I know this is not exactly the thread topic but since you spent an entire post on it...
Are you saying that you cannot be saved without baptism, that the Holy Spirit is not given without baptism?
I am a Baptist and I am for Baptism.
But would you mind explaining why the order is this way here:
Acts 10:47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
Clearly they have the Holy Ghost and are not yet baptized.
I will be glad to help.
I have received gift coupons through my E-mail box on my phone. Usually it says something like this; "if you will apply by phone within 3 days you will receive free of charge whatever it is that is offered." The gift would need to have some value or no one would be interested. I am supposing that if someone is offering whatever it is as a gift it is theirs to give. I am going to think I have done enough research on the gift offered to know if I desire to receive it. That is just the nature of a gift. There are conditions attached and sometimes more than one.
So here are some synonyms from the KJV that you need to be familiar with if you try to follow my logic and reasoning.
1)Eternal Life
2)Righteousness
3)The Gift of God
4)The Indwelling Spirit of God and Christ
5) Christ the son
These are all one and the same and the person who is in charge of all this is God the Father. He has secured these things through his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, when they are considered in the context of the gift of God.
Rom 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also
freely give us all things?
33 Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect? It is God that justifieth.
34 Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.
If the NT teaches us anything it is that the gift of God must be received on the inside of us to do the things that these 5 things do and are. The one who offers the gift can set the requirements to receive it. So, in the case of God offering the gift to his covenanted nation to whom he exclusively promised the Spirit and eternal life and in preparation for the establishment of his righteous kingdom. For that to happen there had to be more conditions than just baptism in water and they are clearly stated in Acts 2 38.
36 Therefore let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made the same Jesus, whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ.
37 Now when they heard this, they were pricked in their heart, and said unto Peter and to the rest of the apostles, Men and brethren,
what shall we do?
38 Then Peter said unto them,
1) Repent, and
2 be baptized
3) every one of you
4) in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins,
and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.
Every one of the Jews who received the Holy Ghost will have met these conditions. If not, why give them? Do not those things and you will not receive the Holy Ghost to indwell you and give you life.
The establishment of the righteous kingdom over whom Christ will come back to reign must have all righteous citizens. It is God's righteousness they must have and it cannot be earned, it must be received from him and it must be an eternal part of them because his kingdom is eternal.
He says it again;
Acts 3:19 Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.
20 And he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:
21 Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began.
22 For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me; him shall ye hear in all things whatsoever he shall say unto you.
23 And it shall come to pass, that every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people.
24 Yea, and all the prophets from Samuel and those that follow after, as many as have spoken, have likewise foretold of these days.
25 Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.
26 Unto you first God, having raised up his Son Jesus, sent him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.
One cannot bless the whole earth if the foundation is not established first. There can be no righteous kingdom unless every soul has been made righteous and that is what the Spirit in a man does for him.
The fact is that in 7 years after the resurrection of Jesus Christ this nation as a people rejected Jesus Christ, only a few of many receiving him. It was then that God began broadening his offer of the gift to others besides Judah and Jerusalem. Read about it in Acts 7 and following. When he came to the gentiles in Acts 10 (40 AD) faith in the gospel of Jesus Christ, which the Bible labels simply as "the faith" is all that is required in order to receive the gift of God and be born of him.
43 To him give all the prophets witness, that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins.
44 While Peter yet spake these words, the Holy Ghost fell on all them which heard the word.
45 And they of the circumcision which believed were astonished, as many as came with Peter, because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.
46 For they heard them speak with tongues, and magnify God. Then answered Peter,
47 Can any man forbid water, that these should not be baptized, which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?
48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of the Lord. Then prayed they him to tarry certain days.
For these gentiles baptism was after the had received the Spirit, eternal life.
One must honour and acknowledge the transitions of God in the scriptures. There are reasons for them. One nation has been chosen and birthed by God through which to make himself and his ways known to other nations and this nation has certain privileges as well as responsibilities the other nations and people do not have.
The ignorance about the ways of God puts men in the dark and they cannot see.
So, the first dealing of God after the resurrection of his son was with the foundation of his kingdom, Israel under the operative principle of keeping his covenant promises to them, which included giving them his Spirit. When they refused, God made a transition and began dealing with peoples who had no covenants with God and he dealt with us under his operative principle of grace. (Can you see why it would transition from promise to grace). In 70 AD he took away the kingdom status of Israel by taking away their national sovereignty by scattering them into the gentile nations and treating them as gentiles and as dead and buried nationally for the last 2000 years. But, like Jesus Christ who was two days in the grave and arose the third day, so will Israel.
Hosea 6:1 Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us; he hath smitten, and he will bind us up.
2 After two days will he revive us: in the third day he will raise us up, and we shall live in his sight.
3 Then shall we know, if we follow on to know the Lord: his going forth is prepared as the morning; and he shall come unto us as the rain, as the latter and former rain unto the earth.
