Baptized for the Dead

Yesterday I was asked about what books or authors are appropriate for Seventh-day Adventists. My response to this question is posted below: There are two principles we can apply when deciding which books or authors are appropriate. First and foremost the authors need to have a high view of scripture. In establishing what is considered a high view of scripture there also a few things to consider: the nature of inspiration, and methods of interpretation. Seventh-day Adventists reject higher critical forms of interpretation and do not believe that we should utilize methods that impose the same critiques applied to other books besides the bible. When it comes to the nature of inspiration there are generally three schools of thought: verbal, plenary or thought, and moral inspiration. We believe in plenary or thought inspiration and therefore we could not reduce the bible to simply a collection of moral literature. While we do do not believe that the bible is literally the words of God I...

Jesus said to the Samaritan woman: But whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.” John 4:14 Why could Jesus be sure that after drinking the water that He gives a person would never thirst? Jesus could be sure is because He is the fountain of living waters. The bible says:  O LORD, the hope of Israel,  All who forsake You shall be ashamed.  “Those who depart from Me  Shall be written in the earth,  Because they have forsaken the LORD,  The fountain of living waters.”  Jeremiah 17:13 So if Jesus is the fountain of living waters and Jesus does this mean that you and I only need to drink once or better yet does this mean that we will only want to drink once? The answer is no. The bible says:  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,   For they shall be filled. Matthew 5:6 An...

Jesus said in Luke 11:13: If you then, being evil,  know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him! Luke 11:13 It is clear then that we need to ask God to receive the Holy Spirit. But is it enough to simply ask? Are there any other conditions that need to be met in order to receive the Spirit of God. In the book of Acts the apostle Peter said to the Pharisees: And we are His witnesses to these things, and so also is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey Him. Acts 5:32 Peter makes it clear that God gives the Holy Spirit to those that obey Him. But what are we supposed to  obey? In Acts 10 Peter was called by God to go and share the truth about Jesus with a Roman centurion, Cornelius, and his men. So Peter went, told them about Jesus and said: 43 To Him all the prophets witness that, through His name, whoever believes in Him will receive remission of sins.”  44 ...

In Leviticus 23 God told the ancient Israelites to afflict their souls on the Day of Atonement, which occurred on the tenth day of the seventh month. God says: Also the tenth day of this seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement. It shall be a holy convocation for you; you shall afflict your souls, and offer an offering made by fire to the LORD. Leviticus 23:26 The word in Leviticus 23:26 translated as "afflict" is translated as "humbled" in Psalm 35:13 when David wrote: I humbled myself with fasting. Thus the ancient Israelites understood the term "afflict your souls" to mean humble your soul and one of the ways that they did this was to fast as evidenced by David's fast. When we fast we deny ourselves something. Generally a fast refers to denying ourselves food for a certain period of time, but fasting can be applied to refraining from certain activities as well. As the ancient Israelites observed the Day of Atonement they would fast from...

According to Wikipedia there are approximately 41,000 Christian denominations. That's a lot of denominations. Presumably there are 41,000 different denominations because each of these denominations believe that they have the truth about what God wants for our lives. The question then becomes for the individual: "How do I find the truth?" Well, the bible answers that question in Isaiah 28:9 . The verse says:   Whom will he teach knowledge? And whom will he make to understand the message? Those just weaned from milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? In this text God tells us that He will teach those that are weaned from milk and drawn from the breast. This means that God can only teach people that are not dependent upon others for their spiritual nourishment. Jeremiah 29:13 says: And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. When we compare these two texts we realize that the emphasis in Jeremiah 29:13 is on t...