Explore the deeply intricate question of how the church interprets the timeline from Friday’s crucifixion to Sunday’s resurrection. Dive into cultural interpretations and the Jewish context to uncover the historical perspective on this compelling Biblical event. Reflect on how inclusive counting of days sheds light on Jesus’s cryptic statements and enriches our understanding of pivotal Easter events. Continuing into a deeper scriptural discussion, we venture into the symbolic water with a focus on baptism. Engaging with Peter’s and Paul’s declarations, unravel the nuances of baptism’s role in salvation, offering insights into the theological intricacies of the early Christian era.
SPEAKER 06 :
Good afternoon and welcome to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg and we’re live for an hour each weekday afternoon, commercial free, got room for a lot of people to call in if they want to and you can raise questions for discussion about the Bible, about the Christian faith, that’s what we mainly do and have been doing daily for 29 years. Almost 30 years we’ve been on the air. And we’ve just, the whole show is given over to people calling in, asking questions. We’ve been doing that every day. It seems like a long time when I think about it, but it doesn’t seem all that long just experiencing it. I still enjoy it very much. Anyway, I hope I never quit. The only way I’d ever quit doing this is if I had to. But I don’t see any, you know, it’d have to be a health crisis or something. Anyway, we’re here today, and that’s what we’ve got before us is an hour with an open phone line. If you’d like to call in with your questions, the number to call is 844-484-5737. Again, that’s 844-484-5737. One announcement I want to make, it’s coming up in a few days, this coming Tuesday. I’ll be speaking in San Juan, Capistrano, California, at a church called the Ranch Church, or maybe just Ranch Church. And I’ll be speaking on the four views of Revelation. They also are going to be serving food to those who register, so they’ll know you’re coming. I don’t believe it costs anything for the food, but I think you just have to know to order it and prepare it. So if you want to come to that, I think they’re going to be serving the food at 5.30 perhaps, and the lecture is basically from 6 o’clock to 8 o’clock. And there will be a short break in between. And we’ll be having Q&A also. So that’s what’s coming up. That’s Tuesday. This Tuesday, the 10th of February, San Juan Capistrano in the evening. Check it out at our website, thenarrowpath.com, under Announcements. You’ll find the location, the time, all the contact information since they want you to register so they know how many to expect. So thenarrowpath.com under the tab that says Announcements. Look at the date, February 10th, and that’s where you’ll find everything you need to know. All right, we’re going to go to the phone lines now. Talk to James in Memphis, Tennessee. Hi, James. Welcome.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yes. Thank you for taking my call, Steve. Steve, how does the church get the third day of crucifixion from Friday to Sunday? Yes. How do they count that?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, it’s counted, I believe, in a Jewish manner. Now, there’s different people who have tried to solve this following an American way of thinking about things. That is, they want to find literally three days and three nights from the crucifixion of Jesus till the resurrection, either Saturday night after dark or Sunday morning before dawn. And so some people have argued for a Wednesday crucifixion. So they’ve got Wednesday night and Thursday, Thursday night and Friday, Friday night and Saturday. And then they would have the resurrection on Saturday night. and discovered the next morning when the empty tomb was found. Some have done that. Some have done a similar thing, and they’ve argued for a Thursday crucifixion. And so you’ve got Thursday night and Friday, Friday night and Saturday, then Saturday night and Sunday morning would be three days. However, the Bible seems to speak of Friday crucifixion. Because the day that Jesus was crucified, we’re told in John 18, was the preparation day of the Sabbath. Now, preparation day of the Passover. Now, Passover was a week long. And preparation day was a term the Jews used for Friday. Because they prepared every Friday for the Sabbath, the next day. So, Friday, like we call it Friday, we have other names for days of the week, they called that day of the week Preparations. and generally for the next day’s Sabbath. Now, this was the Passover week, and it was the preparation, that is the Friday, of Passover week. Now, some would dispute that, but that’s the simplest way to understand it. So we’ve got Jesus crucified Friday, he’s in the tomb overnight, he’s there Saturday, and overnight Saturday, and he rises Sunday morning. Now, the problem with this, obviously, is that that doesn’t have him in the tomb three nights, only two nights, Friday night and Saturday night. It also doesn’t have three whole days, because Friday is only part of a day. He’s buried in before the sundown, and he rose Sunday, three days later, before dawn or around dawn. So that would seemingly not make it three days and three nights. In fact, it wasn’t in that scenario. But there’s only one time, in the Bible that speaks of Jesus being raised after or being in the tomb three days and three nights. And that’s when he was comparing his situation to that of Jonah. And that was in Matthew chapter 12, verse 40. And he said that as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the whale, So shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Speaking of his burial. And so because he said he’ll be three days and three nights, many people are trying to find literally three days and three nights between his crucifixion and his resurrection. The thing is, Jesus spoke about this same situation several other times where he said he will rise on the third day. Now, think about it. If he’s in the tomb three days and three nights, then the earliest he can rise would be the fourth day because he spent three full days in the tomb. And then he’d rise on the fourth day. If he was crucified on Friday, then from that point, if Friday’s the first day and Saturday’s