Please stay with us and at the end of the program we’ll let you know where to send your questions for Dave and Tom to respond to in a future Contending for the Faith. You are listening to Search thee Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. Now our final segment.
UNDERSTANDING THE SCRIPTURES
We resume our excursion through the Book of Acts. Here again are Dave and Tom: This is our understanding the scriptures segment. We are in the Book of Acts chapter 8. Dave, last week and weeks past we have been talking about Philip’s interaction with the Ethiopian eunuch, and last week we read verse 35: “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him (that is, the eunuch) Jesus. And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water; and the eunuch said, See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God.” Now Dave, last week a controversial subject baptism, infant baptism in particular, but I don’t know what the controversy is, because the scripture is very clear—If thou believest with all thine heart—what infant can possibly do that? This isn’t heavy theology here, this is just simple logic.
Dave:
It’s rather clear, Tom. It’s like the Philippian jailer who said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, that includes everything He is and what He did, and so forth, you will be saved. And Romans 1:16, “The gospel is the power of God unto salvation to everyone who believes it.” So, it’s straight forward, and now we find out baptism follows salvation. When you believe in Christ, you are born again of the Spirit of God, then you should be baptized because Jesus said, Go into all the world, make disciples of all nations baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. It’s a symbol of our having been crucified with Christ, as Paul said, It’s no more I that lives it’s Christ now, having been buried with Him and raised again into new life and Christ, in fact, is our life. So, that couldn’t be symbolic, it couldn’t have any meaning for anyone who is not a Christian. So, he very clearly says, What would hinder me from being baptized? In other words, what are the rules? If a person is going to be baptized, how must he qualify? Philip very clearly says, If you believe with all of your heart you may be. Now, we have talked a bit about Islam, Tom, so let me just make a contrast. Mohammed would whip out his sword, put it on the guy’s neck and say, You either are baptized or I’ll kill you. No, it’s voluntary! Islam has been forced on people. You can’t make someone believe something against their will. Tom, my wife Ruth and I were in Canada, I was speaking at a conference, we came into the hotel late one evening and I turned on the TV to see what the news was and I was just absorbed in what I saw! It was an interview—we wouldn’t have seen it had we not been in Canada. It was on a Canadian television, it was a Canadian who had been working in Saudi Arabia, had been arrested and falsely accused of being a terrorist. They tortured him, horribly, and he said he learned two things that he would never forget and I can tell you I have never forgotten them, I don’t think anyone out there listening would ever forget it and it relates exactly to what we’re talking about. I learned first of all, they can make you hurt so bad you will confess to anything. They can make you confess you killed your mother, they can make you confess you killed God, that’s number one. Number two, he said, I discovered they cannot make you believe it! There is a place inside—this man was not a Christian—a place inside that they cannot touch. They can make you confess it, but they can’t make you believe it. In Islam you don’t have to believe, you just have to confess it. We could go to Romans 10:9, If thou shalt confess with thy mouth Lord Jesus—that’s not enough, not just words—and believe in thine heart that God has raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. To be a Christian you are required to believe in your heart. The Bible talks a lot about the heart; that’s that place inside of each of us, the integrity God has given us, you can’t make me believe what I don’t want to believe. That’s why it’s so essential to lay the facts out, to give the evidence to people.
Tom:
So people understand.
Dave:
Exactly, so they understand and they have a basis for their belief. Of course, Tom, it relates to Calvinism, which we won’t get into, but does it come from the heart? You go back to the Old Testament, they made an offering from their heart. I sometimes say to a Muslim, If Islam could convert the world by force, what would that mean? They’ve got a lot of people who are cowed into submission but who don’t really believe what you force them to confess with their lips. God does not want those kinds of people in heaven, He wants our heart. He lays it all out, He has given us the power of choice. So, this is basically what Philip is saying to the Ethiopian eunuch. “If you believe with all thine heart, thou mayest.” In other words, not just words Ethiopian, you must really believe this in your heart. Now how could you believe it in your heart if you weren’t sure that it was true? So Philip must have laid out all the evidence, explained it from the scriptures and this man has believed in his heart. Now we have talked on other programs a number of times about problems in the world today and the church. I think there are many people who don’t really believe what they say, they are hypocrites or they are going to church just for window dressing or to salve their conscience.
Tom:
Well Dave, even as one would join a club they are there, their level of understanding is so shallow that they think they are in. How many times have we talked to people who can’t grasp what we are saying because they have a whole other view of Christianity. They think it’s okay and they are okay and so on, and we are not trying to impose our rules or regulations on them, we are just trying to present what the scriptures say, but they can’t fathom it.
