Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 9003 Baptism is one of the two ordinances that Jesus gave to the Church, and yet it has been a source of disagreement among Christians for centuries. One of the most fundamental questions is simply this: who is a proper candidate for baptism? Should everyone be baptised? Only adults? What about children? Let us…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 09014 Baptismal regeneration is the teaching that the act of water baptism itself conveys saving grace and is necessary for the forgiveness of sins and the new birth. It is held in various forms by the Roman Catholic Church, some Lutheran traditions, the Churches of Christ, and significant strands of Anglican theology. It touches…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4075 Few questions in pneumatology generate more confusion, or more pastoral difficulty, than the relationship between Spirit baptism and water baptism. The two are related, both involve the word “baptism,” and both are associated with the beginning of Christian life — but they are not the same thing, and the failure to distinguish them…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4071 Anyone who has engaged seriously with the doctrine of the Holy Spirit across different theological traditions quickly discovers that Christians who share the same Bible and the same Trinitarian confession can hold remarkably different positions on some of the most practically significant questions in pneumatology. The differences between Reformed, charismatic, and dispensational approaches…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04103 Few questions about Christian practice generate as much confusion as the relationship between water baptism and Spirit baptism. The confusion is understandable. The New Testament uses baptism language in more than one sense, the episodes in Acts appear to follow different sequences in different situations, and the denominational noise around the subject has…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 04034 The relationship between Jesus and the Holy Spirit during the earthly ministry is one of the most theologically significant and pastorally instructive areas of New Testament study. Jesus is fully God, the eternal second Person of the Trinity. And yet, during His incarnate life, He chose to live in dependence on the Spirit…
Reading Time: 4 minutesQuestion 4099 Acts 19:1-7 is one of those passages that regularly surfaces in discussions about the Holy Spirit, and it is often read through the lens of Pentecostal or charismatic theology as evidence that a believer can be genuinely saved yet still lack the Spirit. The question is worth pressing carefully: when Paul encountered these…
Reading Time: 3 minutesQuestion 4002 Few questions in pneumatology have generated more disagreement than this one. Some traditions teach that the Spirit is received at water baptism. Others insist on a distinct post-conversion experience, sometimes evidenced by speaking in tongues. Still others locate the Spirit’s reception at the moment of saving faith. The question matters not as a…
Reading Time: 5 minutesQuestion 3011 This is a question that naturally arises from the Gospel accounts. John’s baptism was “a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins” (Mark 1:4). People came confessing their sins and being baptized in the Jordan. But Jesus had no sins to confess. He needed no forgiveness. So why did He insist on…
Reading Time: 8 minutesQuestion 9000 See also YouTube video at the end explaining why we should be baptised. Believer’s baptism is the baptism by immersion in water of those who have personally trusted in the Lord Jesus for salvation. It’s not infant baptism, not sprinkling, not pouring, but the full immersion of someone who has already been saved…