Here is exactly what I am talking about, you are teaching two baptisms, you in what I have quoted of you have yourself expressed the contradiction knowing there is one baptism (Eph 4:5) yet your man made doctrine calls for two, water baptism and HS baptism.
Is it beyond your ability to recognise that Scripture teaches three baptisms? Firstly the baptism of John, which was pointing forwards to the drenching of the Holy Spirit by the Messiah, secondly the actual drenching in the Holy Spirit, and thirdly the baptism spoken of by Jesus which would be of those who had been drenched by the Holy Spirit.
The drenching in the Holy Spirit is not a baptism as such. The 'one baptism' was simply saying that the true church all practised one rite which united them as one. It is NOT denying a drenching in the Spirit. You are clearly a member of one of these strange sects that the Americans seem to produce.
John the baptizer said he could not baptize with the HS, only the Christ could do that (Matt 3:11)
yes and Jesus Christ drenched His followers in Holy Spirit so that they could preach successfully, heal the sick and cast out evil spirits. They could not have done that without the Holy Spirit. The Gospel writers having prophesied that Christ would drench men with the Holy Spirit naturally left us to recognise that He had.
yet the Christ tells His disciples (this includes John the baptizer) to baptize making disciples (Matt 28:19), he did not say "go teach all nations I the Christ will baptize them", he told the disciples to baptize, and they can ONLY baptize with water (Matt 3:11)
Yes this was an acted out parable of the drenching in the Spirit that every believer would experience. Thus Jesus drenched people in the Holy Spirit. The Apostles drenched them in water as an indication that they were entering the age of the Spirit.
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Now someone here keeps trying to use those who were baptized with the baptism of John in the first 4 verses in Acts 19 as an example of HS baptism, this cannot be so, if after Paul taught them, and they were baptized, if it were a HS baptism, why did Paul have to lay hands on them to give them the power of the HS ????
The answer is very simple. God was concerned to maintain the unity of the church. At the time of Christ's resurrection there were four major groups that saw themselves as distinctive, and no doubt as 'superior' to the other groups. The first were the Apostles and the Jewish believers. The second were the Samaritans who had their own Law. The third were the disciples of John of whom there were tens of thousands scattered in the dispersion. And the fourth were the Gentiles.
There was no problem with the first group. They were the foundation group. But there was a real problem with the second and third groups. How was God going to ensure that when they received the Holy Spirit it did not make them think that it was BECAUSE they were Samaritans or disciples of John? Answer, ensure that they received the Holy Spirit a
t the hands of Apostles. Thus in each case that is what happened. In the case of the Gentiles it was important that they received the Holy Spirit directly from God, in order to convince Christian Jews that God had accepted them.
Acts 19:6 (KJV)
And when Paul had laid his hands upon them, the Holy Ghost came on them; and they spake with tongues, and prophesied.
This was so that the disciples of John would recognise that the blessing of the Spirit came on them, not because they were disciples of John, but because they were uniting with Christ's church.
It is because baptism is not a HS baptism, it is not taking a bath in water (1 Pet 3:21), it is a symbolic representation of the death, burial and resurrection of the Christ, it is by doing this act with a clean conscience (in a repentant mindset (1 Pet. 3:21)) that spiritually puts us in contact with the ever cleansing blood of our savior (1 John 1:7, Rev. 1:5) remitting our sins (Acts 22:16, Rev. 1:5)
This is only partly true. Baptism DID symbolise the coming of the Holy Spirit, whether it was John's baptism or the church's baptism. In the latter case it indicated that they had been drenched in the Holy Spirit as a consequence of believing in Jesus. But it was in being drenched in the Holy Spirit into the body of Christ (1 Cor 12.13) that they experienced dying with Him and rising to newness of life (Rom 6.3 ff).
We experience cleansing in the blood of Christ and forgiveness of sins when we BELIEVE not when we are baptised.