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Baptism may be more important than you think. Virtually every Christian tradition practices baptism, but with diverse understandings of its form and meaning. Baptists (and similar traditions) have emphasized the restriction of baptism to confessing believers and immersion as the mode, and they have usually interpreted baptism as a post-conversion act of human obedience, rather than a sacramental means of grace. In this book, a Baptist theologian calls for a reformation of Baptist thought and practice, arguing that a biblical theology of baptism interprets baptism as a sacramental seal of conversion. The book develops the biblical case for this perspective and answers questions about its practical implications.
Baptism has been a contested practice from the very beginning of the church. In this volume, Ben Witherington rethinks the theology of baptism and does so in constant conversation with the classic theological positions and central New Testament texts. By placing baptism in the context of the covenant, Witherington shows how advocates of both believer's baptism and infant baptism have added some water to both their theology and practice of baptism.
Baptism has been a contested practice from the very beginning of the church. In this volume, Ben Witherington rethinks the theology of baptism and does so in constant conversation with the classic theological positions and central New Testament texts. By placing baptism in the context of the covenant, Witherington shows how advocates of both believer's baptism and infant baptism have added some water to both their theology and practice of baptism
It is quite an assertion to claim that one is filled with the Spirit of God. What does a person offer as proof that this is actually true? Pentecostals at the turn of the twentieth century read the Bible, debated the issue, and then proposed an evidence they thought the scriptures indicated was the primary verification of Spirit-baptism. It was determined that the evidence to prove one had been baptized with the Holy Spirit was that the person had spoken in an unknown language as prompted by the Holy Spirit. The primary evidence of Spirit-baptism, it was concluded, was the expression of a charism. It was charismatic. In The Ultimate Evidence, Larry Newman argues that the initial evidence doctrine, as it stands, is inadequate and needs to be revisited and adjusted. Without discrediting or devaluing speaking in tongues, Newman points the reader to the ultimate evidence of Spirit-baptism: the more excellent way. Gathering from historical, cultural, and biblical sources, Dr. Newman argues that the biblical evidential paradigm is ethical and issues forth from the agape of the Cross. It is the ethical dimension of the Christian life that is primary. In 1 Cor 13:1 Paul wrote: "If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal."
Why does the allegiance that radical terrorists give to their false cause exceed the allegiance that most Christians today give to Jesus Christ? In Insurgence, bestselling author Frank Viola presents a radical proposal for Christians. Namely, that we have lost the explosive, earthshaking gospel of the kingdom that Jesus, Paul, and the other apostles preached. Viola argues that we've lost this dynamic, titanic, living gospel and exchanged it for a gospel of religious duty or permissiveness and "easy believism." In today's politically charged era, Christians on the progressive left as well as the conservative right both equate their particular viewpoints with the kingdom of God. Viola challenges and dismantles these perspectives, offering a fresh and revolutionary look at the gospel of the kingdom. Viola writes with gripping power, challenging Christians to embrace an unparalleled allegiance to Jesus Christ and his kingdom. This high-octane message is being reclaimed today, launching a spiritual insurgence.
This works seeks to provide practical and biblical wisdom addressing the baptism and membership of young children.
This collection of essays includes historical and theological studies in the sacraments from a Baptist perspective. Subjects explored include the liturgy and sacrement, presence of the Kingdom, some fallacies of Baptist anti-sacramentalism, ...a profound mystry, first communion, sacraments in a virtual world, richly are thy children fed, the scacraments, sacramental pratices of the believing community, priesthood of all the people, "laying on of hands," holistic approach to water-baptism, powerful practices, and enough to set a Kimgdom laughing.
In The Baptism of Early Virginia, Rebecca Anne Goetz examines the construction of race through the religious beliefs and practices of English Virginians. She finds the seventeenth century a critical time in the development and articulation of racial ideologies—ultimately in the idea of “hereditary heathenism,” the notion that Africans and Indians were incapable of genuine Christian conversion. In Virginia in particular, English settlers initially believed that native people would quickly become Christian and would form a vibrant partnership with English people. After vicious Anglo-Indian violence dashed those hopes, English Virginians used Christian rituals like marriage and baptism to exclude first Indians and then Africans from the privileges enjoyed by English Christians—including freedom. Resistance to hereditary heathenism was not uncommon, however. Enslaved people and many Anglican ministers fought against planters’ racial ideologies, setting the stage for Christian abolitionism in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Using court records, letters, and pamphlets, Goetz suggests new ways of approaching and understanding the deeply entwined relationship between Christianity and race in early America. "Goetz has done an impressive job bringing religion to the center of the historiography on race, and her study is a must-read for all scholars interested in the development of race and the role of Protestantism in the Atlantic world."—Register of the Kentucky Historical Society "In a compact 173 pages, Goetz links race and religion in colonial Virginia in ways that few other scholars have even attempted."—Journal of American History "This is impressive scholarship grounded in letters, pamphlets, court records, colonial statutes, and a wide array of additional archival and secondary sources . . . It is a book that will find ready readership in graduate seminars, seminaries, and undergraduate classrooms."—Virginia Magazine of History and Biography "Professor Goetz . . . is to be warmly applauded for having produced a work of such methodological scope and intellectual sophistication, a most persuasive work that ranks as a major contribution to the field."—Slavery and Abolition Rebecca Anne Goetz is an associate professor of history at New York University.
""Al Maxey has honestly offered a progression of his thoughts on baptism that have been formed, revised, and expanded over the last decade. This work is a shining example of a disciple of Christ who openly, honestly, and bravely reviews what he believes and is convicted about. He is not afraid to ask himself if he has embraced error. He does not study the Scriptures to reinforce what he has already become comfortable with. Seldom do we have a written record that chronologically records one's progression of thought on a single subject that is so core to Christendom. To Al's credit, the scholarship within the individual chapters of this book is impeccable. And so I charge you the reader: Do not be fearful as you read and study this work, but rather be thoughtful, be honest, pray for understanding, and endeavor to know the freedom found in Christ Jesus."" DR. BARRY PERRYMAN, PH.D. UNIVERSITY PROFESSOR/AUTHOR