When I was twenty years old, I went to join my parents who were living in Israel. That was expected of me. I'm not the type to do what is expected of me but being a peacemaker at heart, I am not rebellious either. I prefer to look at things from a logical point of view and it seemed to me that experiencing life in a different country would be a good idea so I chose to go along with it. Out of all countries, Israel held the least attraction for me but this would be my opportunity to go somewhere and do something different. I loved South Africa but I didn't want to spend my life doing what felt good. Rather, I wanted to be able to look back on my life, knowing that I had done something interesting and worthwhile so I decided to take the plunge, not knowing how my future would unravel. I spent my last months in South Africa savouring every moment and believing that I would never return. The plunge itself turned out to be gruelling, like diving in the deep end, getting exhausted after a long swim but being unable to get out of the water. I'd had enough and wanted to get back on land but I was stuck and was never able to go back to live in my homeland. But I'm grateful that I succeeded in my goal; Although I haven't led a comfortable and happy life, my life has been meaningful and worthwhile and I experienced a variety of interesting things. I can honestly say that I have no regrets but rather have great joy and satisfaction when I look back on my life and I can see that throughout all of the difficulties, God has always been with me and planned my steps. In later years, I understood why it was not God's will for me to return to South Africa
At the age of twenty, I would be returning to live with my parents again which they expected. I knew that this would be a terrible strain but I had no choice as I was not yet independent and earning my own money. They lived in Netanya which is a tourist city and very central, about the forth or fifth biggest city on the coast of Israel. I did various things in the following years for varying amounts of time. These were the things that I did in order of sequence: Five months at the city ulpan (school to learn Hebrew), another five months studying Hebrew and working on a kibbutz. Most of the work we did on the kibbutz was in an olive factory where we would sit alongside a conveyer belt and sort out the olives. Every now and then another odd job would pop up instead, like work in the fields, preparing food in the kitchen or cleaning up the communal dining room after a meal. Next, I had a three month trip around Europe followed by another five months of working and studying Hebrew on another kibbutz. This time I worked in a factory where we made plastic lenses for glasses and now and then I would work in another section where beautiful ornaments were made from the same plastic chemicals. After that I worked in Ashkelon as a volunteer in a certain programme where we assisted the English teachers to help the children learn English and I coached tennis in the afternoons. This programme was specifically for English speakers so everyone was assigned a school in various low class areas around the city to help out with English lessons in the mornings and this I greatly loved. In the afternoons we could choose to do anything that we could think of, usually with children or youth to keep them busy. I loved sports and had been coached in tennis for many years when growing up so it was not a problem for me to coach others at a basic level. After five months, I went back home again to Netanya where I continued to give English lessons which I still love to do. I worked about eight months tending rosebushes, spent more time doing various kinds of work on Moshavim (like farming settlements) such as tending to flowers, plants, an occasional day with chicks or picking avocados. I spent three seasons working with oranges in a packing house, four months soldering in an electronics factory, one year as a dental assistant which I loved and two months in a home for disabled people where I was kicked out because it was discovered that I was a believer in Yeshua, an abomination in Israel. Yeshua is the name of Jesus in Hebrew which means salvation or saviour and the average Jew thinks that by believing in Christ we have converted to Christianity and therefore betrayed our religion, not to mention the atrocities committed against Jews throughout history which they believe to have been done in the name of Christ so one needs great sensitivity and the leading of the Lord in matters concerning our faith. Although I never mentioned my faith at this work place, one particular religious organisation tracks down believers and came to know about me and didn't want 'missionaries' (a filthy word in Hebrew given to all believers) influencing handicapped people and they successfully got rid of me from that work place. Fortunately, they never succeeded in getting rid of me from my last job which I loved where I was a postlady for three years. By the time I stopped working, I was thirty-one years old, had already been in Israel eleven years, was a firm believer in Yeshua as my Lord, Saviour and King, had gotten married and was six months pregnant with my first child.
