Can We Lose Salvation If We Fall From Grace On The Way?

Who Were The People Jesus Was Addressing To In Matt 7:21-23? Follow Up.

Question : Yes Jesus spoke in Matthew 7:21-23 about many people on the judgment day saying, "22 ...‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Could these above people have been saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell? Once a person is unsaved after being saved, they come in the disguise of "chosen people" and would not do what pleases the Lord but will practice lawlessness. Salvation is not a one time event it is a life long process which is why God said that the last will become first and the first the last.

Answer : Greetings in Jesus name! I believe the lost and unsaved are the same. But those who get lost after their salvation from God's sweet fellowship because of sin, Jesus has told that not even one He ever loses. He goes after that one lost sheep that has got lost in sin and bring back to his fold without fail. It is the foolishness of the sheep that takes them to get lost in sin, but it is the faithfulness and wisdom of the Shepherd who searches it and finds again to bring it in to His fold once again (Matt 18:12-14; 2 Tim 2:13). A person is either saved for eternity or not saved at all, no man can get saved and then get lost again because of sin as Jesus has paid once and for all time the price for all the past, present and even the future sin of the believer to the Father in heaven who demands perfect justice (John 19:30; Heb 10:12, 14, 17-18; Eph 5:2). But the state of the unsaved who are in the disguise of "chosen people" cannot do what pleases the Lord because only God has the ability to produce fruit and much fruit within a believer when he or she is connected to God in their spirit because of salvation and chooses to abide in Him through the teaching of Jesus voluntarily by choice, and so the unsaved would not do what pleases the Lord in their everyday life until they get saved (John 15:5; Matt 12:33-37).

But salvation is a one time event in which God transfers forever a lost human to become saved forever, by conveying him from the domain and power of darkness to kingdom of the Son of His love (Col 1:13), darkness to light and from the dominion of Satan to God (Acts 26:18), so we were formerly darkness, but now we are forever Light in the Lord (Eph 5:8; Matt 5:14). Also God has sealed us believers with His Holy Spirit until the day of rapture and has given Him to us as a down payment guarantee that one day we are surely going to rise up with the new nature without sin to please God for eternity ahead (Eph 1:13-14). Jesus or the apostles never spoke about God unsealing the seal of the Holy Spirit anywhere in the Scripture. So a person who is really saved cannot get unsaved according to the Scripture. The one time event of salvation has made God to forgive all our past, present and even future sins once and for all time to perfect us forever at that time itself positionally (Eph 4:32; Heb 10:16-17, 14). The believers according to the Bible have been sanctified once for all through the offering and body of Jesus Christ (Heb 10:10). If even a slightest trace of our behavior can make us lose our salvation, then salvation is not by faith at all (Rom 4:4). In other words, our salvation is either from starting to end is by faith, or not by faith at all if any kinds of works are added after we are saved. Salvation is received when we do not work but instead believe in Jesus who justifies all ungodly sinners who accept themselves as sinners and express to God the need of the Savior Jesus that God has provided, at that point of time our faith is accounted for righteousness and therefore God imputes righteousness in God's heavenly record of ours once forever to make us be written as His child apart from our works (Rom 4:5-6). In other words, if salvation is lost it cannot be a gift of God at all (Rom 6:23). So once God saves us truly, He keeps us like that forever because salvation is not a fruit bearing process but rather a event that leads to bearing fruit which is a process (Heb 12:2; Php 1:6).

Could these above people have been saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell? No way it is possible. As I said before, a person can truly one time get saved for eternity ahead or remain in unsaved condition the rest of their lives by failing to humble themselves as sinners before God and believe Jesus as their Lord and Savior to appropriate the free gift of salvation that God provides through Jesus His only Begotten Son (John 3:16). You can read in detail to understand what is falling from Grace really mean in this following post of mine : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/07/does-falling-from-grace-means-losing.html. God's grace is strong enough to save even the vilest sinner from all sin and take him or her to God's paradise to spend the rest of their lives for eternity to be with God.

The people Jesus is addressing to were not saved at all, even though they were called to ministry and therefore with the calling anointing over their lives, they were prophesying, casting out demons and doing many wonders all in Jesus name which was working for them because it has been given as a gift of God in their lives. God never takes back the calling and the gift that comes along with it, but on the day of judgment everyone will have to give account to the Lord for how each one have used it all whether for themselves or for the glory of God (Rom 11:29; 2:5-6; 1 Cor 4:2; Eccl 12:14; Rev 20:12). The wrong thinking of their unsaved mind was making them to believe that because they were doing God's work in a powerful way, they will be saved to be in heaven because of that. But little did they realize that God is no respecter of person and that He wants all now to repent by acknowledging themselves as sinners and receive the salvation of God by believing Jesus as their Substitute before God (Acts 10:34; Rom 2:11; 1 Tim 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9). No one can get saved by their works before God and not even one human, but God justifies freely the ungodly who does not work but believe God to be saved by the blessedness of God's grace (Rom 4:5-6). These unsaved men who were powerful to do great works for God did not even realize that when they work and want to get justified before God, actually they are making God as debtor to them. God owes no one anything. God has clearly conveyed in His Word that He is no man's debtor to pay them back with salvation for their work (Rom 11:35; Job 41:11). In fact if these unsaved men had humbled themselves before God, He would have revealed that if they keep working for Him thinking that they will get saved because of it, their wages will be death as it becomes a debt before God (Rom 4:4; 6:23). But the mind of these unsaved false apostles, deceitful workers were so full of pride like their master Satan who transforms himself as an angel of light, they were transforming themselves in to apostles of Christ by working themselves up by the anointing upon their lives and creating an image to the world around them as ministers of righteousness which they were not really inside because of lack of salvation within them (Rom 11:13-15). Such people's ministry and life will not go alike, Jesus admonished all believers to see the fruit of the ministry and life of the minister, and then find them out to reject them if they were false and accept them if they were true and support them and the ministry they do in whatever way we can by helping them tangibly through providing material things and finance (Matt 7:15, 20; Rev 2:2; Heb 13:7).

Last but not the least, the verses which says, "So the last will be first, and the first last. For many are called, but few chosen." (Matt 20:16) is not talking about the process of salvation instead it speaks about the equal privileges after salvation to all believers to earn reward for eternity based on the motive with which they work for God after they are saved. You can read about it in detail in my following article : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/04/parable-of-workers-in-vineyard.html. The above verse in Matt 20:16 clearly says that all believers have the same spiritual blessings in the heavenly places stored for them in Christ Jesus, so that by working in faith they will be able to receive supernatural strength to convert all those spiritual blessings in to an eternal reward for their eternity in heaven (Eph 1:3). In other words, many are called by God to work with His strength in His vineyard of this earth, to work with the pure motive of only pleasing God as His bond servant and with out expectation of any earthly reward but committing it all in to His hands for Him to decide and lead them, but actually very few who choose to work to please God alone will become chosen to receive great reward from God. That is the actual meaning of the above verse in its right context. 

Much Blessings...

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Can Unsaved People Do Signs, Wonders And Miracles In Jesus Name?

Who Were The People Jesus Was Addressing To In Matt 7:21-23?

