{"id":21874,"date":"2023-01-05T17:38:14","date_gmt":"2023-01-05T17:38:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21874"},"modified":"2023-01-05T17:41:42","modified_gmt":"2023-01-05T17:41:42","slug":"new-testament-conversions-no-4-conversion-of-the-ethiopians-official","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/?p=21874","title":{"rendered":"New Testament Conversions (No. 4)\u2014Conversion of the Ethiopians Official"},"content":{"rendered":"

Views: 1<\/p>

[Note: <\/strong>This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-1<\/strong> page.]<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>While\u00a0 Philip was in Samaria, the Lord directed him through an angel to travel to the road leading southward from Jerusalem to the deserted town of Gaza (Acts 8:26). Upon arriving there, he encountered the treasurer of the nation of Ethiopia in his chariot, returning home from worshiping in Jerusalem. This devout man was reading from the book of Isaiah as he passed Philip, and the Spirit directed Philip to approach the chariot (vv. 27\u201329). Upon doing so and hearing the Ethiopian reading from Isaiah 53, Philip asked the man if he understood what he was reading (vs. 30). The Ethiopian asked for assistance and invited Philip into his chariot where the evangelist preached unto him \u201cJesus\u201d (vv. 31\u201335).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Luke next says that they came to a \u201ccertain water,\u201d indicating a body of water, and the Ethiopian asked Philip to baptize him (vs. 36). Philip complied with the man\u2019s request and being baptized, he \u201cwent on his way rejoicing\u201d (vv. 38\u201339).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Consider the following observations:<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. While the Lord sometimes used miraculous means to bring the messenger of the Gospel and the sinner together in the first century, He never used anything besides a human messenger to teach the sinner, as in this case. Of course, the New Testament teaches that miracles were only temporary and would cease when the revealed Will of God was completed (1 Cor. 13:8\u201313) so we do not have angels or the Spirit directly communicating with us now.<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Luke says Philip \u201cpreached Jesus\u201d to this man, which is the same as \u201cpreaching good tidings concerning the kingdom of God and the name of Jesus Christ\u201d and \u201cproclaiming the Christ\u201d which he did in Samaria (Acts 8:5, 12).<\/span><\/li>\n
  3. \u201cPreaching Jesus\u201d includes preaching baptism. This Ethiopian learned that he must be baptized by hearing \u201cJesus\u201d preached. \u201cPreaching Jesus\u201d includes much more than baptism, however, Jesus is not faithfully preached if baptism is omitted.<\/span><\/li>\n
  4. The baptism that preaching Jesus requires is water baptism, not Holy Spirit baptism.<\/span><\/li>\n
  5. Scriptural baptism involves going down into the water and coming up out of it (Acts 8:38\u201339). In the New Testament, baptism is always a burial or immersion (Rom. 6:3\u20134).<\/span><\/li>\n
  6. The baptism Jesus commanded the apostles to preach and which they preached on Pentecost was one that brought salvation, remission of sins (Mark 16:16; Acts 2:38). Philip was preaching that same message about Jesus that was authorized by Jesus and therefore, he was preaching the same \u201cone baptism\u201d that brings one into a saved relationship with God (Eph. 4:5). This is why the Ethiopian \u201cwent on his way rejoicing\u201d after <\/strong>he was baptized, not before (Acts 8:39).<\/span><\/li>\n
  7. We can be sure that Philip taught this man that he must believe<\/strong> in the Jesus he was learning of for the first time, and that he must confess<\/strong> that belief. Indeed, the King James Version contains a record of his confession of faith in Christ (Acts 8:37), although these are not mentioned in other versions. We can also be sure that Philip stressed the necessity of repentance,<\/strong>although such is not mentioned specifically. Yet, much of the Protestant world would argue adamantly that this man was saved when he merely believed and before he was baptized, when his faith is not even mentioned (except in the KJV), but he obviously understood the necessity of<\/span><\/li>\n
  8. Unless different preachers extended divine pardon upon varying conditions, to various sinners, in the first century (which makes God a respecter of persons\u2014Acts 10:34\u201335), then this man was told the very same things to do in order to be saved that all others were and still must be told. This will always result in one\u2019s being baptized in water for forgiveness of sins.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    [Note:<\/strong>\u00a0I wrote this article for, and it was published in the \u201cBible Thoughts\u201d Column for the Hood County News<\/em>, Granbury, Texas, September 10, 1978.]<\/span><\/p>\n

    Attribution:<\/strong> From thescripturecache.com<\/em>; Dub McClish, owner and administrator.<\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    \u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Views: 1[Note: This MS is available in larger font on our Brief Articles-1 page.] \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 While\u00a0 Philip was in Samaria, the Lord directed him through an angel to travel to the road leading southward from Jerusalem to the deserted town of Gaza (Acts 8:26). Upon…<\/p>\n

    Continue Reading… New Testament Conversions (No. 4)\u2014Conversion of the Ethiopians Official<\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,300,140,74,309,38],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21874","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-baptism","category-belief","category-confession-of-faith","category-conversion","category-gospel","category-repentance","wpcat-37-id","wpcat-300-id","wpcat-140-id","wpcat-74-id","wpcat-309-id","wpcat-38-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=21874"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21877,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21874\/revisions\/21877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=21874"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=21874"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thescripturecache.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=21874"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}