In spite of extreme financial difficulties, I chose never to go to work again as both Kees and myself believe that a mother's place is in the home with her children, even if they are teenagers, and it is unthinkable for us to give up our children for the sake of financial security. Instead, we believe that if we have our spiritual priorities in the correct order that God will supply our needs in His way and time and although at times, the struggle has been severe He has proven Himself to be faithful to us. We have no regrets and we recommend that others do the same. Today we bear the fruit of a good relationship with our children whom we have brought up in the ways of the Lord and we believe that it is not luck or coincidence that in our home there is no hint of the usual plague of teenage rebellion. I enjoy being able to welcome my husband and teenagers when they come home, to be available to them and to fill the home with God's glorious Spirit. This is a such great and wonderful privilege, as well as a great responsibility and it has been wonderful for me to fit myself into God's glorious plan for women, like fitting a hand into a glove.
But back to the the story! One of my biggest problems was loneliness. I made new friends but didn't feel the same connection that I had had with my old friends from South Africa and everything seemed dull in comparison to my previous, adventurous party life. Living with my parents was also exceptionally difficult. Having totally different world views, interests and life goals, it was as if we were from different planets which brought added friction to the relationship and as long as I lived with them it was the most natural thing for me to spend my time shut up in my bedroom, only to come out when necessary. I suppose that that was my defense mechanism to try to avoid conflict by fleeing to my peaceful haven but it never helped the situation either as they just wanted a child who appeared to be a bit more normal and outgoing rather than having to live with a recluse. I also experienced torturous periods during the first few years where I sat at home doing nothing because I didn't have a clue what to do with my life and I had no idea that there was an employment agency down the road where I could get help finding a job. My parents tried to help me by taking me around to look at various courses but nothing interested me and I wasn't convinced that I would be able to successfully study anything in Hebrew, especially seeing that I was a bottom of the class student. Eventually, I discovered a very small, secondhand English bookshop down the road with a good, but small selection of books on the supernatural and that became the highlight of my first years in Israel. I was still searching for the truth, wanting to know why I was alive and what life was all about and these books were meaningful to me and gave me plenty to think about. Of course, I realise now that much of what I was reading such as reincarnation and many other things is nonsense but at that stage it fascinated me and I was grateful to have something to chew on. After about two years, I reached my lowest point in loneliness and depression and I asked my father if I could go back to South Africa but to my surprise he refused. For the first time I realised that I was stuck. Waking up daily to the same nothingness as the day before was unbearable and the friends I had could not replace the cemented friendships and exciting lifestyle that I had left behind. I remember walking down the street, seeing people chatting, holding hands, communicating, laughing, enjoying one another and I would literally get tears in my eyes just seeing people being together. Having no immediate and practical goal for the future, I didn't know what to do with myself and I felt bored, empty, lost and unloved. People were all around me connecting with one another but I was an outsider looking in. I was trapped and there was no way out! Today I understand that if I'd had my old friends and lifestyle, they would have led me back into the world and God was weaning me from my old, worldly life.
One day, after I'd been in Israel about two years, I went back to the bookshop to get another book. When I got to the section on the supernatural, it all seemed so familiar. I'd read most of the books in that section and I felt the need for something different so I walked down another aisle and came across biographies. I picked up a book called Appointment in Jerusalem by Derek Prince. On the back it said something about the Holy Spirit leading Lydia to Jerusalem. That sounded mysterious and interesting so I bought it and left. It turned out to be one of the most precious books I've ever read! I knew that every word was true and it made a great impression on me. At about the same time I discovered a T.V. programme called the 700 club where people give their testimonies of coming to the Lord and I was absolutely fascinated. For the first time in my life I learnt all about Jesus. Up till then, I knew nothing about Jesus except that this was a name that was associated with the Christian religion. I thirstily drank in everything and I believed it all with my whole heart. I loved to hear the words of knowledge and testimonies of healing and daily I prayed with them the sinners prayer which was not strange or new for me seeing that I had already repented years previously.
