have a question concerning angels. I have not read it, but heard it. There were four angels talked about in Revelation. The angels have four faces. I understand how the lion is represented for Matthew, the face of man for Luke, but how does the eagle line up with the book of John?
Bob: Ricky, all of that is speculation. Number one, I do not know anything about an angel with four faces in Revelation. It may be there, but not that I have recollection of.
Revelation 7:11
11 All the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures. They fell down on their faces before the throne and worshiped God,
In Revelation 7:11, an angel is standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures but does not say anthing about having four faces.
In Ezekiel is where you will read about creatures with four faces, that Ricky must be reading about. From reading Ezekiel, I sure cannnot figure this out. I sure do not see it spelled out that each face represents a gospel writer, such as Matthew, Mark, Luke or John.
Ezekiel 1:4-14
4 I looked, and I saw a windstorm coming out of the north – an immense cloud with flashing lightning and surrounded by brilliant light. The center of the fire looked like glowing metal, 5 and in the fire was what looked like four living creatures. In appearance their form was human, 6 but each of them had four faces and four wings. 7 Their legs were straight; their feet were like those of a calf and gleamed like burnished bronze. 8 Under their wings on their four sides they had human hands. All four of them had faces and wings, 9 and the wings of one touched the wings of another. Each one went straight ahead; they did not turn as they moved.10 Their faces looked like this: Each of the four had the face of a human being, and on the right side each had the face of a lion, and on the left the face of an ox; each also had the face of an eagle. 11 Such were their faces. They each had two wings spreading out upward, each wing touching that of the creature on either side; and each had two other wings covering its body. 12 Each one went straight ahead. Wherever the spirit would go, they would go, without turning as they went. 13 The appearance of the living creatures was like burning coals of fire or like torches. Fire moved back and forth among the creatures; it was bright, and lightning flashed out of it. 14 The creatures sped back and forth like flashes of lightning.
Bob: A lot of times we hear things but do not read it in context, so you read things that are not really there. The issue is those things are interpretive speculation as to what they represent. Unless it is spelled out in detail that this is what it represents, it is just speculation. If that is not spelled out in detail, then it is truly speculation. What I have to do with those kinds, Ricky, is this. Those things I do know is all I know for sure. In end times, there is a lot of history associated with end times. I know end times is going to take place. I know there was a beginning. I also know there is an end. I am not going to be preoccupied with the beginning or the end. I am going to be preoccupied with what Jesus is preoccupied with, one day at a time. I have to get along with my wife today and not during the end times. If I am going to love a person, I have to love them today, not tomorrow for tomorrow is not here yet. So, I think you have to put prophecy in its proper perspective. Yes, it is here. We do not always know its meaning, especially symbolic things. We do not know for sure. We can speculate. Sometimes we might be wrong in speculation, but we do not know for sure. Personally, from my point of view, and I am not saying I am right or wrong. I am going to latch on to what I know is true. Not hope it is true but what I know is true. What I know is true is the gospel we talk about every day. I know that is true and I know that truth sets me free. That is where I am going to camp.
Ricky: Okay. No problem. Thank you.
Bob: You sure are welcome. I appreciate your interest in there. Go back and read it more carefully and see what it says there.
Bob: First place is to ask, “what is that?” I do not know for sure. I can speculate on how Lindsay Graham says or Tim LaHaye says. That is all speculation. They do not know for sure. They may just think they know. I am going to go with what I do know.
John from Fredericksville, PA
John: I was wondering. Have you heard about this news show on the discovery channel about the gospel of Judas? I work in construction and I was getting ready for bed when this came on a few days ago. I am not a new Christian but my children are. My 14 year old son saw this show. He told me about all these experts they have and they were saying Judas was Jesus’ extra special friend and was supposed to tell him about this secret stuff of heaven that he would not tell anybody else. My son bought into this. I was trying to explain to him this was not right. The gospel even said Satan entered him. It really bothered him and I could tell it did. I am having trouble talking to him about it.
Bob: First of all, who wrote the gospel of Judas? And how would anybody know? And why would anybody want to read it? It is not even a part of the canon. There were numerous of those kinds of books written back in those days. None of them were ever considered to be gospel. None of them were ever considered to be the word of God. The issue is we know who wrote Romans. We know who wrote those books. Nobody knows who wrote the gospel of Judas. The things of it is, you take the books like this, and nobody knows anything about them, and then dumb me comes up and presents them as gospel truth. We need to keep children away from those things. We need to have children steeped in truth so that whenever they hear error, they discount it immediately. If your son knows the truth, then he would not fall for that. He needs to be taught truth.