Question : We see in the Gospel of Matthew 7:21-23 which says the following, "21 “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. 22 Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ 23 And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’" Who are the people whom Jesus is addressing here? I mean were they saved, unsaved, got saved and lost again because of practicing lawlessness which is sin, saved only for a period of time and after that have fallen from grace to go to hell or they were actors who acted as though they were saved and started doing signs, wonders and miracles to validate how godly they were to people around them? I would say they lived a sinful unsaved life but wanted to appear to be Godly. They did not do what the Lord commanded. They just played the part...so to speak...without accepting the Lord as Savior. What is your take on it? Thanks for your answer in advance! God Bless you and the ministry.

Answer : Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! We will try to understand who Jesus is talking to in the day of the judgment in Matt 7:21-23 in this following post.

Were they saved people? If they were saved people, Jesus must have said, 'I knew you in the beginning but because of your lawlessness later I forgot you, that is why I now do not know you,' but rather Jesus said, 'I never knew you...' which means to the best altogether he never knew them at all at any time in their earthly lives. In other words, Jesus was saying that He never knew them at all at any time because they were never saved at all.

Were they saved and then lost again their salvation because of practicing lawlessness which is sin? Actually a yes to the above question seems to be a great interpretation and looks very close to the context, but it misses the very basic component that we are not saved by our works, but by His grace so that we cannot boast about our salvation we have received as though we have earned it by our works (Eph 2:8-9). If salvation was earned by us, we could lose it when we again become debtors by lawlessness and sin. When we have received salvation as a gift from God and in God, we ourselves cannot unsave ourselves as God is the one who has saved us and keeps our salvation safe by keeping it in His safe hands (John 10:27-29). Above all God has sealed every believer by the Holy Spirit until the rapture day in which they will rise up in a glorious body without sin nature (Eph 1:13-14). Not even one time in the Bible, Jesus or apostles have ever told that the believers could get unsealed of the Holy Spirit and lose God's guarantee of eternal salvation because of their bad behavior. Rather all believers are told to walk worthy of the great salvation they have received out of gratefulness for receiving it freely (Eph 4:1). So this choice of Jesus speaking to an audience who were saved and then lost again their salvation because of practicing lawlessness of sin is an impossibility.

Were they unsaved people? But you are very much right in this, they were never saved at all. They did much miracles, prophecy, demon driving which the Lord said would follow them if they believe God can do it because of His promise (Mark 16:17-18). But the sad state of their lives is that they were called to preach and teach the word of God, and so they did it all and preached the gospel for others to get saved, but they themselves were not saved. Just like Judas and Balaam who were the greatest examples of this type of people who did great signs, miracles and prophecies which in fact can be done without themselves being saved. Because of their supernatural manifestation people might have been deceived that they were godly people, that is why Jesus here says to watch out for these people's lives through their character that they express, and accept them by the fruit which they bear in their life and ministry. Jesus has always admonished his saints to watch people's character and then decide to follow a minister of the Word of God, even whether they are a apostle or prophet who is called to such honorable office (Rev 2:2; Matt 7:15-20; Heb 13:7; Eph 2:20-21).

Yes you are right, they played a part in God's eternal plan without themselves being saved from sin and be a part of it for eternity ahead rather than just over in this earth temporarily. Because of not being saved at all, they have gone to hell fire even though they might have been powerfully used by God in this earthly life. That is something scary to hear, but that is the truth. Why God allowed them to be used in such a powerful way to save others? Because God is a good God who does not take back the gift [i.e. in the above case the gift of a apostle with Judas and a prophet with Balaam] which He has planned to give even before they were born (Rom 11:29; Jer 1:5). Isaiah the prophet prophesied that Cyrus will be born anointed to subdue nations even 150 years before He was born, even though he was gentile who had no knowledge of God in a heathen land until God made Him realize his awesomeness by stirring His heart to do His will through him (Isa 45:1). God used a donkey to speak to the unsaved prophet Balaam to make him realize that God can use even a donkey to do His job for Him, and Balaam proved that He was worse than even a donkey by being unfaithful to God to go after money rather than the God who called Him and wanted Him to be faithful to Him by being saved from sin unto righteousness (2 Peter 2:15-17). That is why Jesus said that the greatest joy we should have in this earth is not that we are used mightily in a anointed way as a apostle, prophet, teacher, evangelist or pastor, but rather we are saved and that our names are written in the Book of Life to have a assurance that we are a child of God (Eph 4:11; Luke 10:20). First we should get saved first and then do great things for God so that at the end of our lives we can look forward to receive the reward for our work from Jesus (Matt 16:27). What if we lose our soul and gain the whole world to become saved, it is finally useless to us because anyway at the end of our lives if we are not saved, we will go to hell (Matt 16:26-27). A very thoughtful guess you have given in your question itself and I appreciate it.

Much Blessings...

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Will You Change Your Doctrine If You Know You Were Wrong?

What Would You Do If God Speaks And Shows That What You Taught Was Wrong?

Question : We learn from God, also from studies and from others that taught us. What would you do if something that you knew and believe that were taught and learned were false, and that God told you and showed it was false. What will you do? In other words, what would you do if after 20 years God speaks and reveals to you, and you get the conviction and clarity that what you taught as doctrine to believe and teach was wrong. What would you do?

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! I stand on my conviction from the Word of God and the Spirit of God to believe and live the abundant life...there is no other I trust.

What the Lord has revealed and do reveal progressively I write, and so I am servant of the Lord. My understanding of the doctrines of the Bible comes as a gift from God and I am thankful to God for that. As far as I know I can only change what I said, if I am convinced that there is a better understanding to it from God. Thank you for your question, but as much as possible I try my best to make the doubts of the people of God get cleared through a Biblical answer right from the Bible, which always will create faith and destroy unbelief as they receive with all readiness and then refer and check out whether what I said comes right in context within the pages of the Holy Scripture. Then it is between them and the Lord personally (1 John 2:27). I will have no regrets for anything I might have missed on the way because I am a student of the Word who would like to learn more and more along with my hearers and readers as I get convinced from the Lord and His Word, and I do not have any regrets as a Bible teacher because it is the grace of God that works within me and I do not even judge myself as it is the Lord who will judge me one day for my faithful work and will reward me according to what I have done by faith (1 Cor 15:10; 4:1-5; Col 3:23-24).

Like Paul's teaching itself was scrutinized by the Bereans and then believed, I would tell all my readers and people who hear me to do that like the Bereans whom the Holy Spirit mentioned through Luke the writer, and whom He appreciated for checking the teaching of the leading apostle of their times through the conviction of the Word and the Spirit (Acts 17:10-12). That is what I also expect from all my readers in our generation to do and reap the blessings of heaven from the Holy Spirit who loves such apostolic believers. The Lord will use such apostolic fair-minded and noble believers greatly in the coming days for His Glory in their lives.

Much Blessings...

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Romans 13:1-7 Confuses Me, I Need Clarity!

Has God Given His Authority To Oppressive Governments And Dictators Too, Knowingly?

Question : I ran across these scriptures that really confused me. It's Paul addressing the Roman Church in verses Romans 13:1-7. I don't believe God gave authority to the Law of man, there were so much racism, hatred and injustice even then. So how could Paul teach to the people that God has given these Authority to those who oppress? I came to this reading in New living translation of Romans 13...Please need clarity!