Then one night, I woke up from sleep immersed in an ocean of love. This was no human emotion and I had never experienced something like this before. Normally when we feel love, it originates from inside ourselves and goes out to someone else. This was the opposite. I felt an intense love from outside of myself flooding my whole being. The atmosphere around me was thick with this powerful love and I knew that nothing on earth, not even a hard drug could compare to this. It was so outstanding that I knew that this could only be God. Bathed in His glorious love, I got up and walked around in the dark, stunned and wide eyed, hugging myself while muttering and whispering "Wow! God loves me! Wow, God is blessing me"! I was gloriously smothered in God's love. Years previously, in my bedroom in South Africa, God had given me a gift of faith, the knowledge that He is real and that He loves me and now some years later in my bedroom in Israel, He manifested His great love for me in a profound and glorious way. I knew first by faith and then later by experience that God loves me with an exceptionally powerful love. It was a tremendous thing to experience, especially seeing that I was so lonely and feeling so unloved.
(ISV �2008)International Standard Version
I now know that that night I was born again but at the time I had no understanding of what had happened to me and I had no connection with other believers who could enlighten me. I had no idea that there were other believers around and that they were meeting together in the city where I lived, so for several years after this experience my life continued on in much the same way except that I had a problem keeping my mouth shut about Jesus. I knew He was for real and no doubt I shocked many people seeing that the name of Jesus is an abomination in Israel. I also wonder how that book by Derek Prince got into that bookshop because that would be considered an abomination too. It was also quite a miracle that that T.V. programme was showing for several years, probably more than ten or twenty years. A few years later I returned the book to the bookshop which I later regretted but perhaps God wanted it there for someone else. Now I have a new copy.
The first thought that comes to the mind of a Jew who is not a believer in Jesus is that we have betrayed our religion and our people by believing in Jesus and I wanted to write something to put the record straight. Basically, Jesus was born a Jew, lived as an Israeli Jew and died a Jew. All of his disciples were Jewish and for many years after his death, all of his followers were Jewish. These followers continued on practising Judaism after Jesus died and it was a very Jewish thing to believe in Jesus. In fact, it was totally foreign for these Jews to consider that a gentile could ever become a follower of Jesus. That thought had never occurred to them. The first non-Jewish person to believe in Jesus was Cornelius who was 'converted' after the death of Jesus, possibly several years after his death and the Jews were clearly flabbergasted that it was God's intention for non-Jews to become followers of Christ. We can read about Cornelius in Chp 10 in the book of Acts, which is a historical book telling of many events after the death of Jesus. Soon after that, other gentiles became followers of Christ which caused a lot of confusion for the Jewish followers who seemed to think that these gentiles ought to follow the laws of Moses and become Jewish! The problem was discussed in Acts 15 where it was decided that it would be fine for the gentile believers to stick to just four basic rules:
It simply came about over the centuries that belief in Jesus became a more 'Christian' thing due to non-Jewish believers not understanding the Jewish roots of our faith. But that was man's mistake and not God's intention. In the bible, no Jewish follower in Jesus ever stopped being Jewish or changed their religion. On the contrary, we consider ourselves just as Jewish, if not more so than before, and believe that we are complete Jews, having discovered the true Messiah that Israel is still searching and waiting for. Baptism is not a Christian invention but has its roots in the Old Testament where God commanded the people to consecrate (separate) themselves to him and to prepare for that by cleaning their bodies and their clothes. In the New Testament, the Jews were baptised as a sign of repentance and this was firstly done by John the Baptist, another Jew whom we can read about in Matt. 3. In Romans 11, Paul tells us that the gentile followers have been grafted into the olive tree, meaning that through faith they have become Hebrews or Jews.
