Msg#1620 Baptized for the Dead?

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

A friend refuting the LDS cult told an elder “Get real! There is nothing in the Bible about being baptized for the dead!” His mouth was stopped when the cultic elder showed him 1Cor 15:29. Indeed the verse captures the focus of many false teachers, and stumps far to many honest believers. There are three exceptional rules for dealing with difficult verses: #1 watch the context in the chapter, #2 watch the context in the book, and #3 watch the context in the Bible. False teachers excel at taking things out of context. The verse says, “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? why are they then baptized for the dead?” The false teaching supposes that there is some merit in the living somehow being baptized for the dead. The whole Bible captured in a single sentence is its most memorized verse, John 3:16. It shows man's stubborn, rebellious, lost need of a Saviour, the Only Begotten Son as that Saviour, the destiny of those without the Saviour, belief to be the only means of appropriating eternal salvation, and the whosoever that is eligible for that eternal salvation. There is no baptism of any sort in this principle, least of all a baptism for someone else, and certainly no baptism for the dead. Corinth was the most carnal of all New Testament churches; in these fifteen chapters are refuted fifteen apostate conditions, and in chapter fifteen the undeniable truth of the resurrection of the dead is the topic. In context this verse, 15:29, is the nonsensical question, “If Christ be not risen, then he is dead, and Why are they then baptized for the dead?” A believer is baptized (wholly immersed) into our Lord Jesus Christ; water baptism is not the act, it is only the picture; and if Christ is dead, What shall they do which are baptized for the dead? Christ is indeed resurrected; he is alive forevermore; and when one is baptized into the living Christ, he is alive for evermore. One is not baptized for the dead, but for the living; that is the core of 1Cor 15:29. Don't let false teachers rob from this simplicity, and make the Holy Bible say something that it does not, For God so loved the world…

An Essay for week #20 May 15, 16

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Msg#1621 Why KJB Only?

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

All modernists ecumenical Bibles completely leave out twenty verses that have always been in the Holy Bible. They say that Matt 17:21 is not supposed to be in the Bible. They take their pen knife and cut it out! Then they take their knife and cut out Matt 18:11, 23:14, Mark 7:16, 9:44 & 46, 11:26, 15:28, Luke 17:36, 23:17, John 5:4, Acts 8:37, 15:34, 24:7, 28:29, Rom 16:24, and 1 John 5:7. Then they take Col 1:14 and cut out the clause "Through His Blood," because they think God did not mean to say that. These 20 verses are inspired, inerrant, infallible Scripture. Modernist ecumenical scholars contend that no Bible in existence today is inspired. Baptists will never agree with such folly. We use the ONLY complete English Bible with these verses still intact, the Authorized King James Bible.

There are 64,000 other reasons, but many are misinformed about this crucial issue, and partake in the modernist's diabolical attack against the KJB. The copyright New International Version New Testament has 64,000 fewer words than the King James Bible's New Testament! Words that are certainly in the Greek New Testament are completely eliminated. Baptists will not use the NIV, holding instead to the complete and accurate KJB.

Baptists, above all others, base all their faith and practice on only the words of the Holy Scriptures. When critical modernists mess with the words they are messing with our faith and practice. It is better to learn that 'thee' is the 2nd person singular of 'you' and 'thou' is its subjective case than to have a sinister textual critic mess with your faith and practice. Baptists believe that “All scripture is given by inspiration of God.” This was written about the copies of copies of copies. Modernist translators reject this truth.

An Essay for week #21 May 22, 16

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Msg#1618 A Psalmists Four Instructions

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The LORD God's thirty-seventh Psalm contains four instructions critical to his creature's well being. They are connected to great promise and then twice interwoven through twenty-eight of the forty verses. The first six verses spell out the instructions, the last six word them in a profound abstraction. Learning to appreciate the structure and depth of Hebrew poetry is easily done in this Psalm. First up, “Fret not thyself because of evildoers.” The failure-to-fret is expounded in verses 1-2, 7-11, and 27-28. Each section contains greater abstraction and more depth. When searching for this instruction in the last six verses one finds it thoroughly homogenized with the other three. Next up, “Trust in the LORD.” Again this instruction is contained in verses 3, 12-15, and 29 with increasing abstraction, and finally blended into the last six verses. Hebrew poetry emphasizes rhyme and meter in thought not in diction. It is marvelous to unravel and analyze it. It outperforms any poem of English literature. “Delight thyself also in the LORD,” and “Commit they way unto the LORD,” are simple instructions given a sagacious depth by the Hebrew poet and psalmist. When I was young I delighted myself in hunting and fishing in the Adirondack mountains near Griffiss AFB where I was stationed. I had towed my little Datsun out of many a swampland. The sincere desire of my heart was a four-wheel-drive Jeep-Cherokee. I did not then follow God's third instruction, thinking I could just make up my own heart's desires. The promise of following God's four instructions is expounded in verse six of this Psalm. It to is rehearsed, abstracted, and brilliantly blended into the six verse conclusion. Mark up this Psalm and it could forever change you. A student of the Bible needs to be a student of Hebrew poetry.

