Martin Luther on Christian Baptism: IT SAVES!!!!!!

[mizpeh]

Originally Posted by 1399

"Three-steppers" say they believe we are saved by faith. But it isn't what they practice.

They usually have a performance mind set that starts with their insistence that one must speak in tongues in order to verify their salvation.

That's not saved by faith-- that's saved because one spoke in tongues.

Faith is a means to an end. We are saved BY faith not AT faith. Everything we do is BY faith even receiving the Holy Spirit. Tongues is a sign that a believer has initially been filled with the Spirit of God. Tongues doesn't save us.

Is obeying the commands of Christ a "performance mindset"? Is seeking a relationship with Christ a performance on our part? When we pray, fast, study the Bible are we performing or are we seeking to draw close to God and to know Him better? Do we witness to the lost because we are looking for notches in our crown or because we care for their souls?

I can give you three examples of believers in the Bible who received the Holy Spirit with the evidence of tongues and a few other supporting verses. Does every conversion in the book of Acts have to include "and they spoke in other tongues" for us to accept that tongues is the evidence that a believer has received the Holy Spirit? Have you searched out EVERY conversion in the book of Acts and noted what happened in each event?

Does Luke specifically write that Lydia or the jailer and his family were filled with the Holy Spirit? No.

Is the Spirit indwelling the believer necessary for salvation? Yes. So were Lydia and the jailer not saved because the Bible doesn't tell us that they received the Spirit? NO.

We believe that there is one gospel and that the disciples taught the same thing everywhere they went. Just because it is not written that those two instances of conversion involved an outpouring of the Spirit of God does not mean they were not filled with the Spirit. And in like manner just because every conversion in the book of Acts doesn't include speaking in tongues does not mean it did not happen the same way it did to the disciples in Acts 2..........we all receive the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in other tongues.

John 1:12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: