Many who call themselves preachers and others who claim to be preaching the gospel leave out parts that are important to salvation. Those who hear are left without the full instruction of the requirements for being saved and living the new life in Christ. All manner of nostrums are presented ranging from all you need to do is believe to join a church of your choice and then get saved as the way to be saved. There are other doctrines (too numerous to mention here) that aren’t any more biblical than the two mentioned.

In an article, A Blueprint for transformation by Greg Laurie on World Net Daily, 03-29-2009, Laurie wrote how the church transformed the world of that day. He gave a short history of the early church, how it managed in the Roman Empire, and the trials the early church endured to spread the gospel. As the article was read, the inescapable conclusion was and still is that Mr. Laurie was selling the gospel short and continues to do so when he writes.

It should be noted that all too often that many parts of the gospel are left out. The missing parts seem to follow a pattern among various groups. A close inspection of the missing truths will reveal that they aren’t compatible with various doctrines of the different groups. So to keep everyone happy, the inconvenient truths are left out. The inconvenient truth left out is the instruction for baptism which is the beginning act of a new life in Christ.  Mr. Laurie wrote, But as a pastor, I am far more interested in having a biblical church. I am far more interested doing things the way God wants them to be done. Then he followed with, We find a template, if you will, for a biblical church in the New Testament's Book of Acts. It is a template that was followed by a handful of believers who left their world a different place than the one they had found. They turned their world upside down. There is no disputing the fact that the new church did change the scene in the Roman Empire: an immoral scene that Mr. Laurie described correctly in the fourth paragraph of the article. But Mr. Laurie should teach what the Bible reveals about the biblical church since his desire is to follow what God says in His word of truth.

Near the end of the article, Mr. Laurie quoted Acts 2:42. "And they continued steadfastly in the apostles' doctrine and fellowship, in the breaking of bread, and in prayers" (NKJV). And what was the apostle’s doctrine? You would never know by reading Mr. Laurie’s article. He left out three requirements that are part of the doctrine that the apostle Peter and his fellow apostles preached that day long ago.

Acts Chapter 2 reveals to us that the Jews were convicted of sin; they were told to repent and they were baptized. Another part which is gleaned from the reading, but not named as such, is found in Paul’s letter to the church at Corinth, II Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. The people in Acts Two had been baptized and thus were in Christ. They were new creatures; the old in their lives had passed away and all was new in Christ. They began to live that life with trials and hardships which would come their way as they proclaimed and lived the new way in Christ.

It must be remembered that the people of Acts Two were Jews who had been trying to be saved by following the law. They were enslaved to a system that couldn’t save and the good news that liberated them was that God had forgiven them in Christ and now they could not only tell the good news of salvation but experience it. These Jews had crucified Jesus Christ which Peter drove home in Acts 2:36, Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ. Being saved from God’s wrath due to murdering His Son was the reason for their new behavior told in Acts 2:42. Salvation from sin began to change not only the early believers, but the Roman Empire also.

© 3-22-2009 DEC

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