Paul was another Jew who came from a very religious and intellectual background and persecuted the Jewish believers until he himself became a follower of Jesus when Jesus who had already died, miraculously revealed himself to Paul. If you want to read about how Paul came to believe in Jesus then read the Book of Acts chapter 9. In the following verse you have some of Paul's credentials showing his Jewish background:
There are also many prophecies in the Old Testament clearly pointing to Jesus. The most remarkable one, in my opinion, is Isaiah 53 which foretells the suffering, death and purpose of Jesus' coming but strangely the Jews prefer to ignore this passage of scripture and will not read it in the synagogues. People may think that this talks of the Jews but though the Jews have certainly been hounded and victimized down through the centuries, if you read through the bible you will find that clearly they would not be a perfect sacrifice and have not suffered as a sacrifice for the sins of others. In fact, it was God's chosen people who had failed God and were in need of a saviour and that sacrifice would have to be perfect, just as all Old Testament sacrifices had to be perfect.
Many Jews automatically assume that the New Testament is a non-Jewish book, antisemitic, poisonous and not to be touched. In fact, it is a very Jewish book, written by Jews with mainly Jewish characters, with many historical facts and not at all antisemitic. The average Jew understandably has barriers in his heart towards Christianity, as well as this book, because of persecution down through the centuries by 'Christians'. In fact, persecution was not caused by true followers of Christ (unless they were horribly misled). The Spanish Inquisition, the Cossacks, Hitler, etc were definitely not Christian because they were not following Christ. Christ commanded us to fulfil the commandments of God--to love God and our fellow man, and if you study the scriptures, you will not find any evidence of Jesus, at any time, ever telling his disciples or anyone else to persecute or murder anyone and nor did the disciples ever teach that.
What about the name Jesus Christ? It sounds so awfully 'Christian'. In my opinion there is nothing wrong in calling him Jesus Christ although personally I don't like the sound of it either and his Hebrew name is far more meaningful and less offensive to Jews. His name was/is in fact Yeshua which means salvation, similar to other names in the bible like Yehoshua (Joshua) or Yeshayahu (Isaiah). As for Christ, that is the Greek word meaning anointed one and in Hebrew we will say Yeshua Hamashiach--Salvation, the anointed one. This doesn't sound 'Christian' at all and it is certainly more meaningful to call our Lord 'Anointed Saviour' rather than a name which we don't really understand. The word 'baptism' may also sound 'Christian'. Actually it is Greek and was never properly translated. It means a full immersion in water and is a cleansing as a sign of repentance, as well as an identification with Jesus' death, burial and resurrection and becoming one with him (Rom. 6: 3-6) and one with one another.(1 Cor. 17)
But what does it mean to be a Jew and who was the first Jew? The word Jew in Hebrew is Yehudi which comes from the nameYehuda or Judah which means 'to praise' so the real Jews are those who worship and praise God--God praisers. These are people who are privileged to walk their lives out with God and the first example in the bible is that of Abraham. Before the Law was given it is written that Abraham believed God and it was reckoned to him as righteousness.
And so it is today that it is not various rituals or 'Jewish tradition's which make us Jewish or God praisers in God's eyes. It is a walk in faith and a life of dedication, worship and praise to the Creator of this universe. This is how Paul explained it:
Ultimately, being a Jew or Christian in God's eyes has nothing to do with practising rituals, what family we were born into or going to church or the synogogue. It really is a heart issue of living a life of sacrifice and devotion to God, to love Him with all of our heart, souls, mind and might and to praise and worship Him.