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name! Here is the Scripture that you have referred in NLT Version, "1 Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. 2 So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished. 3 For the authorities do not strike fear in people who are doing right, but in those who are doing wrong. Would you like to live without fear of the authorities? Do what is right, and they will honor you. 4 The authorities are God's servants, sent for your good. But if you are doing wrong, of course you should be afraid, for they have the power to punish you. They are God's servants, sent for the very purpose of punishing those who do what is wrong. 5 So you must submit to them, not only to avoid punishment, but also to keep a clear conscience. 6 Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid. They are serving God in what they do. 7 Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and government fees to those who collect them, and give respect and honor to those who are in authority." (Rom 13:1-7, NLT).

God has instituted the government of man way back in the time of Noah just after the flood to execute His judgment on earth against all the murderers including beasts that kills and all evil doers whoever might shed man's blood, because humans were created in the image of God and that nobody has the right to kill a human except God who created them and the One sustains their life (Gen 9:6). This is the reason Paul says in Romans, "Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and the authorities that exist are appointed by God." (Rom 13:1).

The above verses clearly says that God gave authority to the local government in all the nations of the world and power to exercise it to punish those who do what is wrong and be an avenger to execute wrath on him who practices evil, and also they are appointed to do what is right for all the people within their authority and honor those who do what is right. God is the one "26 ...[who] has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, 27 so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us." (Acts 17:26-27). The purpose God has separated each people group by language, color, environment, culture and then all kinds of differences is to make them seek God for security and purpose in life rather than be satisfied by who they are on earth and then because of it miss the eternal salvation and friendship with God for which they have all been originally created. So in our world no man is perfect because all humans have in one way or the other have been affected in their thinking, action and words by the sin nature in which they have all fallen because of sin mingling in the blood of our forefather Adam because of his disobedience to God (Rom 5:12). God uses imperfect humans to fulfill His perfect will because the fall of man came after His original plan has been laid and God never changes His original plan or His will no matter what happens (Rev 5:9-10; 1 Peter 1:20-21), so even if there are bad things in man God in His omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience works all things which includes even the evil government that has racism, hatred and injustice for the overall good of all His children who have believed Him and are living in subjection to His will under them willingly for the sake of the God whom they love and cherish who has no racism, hatred and injustice ever in His thought, actions or words (Rom 8:28). One day all men who were in authority and ruled people with racism, hatred and injustice in their heart will have to give account to God for what they have done on earth (Acts 24:15-16; 17:31; Heb 9:27; Rom 12:19; Eccl 12:12-14; Rev 20:11-15). And all those who were given much authority by God will be punished by Him severely because "to whom much is given, much will be required" (Luke 12:47-48).

The only place of time as Christians we cannot submit to the local authority of the government of the Law of man is when it is opposition to the direct revealed will of God which is given to us through His Word, and also when we are restricted to not to worship our Father God through our Lord Jesus Christ privately and confess Him publicly to others (Matt 10:32-33; 28:19-20; Luke 24:47-49; Acts 1:8; 4:18-20; 5:18-20). The apostles were told by Jesus to go in to all nations of the world to preach and teach the good news of the gospel and make disciples everywhere, when the local government representative forced them and told not to do this, they openly said to the local governing authorities that they must rather obey God than to obey them. The same happened during Daniel and his three other friends who did not submit to the local king at that time when He forced people not to pray and then to bow down to idol which was against the revealed will of God (Exod 20:1-5; Dan 3:12, 15-18, 24-25, 27-28 6:10, 16-17, 22-23). In all of the above instances, God overruled the local governing authority to help these people and rescue them from death and danger. They were willing to obey God even if God will not rescue them from imminent death and danger because of their love for God and His Word which they showed to all through their actions.

So the bottom line is that we cannot deny the God given authority to the Law of man and fail to be subject to the will of God just because there are and were so much racism, hatred and injustice now and even then were present. Paul could teach to the people of God that God has given these Authority to those who rule and even oppress, because he as God's servant and special messenger had the revelation that God was in control of everything and that one day He will bring in to judgment all the evil things people have done and will punish them for it. God also brings His judgment and justice in the present time for many governments and dictators by tragic death, insurrection and bringing other governments and giving them a chance to rule righteously, and still in many other places He chooses leaders of the government through the vote of people in democracies, etc....In other words, the heart of the governing authorities are in the hands of God, and He can decide to do in the present time whatever righteous thing He wants by influencing them to do His will (Prov 21:1). Did God give the authority to govern people and oppress them? God is a righteous God and He wants people to be loved, blessed and be prosperous in His will and know Him as the One who provides for them, but the heart of men is already corrupt because of sin (Jer 17:9), so God even though knowing these things before time in His omscience, takes the risk to give His authority and power to those who rule expecting these broken earthen vessels to try their best and leave the rest in to His hands through which He runs the whole world (Eccl 12:13-14; 8:2-7). Every matter has God's time and judgment, until that time we should pray that good things of God's might come through all humans especially authorities (Matt 6:10), and that repentance first might come as God desires to those who oppress and work evil or else judgment might come to all evil doers and wicked people in His time (1 Tim 2:1-2, 4; 2 Peter 3:9; 1 Peter 3:12; Psa 34:16). May God in His time and in His way take vengeance against all those who act as our and God's enemy by doing and working evil against us. As much as possible try to live in peace with everyone (Rom 12:18), overcome evil with good always by acting in unconditional Love of God rather than reacting to people's evil actions by retaliating, let go and let God take vengeance and repay in His own way against the evil of the evil oppressors and doers (Rom 12:20-21). Praise the Lord!

Much Blessings....

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Can We Make A Valid Case To Prove That A Believer Who Has Committed Suicide Has A Possibility To Lose His Salvation?

If A Christian Who Died By Suicide Cannot Lose Heaven, What About Matt 24:13 and Php 2:12?

Question : If a believer cannot lose his salvation even if he dies by suicide, what about the following verse in the Bible through which God says, "He who endures till the end shall be saved". And also about the following verse which says, "workout your salvation with fear and trembling heart!" God bless you all.

Answer : Praise the Lord! We can generally from the Scripture say that those who are truly saved will only be able to endure till the end and therefore get saved for eternity because God is the one who keeps us in His hand and helps us endure trials and temptations through His grace (John 10:28-29; 1 Cor 10:13; 2 Cor 12:9). Others who are not really saved might stay within the Church for a certain period of time for having a good time, fellowship and receive material blessings, but will create some problems and will leave the Church because they are not really a part of the universal Church of Jesus Christ (1 John 2:19; Matt 16:18-19). But specifically this verse "He who endures till the end shall be saved" has been spoken by Jesus in the context of the Tribulation saints who will live during the time of the Great Tribulation that is coming upon all the earth (Matt 24:13; Rev 3:10). In the context of the verse Matt 24:13-14, we see that the Gospel will be preached to all the world as a witness, and then the end of the old world to a shift in the world government will happen after that where Jesus will be the King of the world for a Millennium. The gospel will not be fully preached in all the world by the Church as some believe, but clearly Jesus revealed that angels from heaven will preach the gospel to all the world after the Rapture of the Church and before the world will receive the mark of the beast (Rev 13:7-8; 14:6-13). For the saints of that time of Tribulation they have to stay faithful until the end without accepting the 666 mark on their right hand or their forehead which God has said will directly lead to damnation for eternity ahead (Rev 13:16-18, 14:9; 19:20-21; 20:4). But those who are truly saved only will have the ability to endure to the end even at that time because God is the one who sustains them having recorded their name in the book of life eternally (Rev 13:7-8; Luke 10:20). Again the verse "workout your salvation with fear and trembling" is succeeded by the verse which says "it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure", which points to us that actually God who starts working within us when the moment we get saved, will work faithfully until the day of redemption of our bodies on the day of our rapture, all we have to do is to cooperate with Him to work out things as He works within us and be blessed on earth and earn our reward for eternity ahead which is full of glory and honor (Eph 1:13-14; 6:7-8; Php 1:6; 2:12-13; 4:17, 19). So we cannot make a valid case for a believer to lose his salvation just because he died of suicide or any other sin of any kind based on the Scripture in context to its true intent. Thank you.

