Walk With Me
Christian discussion of biblical topics, and a dose of daily application. Yes the Bible is still relevant, and we find out more and more each day how relevant it has always been.
Walk With Me
Baptism vs Denominationalism: Tell me the truth!
Can the seemingly simple act of water baptism hold the key to spiritual transformation and eternal salvation? Join us as we challenge conventional practices and dive deep into the significance of baptism in Jesus’ name. Promising a fresh perspective, we unravel the Greek origins of the word "baptizo," emphasizing the profound meaning of full immersion as a vital step in the Christian faith. By exploring key scriptural passages, we shed light on the necessity of returning to the roots of baptism, moving beyond denominational divides towards a unified understanding of its importance in the Christian journey.
Throughout this episode, we draw compelling parallels between Old Testament events and New Testament teachings to highlight the foundational role of baptism. As we explore passages from John, 1 Peter, and Acts, we emphasize baptism as a pivotal act of spiritual cleansing and rebirth, not merely a symbolic gesture. Personal stories come alive, illustrating the transformative power that baptism brings, often accompanied by the stirring encounter of the Holy Ghost. Whether you’re a believer seeking deeper understanding or simply curious about the spiritual implications of baptism, this episode promises to enlighten and inspire.
Hello everybody and welcome to today's episode of Walk With Me. I am your host, jj of so Good. I have each and every one of you here with me. Thank you for liking and sharing and commenting on the various platforms that we are on. Thank you so much. We probably will be opening a Rumble channel soon. I'm just going to keep everybody abreast of that. As it goes, we are growing by leaps and bounds and it couldn't be without you and the will of God. Thank you all. So, so, so much.
Speaker 1:Now I do want to let you know, give a big shout out to our sponsors True Barce, lyricists with our intro and outro Probably going to get some more pieces from him soon and Exquisite Creations. We're doing a lot of work with Tumblr and she will not be reopening the site until after mid February, but if you have any requests, go ahead and send them to her email or my email, walkwithmebiblestudy at gmail. Speaking of that, if you have any questions or comments, I really enjoy your questions and I try to respond to all the comments, but I really really seek out the questions first. I prioritize questions. If you have any questions, again, that address is walkwithmebiblestudy at gmailcom. All one word, all lowercase.
Speaker 1:And we just finished a very interesting question about where is hell, and it was so in-depth that I had to take two episodes to do it. Now, there, I have not yet. Honestly, guys, and I'm just being honest, I'm not bragging or anything like that um, if there are, if there's something in the bible, uh, or a question that you ask that there's no biblical explanation for and there is no doctrinal explanation for, I will tell you. I really don't know. I will, you know, maybe even give you a couple of scriptures where it might be close, but then I'll just tell you, some things are going to be up between you and God. But as long as it doesn't contradict the word of God, you're fine. But feel free to ask the question, and if I can answer it in one or two verses, I can answer it. But I really like the questions that are in depth, that require a lot of explanation and a lot of scripture, because that's what we are here for. We're here to use the Bible as our roadmap to get to heaven, right, alright? So, that being said and of course, that's where we got the whole Walk With Me podcast name, and we're probably and God has led me to create a bigger sort of a ministry. So we will be talking about that as soon as the paperwork is done, and I appreciate each and every one of you who follow, like, share, talk about, refer other people. I really do appreciate it. I just love you guys. Thank you all, so so much.
Speaker 1:So, with that being said, we were in the middle of walking away from denominationalism and I don't even know if that's a word, but it is now so we're going to go ahead and continue doing that. One of the things that started also creating denominations was when we sort of got away from the original water baptism and we started taking scripture out of context and not even looking at the apparent context that the scriptures in. I know that sounds like I just rephrase the same thing, but it's absolutely not true, and we will talk about this particular practice. That sort of leads to different belief systems, which leads to different denominations, which leads to a lot of confusion. Okay, so, that being said, we're going to talk about water baptism in Jesus' name. Now, I know we've talked about it before, but it's not something. This is something that we can talk about a lot all day. We can talk about it every other week if we have to, because this is so important, and we'll talk about why.
