[stephanos]

Originally Posted by tonybones2112

MC, all I have to say to you is thank you. Do you know I am tired of fighting?

I'm tired, not of the war, not of being a soldier as Paul commands ua to be, I'm tired of fighting with my brethren and my sisteren(original greek, that one. I'm tired of being on the front line and being told I belt my sword on the wrong hip and war in the ranks breaking out. I don't want war with my own troops, I want to guide and help Tandi. And anyone else. I ain't put 25 years of study into what I've studied and it is massive, for me.

I've never read Darby and only poems and song lyrics by JC O'Hair. I read enough Stam to see he was like John R. Rice, a lightyear wide and half an inch deep doctrinally. I believe we must be "born again", yes, it's in Paul's letters, the new creature., the new man. I'm not a Calvinist as Stam, he brought that into his work from his Dutch Reform background. And I do NOT believe ONLY the original manuscripts were given by inspiration and I got to search through 215 "versions" of the bible to cherry-pick doctrine as the Jesuits want us to.

God love Dr. Ruckman, you won't find me anywhere in his "Why I Am Not A Hyperdispennsationalist". I'm castout even among the dispensationalists. They are divided into Mid-Acts, Early-Acts, Northcentral Acts, Southewestern Acts; where did the "body" begin?

At Calvary, it was revealed by Paul. Something can be there but not revealed. As Bilbo to Gollum in the The Hobbit: What have I got in my pocket? Twixt you and me, I don't care where or when the Body began, only that He let you and me in.

MC, I hope water baptism is our only contention we ever have. I hope you will help me make every thought captive for Christ, and that I can be a help to you in the same manner. Baptism is a statement of faith to you, it's the first step in consecrating a Levite priest to me. Water baptism is sight and not faith to me. The same method we use(Isaiah 28) to learn all the rest of His truth is the method I used to determine water baptism is the ritual consecration of a Levite, John baptised to make a "kingdom of priests".

In the flesh I look like a deserter from the Confederate Army, I am a dying breed in America: I'm a gun-owning-tobacco using-heterosexual. I am part Shawnee Indian and before I cut 10 inches from it I could sit on my hair. The bikers in the street ask me, why do you look like "us" but act like ":them"? Because you ain't supposed to look at me, you're supposed to look at the words in this Book.

I have 4 heroes among men: the Apostle Paul, my pastor Bill Jennings, Pastor Richard Jordan and Arthur Blessit. Jordan was thrown out of the Bereans for making the KJV the only bible they were to use, Blessit was stood up in front of firing squads for Christ carrying that wooden cross 36,000 miles. That's humbling, all I ever did was take a Buck knife from a biker who was gonna stab me. I just reached out and flick!, took it from his hand.

Enough about me. I must decrease, He must increase.

If I haven;t scared you to death by now, let's stand in rank together. Only thing is I don;t drop when they shout "incoming..." My armor is better than Kevlar.

I'll leave you with my favorite bible verse: If we had hope of Christ in this life alone we would be, of all men, most miserable.

Grac4e and peace to you this day and all days, MC.

Tony "Bones" Howard

You'd have a hard time shewing that baptism is to make Levites. I can count at least 7 different baptisms in the Scriptures and non of them have anything to do with Levites. Not only that but Paul wrote this:

That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. (Romans 10:9 KJV)

Confessing with thy mouth is "sight not faith" as you said. James wrote on this here:

For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (James 2:26 KJV)

Which shews that there should always be two parts to our conversion, the saving action which is unseen, and the physical witness which we do before men. This is why we baptise those that come to Christ, so that they can have a chance to "confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus" and so that they can also shew forth the figure of what happens inside when they are baptised by the Holy Ghost:

The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: (1 Peter 3:21 KJV)

I don't believe Peter is saying that dunking (as it's translated in Martin Luthers German translation, lol) saves us, which is why he said "like figure". What saves us is what happens inside a man which that baptism in water is a figure of.

Just out of curiosity, are you aware that we Christians will go through the water one more time? If can give me a book chapter and verse you will have earned a browny point with me

For Jesus' sake,
Stephen