Stewartstown Baptist Church

ANSWER:

Often the question is asked, why God would do something knowing ahead of time we would disobey. For instance, why did God create Adam and Eve if He knew they were going to sin anyway? Why does God tell us to love our enemies when He knows we will not always do that? Understand that yes, God knows all these things and God created us with free will, we are not robots. He has given us the freedom to make decisions. So the real fault lies not on Jesus but on the leper, he disobeyed. We must understand God is not going to change His standards, His expectations for us; the standard is set, complete obedience. What we gather out of this is that even though we fall short in His standard He still loves us to offer up forgiveness through His Son Jesus.

ANSWER:

There are several reasons that Jesus worked miracles and instructed people to be silent about the healing that had taken place:

1. Jesus wanted to avoid a confrontation with Rome. The political atmosphere was often tense. The Jews did not want to be under the rule of Rome anymore and wanted a Messiah to overthrow the Romans. Jesus did not want to be seen as a political threat.

2. Jesus does not want to be known as a miracle worker only. Jesus did not want to become popular for the miracles in which He worked. This would detract from His message of repentance and belief in the gospel.

3. Jesus did not want to be seen as a political leader. He did want to be known as someone who was after position or titles. Clearly this showed because He was not crucified for political reasons.

Thanks for the question.

ANSWER:

Thanks for the question, I hope this helps.

There are no passages in the bible that indicates entire families, including infants and children were baptized at once. There are passages that indicate salvation coming to entire households, so let’s look at three that are most often cited.

Acts Chapter 10 tells of a Roman named Cornelius. He had a love for God, but lacked the message of the Gospel. He was told in a vision from God to send for a man named Peter. In Acts 11, Cornelius recounts to Peter how an angel came and told him that Peter would “...speak words to you by which you will be saved, you and your household.” (Acts 11:14). This is a specific promise to specific person, and not a universal one. It doesn’t mean that all of Cornelius’ house would be saved at the same time, but that the truth of the Gospel would be known throughout his family and likely his servants. No mention of baptism is made, though there is no reason to doubt it was administered to those who believed.

Of course in Acts 16, the Philippian jailer came to Paul and asked what he needed to do to be saved. Paul says in Acts 16:31, “...believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” This is a more universal statement, indicating to the Philippian that this message could bring salvation to his family as well if he would simply tell them. Again, no mention of baptism is made.

Finally you have an earlier mention in Acts 16 of Paul meeting a woman named Lydia. She listened as Paul spoke to a crowd, and she understood and responded to the gospel that Paul preached. It then says in Acts 16:15 that after this, her entire household was baptized. We have seen that Paul clearly taught salvation through Jesus, and it’s unlikely to believe that he would have baptized non-believers, including children. This does not create an argument for infant baptism, since the greek word can simply apply to her servants, indicating they also heard the message that Paul preached.

Baptism only “counts” as an act of obedience. If someone were to be saved, and then die before he had a chance to be baptized (a deathbed repentance for example), the person does not die with a box “unchecked”. Baptism was instituted by God as an easy and public way for a believer to indicate to other believers that he understands and embraces the forgiveness and lordship of Jesus Christ in his life. Baptism would be considered invalid or unfulfilled if a person was baptized before salvation. In that situation, being baptized as a believer would be the appropriate step as if the first baptism never occurred.

ANSWER:

Thanks for asking your question. I am going to list out some points to make it easier to answer your question.

1. If you have a problem with someone in the church and their actions then please see them. As the Pastor I do not know what everyone believes, nor do I know what everyone says.
2. I think it would be unfair to say all “Baptist” do not believe in fundraising. I do not like fundraising but at times I believe it is needed. For instance the yard sale and golf tournament we did this year helped raise funds for people who needed assitance to go on the mission trips that as a church we were taking. I believe the yard sale and golf tournament went well and I hope we do them next year. I do not like having fundraisers for everything but I believe in some cases these fundraisers can be helpful and good.
3. I believe you would have a hard time to make a Biblical case against fundraisers. I cannot point to a verse that says they are good nor can I point to a verse or verses that say fundraisers are bad. If you can find a verse or passage that speaks against them, I would be happy to discuss this with you.
4. Our mission here at SBC is to see people “Seek the Lord, Build Relationships and Commit to Serve.” This is a big mission and sometimes not all of the tithes cover this goal so therefore we need extra help.
5. One of the great things about our fundraisers was we had many from our community that played in the golf tournament and came to the yard sale. It was fun to interact with people that normally may never come to our church for whatever reason.
6. I would like to invite you to our services. By the wording of your question it seems like you do not come here to SBC. We love for you to come, we have services on Sunday mornings at 9:00 and 10:30.

Thanks for asking and I hope this helps!