John: I am trying to do that. I usually watch Christian networks on like John Hague and I get truth out of them. But he said there is a story about Judas on and I thought it was one of those channels. I did not think much about it until he started telling me this stuff. I have a hard time talking with a 14 year old, trying to explain to him where this is wrong.
Bob: I do not want my faith to be in what John Hague says or Bob George says or what anyone else says. If I do not get into the bible on my own, I cannot be taught by God. I want God to teach me. What you do with a child is the same thing. Go into the bible and have him read and listen to discern that error. Have him read the account of Judas and his betrayal of Jesus, and when he is called a thief, that he had his hand in the money bag, and when the lady put perfume on Jesus. Judas had asked her what she was doing that for. Yet Judas only asked that because he was a thief and did not really care about the poor.
Luke 22:2-4
2 and the chief priests and the teachers of the law were looking for some way to get rid of Jesus, for they were afraid of the people. 3 Then Satan entered Judas, called Iscariot, one of the Twelve. 4 And Judas went to the chief priests and the officers of the temple guard and discussed with them how he might betray Jesus.
John 12:4-7
4 But one of his disciples, Judas Iscariot, who was later to betray him, objected, 5 “Why wasn’t this perfume sold and the money given to the poor? It was worth a year’s wages.” 6 He did not say this because he cared about the poor but because he was a thief; as keeper of the money bag, he used to help himself to what was put into it.
7 “Leave her alone,” Jesus replied. “It was intended that she should save this perfume for the day of my burial. 8 You will always have the poor among you, but you will not always have me.”
Bob: That is the truth about Judas. Any of this other stuff is just speculation and from minds of a guy and whoever is promoting this does not know the Lord. Have your child read scripture. What are you going to believe? Are you going to believe what the bible says or are you going to believe some hair-brained idea from some guy 2000 years later, about some gospel of Judas, and you do not know who wrote it? Direct him into the word of God. Help him to see the only truth he is ever going to know is going to come out of the word of God. We know that is true and it comes from God and so we know it is true. I would not argue over the show at all. I would just go to the scriptures and have him read the account of Judas. You have the apocrypha still in the Catholic bible. Those are not scriptures. They were never quoted by the Lord or even by one apostle. So you have all kinds of writings out there, but you do not pay attention to them because they are not called scripture. Just ask one to read that account and ask him what he is going to believe, God and His word or somebody who came much later and came up with some gospel of Judas?
Bob: I hope this helps.
John: Yes, it did. Thank you.
Paul from Milwaukee, WS
Paul: Hi, Bob. Thank you for taking my call.
Bob: You are sure welcome, brother.
Paul: I have one question. Is baptism essential to my salvation?
Bob: No. It isn’t at all, Paul. As a matter of fact, when you look into the writings of Paul, you will understand clearly. Again, do not ever take your doctrine from the book of Acts. I do not see what you are talking about, whether baptism or laying on your goods at the feet of the apostles. That is not a doctrinal book. That is an historical book. Doctrine should never be taken out of the book of Acts. There is no theologian on the face of earth who has ever considered the book of Acts as a theological book. So you go to the epistles for your doctrine. Now, Paul as an example, in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians said, “I do not remember if I baptized anyone for I did not come to baptize. God did not send me to baptize but to preach the gospel, not with words of human wisdom lest the cross be emptied of its power.” Now, if baptism is in the gospel, and we are told the gospel saves. The message of the gospel is what saves us. If baptism was in the gospel, could Paul make his statement saying, “I did not come to baptize, but to preach the gospel?
1 Corinthians 1:10-17
10 I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another in what you say and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfectly united in mind and thought. 11 My brothers and sisters, some from Chloe’s household have informed me that there are quarrels among you. 12 What I mean is this: One of you says, “I follow Paul”; another, “I follow Apollos”; another, “I follow Cephas”; still another, “I follow Christ.”13 Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Were you baptized in the name of Paul? 14 I thank God that I did not baptize any of you except Crispus and Gaius, 15 so no one can say that you were baptized in my name. 16 (Yes, I also baptized the household of Stephanas; beyond that, I don’t remember if I baptized anyone else.) 17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel – not with wisdom and eloquence, lest the cross of Christ be emptied of its power.
Bob: No, of course not.
Baptism is not in the gospel. There is nothing of value to baptism at all. John the Baptist said, “I baptize with water but”. There is contrast again. “but there is one coming after me whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize with the Holy Spirit”.
Mark 1:7-8
7 And this was his message: “After me comes the one more powerful than I, the straps of whose sandals I am not worthy to stoop down and untie. 8 I baptize you with water, but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.”
Bob: We are told in Peter that water is a symbol of the baptism that now saves us. That is the baptism of the Spirit.