the second day, Sunday’d be the third day. So we’d have Jesus crucified on Friday and raised on Sunday on the third day. Now, Like I said, there are many references to Jesus being raised on the third day. Jesus himself predicted it three times in the Gospels that he’d rise on the third day. Paul, in 1 Corinthians 15, said that Jesus died for our sins according to the Scripture. He was buried and raised on the third day according to the Scripture. So, in retrospect and in anticipation, the resurrection of Jesus is said to be on the third day. which means that he can’t have been literally three days and three nights in the tomb and still rise on the third day. Now, why does he say three days and three nights in Matthew 1240? Well, this is something that simply is known about Jewish culture. They would refer to a series of days, inclusive days. of the first and last day of a set, even if the first day and last day, it was only a little portion of the day. In other words, if Jesus was buried just before sundown Friday, well, to the Jew, sundown Friday was now Saturday. So if he was buried like two hours before sundown, he was only in the tomb for two hours of Friday. And he might have been there less of Sunday. But part of Sunday, part of Friday would be considered Sunday. One of the days. Not only one of the days, but they call part of the day a day and a night. Now, this might seem strange. It is strange. I don’t know why they do that. But it’s known that they did. There are other Jewish documents that you can see this is done. A doctor puts a person under five days and five nights quarantine. But you look at it, it ends up being only three actual days with a little bit of a day before and a little bit of a day at the end. And so you’ve got five days, and it’s called five days and five nights. It’s a very inexact, very imprecise way of speaking, but a very recognizable way of speaking. So that when Jesus said three days and three nights, they would understand him to mean at least parts of three days, even though we would take it 24 hours for a day and a night. They would just say parts of three days can be spoken of that way. And that’s how he spoke of it. And I believe he chose the language on that one occasion because it mimics the language of the book of Jonah. because he is actually, of course, referring to the book of Jonah. He says, as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish, so the Son of Man will be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. Well, it actually says in the book of Jonah, in Jonah 1.17, that Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the fish. So Jesus, in making the comparison, actually uses the language from the book of Jonah. Jonah was three days and three nights in the fish. And so I’ll be three days and three nights, which in the Jewish mind means at least parts of three days. So if he’s crucified on Friday and buried before sundown, that’s part of Friday. Then Saturday, the whole of it. And then a little bit of Sunday, apparently. Because Sunday would begin at sundown, Saturday. So you’ve got Jesus parts of three days and therefore rising on what would literally be the third day. And since we have, you know, a handful of places in the Bible where it says he rose on the third day and only one place where he used the expression three days and three nights, which was obviously an idiom, then I think we can do fine with it being Friday, crucifixion, resurrection Sunday. That’s how I understand it. All right.
SPEAKER 08 :
See, can I make this point in regards to Friday? Being that Adam was created on the sixth day and Friday being the sixth day, would that have something to do with it also being that God said that the day that you eat of the fruit, you will die? So being that that would seem like that would be a shadow of a – of Jesus dying on Friday, on the sixth day also.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, that’s an interesting take. I don’t know if that’s how God saw it, but it is interesting because Adam was told on the sixth day. Well, we don’t know if he actually ate the fruit on the sixth day. He was created on the sixth day.
SPEAKER 08 :
Right, he was created.
SPEAKER 06 :
If he had sinned that same day and God said, this day you’re going to die… And he meant, you know, well, the second Adam, Jesus, is going to die on this day, meaning Friday. That would be interesting. I don’t know. I can’t confirm or disconfirm that meaning, but it’s an interesting take.
SPEAKER 08 :
Yeah. Okay. I just hope that something comes to me. But thank you for taking my call, Steve.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right, James. God bless. Thanks for calling. Troy in Cottage Grove, Oregon. Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.
SPEAKER 07 :
Hey, Steve, yesterday you spoke with a gentleman about girls being boys and boys being girls, and that no other nations before us would have ever even thought to do that. Is that correct? Is that what? Is that correct? Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Is that how I heard you? Right. I mean, there were always cross-dressing men and women. They didn’t think they were boys and girls, but they were what we call transvestites. That was something that was so ancient. that the book of Deuteronomy actually forbade it and said it was an abomination to do that. So cross-dressing was always something that was done by some people, usually considered to be weird.
SPEAKER 07 :
I just want to clear that up because Ishtar started all this, and he goes all the way back to Babylon.
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, yeah, I don’t know what all this means. I think… I think probably if you mean homosexuality and transgenderism, that kind of stuff, I don’t know that it does come from Babylon. I don’t know that it doesn’t. And it wouldn’t really matter because we don’t live in the days of Babylon. We live in these days. So we deal with the issue today. But, yeah, you may be right or you may be wrong. I don’t have historical information about that. Thanks for your call. Sean in Abbotsford, British Columbia. Welcome. Hey, Sean. Uh-oh. Got a problem, Sean? Going once? Going twice? I guess Sean’s not there. Karen in California, welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling.