Pastor Lee

ANSWER:

When you come to the end of Luke 24, you see Jesus claiming that all of Scripture is about Him. Indeed when you trace the salvation story from Genesis 3:15 to the end of Revelation we see that a Savior/Messiah would come and reconcile sinful man to a holy God. Who is this Messiah and how do we know that Jesus was the Messiah? You see in the Bible many prophecies that tell us who this Messiah would be and where he would even come from. Jesus has perfectly fulfilled all these prophecies. The Messiah is not living on the earth because Jesus has not come back. One day the book of Revelation teaches that Jesus will return but He has not yet.

Here are a few resources to check out that you can read on your own:

Read the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke and John) and see how the prophecies relate to Jesus
http://www.jewsforjesus.org/answers/jesus/proofessay
http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-r004.html
Case for Christ by Lee Strobel (deals in depth with this topic)

Thanks for the question

ANSWER:

Thanks for asking your question.  Some people say the hardest people to share Jesus with is your family.  Actually it is easy, because they should see a change in your life because of your relationship with Jesus. Here are some pointers that I will offer.

1. Pray God will open their eyes to the gospel (2 Corinthians 4:6)
2. Continue to affirm that you love them but do not approve of what they are doing.
3. Begin to dialogue with them about what they believe about Christ and the gospel. If they say they believe they are a Christian and their actions do not reflect this consistently then help them to understand that their actions and not matching their beliefs. See the book of 1 John for more help (Especially chapters 2 and 3)
4. Never give up! Why would you give up? God is powerful and at anytime can change the person’s heart. Pray for their repentance and continue to share the gospel with them. However please do not give up or think you need to stay quiet.

I will pray for your boldness today to share and pray for your child that they will see their sin and repent and trust Christ as their Savior.

ANSWER:

The Hebrew word for jealousy translates very simply as “jealousy”. However, the actions behind the word are completely different when comparing humans and God. Humans are jealous when they are coveting something that doesn’t belong to them. God’s jealousy is in protecting something that does belong to Him: honor and reverence. This statement about jealousy is in the commandment about idolatry. When an idol is given honor, not only is God not receiving what is due Him, but it allows others to misplace their honor and devotion into a created thing instead of the Creator. Paul even uses the term in 2 Corinthians 11:2 that he is jealous over the believers in Corinth with a “godly jealousy”. Paul wants them to stay true to Paul as an apostle and not give themselves to another (false teacher), so that Paul can present them before Christ as discipled and mature believers. God’s jealousy translates into love and desire for His people, manifested most by providing the sacrifice of His son for an undeserving humanity.

ANSWER:

As Baptists, baptism is a big deal to us. Not because baptism holds any sway on our salvation, but it’s a matter of obedience. The greek word that we get our word “baptism” from literally means “to immerse or submerge under the water”. As a result, we hold that baptism by immersion is the only scriptural form. Therefore we do not accept previous baptisms by sprinkling or from another domination that attaches salvation to the act.

I assume that you mean that you were born again in a separate moment from your infant baptism. The reason we don’t baptize infants is simple: they can’t make a conscious decision to follow Jesus. As a result, baptism before belief is no baptism at all. The order of things is that a person is saved and then baptized. Baptism is the first and easiest step of obedience. It’s like Jesus starts us off with an “easy A” to get us started on a road of obedience and submission to him. Please see Pastor Lee or Pastor Heath if we can help you any further on this matter.

ANSWER:

The only place a saved person can go after death is Heaven. We can keep it simple with John 3:16 that “whosoever” believes in Jesus shall have everlasting life. That doesn’t go away with any of the dumb, sinful mistakes we make. Suicide is murder, and it is wrong so there should be no mistake about that. Unfortunately movies and television have dramatized suicide as a deal-breaker in God’s mind and that those who commit such an act will find themselves in Hell without recourse. This simply isn’t a biblical view, especially with the question you asked in which salvation is not in question.

ANSWER:

Thanks for asking these questions, they are great questions to ask. In regards to Galatians 4:15 we can see that Paul had some type of vision trouble in his life (see Gal.6:11). There are many speculations to what the “thorn in the flesh” could be (2 Cor.12:7-10). Some have speculated that Paul had vision trouble because of the blinding on the road to Damascus, or he had trouble because he suffered an injury while being stoned or that he picked up a disease while traveling. We see in verse 15 that Paul is saying to this church, you have shown me care and I know you are here to help me.

In reference to 4:27, you need to try to put in context everything that has been said in the previous section (Gal.4:21-31).  Paul is illustrating the two covenants using Hagar and Ishmael (represent covenant of law and works) and Sarah and Isaac (representing the covenant of grace and faith). What Paul is getting at is that when Israel is restored from judgment and exile then the later born will outnumber the earlier offspring.