An Essay for week #18 May 1, 2016

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Msg#1619 Foreshadowing Christ

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

God's Hebrew poetry has depth not penetrated by the casual listener. “Give ear, O my people, to my laws incline your ears to my mouth” (Ps 78:1). A most common error in writing is changing of person or perspective. If one begins a story as a first person account from Joe the plumber, they dare not flip-flop to what Mary is thinking or to a third person narrator's input. When writing, who is speaking and the perspective presented is important. It should be consistent. The second sentence of this Psalm continues, “I will open my mouth in a parable: I will utter dark sayings of old” (78:2). This is obviously first person narrative from the LORD God. It is his people, his law, and words of his mouth, and your, second person plural, ears are the target. That second sentence continues, “Which we have heard and known, and our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from their children” (78:3, 4a). Note that the narrator's perspective changed from God to man. This is either a narration blunder or perhaps God is showing us his human side, as if he might put on flesh and dwell among us. This Psalm gives this remarkable insight to believers who know something about God's Messiah. So subtle and so precious. So overlooked by the unbeliever and modernist critical scholar. Such insight gives this Psalm a remarkable new flavor. It is a long Psalm with a curiously negative approach: that the generations to come, “might not be as their fathers, a stubborn rebellious generation; a generation that set not their heart aright, and who's spirit was not steadfast with God” (Ps 78:8). Such a promise is only possible if God is made flesh and dwells among us (John 1).

An Essay for week #19 May 8, 16

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Msg#1617 I Will See You Later Mom

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

What love might outrank ones love for his mother? What reverence might overwhelm obedience to her call? When called by his mother Jesus answered, “Who is my mother? And who are my brethren?” (Matt 12:48). He then stretched forth his hand toward his disciples, and said, “Behold my mother and my brethren! For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother” (49-50). A Roman religion taught my mother to venerate, deify, and even pray to Jesus' mother, but Jesus taught no such foolishness. He taught that no relationship is of more importance than the Lord-to-disciple and disciple-to-Lord relationship. Jesus went further to say, “Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother,… and a man's foes shall be they of his own household” (Matt 10:34-36). This Mother's Day we should reverence our mothers as best we can. If living in her home we must obey, submit to, and reverence mom, but otherwise Jesus teaches that our relationship with our Lord trumps all other relationships. In fact, he goes on to say, “He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me” (10:37). Love your mom. Honor her on Mother's Day. Love the LORD your God with all your heart, soul and mind. In 1958 my mom was in a garage on Bear Town Road in Gang-Mills, New York, it was called Faith Baptist Church, and when Pastor Cisal Palm gave an invitation she accepted our Lord Jesus Christ as her Saviour. Praise His Holy Name, I'll see her when I go home.

An Essay for week #17 Apr 24, 16

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Msg#1628 A Christian's Belief

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

John 3:16 opens a thesis portraying what it means to “believe in the only begotten Son.” In chapter four the woman at the well said, “I know that Messias cometh, which is called Christ: when he is come, he will tell us all things” (4:25). Jesus responds, “I that speak unto thee am he.” The men she brought from Samaria said, “Now we believe… and know that this is indeed the Christ, the Saviour of the world” (4:42). Closing the chapter the nobleman “believed, and his whole house” (4:53). Chapter five reports, “Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the Sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God” (5:18). There had not been a son of God throughout 4,000 years of God's HisStory. Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, David, Daniel, these were called servants of God, friends of God, prophets of God, but not sons of God. Men are only sons of God when washed in the blood of the Only Begotten Son of God. We error when we take it lightly that Jesus announces himself the Son of God. He thereby makes himself equal with God. This tremendous chapter goes on to show only the Son of God able to “quicken” man (5:21,24,25), and only the Son of man able to judge man (5:27-29). Believing in the Lord Jesus Christ, is to believe it all. And when one believes it all, Christ quickens them with everlasting life. John wrote so that “ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name” (John 20:31). Born in Hawaii does not make you Christian, confessing Jesus as Lord and Christ is the only way.

