Early Christian Baptism....Third Century Church

I have done some research on the history of Christianity and baptism wanting to understand what was taking place after Acts and the Epistles of Paul (third century church) :

NOTE: Remember in the book of Acts, we read that converts were being baptized immediately.

According to the History of Christianity written by Justo Gonzalez, many people who were converted at this time were either those who lived Judiasm all their life and had some basic framework of living for God, or others that were from the Gentile population that had some background in worshipping many gods. The Gentile population grew quickly in churches as they were starting across the land. It was vital that as people were converted, a period of preparation, instruction, and trial took place before baptism.

Baptism took place once a year. It took place on Easter Sunday. The "catechumans" were the baptismal, newly converted, candidates that went through intensive training and shortly before their baptism they were to be examined to see if there were signs of deep conviction of the Christian life. (What a difference from what we do today????)

On Good Friday and Saturday, the candidates were to fast and pray, and then be baptized on the morning of Resurrection Sunday around the same time as the Ressurection of Jesus. Interesting enough, the candidates were completely naked. They seperated the men from the women. I wonder if this was embarassing for the elders of the church.

After the immersion, they came up out of the water to receieve a white robe symbolizing their cleanliness. They were given water to drink to as a sign of being thoroughly cleansed inside and out. They were anointed as being part of a royal priesthood, and given milk and honey symbolizing a sign of the Promised Land, which they were entering. The church along with the candidates proceeded to the meeting place to partake of the Lord's Supper.

According to the Training of the Twelve, baptism was to be done in "living" running water. If there none to be found or in an area where water was scarce, water was poured over the candidate's head three times in the name fo the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.

Compare what we do today with the Third Century Church. Why only once a year? What is different from today? Should there be more symbolism or leave most symbolism out? Should the church train and test candidates before the baptism as this church did?
I'll be back to show you more if you will follow...thanks, Sleepy Disciple

New Theological Treasure Hunting...Baptism

I must confess that I have forgotten about this blog. It has always been an avenue of expressing myself theologically as I deal with different things in God's Word, His wisdom, and the discernment and revelation by the Holy Spirit. There are some things I am now unsettled about and I am wrestling with the concept of BAPTISM. It's not that I don't believe in baptism or immersion. My question is that: Do we really understand biblical baptism and its meaning?

I belong to a Southern Baptist Church and feel like my beliefs are comparable to the Baptist Faith and Message (www.sbc.net). With the name "Baptist" in the denomination, there must be some great importance on the theological meaning of this act. There is so much in God's Word about baptism, that I believe we overlook it. We also need to look at some history of theologians and what they said....starting with Martin Luther, a major player in the Reformation, who stood against infant baptism which was and is the practice of churches; who sought true understanding of baptism:

"Baptism is first of all a sign of the death and resurrection of the believer with Jesus Christ. But it is much more than a sign, for by its power we are made members of the body of Christ. Baptism and faith are closely tied, for the rite itself without faith is not valid. But this does not mean that one must have faith before being baptized, or that infants capable of faith ought not to be baptized. To come to such conclusion, Luther declares, would be to fall into the error of believing faith to be a human work, something we must do, and not a free gift of God.

In salvation, the intiative is always God's, and this is precisely what the church proclaims in baptizing infants who are incapable of understanding what is taking place. Baptism is not only the beginning of the Christian life, but also the foundation and the context in which the entire life of the believer takes place. Baptism is valid, not only when it is received, but throughout life. we are told that Luther himself said, "I am baptized", when he felt sorely tried. In his own baptism lay the strength to resist the powers of evil."
*taken from The Story of Christianity by Justo Gonzalez, Volume 2, page 34

So, what is your understanding of baptism? Where do you get that understanding from?
I want to blog about this in the coming months to explain what I have found.
I hope that you will dig in with me!! God Bless, Brian

Pastor Going to have a Book Burning

DO WE HAVE THE WRONG "KINGDOM" AGENDA OR WHAT?

From Fox News (www.foxnews.com) Reporting: Pastor Marc Grizzard claims the King James version of the Bible is the only true word of God, and that all other versions are "satanic" and "perversions" of God's word.

On Halloween night, Grizzard and the 14 members of the Amazing Grace Baptist Church will set fire to other versions of the scripture, as well as music and books by Christian authors.

“We are burning books that we believe to be Satanic,” Pastor Grizzard said.

“I believe the King James version is God’s preserved, inspired, inerrant, infallible word of God… for English-speaking people."

All other religious or Christian texts are sacreligious, the pastor insists. The list of books being burned will include works written by "a lot of different authors who we consider heretics, such as Billy Graham, Rick Warren… the list goes on and on,” Pastor Grizzard said.

