New Testament Salvation Acts 2:38
By Pentecostal Publishing House
This is a subject that should be of interest to every 1- professing Christian, at least, to every one that really loves the Lord.
There is so much of the Word of God that many do not know, and so much that they do not believe. The Spirit of God came to lead us into all truth, but it is very hard for God to get new truth to any of us, and especially to those who have had a good Christian experience. We are so afraid of anything that is not taught in our particular denomination, and are apt to class it as heresy, false teaching or fanaticism, without stopping to see whether or not it is really found in the Word of God. Saul of Tarsus verily believed that he was doing God’s service when he persecuted and bound the Christians of his day, but after Jesus appeared and spoke to him, we find him declaring that “after the manner which some call heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers.”
Have you ever stopped to compare the religion of today with that of the apostles? They baptized (immersed) all their converts in Jesus’ Name (not in the title Father, Son and Holy Ghost). They had the Baptism of the Holy Ghost and spoke in other tongues. They believed and practiced divine healing. Any one of these things is called fanaticism by the modern church of today. Who is WRONG? The Bible or the church? “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever,” and “There is one Lord, one faith and one baptism.”
So many of our religious beliefs have been inherited from our mothers and fathers, and many of us have never stopped to compare them with our guide book the Bible. There are also “blind leaders of the blind,” who have never been born again themselves, and , therefore, cannot properly interpret the truths of the Bible, for the “natural man cannot understand the things of the Spirit, for they are spiritually discerned.”
The death of Jesus Christ purchased a far greater salvation than most people know anything about today. So many people feel that if they have had their sins forgiven and are striving to live the best they can, that that is all there is to salvation. But Paul says, “0, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments, and His ways past finding out.” Rom. 11: 33. God has willed to us righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost, but the receiving of the Holy Ghost is a very definite experience, and also has a definite supernatural evidence. Peter said he perceived that the household of Cornelius had received the Holy Ghost “because he heard them speak with tongues,” and we have a right to insist on the same evidence today. Because we have not, many people have been deceived (either ignorantly or otherwise) into believing they had an experience which they really had not. For this reason, there is great deadness in the church and much unreality in the lives of professing Christians.
On the day of Pentecost, when the first New Testament church was inaugurated, the Holy Ghost fell on all those who were waiting for Him, and they all spake with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance, and Peter said, “This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel, saying, ‘In the last days I will pour out of My Spirit upon all flesh.” If this, therefore, was God working in the days of the apostles, then why will men (even preachers) dare to call the same experience today the work of the devil? If we do not understand a thing, we should go slow and see whether it is really in the Bible, lest, peradventure, we be found fighting against God, and He says to us as He did to Saul, “It is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.”
Isaiah, 28th chapter, says, “Line must be upon line and precept upon precept.” Luther gave us a line of truth and the Lutheran church has stopped there. Wesley gave us another line and the Methodist church has stopped there. The Christian and Missionary Alliance gave us another line and stopped there. God is trying to get us to go on not forward, but back to Pentecost and the old original salvation the same method of receiving and producing the same effects.
On the day of Pentecost, when Peter preached that marvelous sermon, the Holy Ghost pricked hearts with conviction and they cried out, “Men and brethren, what shall we do?” And Peter gave them the only New Testament method of receiving salvation, “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” How terribly this method has been changed and twisted today! No wonder we do not get the results the apostles got. Our salvation if it is to stand the test of these last days must be “Built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief corner stone”; and “If anyone, yea, even an angel from heaven preach any other Gospel, let him be accursed.”
There has been a measure of truth in most of men’s methods, and therefore, they have brought only a measure of blessing: but God has planned an abundant salvation for us for spirit, soul and body. Most of these deeper truths today are either called heresy, or we are told that they were only for the apostles, but God is no respecter of persons and He will do for us just what He did for the apostles if we meet the same conditions.
First, we must repent, turning our back on all sin.
Second, we must be baptized (immersed) in the Name of Jesus Christ. In Matt. 28:19 Jesus told His disciples to baptize in the NAME of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost..He did not say in the TITLE. If this command literally meant in the title Father, Son and Holy Ghost, then there would be a great contradiction in the Bible, for the disciples never baptized in any way but in the Name of Jesus. But note, it says in the Name (singular) of Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Father, Son and Holy Ghost are not names, but terms of relationship. The Father was always called “Lord,” the Son was called “Jesus”; and the Holy Ghost means the anointed of God, or the “Christ.” Thus we have the_ Name Lord Jesus Christ. On the day of Pentecost, they understood that this same Jesus was both “Lord” and “Christ.” Jesus said, “I come in My Father’s name.” There is but one saving name of God, and that is Jesus (the Jehovah of the Old Testament). “There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved.” “Repentance and remission of sins was to be preached in His Name.” All the fulness of the Godhead bodily dwelt in Jesus, so to fulfill Matt. 28:19 we must baptize in Jesus’ Name, and then God will pour out the gift of the Holy Ghost on us as He did on the disciples, and we will have the same Bible evidence the speaking in other tongues. This is the third step, and it takes all three to complete God’s plan of Salvation for the church as given in the New Testament, as Jesus told Nicodemus. “These signs shall follow them that believe they shall speak with new tongues.” Mark 16:17.
My heart is burdened for those who really love the Lord, but through ignorance or fear are being cheated out of their inheritance. Will you not search the Scriptures and see whether these things be true or not, and earnestly go down on your knees and ask God to give you the Baptism of the Holy Ghost. These are the days of the “Latter rain,” which God is sending to ripen the grain for the harvest, for soon He is coming to catch away those who have the same Spirit dwelling in them that raised up Jesus from the dead. Examine yourselves and see whether you be in the faith or not.
From, Pentecostal Publishing House/Tract #111, by Pentecostal Publishing House
