Category: Miscellaneous

Baptism

Baptism marks a believer’s new birth into the Christian family. It symbolises the commencement of a new life under new management, where Jesus is Lord of all. It declares publicly that we desire to follow God from now on, leaving our old way of doing things behind.

Baptism of believers

All baptisms in the New Testament were of believers. Those baptised in Acts included: the believers on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:37-38) and in Samaria (Acts 8:12-13), Saul (Acts 9:18), Cornelius and his household (Acts 10:48), the Philippian jailer and his household (Acts 16:33) and Crispus and his household (Acts 18:8). In these cases baptism was performed only after people had heard the gospel and confessed the Lordship of Christ. Baptism was the seal of their faith.

In the full version of this article (Click here to download it), you will learn the following:

  • Baptisms in the New Testament were by immersion
  • Jesus’ baptism was at the start of his public ministry
  • Jesus continued to teach baptism throughout his ministry
  • There are four reasons why all believers need to be baptised

Choosing a suitable commentary

Once you begin to take the study of your Bible seriously, there will come a time when you want to dig deeper into a particular book.  One of the best ways of doing this is to beg, borrow or buy a commentary that helps you find out how to understand the text you find in Scripture.  The only problem is that there may be upwards of a hundred choices for any particular book of the Bible.

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The Biblical view of history

The Biblical view of history

One of the most important aspects of the Book of Daniel is the way in which it counters how other cultures and religions view world history and events. Four main ways of looking at history may be summarised under the following headings:

History can be viewed as …

  • Chaotic, chance-driven. Ultimately it is a meaningless and random series of events – this was the view held by the Greek Epicurean philosophers who believed that pleasure is the greatest good;
  • Cyclical, circular and repetitive; or
  • Constrained causally and predetermined … more commonly known as “Historical Determinism” – this was the view held by the Greek Stoic philosophers who taught that there was a direct relationship between a person’s freedom and the laws of cosmic determinism; or
  • Created, controlled and planned by the God who reveals Himself to us in Scripture as a loving Father, and in our Saviour Jesus Christ, His Son.

Continue reading The Biblical view of history