Brian's comments: I am deeply saddened by this man and the so called godly leadership he is showing others in the church, in the community, and in the NATION now. Is he displaying the gospel to those who are lost? What is the focus here? This is how Christians are labelled by the actions of this man and others like him.

Do you sincerely want to start a REFORM movement amongst believers today? Here is the Bible verse we need to learn well..........."And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ." Ephesians 4:11-13 (NASB95)

The key action verb here is to EQUIP the saints. Teach them how to live godly lives by salvation by grace through faith and gifted by the Holy Spirit to have an incredible relationship with Jesus Christ. Teach them to be Great Commission Christians, to worship, pray, minister, read the Bible and live out its principles, be accountable, serve, love, and so on. There are people dying each minute that are going to hell and this guy is burning Bibles. He could be sharing the gospel in his neighborhood or have a ministry presence in the community.....but no, he will burn Bibles.

I have said this before, and I quote, Spiritual Leadership by Henry Blackaby.....Servant Leaders are to lead people to God's agenda. I don't think he takes this responsibility very seriously. EQUIP..EQUIP...EQUIP!!!

Hanlding Conflict: ANGER

²¹ "You have heard that the ancients were told, 'YOU SHALL NOT COMMIT MURDER' and 'Whoever commits murder shall be liable to the court.' ²² "But I say to you that everyone who is angry with his brother shall be guilty before the court; and whoever says to his brother, 'You good-for-nothing,' shall be guilty before the supreme court; and whoever says, 'You fool,' shall be guilty enough to go into the fiery hell. ²³ "Therefore if you are presenting your offering at the altar, and there remember that your brother has something against you, ²⁴ leave your offering there before the altar and go; first be reconciled to your brother, and then come and present your offering . ²⁵ "Make friends quickly with your opponent at law while you are with him on the way, so that your opponent may not hand you over to the judge, and the judge to the officer, and you be thrown into prison. ²⁶ "Truly I say to you, you will not come out of there until you have paid up the last cent. Matthew 5:21-26 (NASB95)

I just want to talk about the first part of this.....especially with MEN and ANGER. Ladies deal with it too, but I don't think as much as men do. (opinion of mine of course)

This passage says that Punishment is due: ANGER leads to this punishment!!

ANGER….AFFECTS YOUR JUDGMENT

Aristotle wrote: (384–322 bce), “are all those feelings that so change men as to affect their judgements, and that are also attended by pain or pleasure. Such are anger, pity, fear and the like, with their opposites.”

ANGER….YOU CANNOT CONTROL YOUR REACTIONS

Psychologists say that the goal of anger management is to reduce both your emotional feelings and the physiological arousal that anger causes. You can't get rid of, or avoid, the things or the people that enrage you, nor can you change them, but you can learn to control your reactions.

ANGER….leads to a LOSS OF CONTROL

Dr. Tom Stevens, psychologist from Cal Sate Univ./Long Beach has done extensive research in this area: Underlying anger is caused by a perceived loss of control over factors affecting important values. The values in the above examples might be pride, getting someplace on time, someone you love, money, or being treated "fairly"--we are frustrated about not getting what we want or expect. With anger, we usually think we know what caused the problem. We have some target(s) for our anger. It may be the person criticizing you, the person who cut you off on the freeway, an attacker, your boss, or even yourself. With anger, we may hope that a burst of energy aimed at the threat will defeat it. Or we may hope that a burst of energy will break the barrier stopping us from meeting our goal. For most situations anger clouds our judgment and creates extra stress. If anger prompts aggressive behavior toward other people, it can permanently harm relationships--especially with those we love. Prolonged or frequent resentment (mild anger) has been shown to be a significant cause of cardiovascular problems and heart attacks.

PROBLEM: The main problem WE HAVE IS FOCUS

The problem we have is “focus”: there are things around that can make you angry, but if you are focused on following Christ, instead of being a big ball of emotion and letting your selfish feelings control you, then where are you. (Last week’s verse: whether you eat or drink, do all for the glory of God) That is our problem today with people who SAY they are believers. We believe in Christ, but we don’t want to follow His will. Some of you are still living in the sinful nature you had before you came to know Jesus, you haven’t surrendered. If you blew up at anything before you knew Christ, (or physically or emotionally harmed someone), today because of Christ you are a loving peacemaker because that is his will: kind and compassionate disciples is who Jesus is leading. But if your sinful attitudes and behavior have not changed or at a moments notice you can easily dive right back to the sin, you have crossed a line in the sand my friends and you are not following the Lord, you are following your selfish desires and THAT IS NOT THE BEHAVIOR OF A DISCIPLE OF JESUS CHRIST.

Where are you today with this? How has ANGER destroyed your life and how has it messed up your walk with the Lord?

