Is Baptism Required?
John 3:1-10
3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.
3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
6That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is a spirit.
7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be?
10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
What if, Jesus was telling Nicodemus about the Baptisms of the book of ACTS in these scriptures? Obviously, he was NOT talking about “Natural Child Birth” as many Christians have allowed themselves to believe in today’s church.
Why?
When Nicodemus asked ”
How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?”
Jesus quickly corrected him and said
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
What if,
Jesus was not talking about “Natural Child Birth” at all.
Was he talking about,
1. Being Born of Water
– Jesus was not talking about “Natural Child Birth” when he referred to “being born of water”. Read the book of ACTS and see how “water” and baptism is applied to salvation. You will find that the apostles always, always, always baptized full emersion into the water right then and there, no questions asked, except when the question
“can we forbid them water?” was asked.
and
2. Being Born of Spirit
– And if being born of water is baptism then what is being born of Spirit? As we read through the book of ACTS we will find that every time the apostles came in contact with a new convert they laid has on them and the individuals received the Holy Ghost and always, always, always spoke in tongues or a new language. The individuals were always, always, always were baptized in the name of Jesus, even when the scripture does not directly say they were baptized in Jesus name the name of Jesus was being preached prior to the baptism taking place.
Notice one more thing about these scriptures.
The first thing about Jesus’ mouth in reply to Nicodemus’ question was this.
“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.”
When Nicodemus got confused like many Christians today Jesus said a second time: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.”
Notice the words “cannot see” and “cannot enter” in verses 3 and 5. First, he said cannot see then quickly corrected Nicodemus and then repeated himself more sternly and simply said: “cannot enter”.
Now, here is my point.
If there was one thing, just one thing that would get you into heaven wouldn’t you want to know what it was? Sure you would! Jesus simply said
“Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.”
Jesus also told the apostles: ”
All power is given unto me in heaven and in the earth.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen.