SPEAKER 11 :
Yes, I think I took it off speakerphone. On the radio, I heard a preacher say, God is not binary. He seemed to base it on Genesis 1, verses 1 and 2, because of the I guess the creator gender is male and the spirit gender is female. I thought of two verses which I haven’t found yet. I’m wondering if you can give me the references. The one about God is not a man and the other one about God created a man or humans, male and female. Also, could you please give a better explanation and other reasons why this logic that he supposedly used isn’t good biblical logic? study. Thank you.
SPEAKER 06 :
All right. Well, where it says that God made man male and female, that’s in Genesis chapter 1, verse 27. I can turn to there. It says, God created man in his own image. In the image of God created him male and female. He created them. Okay, so mankind is made in the image of God. Of course, this is not talking about God’s sexuality. Since God is a spirit, he’s not sexual. He doesn’t have he doesn’t have anatomy, he doesn’t have biology, and therefore he’s not really, those are the things that would make us male and female. So mankind as a whole is made in God’s image, which speaks of the spiritual nature of man, not the physical, biological nature, because God isn’t biological. So to say that God isn’t binary, I’m not really sure what they mean by that. I mean, Humanity is binary because there’s male and female, and male and female are different. That’s binary. There’s two different ones. God is not binary, I guess, in that sense. He isn’t. There isn’t in God two opposites. But I’m not sure why that would be important to say. If he’s saying, because God is not binary, meaning gender binary, humans made in his image are not gender binary. But I think he’d be in real trouble there biblically because the verse that tells us that he made male and female in God’s image, you know, is the one that says that they were binary. So I don’t know how he could deny that. I’m not sure what he’s trying to say. What I would have said is that God is not a sexual being. And therefore, the sexuality of humans is kind of irrelevant to the nature of God. It’s not irrelevant to human nature. It’s very relevant. God made men for something, and he made women for something else. And we should try to fit into his plan. He made humans a binary species, just like most, well, virtually all mammals and many reptiles and birds mostly are binary. And lots of fish and amphibia are, too. And insects. I mean, most creatures that are not single-celled are, you know, binary. There’s male and female. And humans are no exception. Now, God is not a created thing. He’s not a biological creature, so there’s no reason to think of him in those terms. But there’s also no reason to mention it because the subject is irrelevant to him. Now, where it says God is not a man, that is mentioned a number of times in the scriptures, but in the book of Numbers and the verse number, I have to say, if I could find it, it would be just by luck here. It’s Numbers 22 or 2319 is where Balaam said God is not a man that he should repent. So you say it’s 23. My wife just found it for me. Yeah, 2319. And it also says that in 1 Samuel 1529 when Samuel said to Saul, God is not a man that he should repent. So a couple of times it says God is not a man, which of course he’s not. He’s not a human being. He’s God existed before there were such things as human beings. If you’re thinking that when it says God’s not a man, it might be suggesting he could be a woman or he could be binary, male and female. That’s not what’s being talked about there. It’s talking about how God is not a human being, not like us men. You can’t persuade him to change his mind just because under pressure, like you can with some men. Anyway, I don’t even know what the preacher meant when he said God’s not binary, but if we’re talking binary in terms of sexual, well, God’s not sexual at all. So the whole issue of being binary is irrelevancy. Okay, let’s talk to John in Kent, Washington. Hi, John. Welcome to The Narrow Path.
SPEAKER 01 :
Yeah, hey, Steve. A quick question about Ecclesiastes 10, verse 2, where it talks about… A wise man goes to his right, and a fool goes to the left. I think that’s the way it’s written, but I don’t know if you can explain that, and I’d like to hear your answer off the air. Thanks.