Personally, I like to call myself a believer, not a 'Christian' which would give the impression to other Jews that I have changed my religion which is not true. I am still Jewish yet don't consider myself a member of a specific religion. Religion deals with rituals and laws so even to 'Christians' I will not call myself a Christian because I walk by faith not traditions, rules and rituals. Nor do I choose to call myself a Messianic Jew (although theoretically that is correct) because I don't feel any more identified with my Jewish brothers and sisters than I do with my non-Jewish brothers and sisters, nor do I feel that it is important to announce my Jewish background by giving myself a Jewish lable. Messianic Judaism is also to some extent becoming more religious as more Jewish traditions are added to the services and brought into the homes which have no biblical basis. Some examples are the wearing of a kippah, various prayers, keeping Kosher and celebrating the feasts, not only according to the bible but mixed in with rabbinical traditions. I love to celebrate the Jewish feasts but if I do so then it will be according to the bible only. For example, if I celebrate Pesach, I will not buy Matzah or abide by the usual traditions. Instead I will make a kind of pancake for bread and our Seder will be according to the bible, not the Haggadah. I do not celebrate the 'Christian' feasts because I believe that if we are going to celebrate something then we should celebrate what God wants us to celebrate and not follow the crowd in something traditional which God has not called us to celebrate, even if it comes from the New Testament. I don't believe in doing my own thing no matter how good it looks and makes me feel. I believe that we should strive to do God's will only and offer him right sacrifices. Not everyone in the bible offered right sacrifices to God, though at the time they no doubt thought that it was fine and in the end it boils down to not having a fear of God, which as I have explained in a later chapter is more than a deep respect but a very real fear of God.
As for Pagan festivals, I believe that it is unacceptable to God to take something from the world or from some ungodly origin and dress it up in biblical niceties and I feel quite strongly about that. But I believe that above all else, we need to walk in love and I will not allow my stance on these things to disturb the love and unity that I have with my 'Christian' brothers and sisters.
But as I said, I'm not religious. I walk by faith. The only rituals I have are to worship and praise God and to commune with Him every morning and evening, to take the Lords supper regularly remembering that Jesus' suffered and died for me and to go to meetings to worship God with my brothers and sisters. The bible is my guide, Old and New Testament, and I believe that it is the inspired Word of God. My brothers and sisters in the Lord are both Jews and non-Jews and the one is not better or more important to me than the other. The only difference is in background which in my opinion is not relevant to our righteouness before God and our walk in faith. The most important thing for us all is to seek to do the will of God, to cleave to Him in love and to strive to become God worshipers. I believe that no matter what our background, we are all equally precious in God's eyes.
What I have written here is brief but it is a start in explaining that a Jew who believes in Jesus has not changed his/her religion and that our faith is in fact, a very Jewish matter. I hope that this will spur the Jewish reader on to search a bit deeper in this matter. Two good books for Jewish people who are trying to understand this issue is Yeshua the Messiah by David Chernoff and Betrayed by Stan Telchin. If anyone is interested in an on-line bible then I use these, the first one being my personal first choice.
http://quod.lib.umich.edu/r/rsv/
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=
http://bible.cc/
For Dutch:
http://www.biblija.net/biblija.cgi?m=&id16=1&pos=0&l=nl&set=10
http://www.hispage.nl/bijbel/
Here are some commentaries:
http://www.christnotes.org/commentary.php
http://www.blueletterbible.org/commentaries/
http://biblecommenter.com/
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People may wonder what it is to be born again. For many years I had no idea what had happened to me and why I had been privileged to experience God's great love for me. I didn't know that I could give it a name 'born again' and really the name itself is not so important. This is simply God's gift to us awakening our spirit and different people will have different experiences.
This is not something that we can make happen but by seeking God, repenting, acknowledging that Jesus died for us and that God raised Him from the dead and by us giving our lives over to Him, He will come to us and make Himself known to us in one way or another.
It is my understanding that three basic things are necessary in order to be born again:
1) Conviction of sin
2) Repentence
3) acknowledging in prayer that Jesus came, suffered, died for us and rose again.
There does not necessarily have to be a particular order although it's only natural that conviction will precede repentence. But as for acknowledging Jesus, usually that happens first. But the order above is how it took place in my life.
