| |
Matthew 28:19 said “Go ye therefore, teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name,” not in the names, in the Name, singular of… Not in the name of the Father, name of the Son, name of the Holy Ghost, but in the Name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. Father is not a name; Son is not a name; Holy Ghost is not a name. They’re titles that belong to a Name.
After Pentecost (Acts 2:38), Peter said, “Repent, every one of you and be baptized in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.” See! Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are titles of the same God( the Lord Jesus Christ) The extreme Trinitarian idea tries to make three gods out of that. Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are not three gods or personalities.
Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are titles of the workings of one God. He is our Father; He came in human form as a Son to take away our sins; He is the Holy Spirit indwelling us. It’s three workings of the same God and his name is the Lord Jesus Christ. Lord means owner, father above. Jesus means Jehovah our Saviour and Christ means the anointing. Do you know he has many more names. After His workings you can call Him. He is the Lion of Judah, the way maker, the provider, our peace etc.
The original Greek and the Hebrew say, that the baptism in the Name of Jesus is for the cancellation of sins, both Greek and Hebrew talk of remission of sins(Acts 2;38). “Remit” means, “to cancel,” of course. If I remit anything, is to take it away as if I never done it.” This is the key that is very well overlooked. If it is remitted it must be done in the name of Jesus.(Read these scriptures carefully for full understanding of the effect of water baptism-Rom.6:3-11.
And Paul the apostle passed through and found some Baptist brethren, Acts 19:1-7.
Paul asked them, “Have ye received the Holy Ghost since you have believed?”And they said, “We know not whether there be any Holy Ghost.” He said, “How were you baptized?” In the King James it says “unto what”; in the original it said “ how.” “What way or how were you baptized?”
They said they had been baptized by the same man that baptized Jesus, John. Paul told them that baptism will not work any more. They had to be baptized over again. And when they heard this, they come back into the water and were rebaptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Paul laid his hands upon them, and the Holy Spirit came on them. If you are reading this message, you would have realized by now that there are dispensations of grace. The time of John had passed. John’s baptism assured of repentance( Acts 19:4) but could not remit sins. Remission of sins is only in the name of Jesus Christ. If you have believed in the name of Jesus Christ, you must be baptized in that same name for your salvation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved(Mk 16:16). That is the key to salvation. All that the believer does “in word or deed” is to be done in Jesus’ Name (Colossians 3:17)
…never was a person…in all the pages of the Bible, ever baptized in the titles of the “Father, Son, Holy Ghost.” There never was a person baptized in the titles of the “Father, Son, Holy Ghost” until the early Catholic church (came). It’s not in the Bible, nowhere!
“…The LORD our God is One Lord” (Mark 12:29)
Directly associated with the understanding on water baptism is the truth about the Godhead. The churches “traditionally” believe in three separate or distinct persons in one God. This was the result of a misinterpretation of Scripture which mentions the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost incorporated in a Trinitarian definition at the fourth century meeting of the First Nicea Council.
Like the false so-called “baptismal formula,” this “new” concept (with the help of armed might,) swept Christendom, and over the centuries has become so embedded in Christian thought that to question its validity is tantamount to heresy.
The church lost the revelation that the one God, Jehovah, expressed Himself in the Old Testament as the Father, came in the Son, Jesus, and revealed Himself in the Book of Acts as the Holy Spirit. In reality, it is three workings of the same God – God above us – God with us – God in us, NOT three persons, but one glorious personage finally and wonderfully unveiled (Hebrews 1:3.)
The heathen intellectual minds of the theologians could not reconcile the appearance of the Son on earth to the Father remaining in heaven. They, forgetting that God can be in heaven whilst at the same time manifesting Himself on earth, (John 14:10,) decided there had to be at least two in the Godhead and the entrance of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2 made it three. They made the Son the second person of this Godhead, failing to realize that the Scriptures do not teach that Jesus is in the Godhead, rather that the Godhead is in Jesus. “For in Him dwelleth the fullness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9.) They could only see that the Father was a God and the Son was a God and missed the true concept that the Father was God and the Son was the flesh or man in Whom that God dwelt to redeem Adam’s fallen race and was the beginning of the creation of God in the form of His Family, the New testament saints in whom he will dwell and be worshipped throughout eternity (Luke 1:35; I Timothy 3:16.)