SPEAKER 06 :
Okay, yeah. Well, thanks for your call. It says a wise man’s heart is at his right hand, but a fool’s heart is at his left. I have to say, it’s not obvious exactly how he means it. The heart, in many cases, can refer to the mind. We make a distinction between the mind and the heart. In fact, we talked about how some people accept Jesus with their mind, but they miss him by 12 inches because he doesn’t get down into their heart. This is a statement that is made just from the idiosyncrasies of English usage. Of course, the heart doesn’t think at all. It’s a blood pump below the fifth rib. It doesn’t have any… thoughts. But in our society, we think of the heart as an emblem of where the emotions are. And we think of the head as where the intellect is. But truly, the Bible is not obligated to follow those metaphors. And in the Bible, heart and mind and soul and sometimes even kidneys are used rather interchangeably. where we would say, you know, I feel it in my heart. Some of the ancient Hebrews would say, I feel it in my kidneys. The King James uses the word reins, R-E-I-N-S, when it means kidney. Well, that’s an old word for kidneys. And, you know, he says he feels this in his reins. These are just metaphors where parts of the body are attributed to, figuratively speaking, with certain emotional and intellectual powers. But to say the wise man’s heart is at his right hand, I think heart may refer to his intelligence, his mind. He’s thinking. He’s conscious and guided by it because the heart is also that from which actions flow. In Proverbs chapter 4, It says, guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life. I think that’s Proverbs 4.23. It might be 4.18. It’s one of those two. So Solomon also wrote that. He said, guard your heart with all diligence. Out of it are the issues of life. Out of your heart. Jesus said in Matthew 15, you know, the evil things that define a man come from his heart. And he lists a whole bunch of things, which are behavior things. They come out of the heart. So… The heart is the place of reasoning, the place of deciding. It’s the core of your being. And for Solomon to say in Ecclesiastes 10.2, a wise man’s heart is at his right hand. His right hand is his skilled hand. It’s the thing he does his important work with. His left hand follows up. You know, most boxers, unless they’re the unusual left-handed guy, they lead with their right. Their left hand is there, too, and they can use it if they need to, but it’s the right. You use your right hand for most of your skilled labor, unless you’re a lefty like me. But the assumption of Scripture is that unless someone is mentioned to be left-handed, which it sometimes does mention people who are, it is assumed that people are mostly right-handed. So he’s saying that, you know, man’s works… His main works, his important works, if he’s a wise man, his heart guides him, his mind, his intellect, his wits guide his main work. The fool, not so much. He thinks secondarily. His main works are done without thought, without heart. He’s doing foolish things, acting without premeditation or without thinking. And I think that his left hand, you know, it’s there to do work too, but it’s not his main thing. The man leads, the wise man leads with those actions that come from his heart. And the fool, not so much. I mean, his left hand speaks of the lesser works that he does. It’s not like, you know, your primary activities. So it’s a figure of speech, obviously. And I think that’s what he means. Now, he might mean something else because it’s not, transparently clear how he means that. But as I look at it, I think he’s saying a man’s primary works, if he’s wise, will come from his heart and his mind, his thoughts. He’ll think it through first before he acts. A fool, his thoughts may follow after his deeds. Come later, he’ll act without thinking first. He may have to backtrack and fix it with his left if he blows it. But You know, this is a kind of a principle that I believe that is being taught here. It certainly is a general principle of Scripture. And whether Solomon is making that very principle in this statement, which is obscure or not, I can’t be certain. But I think that probably is correct. So I’m just going to give you what I think is a probable answer here. Best I could do. Okay. Hannah in Downey, California. Welcome to The Narrow Path. Thanks for calling. Thank you.
SPEAKER 10 :
Hi, Steve. My question is, because I’ve been looking a lot about Jesus dying on the cross and everything, and my question is, is that after he died and rose again on the third day, it says that he defeated sin and death, but Satan still is around today and tempts people today. So my question is, was Satan conquered at the cross, and to what degree? Yes.
SPEAKER 06 :
Satan was conquered at the cross. It says that in Colossians 2 and verse 15, it says that through the cross, Jesus disarmed the principalities and powers, meaning the demonic forces, and made a show of them openly triumphing over them in the cross. So at the cross, he disarmed them and triumphed over them. That’s Colossians 2.15. In Hebrews 2.14, it says that Jesus, through death, destroyed him who had the power of death, that is, the devil. We have in Revelation 12 a depiction of Christ’s birth and ascension. And when he ascends into heaven, Satan, who’s been accusing the brethren throughout history before that time, up until the time of Christ, is thrown out of heaven. His case is thrown out of court. The accuser is cast out. So in what way has he been defeated? I believe that he had some kind of a legal claim on mankind from the time that man defected to Satan’s side, and that Jesus came and conquered that claim, has claimed all things for himself. All authority in heaven and earth now belongs to him, and Satan doesn’t get any. Now, why is the devil still active? I believe it’s like when David killed Goliath. When David killed Goliath, the war was over. The Philistines were now the servants of Israel, according to the prearranged agreement. Goliath fell, the war was over. The Philistines, however, fled, and the Israelites had to pursue and enforce the victory. There was no chance of the Philistines ever winning. They had already lost, but the Israelites had to go and carry out the victory and make sure it stuck. And that’s what we’re doing right now until Jesus comes back. I need to take a break. You’re listening to The Narrow Path. I’ll be back in 30 seconds. We’ve got another half hour coming.
SPEAKER 02 :
Is the Great Tribulation about to begin? Are we seeing the fulfillment of biblical prophecy unfolding before our very eyes? In the series, When Shall These Things Be?, Steve Gregg answers these and many other intriguing questions. The lecture series entitled, When Shall These Things Be?, can be downloaded in MP3 format without charge from our website, thenarrowpath.com.
SPEAKER 06 :
Welcome back to the Narrow Path radio broadcast. My name is Steve Gregg, and we’re live for another half hour, taking your calls. If you’ve got questions about the Bible or the Christian faith, or you have a disagreement with a host, want to talk about that here on the air, feel free to give me a call. The number is 844-484-5737. We have some lines open right now, so if you want to call now, you can get through. 844-484-5737. Our next caller is Peter from San Jose, California. Hi, Peter. Welcome.