Speaker 1:So, first off, we have to figure out what baptizing is, or baptism is, because baptism is a word that comes from the word baptize. Now here's something that a lot of people don't talk about the word isn't, the suffix isn't, and these things are very important. The suffix ism I-S-M means a division or a separation, such as if we look at the word racism, then we know that it's a separation or a conflict between races. If we look at ageism, same thing. So baptism also would follow the same rule. So what is it? Separating people who are baptized correctly against people who aren't? Well, let's not use the word against Separating them from, against separating them from, okay, and that word is. We commonly use the word schism instead of just ism, and that's how we get those words like baptism, denominationalism, denominationalism and things like that, with that suffix "-ism", right.
Speaker 1:So what is baptism? Baptism? Baptism comes from the word to baptize. Baptized comes from a greek word, baptizo, b-a-p-t-i-z-o, which means to immerse in water. Now there we have a problem right off the bat, because if, if the bible says to be baptized and the word baptism comes from baptizo, which means to completely immerse in water, then it does not mean a sprinkling of water, it doesn't mean putting water on somebody's forehead. That means you're not baptized.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's look at 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 50. Now keep in mind, for the sake of time, I might only give you a couple of scriptures, but we have a rule here on this podcast Read a verse or two above the scripture, read a verse or two below the scripture, but preferably the whole chapter. Why? Because context is key, right. So first corinthians 15, 50 in the king james version. Now I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of god, neither does corruption inherit in corruption. What are you talking about? If you were going to inherit the kingdom, or if we're going to go to heaven when we die, then we have to be a new creature. We can't be the same flesh and blood you and I are now. We have to be born spiritually, and this is where water baptism is. It's a way to be born spiritually.
Speaker 1:In Matthew, chapter 3, verse 14 to 16. Now I'm going to read this one out of New Living Translation I'm starting to like this version a little bit, but I still prefer the King James. But John tried to talk him out of it. I am the one who needs to be baptized by you. He said so why are you coming to me? But Jesus said it should be done. We must carry out all that God requires. So John baptized him.
Speaker 1:After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending on the back of the dove and settling on him. Now Jesus was saying that John had baptized him to feel righteousness. Now, if you've listened to me any longer than four minutes, you've probably just said wait a minute, jj. You just said and I think you just contradicted something you told us. What is that? Alright, let's go back to verse 16. This is where more denominationalism appears. After his baptism, as Jesus came up out of the water, the heavens were opened and he saw the Spirit of God descending on a dove and settling on him. But wait, jj. You said Jesus was God manifested in flesh. And it is.
Speaker 1:Now I understand that on the surface, this seems like two different things, because Jesus was there, jesus spoke as God and the third person, like you know, like I'm speaking to you, hey, freddie said for me to go down to the store and get him a bag of chips, and there'll be two different people right, two separate people, and there would be two different people Right, two separate people. But after this, after this moment, jesus spoke as God. Jesus spoke as a manifestation of God, and so when we look at this right here, we're looking at the manifestation of God Through Jesus, such as your work Represent, representing you on your job, your word, representing you when you speak to someone Like I know, I can trust you because Johnny said it, rachel said it, susan said it and I know if they said it, that means it's true, right. So that's where this is where context is key here, because before that there were times where Jesus kind of knew things in his flesh and blood, and he's saying the flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of heaven, and he needed the spirit of God to do the things he did Not in his flesh, but in the spirit and the power of God to do the things he did not in his flesh, but in the spirit and the power of God. So, no, there is not a contradiction there. And I remember this. I had a guy I don't know how long you guys have been here, but one of my very first episodes, I talked about this guy named Keith who gave me a book it was literally a booklet, a handwritten I mean handwritten quote, unquote contradiction. And his was one of them. No, it's not a contradiction. We have to look at the entire context of what happened here. So let's move along, because this is where water baptism becomes very, very important.
Speaker 1:John 3 and 3 through 3 and 5. And Jesus replied I tell you the truth. We're still in the New Living Translation. I tell you the truth because in King James Version it says earlier unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. What do you mean, exclaimed Nicodemus? How can an old man go back into his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied I assure you, no man can enter the kingdom of God without being born of the water and of the Spirit. This is now Jesus explaining what just happened to him when John baptized him. He was born of the water and of the Spirit. Did Jesus have the Holy Ghost? No, jesus was the Holy Ghost Because he said I and my Father are one, and we'll talk more about that when we talk about the oneness of God. Alright, so then it says in 1 Peter 3,.
