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"Acts, the Mikveh & the Blood: How the Bible Defines Remission"

Scripture Study Principles

Myles Coverdale; a Bible theologian & translator from the 1500’s. He wrote the Coverdale Bible. Say's don't judge Scripture by what is spoken, or written only.

When dissecting any verse of scripture. Ask yourself, of whom, to whom, with what words, what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what is written before and what follows any single verse context.

Acts: A Transition Book
Acts maps the shift from the dispensation of Law to the dispensation of Grace. John the Baptist never baptized a Gentile in the Judean wilderness & no Gentile receives the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the Temple Mount (Acts 2). The categories are 100% Jewish from start to finish.

Understanding Baptism Through Jewish Eyes
(NOTE: Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Topical Bible, Sefaria & Hirsch)

Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30; Lev 6, 13–16, 22).

Every Israelite understood the pattern: Unclean > immerse > clean. Impure > immerse > pure. Out of fellowship > immerse > restored.

These immersions never removed sin. They restored ritual purity, not forgiveness.

A full Mikveh (precursor to NT baptism) immersion purification ritual expressed: I acknowledge I've been in an unclean state, I'm turning away from that state, I'm returning to covenant faithfulness, I'm restoring my ritual status before God & community

John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant > return to God. See Strong's Hebrew repent: h7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore

Category Is Purification:
Jn 3:25 records a dispute between John's disciples about purification. Not forgiveness. Not salvation. PURIFICATION! This is exactly how Jews interpreted immersion.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance.)

Acts 19:4 confirms John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, preparing Israel to believe in the coming Messiah. It was not a remission ritual.

John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal 3:1 & Matt 3:3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive.
Confession of sins = acknowledging they had turned away > Immersion = becoming ceremonially clean > This is Mosaic purification, not atonement.

Acts & the Purification Pattern

Acts 2:38
Repent, and be baptized every one of you "in the name of Jesus Christ" "for" "the remission of sins", and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
(NOTE: Repent = return to God. Be baptized = purify yourself (unclean > clean). Remission comes by calling on the Messiah, not by water. Peter is speaking to Israel, using the same purification categories they ALL knew)

Acts 22:16 “Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
(NOTE: The washing is symbolic > the calling is effective.)

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
(NOTE: They believed Philip's preaching, then were baptized. Faith precedes water. Remission is tied to Christ, not immersion.)

"Nothing external removes sin."

Faith in the NAME saves, Faith in the BLOOD removes sin & the Jesus HOLY SPIRIT Baptism Forever seals the believers salvation. Water is a obedience response.

Scripture is clear:
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:22).

Jesus said, “This is My blood > shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28).

He washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5).

High Priest Foreshadow

Lev 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & imputes/transfers the sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.

Jesus is the fulfillment.

Heb identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10) & Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24)

Under the Old Covenant, the priest transferred sin. Under the New Covenant, Christ performs the real sin‑transfer.

When we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21 & Rom 10:13) & place our faith in Jesus' sin-atoning death & resurrection, He forgives all our sins (Heb 10:10–18) & imputes our sins onto Himself (Heb 10:10; 2 Cor 5:19; Rom 4:8, 11, 22–24). At that same moment, He baptizes the believer with His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 1:22, 2 Cor 5:5) indwelling Holy Spirit you.

Anyone can immerse someone into water. Only Jesus, who knows the true heart, can baptize with/in/by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then imputes His righteousness to us (2 Cor 5:21 & Ja 2:23) & the believer becomes the righteousness of God, thru faith placed in Christ.)
 
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Jan001

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"Acts, the Mikveh & the Blood: How the Bible Defines Remission"

Scripture Study Principles

Myles Coverdale; a Bible theologian & translator from the 1500’s. He wrote the Coverdale Bible. Say's don't judge Scripture by what is spoken, or written only.

When dissecting any verse of scripture. Ask yourself, of whom, to whom, with what words, what time, where, to what intent, with what circumstances, considering what is written before and what follows any single verse context.

Acts: A Transition Book
Acts maps the shift from the dispensation of Law to the dispensation of Grace. John the Baptist never baptized a Gentile in the Judean wilderness & no Gentile receives the Holy Spirit at Pentecost on the Temple Mount (Acts 2). The categories are 100% Jewish from start to finish.

Understanding Baptism Through Jewish Eyes
(NOTE: Source: Jewish Virtual Library, Topical Bible, Sefaria & Hirsch)

Under the Mosaic Law, Israel practiced many ceremonial water‑purification immersions (Ex 30; Lev 6, 13–16, 22).

Every Israelite understood the pattern: Unclean > immerse > clean. Impure > immerse > pure. Out of fellowship > immerse > restored.

These immersions never removed sin. They restored ritual purity, not forgiveness.