Much Blessings...

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Does Belief in Trinity Is A Precondition To Salvation?

Must A Person Fully Embrace The Trinity In Order To Be Saved?

Question : Must a person fully embrace the Trinity in order to be saved?

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! Praise the Lord! It is a nice and a deep question to think about as Christians. But to the sinner who is lost and longing for deliverance from sin and reality of God, they cannot be expected to know all the theology of Trinity before Salvation because their unsaved mind which is in darkness that has blinded it will not be able to even comprehend the real God at that time leave alone the theology of the Trinity and their belief in it (2 Cor 4:4; Eph 2:2).

Jesus clearly said, "14 ...As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, 15 that whoever believes in Him [i.e. Jesus Christ] should not perish but have eternal life. [Then Jesus continued saying...] 16 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life." (John 3:16). John 3:16 is the verse that is famously called by many to be the gospel in a nutshell. Knowing the importance of these above verses in the entire Bible we come to realize that the only thing Jesus required from those sinners who want to get saved is for them to believe in Jesus Himself. Then He has promised that whoever has believed Him as their Lord and Savior will never perish by death or hell, but will experience eternal life of God and the future assurance of a life of bliss and eternal friendship with God. So from what we have seen above we can deduce the truth that for a sinner to be saved to go to heaven, he need not embrace the Trinity but just accept himself as a sinner and ask God to save Him by believing the perfect Savior Jesus whom He had already sent to save their life from sin and death. Apostle Paul clearly told all sinners to call on the name of Jesus and assured them that all those in faith and obedience will do that by confessing Him as their Lord through their mouth and believing in their heart that He is alive will be saved (Rom 10:9-13). In other words, Paul simply said, believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved (Acts 16:31-32).

Apostle John has clearly conveyed to all believers that if they are saved and have Jesus, they also have the Father God with them on their side because Jesus has previously promised the personal Presence of both the Father and Himself in their heart (1 John 2:23; John 14:23). In other words, a sinner to understand the mystery of the Presence of the Trinity in their personal lives, he has to get saved first, and then once Jesus Christ comes in to their heart, then He will give a personal understanding about God the Father and the Holy Spirit (Rev 3:20; John 14:26; 16:7, 13-15; 1 John 5:19-20). That is why when Philip the disciple of Jesus who was one among the Twelve apostles, when he asked Jesus moments before His death to show the Father in heaven for them to believe, actually He was disappointed with his question and said to him, "He who has seen Me has seen the Father," (John 14:8-10) implying that the Father is already with them in their heart speaking to them about their own lives, Jesus and everything related to the invisible heaven. In other words, Jesus expected Philip the disciple of His to understand the mystery of Trinity after His three years of supernatural demonstration and teaching again and again about Himself, Father in heaven and the Holy Spirit (Matt 6:9; 12:28; 16:16-17).

So the bottom line is that there is no precondition to salvation except one's belief in the Lord Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior, and then experience eternal relationship with God through Him (John 5:24; 8:19; 17:3).

Much Blessings....

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What About The Eternal Fate Of A Christian Who Commits Suicide?

If A Saved Believer Commits Suicide, Will That Person Go To Heaven Or Hell?

Question : If a saved believer commits suicide, will that person go to Heaven or Hell?

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus wonderful name! The Bible clearly says that all lawlessness is sin (1 John 3:4). We know that the wages of any sin we do or have done is death, but the free gift of God that we have as believers received in Christ Jesus has given us eternal life for eternity ahead (Rom 6:23). We are not saved by our works of any kind so that we cannot boast before God, but we have been saved by faith through the grace of God which clearly describes that the salvation we have received is a gift of God that has been given to us outside of our behavior of sin but based on the one time belief of accepting oneself as a sinner and asking God to save us through calling on the name of Jesus and getting saved for eternity by faith. And therefore the sin of suicide although is a grievous sin like any other before God, it does not determine a person's eternal destiny (Eph 2:8-9; Rom 10:9-11, 13; Heb 5:9). Jesus as a chief shepherd of the believing sheep has promised to lose not even one of them who are saved and has promised to raise them up the last day in which all believers will be resurrected in their glorious bodies (John 6:39-40). God has sealed all the believers with the Holy Spirit the moment they were born again as His children and He has given the Holy Spirit as a down payment and a earnest guarantee of their inheritance until they will be raised up in their glorious eternal body, and not even one time in any other place Jesus and the apostles have spoken of the believers getting unsealed of this guarantee (Eph 1:13-14; 2 Cor 1:22; 5:5). Instead Jesus has given assurance to all believers that they who have received eternal life will never ever perish eternally, and that no one like Satan and his demonic cohorts working to take them away from God will ever succeed in their evil mission, even if they succeed in inducing the believers to self destroy themselves physically through making them indulge in sin which God hates and makes him to judge them in the flesh, but still His eternal mercies remains unchanged to makes Him save them in the spirit as He had already promised to them (John 10:10, 27-30; Rom 8:35, 37, 38-39; 1 Cor 5:5; 1 Peter 4:6). The Word of God says that God is not a man to change His Word of promise that He gives especially regarding all the eternal promises He has given to save the soul of His chosen people (Mal 3:6; Num 23:19, 21; Matt 24:35; Col 3:3; Jer 30:11). This shows that no believer who is truly born again in the spirit can ever be lost eternally because of God's faithfulness, even if they are faithless to God to commit suicide and die before the time God has allotted for them in his blue print (2 Tim 2:13).

God has said in His 6th command out of the 10 commandments that He has given for man to follow, “You shall not murder” (Exodus 20:13), suicide is an act of breaking this above law by murdering one self. The problems people face before doing such dastardly act of killing oneself may include some form of drug addiction, including alcoholism, mental illnesses, repeated disobedience to God and being unfaithful to break one's word of covenant made before God and men, etc....Suicide is a sin, but for those who are saved, just like any other sin that God has covered, this too has already been covered by the blood of Jesus (Heb 10:10, 14-18). Just like any other sin they have done in their past lives have been forgiven by God as a gift within salvation, this sin too would have been added to others sins that God knew already but have been forgiven by God, as God in His omniscience knew already about it and will not be surprised about it (Acts 15:18), and therefore will go on to be with the Lord (Rom 4:7-8; 2 Cor 5:8).

God's word says that only a fool will die before the time God has allotted for them to live on earth in his perfect will for their lives (Eccl 7:17; Psa 31:15). No one can blame just depression and deep despair for committing suicide in their lives because we know that many men of God and people of God have been through such ordeals and depressive bouts that they even desired that it would be better if they would die, yet God strengthened them and did not allow them to commit suicide in their lives. Solomon hated his own life (Eccl 2:17), Elijah was so depressed that he wanted to die (1 Kings 19:4), Jonah wished to die being angry against God (Jonah 4:8), at a certain point of time apostle Paul was under great pressure and even despaired of life (2 Cor 1:8), King David feared death before God appointed time because of extreme sorrow (Psalm 13:2-4), the prophet Jeremiah wished he had never been born (Jeremiah 20:14-18), Job was demonically discouraged to commit suicide (Job 7:15-16) and many others have been under severe pressure in their lives because of their fight of faith in this life. Though all of these above saints were suicidally driven to die by disappointments and demonic depression, yet God allowed none of them to die until His appointed time because they in their worst state still believed and have already committed their life to God.

