Quote from Forum Archives on April 28, 2004, 12:00 pm

Posted by: prophetic <prophetic@...>

MODERATOR: The great thing about the below emails
is that most of these people actually LOOKED UP all
the Scriptures! People will be amazed when they do this.
In fact, if people read the entire Book of Acts, taking
careful note of EVERY conversion and what happened,
then they will be amazed the same way. Another thing
you can do when studying this kind of issue is get a
Concordance and look up EVERY Scripture on 'Baptism'
and so-on. I encourage everybody to do this kind of
thing. None of this is about our own "opinions". It is
about what the SCRIPTURES CLEARLY SAY on the
subject. Four interesting emails are below:
**************************************************
Date sent: Mon, 26 Apr 2004 09:48:27 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rachel Hoffman <rah121296@yahoo.com>

I want to thank you so much for your article on Lie # 1 -
"Ask Jesus Into Our Heart". I was raised in a Baptist
church also, so this is all new to me. I was skeptical at
first, but I looked up every single verse in that article, and
I have to say, WOW! I never knew that baptism played
such an important role in becoming a Christian! I was
baptized at a young age, but that was only because I
had said that famous short prayer to accept Jesus into
my heart, and attended the baptismal preparation classes!

I know that now, 13 years later, its time to be truly
baptized. You covered every area, most of which I have
never even known about, thank you so much!

I would also like to share something that God had
revealed to me a couple of months ago about churches
and the body of Christ. It started after I read a book
about a revival that had taken place in Africa in the 50's.
The key factor to their revival was REPENTANCE. When
the people realized that Jesus had died for their sins,
and they truly believed, they began repenting, confessing
sins out loud, in front of large groups of people!

They weren't doing it for show, many times they were
crying and moaning, sickened at their own sins but
desperate to get it out. There was such a spirit of
conviction there, that some of the people, as poor as
they were, began repaying money that they had stolen
years before that, or giving back eggs and animals that
they had wrongfully taken. They were asking for
forgiveness from other people left and right for things
they had thought or said in anger and hate. Some of
the people tried to keep their sins in, and they actually
got physically sick until that sin was confessed. Some
of the sins were more serious, but sin is sin to God, right?

What God revealed to me about churches is that
everyone has some hidden sin that they don't want
anyone to know about. Even the pastors and elders are
hiding sin that they don't want to share, because, of
course, they don't want to be looked down upon! God
showed me that people need to confess their sins, they
need to be truly repentant of them for there to be any
kind of revival.

If the body of Christ can't be open and honest about
their sins, and truly repentant, then how can we ever get
those living in sin to realize what they're doing? To me,
that's just hypocritical and wrong. True repentance is a
key factor to revival. We can't get far if we ourselves
don't take that first step. We have got to remember that
on the road to revival, there has got to be repentance!

[MODERATOR: Amen to that!! Email # 2 is below.]
************************************************************
From: "Pastor David K."

Bro Andrew Strom, thank you for your response on the
first of nine - "ASK JESUS into our Heart".

You have opened my eyes on this one. I have read your
article line by line and verse by verse. You have turned
my heart. I will watch with the same interest for the other
eight. I see your postion and on this point concede, I have
been trained more by tradition than by the Word.
-Sincerely, Pastor David K.
*********************************
Email # 3:
From: "ianjohn" <ianjohn@xtra.co.nz>

Having just returned from India I must make the following
observations re- salvation.

To be a Christian in the churches that I ministered in
means a turning away from the old gods and destroying
of all idols. They regard people as seekers of truth at this
stage, but its not until they are Baptised in Water which
is usually followed by an infilling of the Holy Spirit that
they are regarded as Christian. I want to tell you that
there is a tremendous cost to being publicly baptised.
Often it is accompanied by a separation of familiy
members who refuse to accept that they have become
Christians. The truth is that if a Hindu comes to Church
He is not percecuted but the moment a decision is
made to be baptised "all Hell" breaks loose. Because
what is happening is more than symbolic, it is an act
of covenant. A demonstration of alliegance to a Kingdom.
******************************
Email # 4:

From: Brian Johnson <bj005a3881@blueyonder.co.uk>

Rev. David Pawson from England has written a book and
done a video, both entitled "The Normal Christian Birth"

Both are in line with your position. David speaks of
repentance towards God, faith in Jesus, baptism in water
and the infilling of the Holy Spirit as the steps involved in
the "Normal Christian Birth", based on the accounts in
the Book of Acts.

Anchor Recordings summarise it as follows: "So often,
spiritual disease can be traced back to an inadequate
initiation into the Kingdom. A better birth means greater
growth in a healthy Christian life. David Pawson
discusses some crucial and controversial biblical texts,
challenging many traditional interpretations. He questions
the adequacy of the typical "'sinners prayer'' approach
and gives practical tips on helping potential disciples to
repent, believe, be baptised and recieve the Holy Spirit.
326 pages"

Perhaps those who argue against might like to read the
book or get hold of the video themselves. In the UK both
are available from- www.anchor-recordings.com/
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