“He that covereth his sins shall not prosper: but whoso confesseth and forsaketh them shall have mercy” (Proverbs 28:13).

The original meaning of the word Baptism is to be washed from all the laws written in the book of Leviticus. Baptism is washing one’s self after breaking any or all of God’s laws.  The word of God is called water, truth is water. So a person is washed by believing the word of God and then putting an end to the sin in their life. God tells us the word of God is water. “That he might sanctify and cleanse it (the church) with the washing of water by the word” (Ephesians 5:26). To be baptized one must be washed in the word of God.

The practice of sprinkling or submerging a person in literal water, H2O, is not the biblical meaning of baptism. One must be washed with the truth—truth slays the wicked. Matthew 3:6 puts it this way, “And were baptized …confessing their sins.”  The people were (baptized) washed by confessing their sins. They confessed their sins when they understood the word of God.

At the time of baptism the sinner is buried, and a new person is raised from the dead. This person has been given a second chance to please God. He is now the same as he was when he was born from his mother’s womb, holy and acceptable to God, having a clean slate. He has been born again.

From my teenage years I attended the Church of the Nazarene. Like most who believed in Christianity I thought they had the light, the truth. In recent years with my study of the word and the belief that we are waiting for the first coming of Jesus I see the blindness of the blind. I believe Jesus will say to the Christianity of today, the blind are leading the blind.

Because of the blindness in the Church today in the last days many truths that we thought were truth will change for they are not truth. And one such example is the present day belief regarding baptism. There is a much deeper meaning to being baptized than being sprinkled, submerged in a river, a lake or the bathtub on the platform of the church. These acts do not purify a person. I can’t see where they do anyone any good.

It is the nature of the sinner, because of guilt and shame to cover and hide their sin. They keep their sin a secret and remain silent about what they do.  However, this will never free a person from their sin. The sinner must confess and forsake sin before God will have mercy on him. They must confess and forsake before they will be forgiven.

Confessing your sins under your breath or in private with no one listening is not biblical. We are instructed to confess one to another. This means someone is talking out loud and others are listening.  This truth is stated in James 5:16, “Confess your faults one to another, and pray one for another, that ye may be healed.”

The silence must end. Confessing one to another out loud will end the hiding. It will end the cover up. Confessing out loud will bring all sins out into the open. Sin is embarrassing and shameful. The sin of child molesting, incest, homosexuality, oral sex, murder, rape, adultery, etc all need to be confessed out loud. When this begins to happen all people are given instructions to forgive. There are many scriptures teaching us to forgive each other. I will list five.

 “Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamour, and evil speaking, be put away from you … and be kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ’s sake hath forgiven you” (Ephesians 4:31- 32).      

“Forbearing one another, and forgiving one another, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye” (Colossians 3:13).

“Take heed to yourselves: If thy brother trespass against thee, rebuke him; and if he repent, forgive him” (Luke 17:3).

“For if ye forgive men their trespasses, your heavenly Father will also forgive you.”  “But if you forgive men not their trespasses, neither will your father forgive your trespasses” (Matthew 6:14-15).

“And forgive us our sins; for we also forgive every one that is indebted to us” (Luke 11:4).

“And the times of this ignorance God winked at; but now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).

 I hope you are beginning to see what it will take for heaven to come to earth.

Image by falco from Pixabay

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