In other words, we know that Satan and his demonic cohorts will come against us to “steal, and to kill, and to destroy” us by tempting us to take our God given life at some point of time or the other in our lives (John 10:10), but as Christians we have power over the devil and he cannot push us to do this if we sincerely call on the name of the Lord (Luke 10:19-20; Rom 10:13)! Though we may get depressed from time to time, I believe that the act of suicide never takes place apart from demonic influences driving one to take their own life (Matt 12:43-45; 17:15; Mark 9:22; 5:12-13). When God himself finds his own child insensitive to his warnings to stay away from the path to death (Prov 22:3), and then finds them voluntarily going in to it by their own foolishness of their soulish living against His will and His voice which they are not ready to obey, God Himself will not do anything to force His will upon them when He finds that they are very desirous to go their own way [i.e. commit suicide by killing their own self] (Eccl 7:17; Prov 14:12; 16:25; 15:24-25). Thus to die by suicide is deny oneself of God appointed blessed and righteous way to die in His time (Num 23:10; Psa 116:15; Isa 57:1), and it is instead a curse of demonic activity that has taken over a person's life and brings them to destruction and death because of one's stubbornness to neglect God, His Word and His Spirit, His people and His will (Prov 14:2; 17:23, 20, 13; 1:28-33; 29:1). Without doubt lack of practicing righteousness which is in the Holy Spirit may always lead someone to die by depressive suicide before God appointed time (Prov 11:4; 12:28; Rom 14:17; 1 Tim 6:10). But thank God that a righteous person who has believed Jesus as His Savior though he might be oppressed or depressed to die because of consistent disobedience to the voice of God, still he has a refuge even in his death that he will go to heaven and will live with God because of Jesus who have died for all his sins (1 Cor 11:29-30; Pro 14:32).

The Bible mentions six specific people who committed suicide: Abimelech (Judges 9:54), Saul (1 Samuel 31:4), Saul’s armor-bearer (1 Samuel 31:4–6), Ahithophel (2 Samuel 17:23), Zimri (1 Kings 16:18), and Judas (Matthew 27:5). Five of these men were noted for their wickedness and Saul’s armor-bearer died because of his close association to the disobedient King Saul even though nothing is said of his personal character (1 Cor 15:33; Prov 13:20; Psa 1:1). Some consider Samson’s death an instance of suicide, because he knew his actions would lead to his death (Judges 16:26–31), but Samson’s as the leader of the nation of Israel, his goal was to kill Philistines, not himself and therefore can be seen as a martyr hero who died and saved the nation of Israel from God's enemies at the end of his life. So actually he is considered a repentant hero of faith (Heb 11:32-34).

I believe when God's hand of protection is taken away from a person like in the above cases for their unfaithfulness towards God and others whom they have deceived without thinking of keeping their word of trust and loyalty just because of coveting for their own gain, then we can find people committing suicide and dying whether they are unbeliever like Judas or believer like Saul because of it (1 Sam 28:15-20; John 17:12). But the only hope and silver line for a person who was a believer and their family and relatives who have been lost in this dark cloud of suicide is that, no matter what, God is faithful to His promises to save the soul of that loved one who was lost because of this tragic way of committing suicide (1 Cor 1:9; 10:13; 2 Cor 1:18, 20; Php 1:6; Deut 7:9). There are no fate for a Christian, only God's appointment to death or else it is a believer's foolishness to die before God's time (Heb 9:27; Prov 19:3; Eccl 7:17). Thank God that He has saved us all because of our belief and not by our behavior, because no one of us can ever qualify ourselves to enter heaven by our behavior and that includes the believer who has died by committing suicide too (Titus 3:5-7; Eph 2:8-9; Eccl 7:20; Prov 20:9; 1 John 1:8). But we who are saved by grace through faith are expected to maintain our good works because these things are good and profitable for us spiritually and eternally (Titus 3:8). No believer who has realized that God has given him not a spirit of fear but of power to use His authority, love which casts away fear and of a sound mind that is the mind of Christ and His thoughts of deliverance will ever choose to commit suicide but rather will run to the city of refuge in God to live on earth for the glory of God and not die, to declare His praise, to reveal the glorious work of the Lord through their lives on earth (2 Tim 1:7; Luke 10:19-20; Matt 28:18-20; 1 John 4:17-19;; 1 Cor 2:15-16; Psa 118:17; 88:10; 115:17). Praise the Lord!

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If We Displease The Lord, Will We Be Unsaved Again?

Does Willful Sins Grieve The Holy Spirit And Will Unsave A Believer?

Question : The New Testament writers often exhort us to live in ways that please the Lord. Does that mean that it is possible for us to displease Him? We agree that He relates to us as His beloved children, but is He always pleased with us? And since Paul urges us not to grieve the Spirit, does that mean that we can, in fact, grieve Him? In other words, will our willful sins grieve the Holy Spirit and will unsave a believer who is saved?

Answer : Greetings in Jesus wonderful name! What you say is true as we see in the following verses see in Col 1:9-12 where Paul says, "9 For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; 10 that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; 11 strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; 12 giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light." The above context speaks to us of Paul the apostle praying for believers to be strengthened with God's power to walk worthy of the Lord having longsuffering with joy as a sign of their gratefulness to God for making them all partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light eternally. Just think of it, if Paul the apostle who is just a co-worker along with the Lord who is working through him is so much concerned about believers to be empowered to walk in their earthly life in a way pleasing to God, how much more the Lord Jesus who actually paid for them with His very own life will be praying to God in intercession to make them empowered to do His will and walk pleasing to Him in their lives (1 Cor 3:9; Heb 7:25). In other words, we can never walk pleasing to God unless God works Himself inside-out to please Himself through us. So walking pleasing to God is not a requirement for a believers or a command, but a willing response of thankfulness that God expects from them to give themselves up willingly as a living sacrifice to God for Him to work through them on earth as He usually works in heaven (Rom 12:1; Matt 6:10). God blesses the thankful and grateful heart of all believers who give themselves up sacrificially to God to work within them for having received the salvation for eternity through the forgiveness of their past, present and future sins once and for all time (Col 3:13; Heb 10:14-18).

Is it possible for us as believers to displease our Lord Jesus and our Father God? Yes it is, because if we continue to draw back in to unbelief without faith after being saved for eternity ahead, then God the Father who has already given us all opportunity with the promises of helping us walk victoriously with the availability of every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus who is the greatest gift of God, and also a gift who has come from God to be sacrificed for our salvation (Rom 8:32), will become disappointed when he does not find us walking in faith as a sign of our grateful response to his initiation of His love. Our lethargic attitude of wasting His grace that has been already made available freely to us in Christ Jesus will then make Him to chastise us who are His loving children to make us trained to become productive for His Kingdom and bring Him glory (Heb 10:39; Eph 1:3-4; 2 Cor 6:1; Heb 12:5-6, 7-8, 9-10; Matt 5:48, 16). To avoid walking in a way that displeases God, instead of trying to change our behavior, we should be concentrating to live by faith which will make us fly through all the struggles of life that pulls us down in to sin and unbelief which God hates if we continue to dwell in it (Heb 4:2-3, 11). We should exhort and encourage one another daily to live by faith and be pleasing to God which will automatically keep us away from hardening our heart through the deceitfulness of sin (Heb 3:13). If we continue steadfastly in faith, we cannot lose all the blessings of Christ that He has for us to inherit, and be partakers of it in our future life in the new Jerusalem, and then in the new heaven and new earth (Heb 3:14; 2 Peter 3:13).