Handling Conflict: What should we do first?

³¹ Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God. ³² Give no offense either to Jews or to Greeks or to the church of God; ³³ just as I also please all men in all things, not seeking my own profit but the profit of the many, so that they may be saved. ¹ Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:31 – 11:1

God has created us as unique individuals with different opinions, convictions, desires, perspectives, and priorities. At some point in life, you will have conflict with someone. It will be at work, at church, family reunions or in inner family circles, with friends, with neighbors, on the baseball field, at restaurants, and we could go on. God shares with us about how to handle conflict all over the New Testament. I think we need to seek His understanding of how we, as Christians, are supposed to handle conflict.

Abraham Lincoln once said, “You can’t please all of the people all of the time.” William Ellery Channing said, “Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict.” Paul has stated certain great principles that relate to Christian liberty. One of those principles is: "All things are lawful for me, but all things are not expedient." Also, "all things are lawful for me, but all things edify not." Now here is another one: "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, and whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." This is the test every believer should apply to his life. Not "should I do this, or should I do that," but "can I do it for the glory of God?" Unfortunately, there are Christians who don't even go to church for the glory of God. They go for some other reason -- maybe to criticize or to gossip. With a motive like that it is better to stay at home. Whatever a believer does should be done for the glory of God. That is very important. —J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

Three things we can take away from this:
I. Sinful Attitudes and Behavior

If we are to follow the Great Commandment given my our Savior, “Love the Lord with all our heart, mind, soul, strength, and love your neighbor as yourself”, then our focus is clear. We cannot love the world and love God, love our jobs, then love God, love our spouses and then love God….the point is to love God first and focus on Him totally.

WE HAVE A PROBLEM: WE FOCUS ON SELF. Roman unbelievers described: “The being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, ³⁰ slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, ³¹ without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful;” Romans 1:29-31 (NASB95)

“Therefore, putting aside all malice and all deceit and hypocrisy and envy and all slander” 1 Peter 2:1 (NASB95)

INSTEAD WE NEED TO FOCUS ON “What Christ wants me to do?”, God’s Purpose for my life and His Will….My obedience towards His will. NON-CHRISTIANS do not have Christ nor the Holy Spirit. They do not understand the love that Christ has shared with us that we are to share with others and the sacrifice He has made for us. WEAK CHRISTIANS are to look at the stronger Christians as examples as mentors of how to live out life with Christ and to be disciples of Christ living in the world. STRONG CHRISTIANS are to be the examples living according to God's will and all can see the fruits of the Spirit in their life.

II. Give no Offense….Serve

Here Paul divides the whole world into three groups: Jews, Gentiles, and church of God. Some of these folk have differing beliefs. An example would be the Jewish abhorrence of pork. It would certainly give offense to invite a Jewish friend for dinner and serve him ham. A believer should love other people enough so that his actions will not offend them. There are a lot of Gentiles who have peculiar notions too. It would be impossible to please all of them, but we should try not to offend those with whom we have contact. Neither should we offend those who are of the church of God.

Some young people who were rebelling against "the establishment" came to me and said they had attended a certain church and were rebuked because of the way they dressed. They asked me if I thought the members of that church were all wrong. I told them I thought that both groups were wrong. Neither acted in love. The members of the church were wrong in criticizing them before others. On the other hand, these young folk knew their clothes and hair would be an offense to the members of the church. So none of them showed love toward the other. We are told that we are not to offend either the Jews, the Gentiles, or the church of God. This includes the entire human family.

"These are the three divisions of the human family today, but one of these days the church of God is going to leave this earth. Then there will be only the Jews and Gentiles in the world, and God has a tremendous program which will take place at that time." —J. Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

“Therefore let us not judge one another anymore, but rather determine this—not to put an obstacle or a stumbling block in a brother's way.” Romans 14:13 (NASB95)

Why are we to serve them? We should please all men so that they may be saved!!! That’s the goal: keep the peace, lead in the example in Jesus Christ, so that mankind would be saved…our little example…for the world. This is how deep our discipleship is….how deep our calling…..how deep our understanding of God’s will for our life should be.

III. Be Imitators

Now primarily what we do we are to do for the glory of God -- "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God." A Christian woman can wash dishes and sweep the floor to the glory of God. A Christian man can mow the lawn and dig a ditch for the glory of God. Regardless of what you are doing, if you cannot do it for the glory of God, you should not be doing it. As we live like this we are a testimony to the world -- that those who are lost might be saved.—J.Vernon McGee's Thru The Bible

We should be pressed to lead and serve by example....to show others Jesus by our examples. Why? We are showing Christ through us. We are told to share the Good News and I am not taking away from that. We also, by imitating Christ, are showing others who He is with our attitudes, actions, behaviors, speech, passions and desires. Do we desire to imitate Christ in our daily lives? Don't just sit there....DO SOMETHING!!!!!