SPEAKER 05 :
Hey, Steve. I got one question for you. Okay. Okay. So considering the Epstein files and the – Trump’s response or his I should say his non response. Based on based on the David and he had a wise counselor and Nathan, and then his son Solomon had Nathan son’s subgroup. Okay, without them, I don’t think David would have survived too long as King. Now, Trump doesn’t have a wise counselor. I did I it’s visible to to us. But That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t do what we can’t do.
SPEAKER 06 :
What would be your question for me?
SPEAKER 05 :
My question would be, what would you advise us to do in response to Trump’s lack of response to all that’s come out?
SPEAKER 06 :
Well, honestly, I don’t know. What can we do? Honestly, I really don’t know what is available. There’s not sort of a plan of action presented to me or choices uh whatever happened on epstein island uh is a thing of the past now obviously there’s some very important people did some very bad things there i don’t know what trump did there uh you know if something has come out like in the last day or two that i haven’t heard about that implicates him well i guess then then it does um last i heard there wasn’t any evidence that Trump had been on Epstein Island. So I don’t know. He certainly knew Epstein, but he didn’t like him, he said. So, I mean, I don’t know what we’ve got. I don’t know what we have on Trump here. But I’m not sure what I would do if I had something. If I found out that Trump had done criminal things, okay, so what do I do? You know, there’s people in power. who are in the position to do things about it, but I’m not one of them. And, by the way, I don’t really believe that my responsibility is to make sure that all the political figures do the most moral and godly things. I’d love it if all of our political figures were godly people and they didn’t do bad things. But, I mean, let’s just say something has come out about Trump and we should impeach him. I’m not aware of anything that’s come out, and I don’t know if we should impeach him, but that would be someone else’s decision. I can’t make that decision. But someone else would make it. Let’s say they impeach him. Well, who’s going to replace him? Do we have somebody who’s spotless? I mean, do we have people who’ve never done anything immoral? I don’t know. How are we going to find that out? We often don’t know the deep, dark secrets of the people who run for office or hold office. It’s very clear. Sometimes people can be in office for a very long time, and then we find out they did something really bad. So, you know, what we could say is if we are given the opportunity to vote for a very godly, moral person who also is a wise leader and also has good policies and then that would be the ideal thing. I would love that. You know, you give me a candidate like that, I’ll vote for him. I don’t know if we’ve ever been given a candidate like that from either party. I don’t know. There are some – almost all the candidates claim that they’re Christian. They go to this or that church, you know, when they want photo ops and things like that of them being Christian. But – I don’t know. I don’t know how many people we’ve ever had in office in my lifetime who are actual Christians and who didn’t do shady things and immoral things and so forth. So what did I do about them? Well, about the same thing I’m able to do about Trump. Nothing. We can say this. If they’re you know, if he’s a bad guy, then they’ll either they’ll either impeach him. Or he’ll cease to be president in the next three years. We’ve had some really bad presidents in my lifetime. And sometimes I wondered how the country would survive their terms. One of them was elected to two terms. I thought, how in the world? You know, the first term was horrible. And now they’ve elected him for another term. I don’t know how we’ll survive this. But we did. Time goes by. You know, there may be something that will be so bad it will take us out as a country. But it hasn’t happened yet. Now, I will say this about Trump. I’m not here to say he’s a good man. I don’t know him. I’m not here to say he’s a Christian man. I certainly don’t have any real evidence of that. Although he talks sometimes like he is, but all politicians do that. But I will say that the policies he embraces are better than the policies of his competitors at this point. At least better for the country. And so… That’s what presidents are for. They’re to do good for the country. And I’d say the country has done better under him than under, you know, any of his competitors in the previous races would have or did. So what do we do? I don’t know. I guess we wait and see what comes out. But like I said, I’m not even aware of anything that has come out about Trump being compromised at Epstein finals. Certainly, you know, it’s very clear that President Clinton was so much so that he violated a congressional subpoena to come and be questioned about it until he was threatened. And then, of course, he had to come. So, I mean, we got Clinton on those things a little late to impeach him. But, you know, if something’s there about Trump, I missed the news. I missed it. I’ll probably see it in the next few days if it’s really there. However, people have been saying things like that about Trump for actually some years now. And it seemed to me when the files came out that they really didn’t show anything, at least that I heard of. All right. Let’s talk to George in Scottsdale, Arizona. Hi, George. What’s up?
SPEAKER 04 :
I see. Thanks. Yes, sir. A couple of days ago, you responded to a person who was struggling with pornography. Yeah. And, you know, I was reminded of a men’s group.