The ensuing three-personned deity is every bit as much a form of idolatry as the various pagan gods people worship today.
Through the ages, Bible Truth became increasingly obscured by ignorance and superstition forced upon what was once the Empire of Imperial Rome by a new mistress, the Roman Catholic church. Such was her power, kings submitted to her outrageous demands, and laity were forbidden to read the Bible on pain of excommunication or death. By her own records, and history found in any encyclopedia she martyred over 68 million Christians during almost a thousand years of “Dark Ages” which ensued, many by unspeakable torture.
Because the faith was thus lost, God “winked” at the ignorance of the saints during the Church Ages provided they walked in the Light as He was restoring It. The ministry of the last angel was to fully restore the true understanding or faith (including the Godhead and water baptism) to the elect.
They didn’t believe in three Gods in the beginning of the church. You can’t find that sort of belief amongst the apostles. It was after the apostolic age that this theory came in and really became an issue and cardinal doctrine at the Nicene Council. The doctrine of the Godhead caused a two-way split at Nicea. And from that split there came two extremes. One actually went into polytheism, believing in three Gods, and the others went into Unitarianism. Of course, that was a little while in coming about, but it did, and we have it right today. But the revelation through John by the spirit to the churches was, ‘I am the Lord Jesus Christ, and I am ALL of It. There isn’t any other God.’ And He put His seal on the Revelation.
Consider this: Who was the Father of Jesus? Matthew 1:18 says, ‘She was found with child of the Holy Ghost.’ But Jesus Himself, claimed that God was His Father. God the Father and God the Holy Ghost, as we often express these terms, make the Father and the Spirit ONE. Indeed they are, or else Jesus had two Fathers. But notice that Jesus said that He and His Father were one – not two. That makes ONE God.
Since this is historically and Scripturally true, people wonder where the three came from. It became a foundational doctrine at the Nicene Council in AD 325. This trinity (an absolutely unscriptural word) was based upon the many gods of Rome. The Romans had many gods to whom they prayed. They also prayed to ancestors as mediators. It was just a step to give new names to old gods, so we have saints to make it more Biblical. Thus, instead of Jupiter, Venus, Mars, etc., we have Paul, Peter, Fatima, Christopher etc., etc. They could not make their pagan religion work out with just one god, so they split Him up into three, and they made intercessors of the saints as they had made intercessors of their ancestors.
Ever since then, people have failed to realize that there is one God according to Scripture, but they try to make it the fantastic theory that God is like a bunch of grapes: three persons with the same Divinity shared equally by all. But it plainly says here in Revelation that Jesus is “That Which Is,’ ‘That Which Was,’ and ‘That Which Is to Come,’ He is the ‘Alpha and Omega,” which means He is the “A to Z” of THE ALL OF IT. He is everything – the Almighty. He is the Rose of Sharon, the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star, the Righteous Branch, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He is God, Almighty God. ONE GOD.
I Timothy 3:16 says, ‘And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up unto Glory.’ This is what the Bible says. It doesn’t say a thing about a first or second or third person here. It says God was manifest in flesh. One God. That One God was manifested in flesh. That ought to settle it. God came in a human form. That didn’t make Him ANOTHER GOD. HE WAS GOD, THE SAME GOD. It was a revelation then, and it is a revelation now. One God (study these scriptures(John 1: 1, 14; Micah 5:2; I Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:1-3), (Jeremiah 31:31-33, Romans 8:9;I Corinthians 12:13;Hebrews 10:29;Romans 8:9;John 14:17, 18, Acts 16:7, II Corinthians 3:17)
|
|