Speaker 1:All right, so then, first peter, chapter 3, verse 20 and 21, with some word, with some time, were disobedient when, once, the long surfing of god waited in the days of noah, while the ark was appearing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. There are are a lot of people that look at what happened with Noah and the great flood as a type and shadow of baptism. Me personally, jj speaking, I look at children of Israel when they left Egypt, when they went down to the Red Sea, as a form of baptism, as a type of shadow of baptism, getting us ready to understand that we were going to be saved by water. And verse 22, the like figure word to them, even baptism does now also save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience towards god by the resurrection of jesus christ. And we're going to talk about that, that verse, that verse is going to come back. So if you want to write that down, we're going to talk about that, maybe not today, that verse there, because that says a lot and it sort of goes over our head. So, basically, just as water saved Noah, water is necessary for our salvation, not just walking away from. Hey, you know, I know smoking is a sin, so I'm going to quit sinning, or I'm going to quit smoking cigarettes and then I'm going to go to heaven. No, no, no, no, no. You got to get that washed away. It's important, repentance is key, but we also have to get that sin washed away. And you know, like I was saying earlier, there are some examples of baptism in the Old Testament we're going to go through and they're all pretty much types of shadows. They were not officially called baptism, but we'll see how it plays out.
Speaker 1:Zechariah 13 and 1. In that day there shall be a fountain open unto the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for uncleanness, a fountain that comes out of a fountain, generally water. I'm reminded of a time when I was in elementary where we had the story about a fountain that sent out lemonade. I can't believe. I'm 50 years old and I'm thinking about that story about a fountain that sent out lemonade and how everybody got sick because they kept drinking all the lemonade. But that's neither here nor there.
Speaker 1:Numbers 19. That's the 19th and verses 19 to 20. On the third and seventh days, the person who was ceremonially clean must sprinkle the water on those who are defiled. Now some people will tell you well, jj, you just talked about baptism in the Old Testament. You just said sprinkle water, which means that could be a type of shadow of christening, right Wrong. Let's finish reading the verse. This is why reading keeps the entire context deep. Then, on the seventh day, the people being cleansed must wash their clothes, not sprinkle, and bathe themselves, not sprinkle, and that evening they will be cleansed of their defilement. In other words, the sin will be washed away, but those who become defiled and do not purify themselves will be cut off from the community.
Speaker 1:Remember I said earlier that baptism separates you, separates you from the clean and the unclean, separates people who are baptized and headed to heaven and people who are not baptized. That baptism separates, but they have defiled the sanctuary of the Lord. Since the water of purification has not been sprinkled on them. They remain defiled. And I know You're going to say well, jjj is just sprinkling again, remember you have to go back and be baptized. Sprinkling doesn't do it, baptism does.
Speaker 1:Isaiah 1, 15-16 when you lift up your hands in prayer, I will not look. When you offer many prayers, I will not listen, for your hands are covered with the blood of innocent victims. Wash yourselves and be clean. There it is again Not sprinkling, washing, complete immersion in water and be clean, get your sins out of my sight, give up your evil ways. Now that really tells that kind of defies, a lot of denomination logic that you know God hears all our prayers. Well, he hears them. He ignores them. Because if we are still laden down with the sins that we have, if we've not been baptized, the only thing he's going to hear from you is the prayer of repentance. The only thing he's going to pay from you is the prayer of repentance. The only thing he's going to pay attention to is the prayer of repentance.
Speaker 1:Now, I have seen and here's my asterisk, because there's always an asterisk on this I have seen people get the Holy Ghost before they got baptized. If you ask me that question right now, I will tell you. I don't know why, I don't know why, I don't know why, but I've seen people get the Holy Ghost who've been baptized. I've seen people get baptized in Jesus' name and don't get the Holy Ghost for a long time. Now, that one, I can kind of say that maybe, even though they got baptized in Jesus' name. It was still something they were kind of holding on to and wrestling with, so maybe we'll deal with that in a later episode. But let's keep going.