As for acknowledging Jesus, it needs to be clarified and can be pointed out from the above verse that this is not just an intellectual acknowledgement but rather receiving Jesus as Lord, Saviour and King and entering into a relationship with the Creator of the universe. Our faith is not a religion where we are to fulfil various rituals, nor is it an ideology. It is a committed relationship with the Creator of the universe who is a God of love. I heard an interesting teaching by Derek Prince where he compared being born again to that of entering into a commitment of marriage which stirred my mind up some more. Becoming a child of God or being born again is a gift from God that comes from making a commitment to God, just as we do when we get married. God wants to commit Himself to us but the question is, are we willing to commit ourselves to Him? Many people call themselves Christians but are not born again and therefore will not enter the kingdom of heaven. They believe in Him and even pray to Him, but have not entered into a relationship with Him by committing their lives to Him. They may want to go out with God for a 'date' or flirt with Him but they don't want to 'marry' Him. God will not give Himself to us so that we can flirt with Him or 'date' him whenever it's convenient for us. It's all or nothing with God. I don't mean that we have to be perfect. I'm talking here about our heart attitude. How devoted are you to living your life for God, for His sake, to glorify Him no matter what the cost?
Many people believe that Jesus came to die for us and will acknowledge that but prefer just to have a Sunday and Wednesday with Him or use Him like a father christmas to bring them gifts? God does not give Himself to these people. He will not allow Himself to be used for our own convenience. Without realising it, these people may want God to be their bondslave but it actually needs to be the other way around, with us honouring God by giving ourselves as gifts to Him and becoming His bondslave. Are you prepared to say "I do" to the Creator of the Universe, to live your life for Him and to walk with Him through thick and through thin?
Conviction of sin, repentence and being born again is a supernatural work of God and it is our privilege to seek God for this. Conviction and repentence need to become a way of life, as well as receiving Jesus, not just as Lord of the universe but personally as our Lord. If we have made Him our Lord then we will live our lives in submission to Him, not daring to do anything that He may not approve of. If you cannot say with certainty that you are born again, then seek God and don't give up. It's important not to give up because sometimes God is not always quick to answer. Perhaps He may want to test us by making us wait to see how badly we want Him.
Another matter I wanted to write about briefly is the doctrine that we are only born again and become a child of God when baptised in water and if we happen to die before being baptised then we cannot go to heaven. From my own experience, as well as from the bible, it is clear to me that this is a false doctrine. To examine any issue biblically, we cannot arrive at the truth by just looking at certain scriptures. We need to learn to balance the basic message of the bible by reading the bible as a whole book, from cover to cover as we would read any other book and by studying all scriptures, rather than just reading verses haphardly or going through verses relating to a specific subject. I wonder how many people who believe this doctrine have read the bible from beginning to end without forcusing on a specific subject, simply wanting to understand the basic message of each book.
The Old Testament is basically legalistic with an enormous amount of rules and regulations. The New Testament is the opposite. It is a gospel of grace where we can do nothing to earn our salvation, which is why it is called a gospel, meaning the good news, and grace because our salvation is a gift which cannot be earned. It certainly is good news that our salvation is not dependent on innumerable rituals which can't save us. It was God's intention to do away with legalism and rules from the Old Testament so that His law would instead be engraved on our hearts. As Oswald Chambers wrote,
http://www.myutmost.org/07/0724.html
We get a hint of the basic difference of Old and New Testaments in the following verses from the Old Testament which is quoted again in the New Testament by the writer of Hebrews:
This gospel of grace also distinguishes Christianity from every other religion in the world where in one way or another people need to work their way up to higher levels or in some way earn their salvation. All other religions consist or works and only Christianity is totally dependent on faith and the great mercy of God.
The roots of baptism come from the Old Testament where God commanded the people to wash themselves, their clothes as well as their bodies, in certain circumstances as an act of purification. Although this was a law that had to be obeyed it could not literally cleanse and purify people from their sins. The New Covenant is a covenant of grace where repentance and the shed blood of Christ cleanse us from our sins instead of animal sacrifices.
God cannot dwell with a sinner but this cleansing and purification through the shed blood of Christ opens the way for the Holy Spirit to come and dwell in our hearts. Baptism is a symbolic act declaring to the world that this inner change has taken place, and this change is actually a great exchange--instead of self being on the throne of the heart, we have offered up self and asked the Spirit of God to take His place on the throne of our hearts. This is what it is to be born again.