A full Mikveh (precursor to NT baptism) immersion purification ritual expressed: I acknowledge I've been in an unclean state, I'm turning away from that state, I'm returning to covenant faithfulness, I'm restoring my ritual status before God & community

John, Jesus, & Peter all spoke Aramaic & Hebrew, where repent meant > return to God. See Strong's Hebrew repent: h7725. שׁוּב (shub) -- Return, turn back, restore

Category Is Purification:
Jn 3:25 records a dispute between John's disciples about purification. Not forgiveness. Not salvation. PURIFICATION! This is exactly how Jews interpreted immersion.
(NOTE: John the Baptist, his disciples, & Jesus' disciples all performed the baptism of repentance.)

Acts 19:4 confirms John's baptism was a baptism of repentance, preparing Israel to believe in the coming Messiah. It was not a remission ritual.

John the Baptist's mission was to prepare the way of the Lord (Mal 3:1 & Matt 3:3). His "baptism of repentance" was preparatory, not remissive.
Confession of sins = acknowledging they had turned away > Immersion = becoming ceremonially clean > This is Mosaic purification, not atonement.

Acts & the Purification Pattern

Acts 2:38
Repent, and be baptized every one of you "in the name of Jesus Christ" "for" "the remission of sins", and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.”
(NOTE: Repent = return to God. Be baptized = purify yourself (unclean > clean). Remission comes by calling on the Messiah, not by water. Peter is speaking to Israel, using the same purification categories they ALL knew)

Acts 22:16 “Be baptized, and wash away thy sins, calling on the name of the Lord.”
(NOTE: The washing is symbolic > the calling is effective.)

Acts 8:12 “But when they believed Philip preaching the things concerning the kingdom of God, and the name of Jesus Christ, they were baptized, both men and women.”
(NOTE: They believed Philip's preaching, then were baptized. Faith precedes water. Remission is tied to Christ, not immersion.)

"Nothing external removes sin."

Faith in the NAME saves, Faith in the BLOOD removes sin & the Jesus HOLY SPIRIT Baptism Forever seals the believers salvation. Water is a obedience response.

Scripture is clear:
"Without shedding of blood there is no remission" (Heb 9:22).

Jesus said, “This is My blood > shed for many for the remission of sins” (Matt 26:28).

He washed us from our sins in His own blood (Rev 1:5).

High Priest Foreshadow

Lev 16:21, Aaron laid both hands on the substitute, confessed the sins of the nation & imputes/transfers the sins onto the innocent victim. That was the foreshadow.

Jesus is the fulfillment.

Heb identifies Jesus as our great High Priest (Heb 4:14), called by God after the order of Melchizedek (Heb 5:10) & Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb 9:15; 12:24)

Under the Old Covenant, the priest transferred sin. Under the New Covenant, Christ performs the real sin‑transfer.

When we call on the name of the Lord (Acts 2:21 & Rom 10:13) & place our faith in Jesus' sin-atoning death & resurrection, He forgives all our sins (Heb 10:10–18) & imputes our sins onto Himself (Heb 10:10; 2 Cor 5:19; Rom 4:8, 11, 22–24). At that same moment, He baptizes the believer with His forever (Jn 14:16), salvation‑sealing (Eph 1:13, 2 Cor 1:22, 2 Cor 5:5) indwelling Holy Spirit you.

Anyone can immerse someone into water. Only Jesus, who knows the true heart, can baptize with/in/by the Holy Spirit. Jesus then imputes His righteousness to us (2 Cor 5:21 & Ja 2:23) & the believer becomes the righteousness of God, thru faith placed in Christ.)
I will continue to rely on Jesus' own plain-speaking and Paul's preaching instead of your interpretation of the Scriptures.

Titus 3:4-5
But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared, 5 not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy He saved us, through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit,
Matthew 28:19, John 3:5
 
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The Liturgist

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Jesus does not transfer his righteousness onto us. When we are baptized as Jesus commanded in Matthew 28:18-20, our sins are washed away, the Holy Spirit of Grace enters our souls, and it is his presence that sanctifies us (makes us righteous).

This is correct.

For those who claim Baptism and the Eucharist are not an essential means of grace, the ordinary means of salvation, they are ignoring Matthew 28:19, Mark 16:10-16, the Book of Acts (particularly regarding the difference between the Baptism of John and Baptism in the name of Christ our True God, which is to say, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost (for if we baptize in the Trinitarian formula prescribed in Matthew we have baptized in the name of Jesus Christ, for He is the Son of God and the Son of Man, fully God and fully Man, of one essence with the Father, begotten of the Father before all Ages.

Through Baptism we receive the Holy Spirit and are born again, and this does not, contrary to the credobaptist position, require maturity; indeed Acts clearly speaks of entire households being baptized without excluding the infants, as @Ain't Zwinglian and others have ceaselessly pointed out. What is more, the Nicene Creed states that we believe in One Baptism for the remission of sins (which contradicts the idea that Baptism is an optional memorial; those who point to certain special cases like the Good Thief or martyrs ignore the idea that Christ being infinitely merciful will save those intending to be baptized, such as catechumens, and especially those who are baptized for Him in their own blood, which is why we venerate martyrs, both from antiquity and from more recent persecutions, such as the 19 Copts (including one Ghanaian whose prior religious disposition was unknown, but who was probably, statistically likely to have been a Christian from Ghana, for Christians comprise 60-70% of the population, who declared “Their God is my God” courageously and accepted the crown of martyrdom from ISIS in Libya.