Speaker 1:1 Corinthians, chapter 10, 1 and 2. I don't want you to forget, dear brothers and sisters, about our ancestors in the wilderness long ago. All of them were guided by a cloud that moved ahead of them and all of them walked through the sea on dry ground, in the cloud and in the sea. All of them were baptized as followers of Moses. Now tell me, walkers, who were they talking about? You said Moses. So that means we're talking about the children of Israel, our ancestors in the wilderness. Again, they were in the wilderness when they came out of that's right Egypt. And when it says, walk through the sea on dry ground, what sea was that? The Red Sea? This again is another type of shadow of being baptized, talking about a type of baptism. It was more of like a ceremonial sort of baptism, because they didn't actually walk through the water and all get dunked under in Jesus' name, and they wouldn't have done it anyway, because at that time they considered the name of God to be Jehovah, because that's what he told them. He actually didn't tell them that until later. So they were calling him El Shaddai and El Nisi and all of the other El names that were descriptive of the power of God.
Speaker 1:So baptism is more important than we want to think. Baptism is absolutely necessary because it washes away the sin, and not to the point where you can go back necessarily and do it again. But it washes away the sin and not to the point where you can go back necessarily and do it again. But it washes away the sin to the point it doesn't stain our spiritual bodies, and I know that sounds like a lot of heavy things and we'll talk more about that. I'm about to run out of time here and I want to get through these two other scriptural settings here Acts 22 and 16. Still New Living Translation. What are you waiting for? Get up and be baptized. Have your sins washed away by calling on the name of the Lord Washed away, Talking about again being baptized, of the Lord washed away, talking about again being baptized.
Speaker 1:The book of Acts is very instructive in how the church was born and how each one of us you, I, anybody who wants to be saved is born into the church. You will always see repentance, baptism, jesus' name, repentance, baptism name of the Lord. One name, singular Repentance, baptism, jesus' name, repentance, baptism, name of the Lord. One name, singular Repentance, baptism, jesus name. And some people even got baptized more than once, and we'll talk about that. Romans 6 1-4.
Speaker 1:Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not Because we have died to sin. Whoa, whoa, wait. Whoa, whoa whoa. When do we die to sin? Remember, now we're talking about the Romans, not to Johnny on the street.
Speaker 1:The Romans, or the church at Rome, had already gone through the repentance phase of salvation, so they had already asked God to forgive them of their sins. They had already sacrificed themselves on the altar of salvation, so they had already asked God to forgive them of their sins. They had already sacrificed themselves on the altar of repentance and no, I'm not talking about cutting yourself or any of these other things. They literally said Lord, I'm sorry, I want to be a new preacher. No, you have to die out the sin and be reborn. This is what born again means. Or have you forgotten that when we were joined in Jesus Christ in baptism, we joined him in his death? Now we're linking the baptism versus the sinful death. We died and were buried with Christ by baptism, just as Jesus was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father. Now we also may live new lives.
Speaker 1:That old you, that old me that walked into that church building, that walked into that pool of water Big shout out to my brother Joseph Roberts. He has like a city pool in the back of the church where he baptizes people in Jesus' name and I have watched the healing power of God touch people that he has baptized and I mean you can literally feel it, you can see it Once you've experienced it so much. You actually see it. And you can see people go in, you see the despair on them, you see just the downtroddenness, so to speak. You see the beating down, how their souls are beat down and you see all of these things. But then when they come up they get baptized in Jesus' name and not in the whole title thing. They get baptized in the name because it's the name that saves us and they come back up Transformation, even if the tongues don't come out of their mouth right, then I would say just another side and we'll wrap this up.
Speaker 1:I would say about I don't know. I would say about 60% of the people that I've seen baptized in Jesus' name actually get the Holy Ghost as they come out, or they will come out of the Holy Ghost. They come out of the water, come out of the immersion, speaking in tongues, and we'll generally have to have two or three people in there because they'll fall back in the water and we don't want that. So I've seen people do it and I've seen my brother, tyrone Wren I was just thinking about him the other day and man, when he got baptized, it was amazing. The transformation of that man was and he was a young kid, he's got to be, geez, maybe mid-40s now, maybe late 40s. But the transformation of that man from you know, hard-headed kid to somebody who was on fire living for god and I mean this was walkers, this was immediate and this was it.
Speaker 1:And and from someone jj here, from from me, who has gone through church services where you kind of feel a touch of god and everything's great the next day and then it's not, or it's like you kind of get topped off and then you just run out of fuel, this is different. This is Getting the Holy Ghost is different. It is. It's um, how do I explain that?
