Christians are the greatest philanthropist, in the utmost extent of the meaning of the word. Those who are representatives of darkness, angels of Satan, are the worst enemies ever to exist!! Man or woman that is evil enough to represent the God of creation and deny what He says or has had written, is the meanest human being, alive!! He will care not for things that are high and holy, he will never see the necessity of referencing his preaching or teaching by a “thus saith the Lord,” nor will he ever feel the pangs of guilt. The word of God has not been hidden in his heart, nothing will prick or disturb his conscience when he violates the instruction of the Holy Spirit. He may appear to be sweet and lovable but in actuality, he or she is the meanest man alive!
Truth, in love, makes us free from all the tyrannies of passion, from guilt and fear and shame; and we’re filled with courage, active and passive, as our enterprise. As Paul writes: “if by any means I may save some” describes the passion we, who because of obedience, have had put around our neck, which is called the “wreath of salvation”. The demands of our Lord and Savior are opportunities to express love, the correction of denominational representation concludes with joy in our hearts, for we know the Lord and His kingdom have been represented!! As the apostle Peter writes under the direction of the Holy Spirit: “it is better to have never known the way of righteousness, than to have known it and turn from it…” As the Lord was so exact in His communication to the destitute and the lost; “it would have been better for this man if he had never born.” Mark 14:21
There was a prodigal who went into a far country, thankfully, “he came to himself.” Luke 15:17 What would’ve been the end result of his foolishly selfish heart? Eternal damnation! It matters not about a person’s wants or wishes, when you deal with God, you have to deal on His terms, alone. Regeneration and salvation are not words for man to define on his own terms, it is the word defined by the Holy Spirit. When we speak of a society that is professedly “built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets,” without any human bond, and that it becomes our rule of life; we have to use the rule of law and make sure what we believe and teach in conformity with the sacred oracles and that this community of believers stand perfect and complete on the will of our Almighty Creator! We cannot concern ourselves with feelings or emotions, we have to insist on perfection: and God alone is perfection!! We find it necessary to disabuse the mind of our readers thinking we are using the widest range, allowable, or that we will not spend all of our time on the first act of becoming, nor last act of being born, but will contend that being “born again” and being “immersed,” are, in the apostles doctrine, two names for the same action in the formation of the new man! By way of reprisal, Baptist have their converts think that we go for nothing but water, and sarcastically call us the advocates of water regeneration. They think there is something more sublime and doubt has always been the occasion of all their addresses delivered by the apostles, but when we speak in the exact style of the living oracles on this subject we will be speaking in the exact style of words that relate to the act of immersion, alone. For you see my friend, the sinner cannot be regenerated when actively striving against the divine influence of inspiration!!
The Baptist Church, has often made fun of our instruction from the Holy Spirit on baptism and regeneration. They have taught that they are not the same thing and to the ignorant and unlearned they have escaped debate. On the first two sermons cited by Luke in the book of Acts, complementary versus would inform you that this could not be true. In Acts 2:38, Peter was inspired to state that repentance and baptism were for the “remission of sins” while in Acts 3:19, again, Peter calls baptism-conversion which by definition means “turn one’s self back to God,” and again, in Titus 3:5, Paul defines baptism as “the washing of regeneration,” (the restoration of the pristine state in which life began). No human being is born sinner, as we began, so we again can be. “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things have passed away, behold all things have become new.” 2 Corinthians 5:17