We are dear children of God in Christ Jesus, therefore God is expecting a grateful response to His love from us, He wants us to be imitators of His character on earth to bring Him glory (Eph 5:1). If we continue to be partakers of the divine nature through all the exceedingly great and precious promises that God has given to us as "Yes and Amen" in Christ Jesus which gets activated in our lives through our faith, then we will always continue to bring glory to our Father God in heaven who will then always be pleased with us (2 Peter 1:3-4; 2 Cor 1:20; Heb 11:6). In other words, our behavior in itself does not please God until the it is driven by the power of faith. Faith changes our behavior automatically and completes our faith (Jam 2:21-22), but altering our behavior permanently is impossible without faith playing a role in our lives. Dead faith that does not have works is no faith at all, and therefore we who believe in the Lord Jesus and are saved from sin must be careful to maintain good works because it is profitable for us now and for eternity (Jam 2:26; Titus 3:8). All the children of God are heirs and therefore gets qualified to receive future inheritance of God and are in line to all the eternal riches of God, but not all of God's children who are heirs to inherit great wealth will actually inherit the great wealth, honor and glory of God except those who fight the fight of faith in their earthly lives to inherit the heavenly riches which will immensely please God to give them His great imperishable heavenly wealth and riches in their future lives (1 Tim 6:12; 1 Cor 9:24-27; Matt 6:19-21; 19:21; 10:40-42). It is like a king having many children who are heirs to the throne of his, but all do not get the throne except the sons who are mature and walk pleasing to the king. We who have become God's children in order to become heirs-inheritors of God's property, we should work hard by continuing to mix our faith with patience to inherit the future blessings of rest and refreshment that God has in store for us (Titus 3:7; Heb 4:2-3; 6:12; James 1:2-4; 10:35-36). So the promises of God which we have believed and walked on earth is not for us to get qualified to enter in to heaven, but to inherit his reward for our future life in heaven. We can never be able to enter heaven not even in a million years by working out our faith, but it is completely by the grace of God by which God has already made us get saved and qualified for heaven in Christ Jesus (Eph 2:7-8). For those of us who walk by our faith on earth after we are saved, it will qualify us to enter in to God's retirement benefits of rest and reward which He has kept only for those of us who are victorious in our earthly life for the glory of God. In other words, if we have not lived by faith in the promises of God to love the Lord God our Father in heaven whole heartedly and live victoriously over the world in the will of God (1 John 5:4-5; 2:15-17), we will miss the future inheritance that God has for us, and someone else will claim it as theirs if they have continued to live victorious pleasing the Father by their life of faith (Rev 3:11; Heb 11:6).

If we do not live by faith which always pleases our Father God, then the Holy Spirit who was sent to teach us to walk in the will of God will become grieved for our stubborn resistance to obeying the voice of God which comes through the Holy Spirit (John 14:26; 16:12-14; Heb 10:16; Ezek 36:26-27). Though the other two persons of the Trinity who are our Father God in heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ who is sitting at God's right hand are both seated in heaven (Matt 26:64; Heb 1:3), yet through the Holy Spirit they have promised to make a permanent residence in the heart of all believers who have received and follow Jesus by lovingly keeping His word (Rev 3:20; John 14:23). So because we through the Holy Spirit maintain our communication with our Father in Heaven and our Lord Jesus Christ (1 John 1:3), the immediate person who resides in our heart is the third person of the Trinity who is God Himself (Matt 28:19; 1 Cor 6:19; Acts 5:3-4; 2 Cor 13:13). Because the Holy Spirit of God is staying within us as we have become God's temple, if we continue to desecrate it with the life of self, world and Satanic things, He will become grieved greatly by our wrong and evil behavior that comes out of using and living in our soulish wisdom which can be earthly, sensual and demonic (James 3:13-16). This is what the great apostle Paul also revealed saying, "30 And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. 31 Let all bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, and evil speaking be put away from you, with all malice. 32 And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you." (Eph 4:30-32). In the above verse Paul is saying because the Lord has given to us who have believed and got saved His sweet and precious Holy Spirit who is very tender, meek and loving to keep us sanctified till the day we rise up in our new glorious meta-physical eternal body, so in His love for us to keep us in God's perfect will He might grieve in His love and zeal for our lives. In other words, Paul does not say to us to not to anger the Spirit but rather grieve not the Holy Spirit because a friend may respond to our offense in anger but only a father grieves in anger and love when a son commits that same offense because he knows that a son will become useless to the good purpose and intention that he has towards him. The great preacher C. H. Spurgeon says, "Love sweetens the anger, and turns the edge of it, not against the person, but against the offense." So true of the Holy Spirit when we grieve Him because of being non-cooperative in learning things of holiness from him that keeps us away from sin and purposelessness. In other words, if we continue in our bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, malice and evil speaking by walking in our self-will, love sin and continue in it without confirming to the Character of Jesus which is being kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave us all our sins, trespasses and offenses of our past, present and future sins to love us freely in Christ Jesus, we will not become unsealed of the Holy Spirit to get unsaved but will start to grieve the Holy Spirit who is given to us personally as a divine teacher to lead us in to the Father's inheritance in heaven. This above list is not a exhaustive one that shows which one will grieve the Holy Spirit and which will not, but rather it is a set of sins which are basically working against the very foundation of faith and that they are serious in God's sight, but the same things applies to sins of every kind that has the potential to grieve the Holy Spirit.