Speaker 1:Okay, so, being in one of these other services that I had been into, and I remember, during my journey to God, I'd had various experiences along the way where you feel God moving on you, you feel God touching you, you feel God guiding you, but then and that's to say this is a Wednesday night, but by like Friday night, you're back to the same old person. I'm back to the same old person. I'm back to lying, I'm back to stealing, I'm back to being disrespectful, I'm back to just being just a normal everyday JJ at the time, being that person and trying to figure out God. Why can't I just do the right thing? Why? Why does everything I touch turn to ash? Why does this happen? And I did not even know at the time that God was trying to show me that there's a difference between being touched by God and filled by God, that God was trying to show me that there's a difference between being touched by God and filled by God. And I know we're talking about water, baptism. But this goes back to why it's important, why being born of the Spirit is important.
Speaker 1:Because in July of 94, when it was a completely, it was a completely different experience. I didn't even hear honestly, I didn't even hear the pastor say Jesus' name. I know he baptized in Jesus' name because I have watched him baptize other people. His name was Leonard Westberg. I did not hear him say Jesus' name, but I knew. I knew, when I came out of that water, something was quote-unquote wrong, something was missing, something, something had happened. And this and I'm reliving this as we speak about it um, I remember feeling, wow, this is crazy what happened.
Speaker 1:And at the time I didn't speak in tongues, I did not. As a matter of fact, I was a little resistant because I thought it was kind of the hope of Messiah. I tie my tie and I should understand what I'm saying by and by, but no, you're not going to. Really, you're not going to. You're not going to. Really, you're not going to. You're not going to understand. Somebody sent me a, somebody sent me some scriptures that I'm trying to figure out a context, but you are not going to understand because your spirit is speaking to God and your spirit being revived in you.
Speaker 1:So it's the difference between putting a, putting a candle, putting putting a flame on a candle, and how do I put this? The difference is like putting a wet sponge in a jar or putting a wet sponge on the countertop. Eventually the wet sponge dries on the countertop, eventually the wet sponge dries, but the wet sponge in the jar will not dry because the water will not escape if you put the lid on. That's the best I can explain it right now, without a script. But it's like putting a piece of paper on fire in a tiny container, but then instead of just that little piece of paper burning off, and then now you're back to the same old person three or four days later. Now you're actually lighting a candle with its own fuel and that fire burning inside, and not to a painful place but to a joyful place.
Speaker 1:And I promise you guys, when I got baptized in Jesus' name, I promise you, I know this sounds cliche, I know you may have heard it before somewhere, but I promise you, the next day was different, something was different. I did not even acknowledge the Holy Ghost yet. That didn't happen for another three or four days, because we was in revival. That was for another three or four days, but there was something different. It was a whole different joy, a joy I was not expecting Again. I had been church scammed, I had felt the touch of God, I had faked the touch of God, I had done all of these things. But that day, that day, something different happened and I, you know just remember we were talking about hell a couple weeks ago that we're kind of limited by the vocabulary that people have at the time to explain things, and this is the only way I can really explain the difference between being baptized in Jesus' name and being baptized in the Father, son and the Holy Ghost, or being christened.
Speaker 1:I've done all three. You know I've done all three, and not in that order, obviously, but it's a completely different experience and it's a life changing experience. If you allow it to change your life, because you know God ain't going to fight you, you're going to break up a whole different person and then you can decide to go back to being whatever you want to be. So that, that being said, that's a whole nother subject for a whole nother day, but we will talk about that later. But, yes, we will continue talking about the importance of part of that visible. We are out of time. We are out of time.
Speaker 1:I thank you all so much for listening. I gosh, this time goes by so fast, doesn't it? Thank you all so much for listening. Thank you all so much for being a part of this and this community and, you know, telling other people and showing other people. And thank you all Again. I am humbled by it, because it's not about JJ and it's not about the microphone, it's not about the studio, it's about the word of God and it's about wanting to express the word of God to each and every one of you and people. We haven't even reached you yet. So thank you all so much. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you all so much. Thank you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, and keep posting.
Speaker 1:Stay tuned, because we will be rolling out an entire ministry. God just gave me the name of it Sunday, so I waited for him to tell me how exactly to implement it. So we will be doing other things. Thank you all so much. Thank you all so much. Tell somebody that you love them. Tell somebody that God loves them. Tell somebody that you love them. Tell somebody that God loves them. Tell somebody that there is a big truth out there. We've got to get it All right. Love you all. God bless you. Bye-bye.