Spiritual Leadership: What to Leaders do

This is an ongoing leadership blog for the meantime as I look at spiritual leadership. I recall all the companies and jobs I have been a part of. The churches and organizations I have been a part of. I begin to realize that there has been many different types of leaders in these various aspects.

Interesting in the beginning of the chapter in the book Spiritual Leadership is an age old question I think we all have asked from time to time to peak our interest: "How can I move people to do what needs to be done?" Oswald Sanders is quoted as saying, "Leadership is influence, the ability of one person to influence others." There is much to that statement because we have seen dictators who dictate and expect those under him/her to get it done with no excuses. Then there are the leaders who are team leaders that inspire those under him to accomplish the tasks at hand. What about the team leaders who want to be friendly with all but when the time comes to accomplish something, they can't lead because they are trying to make friends instead of lead people. So, there are the leaders who are trying hard to lead but those under him/her are not hearing or paying attention to their leadership. I am sure I have missed so many other different types of leaders.

Henry and Richard Blackaby writes in Spiritual Leadership that there are 5 ways in which leaders can infuence others:

1. Spiritual Leaders pray. Spiritual Leaders must retreat daily with quality time with the Lord.

2. Spiritual Leaders work hard. Their work ethic must be focused and be a good manager of time. If they are not giving time to their family, they are working too hard and not being effective.

3. Spiritual Leaders communicate. Vision, mission, team work, focus, etc.

4. Spiritual Leaders serve. Leaders must show a heart of humility and compassion as they invest in and serve people.

5. Spiritual Leaders maintain positive attitudes. The cause is clear and a positive attitude will influence others to follow their lead.

I believe that this is a good instrument to gage from for minister search committees or any group that desires to call someone to lead their people. If you are already leading people, this list is good to reflect on about twice a year to see how focused you are to lead and influence others. I know that I always adjust my life according to this list, because I let my focus slip towards other things at times.

How am I........is a good question to ask on each item. I am almost done with this book and it has challenged me and my leadership to see exactly what I am doing and where I am going. It's good to check your focus frequently!!

Spiritual Leadership: The REAL Focus of Christ's Church

I apologize for being so silent here lately. It seems that sometimes time gets away from you and some of your passions get put on hold for a while as other important matters need to be taken care of. With that said and done, let's move on to more pressing matters: Spiritual Leadership in the Church and the FOCUS they are supposed to bring.

It is the responsibility of spiritual leaders to keep the REAL focus of the church the MAIN THING. Jesus taught: "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will know them by their fruits." Matthew 7:15-16 (NASB95)

Jesus also taught: "Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always , even to the end of the age." Matt 28:19-20

I was sad to hear recently of a large church that was experiencing some troubled times because giving was reduced a considerable amount "due to the economy". I beg to differ on that item, but let's move on. The pastor led out to cut the budget just as a business would do immediately, and took measures to release some staff members from the church. The issue was that the staff members were all part of the mission efforts the church was involved in. Church planting leaders, chaplains, youth missionary reaching inner city youth, etc. The pastor's reasoning came forth in months after this great staff reduction: he wanted the church to look at building a new sanctuary. Well, know that the budget had been cut, there was room to add more to the building fund, and he wanted to be the pastor to build a grand sanctuary.

I read in the Great Commission above the four verbs: GO, MAKE, BAPTIZE, TEACH!! Yes, a spiritual leader can come in and destroy a congregation as a "wolf in sheeps' clothing." Jesus says we will know them by their fruits. They lead the church to the WRONG FOCUS. These inwardly ravenous wolf gives a resume and dresses nice!! Take a look at their resume and see their background and ask the tough questions. I have heard of pastoral candidates refusing background checks, credit checks, and even saying, "I can't go there for that amount of money...you need to offer me more." Are they really called out and wanting to submit to God's will and lead God's people or do they just need a job? And churches are so desperate to have a spiritual leader, they call him to the church to find out in a few short months, they made a mistake.

GO, MAKE, BAPTIZE, and TEACH is the REAL focus of the Lord's church. Spiritual growth, NOT physical growth. I'm sorry to break this to you all: MAKING and TEACHING is a process of leading someone in spiritual growth....molding and shaping them into the disciple God wants them to be. That is what spiritual leaders are supposed to do: to lead people to God's agenda, not their own. I have to make sure I put this in front of the church constantly to keep the focus. It is like steering a large ship with this great wheel. Currents can take you in a different direction if you are not careful, obstacles will be in your way, and you will get tired of steering. But this Commission is important.....Jesus is calling us to do it...faithfully!!!!