An Essay for week #28 Jul 10, 16

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Msg #1544 The Truth about Chiliasm

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The last four chapters of the Revelation of Jesus Christ are the most misdiagnosed chapters in history. When the Roman Empire did a hostile takeover of Christianity they refused Christ's 1,000 year reign. The Roman Church and its Protestant Reformers never did come back to what these chapters reveal about Christ's 2^nd coming. First, Christ comes for his saints (1Thes 4:16) and later he comes with his saints (3:13). In Revelation 19 he is coming with his saints to rescue his chosen nation; Israel is in Jerusalem, in siege by all the nations of the world. In rides “Faithful and True” followed by the armies which were with him in heaven (19:14), that's us, resurrected saints, wearing fine linen, white and clean. We are riding with the King of kings and Lord of lords to the Battle of Armageddon (cf Rev 16:16). Revelation 20 then describes the 1,000 year reign of Christ, known and hated by the Orthodox Church, the Roman Church, and the Protestant Churches as “Chiliasm” (Greek). Their despise is what has made these four chapters historically misdiagnosed. For 1,700 years Bible believers holding to the literal rendering of these chapters have been called heretics, crucified, burned, and exiled. The real separation of Church and state stopped that. Studying Baptist history with Chiliasm in a search engine is surprisingly enlightening. Still many Evangelicals remain ignorant of this unprecedented persecution of Bible truth. They choose rather to follow Mike Blume, while Baptists read John Piper. No matter how popular, or how charismatic, the preacher who rejects these chapters in their literal sense is a false teacher. “Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time” (1John 2:18).

An Essay for week #44 Nov 1, 2015

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Msg #1542 Consider Biblical Prophecy

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

“Daniel,”a book in the Holy Bible, is about Daniel. There is no fear in overstating the obvious here, because many think it a book about dreams, visions and prophecy. Instead it reveals how a man, Daniel, became so beloved of God that God revealed to him all that he had planned out in the future. The revelation, which God gave to his beloved, covered his plans for Daniel's present distress, all the way to “the time of the end” (12:4). As one becomes the beloved of God, as they become “the friend of God,” God reveals to them all his hopes and desires, all his aspirations and plans for the future. That is what friends do. If you study Biblical prophecy out of idle curiosity, or intense curiosity, you don't much get it. If you study so you can exalt yourself among your peers and say, “I know something you don't know,” you really don't get it. And never forget, oh preacher, that your peers are not the clergy who stand on wooden platforms. Our peers are drunks on the street. Clergy and laity are not Bible words. We are but preachers of the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ. Be very leery of any preacher with a hobby horse, and flee if his horse is labeled prophecy. False prophets Harold Egbert Camping and Charles Taze Russell might come to mind here. All the more consider this Daniel, the beloved of God. When God revealed the last days to Daniel his cogitations much troubled him, his countenance changed, and he kept the matter in his heart (7:28). When God revealed his timing, Daniel set his face unto the Lord God to seek by prayer and supplication, with fasting, and sackcloth and ashes (9:3). We should do no less.

An Essay for week #42 Oct 18, 2015

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Msg #1540 The Revelation of Jesus Christ

What The Bible Says

Good Samaritan's Penny Pulpit by Pastor Ed Rice

The last book of the Bible is not a revelation of prophecy, but a Revelation of Jesus Christ. Therein He commanded the Apostle John to write the things which thou hast seen. John was an eyewitness of Jesus in the flesh, and had preached about that for thirty years. Now he was commanded to write it down. John's first epistle begins, “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, of the Word of life” (1John1:1). He was also commanded to write the things which are, and he wrote the seven messages to the seven churches. Just the titles of our Lord Jesus Christ assigned in these seven messages makes a formidable Revelation of Jesus Christ, he that holdeth the seven stars, the first and the last, he which hath the sharp sword, the Son of God, he that hath the seven Spirits of God, he that is holy and true, the Amen! But a worthy portion of the Revelation of Jesus Christ comes when John writes the things which shall be hereafter. The book of judgment, sealed with seven seals is about to be opened by the only Righteous Judge. In Revelation 4, John hears the trumpeted voice of Christ say, “Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.” The next fourteen chapters describe the seven year tribulation period wherein the wrath of God is poured out on this world. Believers are not here for wrath, but are caught up beforehand with Christ's call, “Come up hither” (1Thes4, 1Cor15). The great tribulation is called “Jerusalem's cup of trembling” (Zech12:2, Isa51:17) because Christ will ascend to the Throne of David on God's holy hill of Zion.

An Essay for week #40 Oct 4, 2015

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