1 Peter 3:20-22
20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also – not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, 22 who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand – with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
Bob: John was talking about coming to baptize with water but there was someone coming after him who will baptize with the Spirit. What does baptize by the Spirit mean? The very moment you are saved, the Holy Spirit comes to live in you. Romans says if the Son of God does not live in you then you do not belong to Him.
Romans 8:9
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ.
Bob: You cannot be born again unless born again of the Spirit. That is why this teaching that be born again today and receive the Spirit tomorrow is ludicrous. It is an impossibility because you could not be born again unless born again of the Spirit. If the Spirit does not live in you, you do not belong to Him and are not born again. At the very instant the Son of God comes to live in you, He baptized or placed you into the body of Christ. Now, that is why whether Jew or Gentile, slave or free, we all are given one Spirit to drink.
1 Corinthians 12:13-14
13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body – whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free – and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
Bob: So if the very moment of spiritual birth, whether Jew or Gentile, you became a child of the living God by placing faith in Jesus, being indwelt by Him but place in one body, not a Jew body or a Gentile body, but a Jesus body. That is what the Lord’s supper is a picture of, that we perverted beyond comprehension.
1 Corinthians 10:16-17
16 Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? 17 Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf.
John 16:7
7 But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Advocate [Holy Spirit] will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.
Bob: Jesus was holding up a single loaf of bread. If you were to look for the body 2000 years ago, and go back to Jerusalem and look for Jesus of Nazareth, there you saw the body of Christ. But he says, “I am going away and it is for your good I am going away, for then I will send the Spirit of God to live in you and you are going to be my body.” The loaf is a picture of that Loaf broken for you. You are told to take and eat. So what happens is is that each individual begins to eat of one loaf. That is a picture of the day you became a Christian. After that was passed around, the loaf is gone. Where is it? This is a picture of you in Christ and Christ in you, your hope of glory. Why? The body of Christ is you now. You are a part of the body of Christ. I am a part of the body of Christ. Jesus is the head. We are the body. So how that took place was through the Spirit of God placing, or baptizing us, into the body of Christ. That is the salvation that saves us. That is the baptism that saves us.
Colossians 2:17
17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ.
Bob: Water is symbolic of that something. That is symbolic. That is nothing but a symbol, a shadow. The reality is found in Christ.
Bob: On the other hand, what is baptism then today? It is an outward expression of an inward reality. It is a way of standing in front of other born again believers and saying this is a picture of what happened to me spiritually. It does not cause it to happen. It is a picture of what happened. That is why submersion is the only type of baptism that gives that picture. Sprinkling of water does not give that picture. The baptism, the submersion, represents death. Water is an instrument of death to us. Not to a fish it is not, but to us it is. So it shows you died. You died to the law. You do not run to the law. You die to the law in order to be raised into the newness of life to now serve in the new way of life, to be married to Jesus Christ as his bride. So baptism is a picture of that. I died and I have been raised to life to walk in the newness of life, and that is to be indwelt by the living Christ. That is official. It happened officially to the body. Not a necessity but it is beneficial. But when people take that an try to equate that as a way to be saved they have overstepped their bounds.
Romans 6:4
4 We were therefore buried with him through baptism into death in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, we too may live a new life.
Romans 7:4
4 So, my brothers and sisters, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might belong to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit for God.
Galatians 2:19
19 For through the law I died to the law so that I might live for God.
Paul: When I read Mark 16:16, “He that believes and is baptized shall be saved”. I wonder if I could still be saved without being baptized?
[The earliest manuscripts and some other ancient witnesses do not have verses 9–20.]
Mark 16:9-20
9 When Jesus rose early on the first day of the week, he appeared first to Mary Magdalene, out of whom he had driven seven demons. 10 She went and told those who had been with him and who were mourning and weeping. 11 When they heard that Jesus was alive and that she had seen him, they did not believe it.12 Afterward Jesus appeared in a different form to two of them while they were walking in the country. 13 These returned and reported it to the rest; but they did not believe them either.
14 Later Jesus appeared to the Eleven as they were eating; he rebuked them for their lack of faith and their stubborn refusal to believe those who had seen him after he had risen.
15 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation. 16 Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; 18 they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
19 After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God. 20 Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it.
Bob: You have to be careful with those verses from verses 9 through 16 in the 16th chapter of Mark. In the early manuscripts, those verses were not even there. If you look at your translation on that, you will see a footnote recording that in the most reliable sources, you do not have Mark 16:9-20 in them. You are not picking up snakes today. I hope you are not drinking poison. Both of those things are in there also. I think those were added by students from their own persuasion.
Paul: I appreciate what you are doing there. Thank you for answering my questions.
Bob: Your welcome brother. Bye. Bye. God bless you, my brother.