SPEAKER 06 :
You just hung up on yourself, I think. You just disappeared from my switchboard. And I didn’t touch it. So I Call back, George. I don’t know how that happened. Call back, and we’ll try to get to you real quick. All right. In the meantime, the phone’s ringing again. Maybe that’s him. But in the meantime, we’ll talk to Brandon in Ohio. Hi, Brandon. Good to hear from you.
SPEAKER 09 :
Hi there, sir. It’s a pleasure to take my call. I had a question about baptism. I’ve come across a lot of people who I talk to, and a lot of people believe that baptism isn’t unto salvation, unto where if you don’t get baptized, you don’t go to heaven. So my question is, do you believe that baptism is unto salvation into, like, John 3 and 3 and John 3 and 5 and, like, Acts 2 and 3 and 8? My main reference is to 1 Peter 2 and 21, where it talks about the white figure, where unto even baptism does also now save us. Right. So my question would be, do you believe that baptism is unto salvation? If so or if not, how would you explain 1 Peter? Yeah.
SPEAKER 06 :
Glad to. I’m glad to talk about that. First of all, I don’t think that John 3.3 or John 3.5 are talking about baptism. It talks about being born of the water and born of the Spirit. I don’t see any indication he’s talking about baptism there. So I know people use that to speak of baptism, but I don’t think that’s relevant to the question. I do think Acts 2.38 says, is relevant, where they said, what must we do? He said, repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. And then, of course, 1 Peter 3.21, which says, the like figure who are unto baptism doth now save us, not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God. Okay, those two are stronger than the John 3, I believe. Now, I’ll talk about both. In Acts chapter 2, repent and be baptized, every one of you, for the remission of sins. Okay, some people say, well, see, baptism has to be done for the remission of sins. And if you’re not baptized, then you haven’t had your sins remitted. Okay, well, you could take it that way if that’s what the Bible taught in general. In general, it seems to me like the Bible teaches that we’re justified by faith. and Paul seems to go very strong on that. And Peter, even in the second sermon, of course, we’re quoting from his first sermon in Acts 2. In Acts 3, when he talks about how to be saved, he doesn’t mention baptism. I’m looking at the sermon there to see where the best verse is for that. Yeah, verse 19, Acts 3.19. So this is just a chapter later, another sermon by the same guy. He says, repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. Okay, so your sins may be blotted out if you repent and are converted. Now, converted talks about being changed. It’s a heart change. It’s being regenerated. But the point is, in chapter 2, he said, repent and be baptized for the remission of sins. Here he says, repent and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out. The common denominator is repent. And, of course, faith isn’t even mentioned in either of these, which, of course, he is calling them to be saved by faith, but that there are things you do when you have faith. You repent. You get baptized. You convert it. These things happen when you have a saving faith. If you don’t do these things, then we have to find out, well, how can it be said that you have a saving faith? Because if you have a saving faith, that faith makes you desire to be obedient. And if you know you’re supposed to repent and believe and should be baptized and be converted, well, you do those things. Now, the thief on the cross, of course, repented and he believed. He was not baptized. But Jesus said, today you’ll be with me in paradise. Now, some people say, well, that was Old Testament. Jesus hadn’t died and risen again yet, so the Old Covenant is still in force. that’s always seemed a strange argument to make. It seems to say that if you were in the old Testament and you believe and repent, you’ll, you’ll go to heaven when you die, even without being baptized. Since people throughout the old Testament were not being baptized. But if, if the same thing happens to you after Jesus died and rose again, you can’t be saved that way unless you get baptized. Now, obviously being baptized is less accessible to some people than to others. And, uh, Frankly, much more difficult than to simply believe and repent. Now, baptism is not a work. It’s not a hard thing to do. But let’s face it. Someone may be out in the desert and there’s no water there and they’re dying. Or there may be some other situation where baptism is just not accessible. There’s no Christian church. There’s no Christian person there to baptize you before you die. Okay, well, what then? Are you going to go to hell because you believed and you repented but you didn’t get baptized? No, I don’t think so. If so, then Jesus, by dying and resurrecting from the dead, has made salvation less accessible to people than it was before. Because on that view, people could just repent and believe in the Old Testament and they’d be saved. Now you can’t do that. You can’t just repent and believe. You have to also add some stuff, baptism being one of them. So Jesus, who is said to be the Savior of the world, bringing salvation, actually is simply removing salvation away from mankind by one step further than it was in the Old Testament. Because they could be saved without it in the Old Testament, but not in the New. I think that that’s faulty thinking. What I believe is Christ commands us to be baptized. Obviously, if we know that command and we are believers and want to follow Christ, we’ll be baptized. Unless, of course, we’re like the thief on the cross or a person dying in the desert or somewhere where there’s no Christian to baptize you. Then you’re going to die unbaptized, probably. But will you die unsaved? I can’t imagine why. Isn’t God hoping to save everybody? Why would he bust you on a technicality? And that would be a technicality. You know, you believe, you repent, you want to be baptized, you can’t. You know, you got no choice. Busted. You’re going to hell. No, that’s nonsense. That is simply nonsense in terms of biblical salvation. Now, nonetheless is the case that everyone in the New Testament who believed in Christ was evangelized by a Christian who could baptize them and who did. No one got saved in ignorance of whether they should be baptized or not. People do sometimes now. Some people come to Christ and they’ve never heard they’re supposed to be baptized. And they’re shocked to learn of it years later. Well, then the fact they weren’t baptized