Some people would like to ask what will happen to us if we grieve the Holy Spirit and keep on sinning? Two things mainly can happen to any believer who grieves the Holy Spirit and act as through they seem not to be concerned about their transgression and sins, first it will take the spirit of repentance to make them live in fearful expectation of God's judgment instead of joyful expectation of hope for reward (Heb 10:35; Prov 23:17-18), and will bring fiery indignation which will devour His adversaries and make their heart troubled and fearful by losing the comfort of their heavenly guides voice that teaches them in the way they should go (Heb 6:6; 10:26-31; Psa 32:8). Secondly they will lose the joy of salvation that keeps them safe in their race of faith as long as they are on earth. They will begin to live purposelessly even though they are called to live a victorious and purposeful life for the glory of God initially when they were saved for service as a king and priest to God (Psa 51:12-13; Eph 2:8-10; 1 Peter 2:9). They will wander in the wilderness of this world just like the Israelites who did not want to live a life of faith pleasing to God, but chose to stay in their unbelief after they were saved by the Lord from Egypt the house of bondage of sin, which made God to deny them the call He previously gave them to fight by faith to thus go to the free land of life and living in the Canaan land of victorious life and experiencing abundant life of heaven on earth (1 Cor 10:1-4, 5, 6-11, 12-13; Rom 15:4). In other words, every believer is called heavenward with an earthly training to prove our worthiness for the hierarchy in heaven, the moment we do not partake and come out of that race of faith, we are in for a purposeless existence as a believer and therefore the loss to a believer who grieves the Holy Spirit and is not concerned about is physical judgment first that comes from the Lord to correct them just like for the Israelites (Heb 12:7; 1 Cor 11:30-32; Deut 28:15-47), if they continue to resist the Holy Spirit and grieve Him still without change or repentance, then the above two rules will get applied by the Lord in which a terror within them will start to be unleashed by the Lord to bring a fear of judgment for their sins and then they will lose the joy of salvation to become purposeless in this present earthly life and to lose their faith which has the potential to bring a great eternal reward for them in their future heavenly life (Heb 10:35-36; 2 Cor 5:10-11). But this judgment for His disobedient children will never make God change their status from legitimate heir of Him to an illegal alien status in his family because God is never surprised by His disobedient and sinful children whose lives He knew from their beginning because of His omniscience to know our end from the beginning of our life itself (Isa 46:10). We were saved by the will of God (John 1:13), if ever we think that we can become unsaved because of sin or any other reason, we are actually telling God that though He knew our life yet He never knew that we will falter so seriously after salvation. There is not even one hint given by Jesus or any apostles that we might get unsealed of the Holy Spirit before the day of redemption because of our bad behavior after salvation, instead there is only one promise of the Holy Spirit being sealed until the day of our resurrection (Eph 1:13-14). If we were saved by our good behavior we could unsave our self from it by our bad behavior. But because we were saved by our belief in Jesus Christ once and for all time (Heb 10:10, 14), we cannot get unsaved spiritually from God's family neither by our bad behavior nor by our unbelief as God responded to our belief initially by His mercy and continues His promise eternally not by our works thereafter but by His same mercy which He has showed freely so that we can never boast about our spiritual salvation (Titus 3:5-7; Eph 2:8-9), but can lose our fellowship, blessing and eternal benefits because of our willful sins of disobedience to the voice of our Father in heaven (1 John 1:3, 7; Heb 6:7-8, 10; Gal 6:7-10; Col 3:23-24; Php 4:16-17; Eph 6:7-8). So live as dear children always pleasing to the Lord out of gratitude for the free salvation that God has provided you now and for eternity (Eph 4:32; 5:1-2; 2 Cor 5:5, 7, 9). Praise the Lord!

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Is Baptism Necessary for Salvation?

Does Water Baptism Save Us From Anything Or Simply This Is A Command To Be Obeyed?

Question : I agree I look at baptism as obedience, for Jesus commanded us to do so in Matthew 28:19 and Hebrews 5:9 says Jesus Christ is the author of our eternal salvation unto all them that obey him. Thank you anyway, I save and study all from you. I started a new ministry when this present Church of ours folded up. I need more knowledge to feed others. I will study more of the related baptism link to this following link : http://www.apostolicrevelation.info/2011/11/which-baptism-is-right.html which you sent that conveys that baptism does not save but only confirms salvation already received by faith. I received the gifts of the Holy Spirit at my second baptism in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you. One last thing I agree with, I just follow what the Bible says. What is your take on it?

Answer : Greetings to you in Jesus name! Jesus said first make disciples who are followers of His Word and then baptize people for the proof of their discipleship and their faith, and not for salvation but through salvation (Matt 28:19-20). In the Gospel of Luke Jesus told His disciples to preach the gospel for repentance towards God and the message of the remission or forgiveness of their sins, here Jesus spoke nothing about Baptizing people in water, but then in a couple of verses afterwards He speaks about waiting to be baptized by the Spirit to become powerful witnesses of what they have seen and heard about Jesus (Luke 24:46-49). In the gospel of Mark it is written those who "believe and is baptized will be saved" (Mark 16:16), which clearly reveals to us that believing the gospel is the only precondition to salvation, but once saved when the believer chooses to follow Jesus and be His disciple to live a godly life with faith, then they are given water baptism by the mature Church believers before the Church as a external confession of the their inner faith they have. And also through water baptism a person proclaims himself as a learner student of Jesus to follow Him and declares that he wants to live a life of good testimony to the world around him, so that by living a godly life they will be saved from sin and death to righteousness and life in their day to day lives (1 Tim 4:16). And there is no taking of baptism being told here as a precondition to salvation instead it is said to be taken as a proof of salvation.

He who is baptized then according to his internal faith will be saved from all all external and internal infirmities that keep them from walking in that fullness of God's Spirit, but it does not affect their eternal salvation that they have received by faith in the only begotten Son of God Jesus Christ in their heart which has brought them salvation once and for all eternity (John 3:16; 10:27-29; Heb 5:9; 10:11-18), never to be taken back at any time which has been guaranteed by God depositing a small measure of His Spirit within the believer as a seal that they will one day be saved from sin, death and mortality completely for the Glory of God by Jesus Christ when He returns back to take the Church to the Father's house (Eph 1:13-14; John 14:1-41; 1 Cor 15:53-54) . No apostle ever told about God unsealing the guarantee of the Spirit based on a believers behavior after salvation, and this is the true grace of God which makes us as believers not to boast about our salvation before others but stay humble before God and men which God requires from all true believers so that He could bless them more and more in all aspect of their lives (Eph 2:8-9; Titus 3:5-6; 1 Peter 5:5-6). But as believer who are becoming heirs according to the hope that get conceived more and more about the future wealth, power and glory of the eternal life ahead as we work out our salvation, we are exhorted to be careful to maintain good works after salvation so that the name of the Lord will be glorified and not brought low with ungratefulness for the free salvation we received from God (Titus 3:7-8). We might have received salvation for free, but to God it had cost His everything (Rom 8:32). Apostle John speaks about no great commission of Jesus to baptize people in water, but he revealed that his disciples and not Jesus was actually baptizing the believers in water as they wanted to follow Jesus, this also reveals that baptism has not been insisted as a precondition to salvation but a proof of salvation which people obeyed as they wanted to live for Jesus (John 3:22-23; 4:1-2).

Baptism of the Spirit may be received even before water baptism in some cases, or after water baptism in some cases and during water baptism in some cases (Acts 10:44-48; 19:1-7; 2:38-39, 41-42). So we cannot say when God will give the baptism in the Spirit through Jesus as we seek Him to fill us (Matt 3:11; John 7:37-39), but we have to take the Baptism in water as an act of obedience to the Words of Jesus to receive the power to live an overcoming life over sin, self and Satan (Acts 9:15-22). In your case, you have taken baptism again in the name of Jesus during which time God filled you with His Spirit. Praise the Lord for His marvelous gift of the Spirit that He has given you freely. But this can be done by laying on of the hands of the elders after we have taken the Baptism in water for our belief the first time itself, and the Lord will honor such instances to release the Baptism of the Spirit which comes with an external confirmation through tongues of what has taken place inside (Acts 10:45-46; 11:16-17; 1 Tim 4:14). The gifts of Spirit given to each person according to His will always accompanies with the Baptism of the Spirit to make the disciple who receive it to become a clear and mighty witness for Jesus Christ (Acts 1:8).

