I was raised in the Lutheran church, but due to military assignments around the world without Lutheran pastors, began attending Baptist / Bible churches with a slightly different theology. I would like to discuss the topic of baptism, and how these denominations see it differently.

In the evangelical theologies, baptism is merely an outward symbol of what happened internally when a person “accepts” Jesus into their heart (whatever that means). To them, there is nothing meaningful or lasting going on during the baptism, or afterward, as evidenced by many people getting re-baptized when they have fallen away from church and return with renewed sincerity. I have always been very uncomfortable witnessing baptisms in the Baptist tradition. It totally ignores what the Bible says about baptisms.

Lutherans are hyper-focused on what Scripture has to say on both baptism and communion (eucharist; the Lord’s Supper). For instance, John’s baptism was a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins (Luke 3:3). As Paul teaches in Romans chapter 6, our baptism UNITES us with Jesus’ death AND resurrection. Baptism is tied directly to the resurrection of Jesus, and the assurance (promise) of OUR resurrection. It is way more than just a symbol. Again, in Colossians chapter 2, Paul directly ties our baptism to being buried WITH CHRIST and being RAISED WITH HIM (our resurrection – aka our salvation). Finally, in 1 Peter chapter 3, Peter also ties baptism to Jesus’ resurrection, and OUR resurrection through Jesus, this time directly saying “this baptism NOW SAVES YOU… through faith in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” The Baptists completely ignore these passages, skipping over the promise of salvation through baptism.

In the “Great Commission” from Matthew 28, Jesus says: “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.  Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Here is the COMMAND to baptize people, and by what authority baptisms are conducted. What the Baptists miss are all the promises of being tied to Christ in His resurrection. Commands require an action on our part, but promises require faith in order to access the promise. They see the command and miss the promise.

Let’s examine the Philippian jailer’s conversion in Acts chapter 16. Having listened to the Apostle’s singing all night, when the earthquake came and shook open all the doors, he knew he would be killed for losing the prisoners. When he realized they were still there, he believed in their message about the Christ. His question “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” is the only time in the Bible where the question is directly asked and answered. And what an answer: ““Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you AND YOUR HOUSEHOLD.” They then taught him and his household about Jesus. He then took them in and he AND his household were baptized. They rejoiced that HE had believed. Surely his household included wife and children.

Baptists believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God, but they miss the Sacraments. Catholics have the Sacraments, but ignore the Word. Lutherans have both the Word of God and the Sacraments as the means of grace by which God delivers the benefits of his Promises. Baptism provides the assurance of our resurrection through faith in Jesus’ resurrection. The Lord’s Supper is the means by which assurance of the forgiveness of our sins is delivered to us. We will examine that in another post.

“In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” Much has been written about the various ideas concerning how we got here. Let’s take a look at this first verse of the Bible.

I am admittedly not a Hebrew scholar. But after thousands of years of Biblical translations, the message remains the same. God spoke the universe into existence. There are those who claim He took a L O N G time to do that. the Bible says differently.

So let’s look at the first day as recorded in the Bible, then understand how this could be.

“1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 2 The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.

3 Then God said, “Let there be light”; and there was light. 4 And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness. 5 God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.”

“The earth was without form, and void.” At this point we don’t know yet what it was composed of, but God immediately tells us it was made of water: “and darkness was upon the face of the deep.” The deep tells us the earth began as water. This is further confirmed by the next statement: “And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”

Here is my personal observation: Any time the Spirit of God focuses on someone or something, He is aligning the object of his attention with the will of God. As He was hovering over the waters, He was aligning the H²O molecules (a polar molecule – meaning it has a positive side and a negative side). In essence, He magnetized the water, which with all the molecules aligned creates a North Pole and a South Pole. This in turn, necessarily forms a sphere (no longer without form.)

This is critical to understand verses 3-5. A polar sphere is necessary to be able to spin around an axis. So when God said “Let there be light, and there was light”, we have light on one side of the sphere of water, and darkness on the other side of the sphere, with the sphere itself spinning on its axis.

This is confirmed by the explanation that He separated the darkness from the light, gave them names (day and night). We know that the earth (at this point a sphere of water) was turning, because God tells us “so the evening and the morning were the first day.” As it turned, it alternately faced the light, then the darkness, just as it does to this day.

It really does not take rocket science to read the plain text of Scripture and believe it. “Evening”, “Morning”, and “first day” are all plain terms that practically scream to us that it was a 24 hour period.

To assume any other explanation is to directly challenge the authority of Scripture as God’s Word to us.

Things are moving rapidly toward the next big event in Biblical prophesy. Daniel’s vision of the goat vs. ram wars is nearly upon us. In layman terms, this means that Iran will be provoked into attacking the Muslim countries to its west, north, and south. It will do so initially with great success. This act of war will throw the world into an economic upheaval never before seen.

Two things have happened in the past few days that lead directly to this prophesy. First, Iran conducted drone attacks on a Saudi oil refinery, knocking out 6% of the world’s daily oil production in one attack. Secondly, President Trump stated that the middle eastern nations, Europe, and Russia, will have to “work out” the middle eastern issues, suggesting strongly, that the U.S. may no longer play the role of the world’s police.

I would look for Turkey to take this declaration as the removal of the restraints, and that they will finally attack the Kurds – something Erdogan has been wanting to do for some time. Iran has also issued grave warnings about Turkey taking this action. This is likely the provocation for the goat attacking the ram.