may not be their fault. But in biblical times, all people who were converted were evangelized by someone who they knew. You get baptized, and they’re told that. That’s how you entered into the community of the Christian church, by baptism. And, you know, they found a way to do it. Now, if anyone in the early church died baptized, suddenly after they were converted and weren’t baptized, we don’t have any reference to that kind of case, but if that did, I believe everyone would have known they were saved. They didn’t get a chance to be baptized, but they were saved by their faith. But that would be the rare, rare case. Certainly Peter could write to the Christians of his day and say, you know, you got saved when you got baptized. And that’s true. Now, he didn’t say it that way. He said, baptism now saves us. But baptism… I’ll tell you what I see in Scripture. The Bible says in both Acts 2, 38, and numerous other places that being saved requires repenting. It requires other things, too. Believing, certainly. Being baptized was done the same day. Receiving the Holy Spirit was done the same day. All four of those things were done in rapid succession. There wasn’t probably any convert… other than maybe Saul of Tarsus that we know of, who believed prior to being, you know, repenting and being baptized. That is more than a day prior. Everyone in the Bible that we know of who got converted got baptized the same day. So Peter’s writing in a situation where Christians are baptized people. And they could look at the fact that they were converted, they were baptized, They repented. They believed. That all happened the same day. That was just one conversion experience as far as they’re concerned. They didn’t see it as a bunch of steps. That’s what you did. You got saved. You got baptized. You got saved. You repented. You got saved. You received the Spirit. That’s what they did. And so Peter could talk about any one of those things, and Paul and others too. Paul could talk about, you know, it’s just faith. But by faith he realizes that the people who had faith also would repent and be baptized. Paul didn’t know any Christians who had faith and didn’t repent and be baptized and receive the Spirit. Neither did Peter. And therefore, to say, well, I was baptized on such and such a day and I got saved, would be saying, you know, I was baptized, you know, it doesn’t have to be mentioned. I also repented and believed. That’s what you do before you get baptized. So to them, I think the early Christians could say, I believed on this day or I repented on this day or was baptized on this day. or I received the Spirit on this day. And they’d be talking about the whole sequence of salvation, repentance and faith, baptism and receiving the Spirit. All four of those things happen the same day for them. So to say, faith saves you, repentance saves you, receiving the Spirit saves you, baptism saves you, those would all be like normal things to say. And it’s not saying that baptism alone… you know, washed away your sins. And it’s not saying that, you know, if you happen to be one of those rare people who believed and repented and didn’t get a chance to be baptized, that you’ve failed to be saved. At least I believe not. There’s, you know, to say that we are saved by being baptized requires that we lean on like three proof texts. The two we mentioned and another one in Acts where Ananias said to Paul, you know, what are you waiting for? Arise and, you know, be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. It’s, you know, people got baptized and they called on the name of the Lord at the same time. We don’t find that in our modern church. Shame on us. Apparently people can get saved in our churches, and we don’t tell them they’re supposed to get baptized, so they think it’s optional. Shame on us if we don’t tell them. We’re teaching the gospel differently than the New Testament preachers did. But if someone has never heard it, but they have given their lives to Christ, I seriously doubt that God is going to say on the Day of Judgment, oh, you did what you knew to do, But no one told you you’re supposed to do this and you didn’t do it so you’re going to hell. I think that some people picture God as somebody whose default attitude toward humans is, I’m going to burn you unless you check the boxes I want you to check. And baptism is one of those boxes. Now, God’s default toward sinners is he wants to save them. God is looking for any excuse to save somebody. There’s many people who are so wicked and so hostile to him. I’m sure there’s no excuse that he can find to save them. But if people are doing all they know to do and calling on Christ and so forth and they miss something that normal Christians were supposed to do but they didn’t know, to suggest that God wouldn’t see them as his friend on the day of judgment and that he wants to burn them, that’s simply an image of God that and of salvation, I think is not scriptural. And it’s based on, like I said, the overemphasis of one feature of a few verses. Certainly the New Testament assumes that all Christians, all the ones they knew, were baptized. There weren’t any unbaptized Christians in those days. And there shouldn’t be today. But, of course, the church has neglected some of the things the apostles taught. To our discredit, we have. And therefore, there are people who have neglected to be baptized. And someone should tell them that they should meet the conditions that they’re supposed to be there. But I don’t believe that that’s a matter of salvation. But if somebody says, okay, I know I’m supposed to be baptized, but I don’t care. I’m not going to be baptized. Well, then it’s a very hard sell to say they have faith in Christ. What do you believe about him? Do you believe he’s your king? Do you believe he’s your Lord? What do you believe? If you don’t believe he’s your Lord, you’re not saved. If you do believe he’s your Lord, then you’re going to say, what must I do? Lord, what are your orders for me? Oh, baptize? I’ll do it. But if someone knows that Jesus commands baptism and says, well, maybe, maybe I will, maybe I won’t, it’s very hard to convince me they’re saved. I think they believe something about Jesus. They apparently don’t believe he’s the king and the Lord that they’re supposed to obey, which is sad. Because Jesus said, many will say, Lord, Lord, we did these things. He’ll say, I never knew you. You didn’t do the will of my Father, you know. All right. I appreciate your call, brother. Let’s talk to George in Scottsdale, Arizona. He’s back. Hi, George. Sorry we lost you. Lost you before.
