Hi Pastor John,
I couldn’t help but send this to you. It’s one of those “what in the world can they be thinking” statements. I found it on a pentecostal website, TRYING to teach about salvation. It was two different statements on their same site.
“The act of being baptized washes away all your sins making your soul spotless. But baptism isn’t just being sprinkled with water, it is the full immersion of a person underwater.” AND, then… “When a person receives the Holy Ghost, God literally comes and lives in that person. This is an important step of salvation, and without it a person is not truly saved. To be filled with the Holy Ghost a person must have asked Jesus for forgiveness(and some people must be baptized) then they must ask Jesus for the Holy Ghost.”
Do you read what I am reading? Crazy confusion! You know, they may be just trying to fit in a desperate answer of someone getting the holy Ghost before their water baptism (washes their sins). They just can’t explain it! Makes you feel so bad for them, because we know the simple answer to their confusion.
Melissa
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Hi Melissa.
Solomon said something to the effect that with much wisdom is much grief, and he who increases in knowledge increases in sorrow. What we feel when we read such nonsense is the increased sorrow for God’s people that comes with understanding. May God help them, just as He has graciously helped us.
Pastor John
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You are so right. It’s hard sometimes. So many times all you can do is cry, when thinking about it. I know I do. I can begin thinking about it all, and the Spirit just takes over and I cry. It’s really not me crying though, its just floods of tears in the Spirit.
Melissa