Tom Butler
New Member
Aaron said:Simply put, there is no distinction to be made between the baptism of John and the baptism of the Apostles and their disciples.
And, there was no essential difference between the message John preached and the one preached by Jesus and his disciples.
The 12 disciples instructed by Paul were immersed for the wrong reasons and had an incomplete gospel. They were not rebaptized, for their earlier baptism was invalid. It was not in reference to the coming Messiah.
Ed Sutton said:The church, the body of Christ wasn't yet revealed prior to Jesus's ascension, even though Jesus 'predicted' it, but without the details. That 'mystery' remained for the NT Apostles (primarily Paul) to yet reveal, via the Holy Spirit, so there was nothing 'rectifying' about it, but rather 'revelation'.
The church was established during Jesus' earthly ministry. It already had the ordinances, it had a message, a head, and a gospel to preach before Jesus' ascension. The church existed before Pentecost because 3000 souls were "added" on that day. Paul was on his way to persecute the church at Damascas when he had his meeting with the risen Christ.