SPEAKER 04 :
That’s okay. That’s okay. I was glad to hear that last call. So that’s just good. A few nights ago at a men’s group, somebody said that they had difficulty not lusting after hot women when they would encounter them during their day. And someone suggested, why don’t you pray for them? And somebody else said, I’m too busy trying to fix myself. I don’t have time to pray for them. The other day you responded to a presumptive Christian who struggled with pornography. That’s different because that’s inanimate as opposed to seeing the woman and lusting. Now, when you’re a Christian, what is the best way scripturally – to handle lusting after a woman? Is it simply looking away, or is it engaging the person as a person? You know, loving your neighbor as opposed to, you know.
SPEAKER 06 :
I hear you. Well, there’s a holistic set of things that Christians are supposed to be doing, which, if they do, will have a strong impact mitigating effect on the problem they have with lust. Everybody has some lust for something. Lust means desire. Our bodies are made to desire certain things. We desire food when we’re hungry. We desire sleep when we’re sleepy. We desire sex at certain intervals when our hormones are active or whatever. Now, the whole Christian life is one of walking in the Spirit so we don’t fulfill the lust of the flesh. But what does walking in the Spirit look like? Well, the Spirit will convict you about things. The Spirit will guide you about things. And no doubt, you know, if you’re looking at a woman and you’re sensing inappropriate desires toward her, the Holy Spirit will certainly convict you to look away. Now, looking away won’t make your heart pure, of course, in itself. You need more than that. You need to set your affections on things above, Paul said in Colossians chapter 3. Paul said to the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 7 to avoid fornication, you know, let every man have his own wife and every woman her own husband. In other words, that’s one of the things. Obviously, having a wife isn’t going to be in itself a complete guarantee you won’t have temptations with lust because, frankly… Sometimes people have wives that are unresponsive, and it makes it even harder. Or their wives, you know, they’re not as attractive after some time as other women that they come across. So, I mean, that can be an issue. There’s a whole lifestyle of seeking purity that, has to be practiced. There’s not just a three-step plan. I would say that a person needs to learn how to desire his wife, and his wife needs to learn how to not see that as a perverted thing. I’ve known some women who have very, what should I say, tweaked views of males who desire sex. Men desire sex. Normal men desire sex. And God says… that their wives are given to them partly to save them from the temptation of women outside of marriage. And by the way, the same thing, husbands are given to the wife to save them from the temptation. Paul said, you know, don’t deprive each other lest the devil tempt you. Uh, so, you know, a warm sexual relationship with a spouse is probably the strongest context for avoiding, uh, lust. Um, That doesn’t mean you won’t be surprised by lust occurring at some visual stimulation somewhere. You should avoid those stimulations. Look away. Certainly, if you find that you’re watching a lot of television or movies or websites or whatever, where the women there are sexually alluring, well, cut that out. Now, some might say, I can’t get rid of TV altogether. Sure you can. Why not? I can’t get rid of the Internet altogether. Well, you can get rid of websites and YouTubes. You might say, what are you, crazy? Yeah, are you aware that all the people who ever lived until the 20th century lived without television at all? And until, what, the 1970s or 80s or 90s, well, until the 90s, they lived without the Internet. So, yeah, TV and Internet are not indispensable. It may be hard to avoid them, but if you throw the TV out, that may help. If you don’t have a TV and you maybe get someone to monitor your computer use. So I say, well, that’s kind of extreme, isn’t it? Well, it depends if you want to be saved or not, if you want to be pure or not. Jesus said, if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out and cast it from you. That’s pretty severe. Now, I don’t think you’ll ever solve your lust problem by plucking out your eye. I think he’s using hyperbole there. He’s not being literal. But he’s saying, there are things in your life which you value, you treasure, which you’d love to keep and never would wish to be separated from, like your eye, your hand. But if it’s causing you to sin, get rid of it. It’s better for you to go into life without it than to keep it and end up In Gehenna, he said. So, you know, take drastic measures. That’s what I would say. Hey, I’m out of time. Sorry to say. You’ve been listening to The Narrow Path. Our website is thenarrowpath.com. Thanks for joining us.