Paul summed up the very basics of the gospel in 1Cor.15 and there are three main points to the gospel which I have numbered in red. Again, there is no mention of baptism according to Paul in the basic gospel message:
The following verse clearly says that we are born again by the word of God, not baptism!
We can also see clearly in the story of Cornelius in Acts 10, that through repentance and faith in the shed blood of Christ, he and his household were first filled with the Holy Spirit and afterwards they were baptised in water. It clearly did not happen the other way around. Is it possible that Cornelius was an exception? The bible is about relationships, firstly our relationship to God and then to our fellow man and we can see how God relates to man when we are in a good relationship with Him or when we are not relating rightly towards Him. The Lord was gracious to Cornelius because Cornelius had a humble spririt which never fails to touch the heart of God.
Cornelius was special to God but no more special than any other person who repents and humbly seeks Him. God loved Cornelius as he loves all of his children who walk in humility, who are seeking his face and repenting.
No-one is exempt from touching the heart of God. What was possible with Cornelius is possible with anyone who is seeking God with a humble heart. If Cornelius was an exception, then this same exception was extended to me, Kees, Lydia Prince and countless other people that I know of who were seeking God with a humble heart. So this exception is not really an exception at all but rather an illustration of how God responds to anyone who humbly seeks Him.
It is possible to first be baptised and then become born again but the point I want to make is that it is incorrect to say that one cannot be born again--receive God's Holy Spirit--unless we have been baptised. The following verses confirm that our salvation and our righteousness is a gift that comes from faith in the shed blood of Christ and empasizes that works (such as baptism) have nothing to do with it:
Because of this free gift of salvation, Jesus could proclaim that the thief on the cross could enter the Kingdom of heaven (without being baptised) and countless others who may not be able to be baptised are still welcomed into the Kingdom of God, people who perhaps are in prison for life or someone living in a dry African country where they cannot be baptised. It would be a bit unreasonable that someone would not be allowed into God's glorious Kingdom because there was no way for them to be baptised even though they had repented, were cleansed from their sins through faith in the shed blood of Christ and were walking in faith and righteousness with the Holy Spirit reigning in their hearts?! It is unreasonable and illogical that our Loving Lord would shut someone out of His glorious Kingdom because someone was not able to do a cermonial washing, pointing to the great exchange that had already taken place in their hearts.
Let's take a look at Acts 15 where the apostles decided upon four basic rules for new Christians:
I am quite sure that if baptism in water was an issue of eternal life and death which this doctrine is, as it says that unbaptised people cannot enter into God's Kingdom if they should die, the Holy Spirit would have led the apostles to include it in this list of things here. But it's not in this list! If this doctrine were not false then this would be a horrific oversight on the part of the Holy Spirit!
Fortunately this is not the case. As I have said, baptism is simply a declaration of the great exchange that has already taken place in our hearts and this exchange is what it is to be born again, irrespective of whether or not we have been baptised. I am not suggesting here that we need not be baptised. I am just refuting the doctrine that says that we receive the Holy Spirit only when we are baptised, implying that it was impossible for me to be born again because I hadn't yet been baptised and if I had died before being baptised I would not have been able to go to heaven. It is a false and legalistic doctrine proclaiming that God's gift is not really a gift but has strings attached because it has to be earned by an outward act. Nothing can be further from the truth. I am convinced that there are people in the kingdom of heaven who have not been baptised, as well as people who have been baptised but will not be in the Kingdom of heaven because they haven't repented or were relying on baptism to cleanse them from their sins rather than repentance and the shed blood of Christ. Yes, that happens too. If John the baptist had agreed to baptise those Pharisees, does that mean that they would have entered the Kingdom of Heaven? Never! Their hearts were filthy with sin and obviously God's Spirit could not dwell in their hearts. John refused to baptise them because a declaration of this inner exchange would have been a lie in the face of the world but this does happen today, perhaps through naivety and a lack of discernment, and we can read a testimony here about that. If you prefer to listen rather than read, then click on the second link.
http://media.sermonaudio.com/mediapdf/118071334582.pdf
http://www.sermonindex.net/modules/myvideo/photo.php?lid=1271
Although this is the only testimony that I have come across on this subject, I am convinced that this is far more common than what we realise. In the parable of the wheat and the weeds in Mat 13: 24, this tells us of both the true and false disciples growing up together in the church and I am convinced that at least some of the weeds have been properly baptised as adults.
