Baptized for the Dead

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...