Then Jesus spoke about another Baptism of suffering that He wanted to fulfill which was described by Him as a cup which later led Him to the Cross (Luke 12:50; Matt 26:39, 42, 44). Jesus told that the believers and apostles will also drink this cup willingly if they are His true disciples who will follow all His commands, which will make them reject their own will and suffer in God's will to learn obedience to the voice of the Father God (Matt 20:22-23; Mark 10:38-39; Luke 9:23-24; Heb 5:7-9; 9:12). This baptism of suffering should not be mixed with both Baptism in the Spirit or water Baptism to become more confused about this topic of Baptism. This baptism of suffering is a willing choice of the disciple to accept the chastisement of our Heavenly Father to learn obedience through suffering and thereby be blessed by the Father to reign in this world of the spirit and in the world to come (Php 3:8-11; Acts 19:15; Matt 19:27-29). If we suffer with Jesus now, we will reign with Him from now on (2 Tim 2:12-13).

Baptism of John is a baptism in water which was done by him under a specific command from God the Father as a sign of baptism of repentance to accept the Messiah as their Lord and Savior which was a must for all those who want to be saved at that time (John 1:25-26, 33; Matt 3:6, 11; Mark 1:5, 8-9; Luke 7:29-30). This Baptism of John which was done for those of his contemporary time believing Jews and gentiles who wanted to receive eternal life through Messiah who was coming to save them, those who took humbly this baptism of John were saved by God at that time itself but it became obsolete once the universal command of God to baptize the believers in water was given to the Church which also gave every believer a right to receive the power to live eternal life on earth itself by the power of the Holy Spirit (Acts 19:2-5, 6). So John's water baptism also should not be mixed with the baptism in water given to a believer by any mature believer as an act of obedience of the command of Jesus which will again cause confusion.

Finally, there is a baptism of belief that the Holy Spirit gives to all those who first come to believe Jesus and receive Him as their Lord and Savior (2 Cor 1:21-22; Eph 1:13-14). The one baptism that is the same for all believers when we come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior is the Baptism that the Holy Spirit does in baptizing all believers into one body of Jesus Christ which is the universal Church (1 Cor 12:13), this is a spiritual baptism which is mystically done by the Holy Spirit automatically without any of the self-effort of the one who receives Jesus as His Lord and Savior for life (Eph 4:5). Baptized in to Jesus Christ doesn't mean water baptism but it is this baptism of belief that we have seen above (Col 2:12-13; Rom 6:1-14; Titus 3:5). This is what apostle Peter also spoke about in his first letter by saying that this baptism of belief that which the Holy Spirit works will give us a good conscience but does not remove our old sinful soulish nature, it will make us enter in to the ark of the Church like Noah entered the ark to enter in to the new creation of God by His good choice to hear the voice of God (1 Peter 3:20-21; 2 Cor 5:21, 17). In other words, Peter the apostle was saying that because Jesus was resurrected on behalf of us, now we are no more in our sins of our past, present or even future which gives us a good conscience towards God to live fully for His Glory on earth as it is in heaven (1 Cor 15:1-4, 17; Eph 4:32; Col 3:13). This baptism of belief is something to be believed in order to identify ourselves with the death and resurrection of our Lord as a living reality in our lives in Jesus Christ which symbolizes that our old soulish sinful nature has died and a new nature of God has risen within us to let it out to influence our soul by our positive choice daily and therefore thereby grow spiritually and live a victorious life over sin. But it should never be confused with the water baptism which a believer receives from another believer to confess externally of one's internal faith before the Church to the world.

The following are a list of those who were saved apart from baptism. The penitent woman (Luke 7:37-50), the paralytic man (Matthew 9:2), the publican (Luke 18:13-14), and the thief on the cross (Luke 23:39-43) all experienced forgiveness of sins apart from baptism. Also no record of even one apostle being baptized is recorded, and also Jesus pronounced forgiveness of sins for them all to be forgiven of their sins and that is what gave them their salvation and not the baptism they might have taken according to the very testimony from Jesus Himself (John 15:3).

In Acts 22:16, Paul recounts the words of Ananias to him following his experience on the Damascus road: "Arise, and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on His name." Some people wrongly interpret such passage to say that water baptism is the one thing that washes our sins away. But common sense must strike to connect the phrase "wash away your sins" with "calling on His name," with out which our sins are not really washed, as there will be no faith without calling on in faith to God to save us from sin. But according to Paul, he already called Jesus as his Lord even in the vision during which he was thrown off from his horse in which he was traveling to persecute the Church, and thus proving by his own teaching that he was already saved before he met Ananias the disciple (Acts 9:5; 1 Cor 12:3). Ananias the disciple used such language because he never knew what happened to Paul the persecutor and was still not sure whether he was truly saved or not (Acts 9:17-19). So to use such phrases to justify one's doctrine of baptism in water as a means for forgiveness of our sins is to go out of context to prove in Scripture something that it does not meant to convey. But actually baptism in water is a means to an end to spiritually grow in the Lord and be blessed from above to make us a blessing to many for the Glory of God. Once a person is convinced about his faith of salvation, then he must obey the Lord's command to take water baptism to be greatly blessed in his spiritual life and must not take it lightly which will deny him the heavenly blessing that is supposed to be his.

So the bottom line is, there is no precondition to salvation except believing that one's sin has been paid in full by the Lord Jesus and receive Him through confessing by one's mouth as their Lord and Savior (John 6:28-29, 39-40; 19:30; Rom 10:9-10, 13). After that instance of belief, immediately as a follower of Jesus if they have the faith and assurance at that time itself they can boldly take baptism externally in water as a confession to the world about their internal faith (Acts 8:35-38). If they needed some time, they can wait and take water Baptism after receiving the inner assurance from the Holy Spirit that they are saved (Rom 8:16; 1 John 3:24; John 14:21, 23). It is not wrong to check one's faith and then go to take on Baptism (2 Cor 13:5-6). This is the reason, Paul went on preaching the gospel to save people for eternity, but yet the Holy Spirit did not insist him to give baptism immediately for all the converts except a few instances where he had given as he did for the believers in Ephesus (1 Cor 1:14-17, Acts 19:1, 5). As we know that God is only pleased with our faith (Heb 11:6), the apostles and disciples in the first century because of their great faith took no time for waiting to given Baptism after someone believed, but immediately did it most of the time except Paul who gave freedom for the believers to understand their faith and then take it publicly (Acts 8:12-13, 14-17). The positive freedom that Paul the apostle gave to the hearers of the gospel to know for sure that they are saved and then take Baptism in water after that was seen to be good in the case of a Sorcerer who heard the gospel and came forward to take Baptism immediately after he heard about it from Philip the evangelist and continued to be with him also, but yet he did not have true freedom from his old habits of iniquity from the old sinful soulish nature which had bound him in the past because of being poisoned by pride and arrogance due to practicing sorcery [i.e. magic arts] (Acts 8:9-11), and therefore he needed more time for repentance to live in the faith of salvation at that time and so could have waited to take baptism until an inner assurance of faith so that he would not be a stumbling block for other because of his old behavior after salvation (Matt 18:6; Mark 9:42), so that this man was later rebuked by Peter the apostle to repent and be truly saved from his soulish nature and old habits to become an example to believers around him (Acts 8:12-13, 18-24). It is all about belief that is needed to be saved, and baptism to grow thereby in the Lord.

Thanks and Much Blessings.....

FOLLOW JESUS!

FOLLOW THE CONVICTION OF THE HOLY SPIRIT!

AND FINALLY FOLLOW THE WORD THROUGH WHICH GOD WITHOUT DOUBT GIVES ALL SEEKERS AND DISCIPLES THE RIGHT WISDOM TO UNDERSTAND AND THE POWER TO OBEY IT!

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