Let's understand that works are the natural outcome of faith and do not precede faith. If works precede faith then we have people falling into legalism which is Paul's basic message of his letter to the Galatians which is well worth studying and is only six chapters. Falling back into legalism is very common and ends up destroying all faith and joy in the Lord. If we are walking with God then He will lead us to works that He has prepared for us beforehand which is the natural outcome of our faith.
As Nancy Campbell from Above Rubies says, We are not saved by our good works, but we are saved to do good works. I am certainly glad that I cannot boast that I did anything to be born again, other than repent and pray the sinner's prayer in faith and the rest was God's doing. As Peter quoted from the book of Joel (2: 32) in Acts 2: 21, all I did was call upon the name of the Lord and I was saved.
When I was born again, I knew nothing about baptism, nor did I know that there were other believers around and for at least three years I was none the wiser. I was baptised in the Meditteranean sea, approximately four years after being born again. I had been going to congregational meetings for about one year and had sent my Ishmael away a few months before my baptism--the story in the next chapter--and only then did I begin to learn about baptism. My baptism was not a life changing experience. Being born again was. But I'm glad that God allowed me to become His child four years before I was baptised and my salvation was sealed then and was not dependent on my being baptised. Had it been God's will to bring me home to Him before my baptism, I have no doubt at all that God would have welcomed me into His glorious Kingdom.
Another false doctrine is that of baptising babies. Firstly, the word baptism means a complete immersing in water and biblically this is what it is, not a sprinkling, so if you have been sprinkled as a baby, child or grown up then you have had a nice ceremony but it was not a baptism. People who have been sprinkled need to be baptised. Secondly, it is clear from the bible that baptism is always connected to repentance and a baby cannot repent so again, it is wrong and clearly not God's will to sprinkle a baby and call that a baptism. It is a deception and anyone who goes along with this, knowing that this is not the truth is guilty of deceiving others. Some people believe that baptising babies is a replacement of or similar to circumcision but there is no indication of that in the bible and this is just man's way of trying to do something in the flesh which God has clearly not called us to do. Most people are extroadinarly entangled in their culture and teachings of the world, as well as the church world. In order to arrive at the truth, we need to be willing to let go of our culture, traditions and church teachings. We need to let go of mindsets and preconceived ideas that we are attached to and examine the Word and be led by the Word, without our church rituals, our past or someone 'in authority' influencing us.
I believe that this is one of the greatest problems in the church today. Church means 'called out assembly'. The church is God's elect who have been called out of the world to walk with God and they are not only called out of the world but may be called out of the church world which is a world within itself. We are called to be separated from the world, including the church world, and to separate ourselves unto God for His purposes. We can take the child out of the gutter but we cannot take the gutter out of the child. It takes a lifetime for God to take the gutter out of us. Most people, if not all, are blind in various areas but unfortunately some just don't want to see and choose to walk in blindness, preferring to follow the crowd rather than God's will. It is so easy to follow the crowd. Is that what you want, an easy life? A real walk in faith is not an easy life. Let us get alone with God, seek Him and ask Him to reveal where we may be blindly attached to our culture, traditions and mindsets of the world or the worldly church. Refusing to walk away from these things is what prevents us from finding and walking in the truth. May our love for the truth greatly surpass all that we may be attached to. May God give us the desire and courage to walk according to the truth only, even though that path will bring us into conflictual situations as it demands that we step out of line, daring to be radical and different for Him. Do you dare to follow God rather than the crowd?