Dave:
Exactly. This is Word of God and if this is the Word of God, then we had better obey it. If it is not, throw it out, shut down all the seminaries and churches and so forth. So, it’s that simple, it’s logical. So, Verse 38, he commanded the chariot to stand still and they went down, both into the water—now here we get another controversy. Is it sprinkling? No, you go to Romans 6, it tells us that baptism is symbolic of our having died and been buried with Christ. You don’t sprinkle a little bit of dirt on a dead man, it’s not how you bury someone. They went both into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. And then they come up, it says, out of the water and the Spirit of the Lord caught away Philip, that the eunuch saw him no more, and he went on his way rejoicing.
Tom:
Dave, I want to go back to baptism again and different kinds of baptism. It has to be a believer’s baptism. We’ve been over that, this is what the scriptures say. You quoted from Acts 16 the Philippian jailer, and we are quoting from Acts 8, here the Ethiopian eunuch, but as you know, I grew up Roman Catholic, and in Catholicism, baptism that’s the entrance. You have to go through baptism to become a Catholic and there are actually 3 types of baptism, none of which the scriptures talk about. First of all there is water baptism—interestingly, most Catholics are baptized as infants and it is sprinkling, but now I have seen in newer cathedrals that the Catholic church has built, they do have a, not just a fount, but where you can go in and be dunked. Baptism, nevertheless, is the entrance into the church according to the Roman Catholic church. Now, there is also the baptism of desire. They would say, Well, if there’s no water available, you can just desire to be baptized. Again, this is contrary to what the scriptures teach, but there is a third baptism.
Dave:
See, Tom, you wouldn’t have any reason for that except that baptism is the entrance into the church, which Vatican II says, You enter through baptism as through a door.
Tom:
So these are critical, but again, when man makes something up there are conditions that he is going to have to cover. The other baptism is called the baptism of blood, and this is interesting because it says that if a Protestant puts his life forth to protect the Catholic church, or in defense of the Catholic church and he dies, that’s a baptism that’s acceptable to the Catholic church and this Protestant has just made his way into heaven.
Dave:
Not what the Bible talks about, but baptism doesn’t save anybody. Of course the Bible doesn’t say that, but you are saved by grace through faith in Christ. When we are saved, then we are baptized, publicly declaring that we have identified ourselves with Christ in His death, burial and resurrection and we belong to Him, and that we are crucified with Christ and raised in new life. That’s the teaching of the Bible and we are going to stand on that.
Tom:
Acts chapter 8, verse 40: “But Philip was found at Azotus: and passing through he preached in all the cities, till he came to Caesarea.” That takes us to chapter 9, which we will pick up next week.
Dave and Tom will resume their discussion on the topic of salvation next week, we hope you can tune in. This is Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call.
Does God love only some of us? Has He already determined those elect who will live forever with Him in heaven? Are you one of the elect? And if not, is there anything you can do about it? The Doctrine of Calvinism, it’s five points and their implications for the body of Christ are discussed and debated in two powerful books from Dave Hunt and The Berean Call. Debating Calvinism, Five Points, Two Views, features a written debate between Dave Hunt and James White, published by Multnomah, in an easy to read format Hunt and White exchange energetic letters addressing this long argued topic. Co-author of the Seduction of Christianity, and co-host of Search the Scriptures Daily radio Dave Hunt: The influence of Calvinism is growing greatly in the church today. It’s very important that we understand and we did debate in Calvinism so that you could have a debate in writing. You can go back and forth and read exactly what each side said, think it over carefully rather than an emotional debate. And, what some are calling the definitive work on this topic, don’t miss Dave Hunt’s What Love is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God in this recently expanded and up-dated edition Dave exhaustively documents the unscriptural nature of this doctrine that comes perilously close to blasphemy. Once again, Dave Hunt: We did a new revised up-dated edition of What Love is This? because so many Calvinists were criticizing what I had said. I went through all of their criticisms and answered them in this new and expanded version. Debating Calvinism, Five Points, Two Views, and What Love is This? Calvinism’s Misrepresentation of God, in e-book or hard cover are both available from The Berean Call. Information on how to order in just a moment.
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Next week, we will continue our series of programs based on Dave Hunt’s latest book, Judgment Day, and Terrorism’s Islamic Foundation. In Religion in the News, The Bible in Less Than Two Hours? We’ll take a look at that story and examine the question: Are things really getting worse? We hope you can join us. If you have questions or comments about this program we urge you to contact our offices. Search the Scriptures Daily Radio Ministry is made possible by God’s grace, your prayers and your financial support. I’m Gary Carmichael, and for Dave, Tom and everyone here at The Berean Call, I would like to thank you for tuning in and invite you to join us again next week. Until then, if you desire to know God’s truth, search the scriptures daily. You’ve been listening to Search the Scriptures Daily, a radio ministry of The Berean Call. For more information about The Berean Call write to us at PO Box 7019, Bend, Oregon 97709, call us toll free at our order number 877-882-4253, that’s 877-88Bible, or visit our website at www.thebereancall.org. Join us again next week for Search the Scriptures Daily, featuring Dave Hunt and T. A. McMahon.