The importance of baptism is something that persecuted Christians in the Middle East literally die for.
 
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weary2025

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His mission was to preach the gospel. It was the priests/elders mission to baptize.
Why does a person's salvation depend on water? I think hearing the word is what Paul is emphasizing and its what saves me.
 
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Jan001

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Why does a person's salvation depend on water? I think hearing the word is what Paul is emphasizing and its what saves me.
Because Jesus said it does. :)

John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Mark 16:15-16
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
 
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weary2025

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Because Jesus said it does. :)

John 3:5
Jesus answered, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Mark 16:15-16
And he said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to the whole creation. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned.
I don't believe water in John chapter 3 is baptism. Jesus is showing that water in contrast to what saves us which is spirit.
 
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Jan001

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I don't believe water in John chapter 3 is baptism. Jesus is showing that water in contrast to what saves us which is spirit.
Jesus commanded both water AND the Spirit for entrance into his kingdom. He did not say that only one was needed.

Jesus will judge us after we die. I did as he commanded. :)
 
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weary2025

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Jesus commanded both water AND the Spirit for entrance into his kingdom. He did not say that only one was needed.

Jesus will judge us after we die. I did as he commanded. :)
Paul teaches that those who do evil will not inherit the kingdom. People who are baptized yet do evil will not inherit the kingdom, so how is baptism bringing them into the kingdom?
 
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Paul teaches that those who do evil will not inherit the kingdom. People who are baptized yet do evil will not inherit the kingdom, so how is baptism bringing them into the kingdom?

That’s not an accurate description of the teachings of St. Paul - who repeatedly stresses salvation is accomplished through faith by grace and is not dependent on the law, and who stresses forgiveness; what is more, Baptism and Holy Communion are described as being means for the remission of sins, of accessing divine grace, which is why the Apostles were told in Matthew 28:19 to baptize all nations (meaning everyone) in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The problem with your argument is that not only do you reject baptism, but you also embrace Pelagianism, which is the idea that we save ourselves through good works (which interestingly enough even the Roman Catholics and my own church, who are commonly accused of practicing “Works Righteousness” because we don’t teach sola fide, reject, categorically). Indeed Pelagianism was rejected by both the 3rd and 5th ecumenical council.

My friend @Ain't Zwinglian would be someone who you should listen to, as he has spent much time studying the theology of justification in relationship to sacramental theology from a Protestant perspective.
 
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Paul teaches that those who do evil will not inherit the kingdom.
True.

People who are baptized yet do evil will not inherit the kingdom, so how is baptism bringing them into the kingdom?
Baptism is what first saves us, but continuing in our salvation until our death is what proves we are worthy to inherit eternal life.


Acts 14:22
strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God.

Colossians 1:21-23
And you, who once were estranged and hostile in mind, doing evil deeds, 22 he has now reconciled in his body of flesh by his death, in order to present you holy and blameless and irreproachable before him, 23 provided that you continue in the faith, stable and steadfast, not shifting from the hope of the gospel which you heard, which has been preached to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, became a minister.


The "hope of the gospel" is for us to receive eternal salvation after we die.

1 Thessalonians 5:8
But, since we belong to the day, let us be sober, and put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation.

1 John 3:3
And every one who thus hopes in him (Jesus) purifies himself as he is pure.
 
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weary2025

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That’s not an accurate description of the teachings of St. Paul - who repeatedly stresses salvation is accomplished through faith by grace and is not dependent on the law, and who stresses forgiveness; what is more, Baptism and Holy Communion are described as being means for the remission of sins, of accessing divine grace, which is why the Apostles were told in Matthew 28:19 to baptize all nations (meaning everyone) in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

The problem with your argument is that not only do you reject baptism, but you also embrace Pelagianism, which is the idea that we save ourselves through good works (which interestingly enough even the Roman Catholics and my own church, who are commonly accused of practicing “Works Righteousness” because we don’t teach sola fide, reject, categorically). Indeed Pelagianism was rejected by both the 3rd and 5th ecumenical council.

My friend @Ain't Zwinglian would be someone who you should listen to, as he has spent much time studying the theology of justification in relationship to sacramental theology from a Protestant perspective.
in order to prove that i preach works based salvation you preach baptism salvation which is a work.
 
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Jan001

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That’s not an accurate description of the teachings of St. Paul - who repeatedly stresses salvation is accomplished through faith by grace and is not dependent on the law, and who stresses forgiveness; what is more, Baptism and Holy Communion are described as being means for the remission of sins, of accessing divine grace, which is why the Apostles were told in Matthew 28:19 to baptize all nations (meaning everyone) in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost.

Maintaining our grace until our death is not dependent on the Law of Moses. Maintaining our grace until our death under Jesus Christ's new covenant is dependent on our continuing obedience to Christ's law. Matthew 19:16-19
 
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