If you read my last post, you know that the prescription for becoming a Christian is listed in the book of Acts.
John 3:16, the most quoted verse in The Western World, is in a series of verses that should be read together with some understanding of the Old Testament, or it is likely to be misunderstood…which is one reason we have “John 3:16 Christians” living in sin and who will die and go to Hell.
But back to Acts. After a very large crowd of people heard disciples of Jesus speaking in tongues, and Peter preached the gospel to them, many asked him what they should do. Peter replied, in the Imperative:
(roughly translated from the Greek NT) You repent, and let each of you be baptized, upon (into) the name of Jesus Christ, with a view to forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
Then, Peter went on, warning them, including telling them they should “be saved from this perverse generation.”
The response was: (again roughly from the Greek NT): The ones welcoming his word were baptized, and there were added in that day about three thousand souls; and they were continuing steadfastly in the teaching of the apostles and in the fellowship, in the breaking of the loaf and in the prayers. Acts 2:41,42
Now the passage above is in one sentence. However, many translations to English changed the ; to a period. The Bible was not originally written in verses (I’ll explain that another time).
But what I want to focus on here is the fact that about 3,000 people were baptized in one day. You were probably taught that it was the apostles doing all this baptizing. Uh, do the math…3,000 divided by 12, with maybe a short break for bread and olive oil and some wine…I’m no math whiz, but 270 or more people per disciple in most of one daylight day? Are you crazy? Even if the 120 mentioned in Matthias’ selection (early book of Acts) were present, that is still only 132 people to baptize about 3,000 people.
But you would be ignoring the semicolon. It is easy to explain who did it. The whole verse explains that the ones being baptized followed the teachings of the apostles, which means that once they were baptized fully, they baptized others: one repented, was baptized, received the baptism of the Holy Spirit and then followed the teachings of the apostles by then leading another repenter in the same process! How unlike today when you see so-called “christian” leaders lording over everyone that no one else can do anything. That practice is a lie from the pit of Hell, and it is obvious from this scripture here what we are to do once we are Christians. What a difference from the old institutionalized “church!”
So, that is how about 3,000 were baptized and added to the Kingdom of God in one day.
The Lost Kerryman 