Wow, another semester gone! It is hard to believe that with the commencement of the 09-10 school year I will be a senior. I have been preaching more recently and have been doing some more personal study too, I much prefer to do study when it is for me rather than an assignment, though I do enjoy many of those also.
Recently, in doing a phrase study from the Greek text, I ran across some interesting similarities across some texts that many render into English different ways. My first reaction is to scratch my head in wonder. How can three to five words that are in the same context, the same case, gender, number etc mean two different things?
I have to come down on the side of order and put my presuppositions to bed and look intently at the meaning of each and in doing so I have come to a new conclusion. What is that conclusion you might be asking yourself or what in the world is this nut talking about. Well, I do not want to try and sway you by saying what I have concluded just yet. I will, in due time. I would really love to do this in a discussion format as it would be much more profitable to your own study. But since hardly anyone ever reads this blog, that would make discussion impossible. Since that is the case, I would ask that if you have any preconceived notions about works, or about the blood of Christ, John's Baptism or Christian Baptism, put them to bed and let them get a good rest while you wrap your mind around these facts. I have prepared a phrase study sheet that I made as I went through this it is a concise sheet, and I ask that you pray earnestly before you read beyond the solid line that separates this section and the phrase sheet. I would ask that you look at each of these in the Greek text, as I have given you the words and if you have a Bible software like Logos and have a language package use it, do not be afraid of the Greek, if you do not have a program go to this site from there you need only put in the text and click the Greek tab and you will go to that text and they use mouse over technology so it will show you the grammar. The idea is that if grammar rules apply then you can have one and only one way of understanding these texts, if the rules do not apply then scripture can be made to mean whatever we want it to be. Though some days that option would be nice, especially when I am running behind and the speed limit is not as fast as I would have it to be,you know what I am saying, but that is not God or His way. He is not a God of chaos, He is a God of order, or law and order. Which means that He has set rules that must be obeyed if we are to truely understand and enjoy the full richness of His word and His Kingdom. I pray that you will be strengthened, encourage, and blessed by this study, and further more I pray that you will consider that once I believed differently than I do now. And the change came because I have taken the time to learn the language and do dozens hours of tireless study all the while not favoring what I want to hear or favoring what is popular. Rather, I have desired to know God's truth no matter how hard it is to understand, no matter how much it flies in the face of man centered teaching, or no matter how unpopular it may be. I also ask that you remember God said He would use that which seems foolish to confound the wise, which my dear brother or sister I no longer consider myself wise but woe, according to the popular mindset I am a fool, and I am grateful to God for humbling me. The last thing I would ask is this, Pray, Pray that God would give you a real desire to know His truth, and that no matter what, you would come to Him in total submission and that if you find what you currently believe in contradiction to what you are about to study, that you would be honest with God and yourself and that before you close your heart and your mind that you would bow in prayer again and ask God to help you understand. Well, here you go, May the Lord richly bless your desire to know the truth and may the truth set you free and may you mine from the study the wealth of the Kingdom riches!_____________________________________________________
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(Mark 1:4, NASB95) "John the Baptist appeared in the wilderness preaching a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins."
(Luke 3:3, NASB95) "And he came into all the district around the
(Luke 24:47, NASB95) "and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from
(Acts 2:38, NASB95)"Peter said to them, “Repent, and each of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins; and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit."
(Matthew 26:28, NASB95) "for this is My blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for forgiveness of sins."
The first word εἰς “Ace” The preposition “for” (Greek, eis) means “to obtain” (Thayer, 94). The phrase may be rendered: “so that sins might be forgiven” (Arndt, 228)
The second word, ἄφεσιν “Aphesin” is a Singular Feminine Noun in the accusative case, the accusative case is the case of the direct object
The third word, ἁμαρτιῶν “Hamartion” is a Feminine Plural Noun in the Genitive case, this case roughly corresponds to our English possessive case. Hence, the genitive expresses possession.
Some believe that this phrase in Acts 2:38 means that we are baptized because our sins are already forgiven, and if this is true then we must by the rules of grammar, hold that grammatically in each of the examples the same construction must be true.
(Mk 1:4 & Lk 3:3) John was preaching a baptism because the sins had already been forgiven.
(Lk 24:47) And Jesus talking to His disciples would be saying that we repent because our sins have already been forgiven
(Act 2:38) would be baptism because sin has been forgiven, (please note the only grammatical difference in this text, is the article and the personal pronoun, denoting your personal sins)
(Mat 26:28) would have to read that Jesus’ blood was poured out because sin was already forgiven. (No body holds to this, though they should if they say Acts is to be rendered this way)
This phrase study was inspired by Brother Alger Fitch, from a conference in which he spoke on Baptism, in 1998 which I purchased from our church library.
