Quote:
Originally Posted by HeavenlyOne
Thanks for this wonderful explanation. I'll continue with the questions.
Since one is considered saved at repentance, what happens if they don't get baptised with water and the Holy Ghost? Are they then unsaved?
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When we moved to our city in 1950 we lived around the corner from the
Assembly of God church. As there was no apostolic church in this city we
visited this church a few times. A girl in my class at school attended there
and we became best friends. Later after we graduated from high school,
she married the AOG pastor's only child, a son, who was in our class also.
We all graduated together in 1957 (50 yrs. ago this past May). Sept. 8th
we will gather together and have a 50th reunion of our classmates. Not
one has died. This best friend of mine who married the AOG pastor's son
has been very ill and is still not well. I have prayed that if He would see
fit, let her live to be there. Years ago she and her husband left his dad's
church and went to a larger AOG church ten miles away. They went a
different direction. Today they attend a local (not AOG)church in our city.
One thing I remember her telling me many years ago while in her father in
law''s church. That they believed you were saved when you accepted
Christ as your personal Savior and then you were baptized. Although you
were saved after accepting Christ and being baptized, it was good, though
not necessary to be saved, to seek the Spirit. The church they attend now
teach that you accept Christ as your personal Saviour, are baptized as an
outward sign. I do not see much difference in that and what they grew up
in. The thing about it, it sounds very much like what I am hearing here that
the "one-steppers" believe. Three totally different groups but it sounds like
the same basic plan of salvation. John the Baptist came teaching of One
who would baptize them with the Holy Ghost and with fire. John decreased
and Jesus increased. After His death, burial and resurrection, He taught his
disciples and then opened their understanding to what the scriptures meant.
They obeyed and received. Has what He taught His disciples changed. What
they did proves what He told them to do and they did it.
Jesus told His apostles that even as His Father had appointed Him a kingdom
so He appointed them a kingdom. He told them that if they suffered with Him,
they would reign with Him.(in glory). He told them that in the re-generation,
when He sat in the throne of His glory, they would also sit on twelve thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. I want HIM to open my understanding as
I want to be where He and His "little flock" are. He said it was the Father's
good pleasure to give them the Kingdom. And that Kingdom was not meat and
drink but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Don't tell me it is
not important to receive the Holy Ghost as they did in Acts. Paul said he was
not ashamed of the gospel of Jesus Christ for it is the POWER of GOD unto
salvation to them that believe, no matter who they were. He gave them the
keys and it was opened to them. The Spirit and the Bride said "Come", to
all that are thirsty, and as of last Sunday, they were still coming where we
teach that "Blessed are they who do hunger and thirst after RIGHTEOUSNESS
for they SHALL be filled"!
My late father, who with his mother came out of a denominal church in
1933-34. wanted to sit down with the AOG minister and in brotherly love
with their Bibles, discuss their differences. This man told my dad that they
were friends now but if they did that they would not be friends. The AOG
minister had circulated tracts all over town against the teachings of what
we believed and taught. As a young girl with two of my siblings, we picked
okra for a man and his wife who was AOG and we were told that their
church was fasting and praying for those "new lights" to leave town. We
were the "new lights". As a child (11 or 12 yrs. old) I didn't understand what
the issue was. The work Dad and Mom started for God in 1958 still stands
as a witness today, almost 50 yrs. later. (Nov.12, 2008). I was there when
it happened and I guess I ought to know!
Blessings,
Falla39
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