Expert: Cooper P. Abrams III - 12/19/2004

Question
My husband and I were both saved around the same time before we were married (or so I thought)

We were both baptized and have been members of a southern Baptist church for 3 years now.

Lately a friend at work has been talking to him about our search for a new church home. This 'friend' has convinced him of his beliefs. This man attends a CoC.

Now myhusband says he is not saved because he was not baptized 'for the remission of his sins' (from Acts 2:38) and we are areguing over the Holy Spirit thing too.

I have gave him TONS of verses about the baptism and think he is coming around to seeing it my way. I emailed him some stuff off an apologetics site about CoC being a cult and what all the believe then that night as he slept I prayed a prayer of protection over him. He no longer wants to attend a CoC (Praise God!)

Problem, he still has the Holy Spirit hang up. (you know, you don't get the the Holy Spirirt when you're saved thing)

I have found all the verses about the Holy Spirit but I just can't seem to totally grasp the concept in these verses myself, much less use them to convince him he's misunderstanding them.

I did good with the baptism verses. I found them, studied them got my arguments ready, was ready for his arguments.

But I really need help with the Holy Spirit verses.

Any help you can offer would be great.

Thank you for your time!

Answer
Hi Sonita,
  Thank you for writing.    Sadly, Satan is never satisfied and is forever seeking to destroy our faith and to decieve us and get us into accepting false doctrine.  (Eph. 6:10-18).
  I have two articles on my web site that might help your husband understand these issues.  They are a little lengthy to put here, but you can go to the articles and download them.
  The first is  found at http://bible-truth.org/baptreg.htm   titled "Does the Bible say that baptism is necessary for salvaiton?"
   The second article is at http://bible-truth.org/bapt-hs.htm   titled "A BIBLICAL LOOK AT THE BAPTISM OF THE HOLY SPIRIT AND THE FILLING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT."

    Another article you may find helps is on baptism.  It is at http://bible-truth.org/baptism.htm  titled "A biblical look at baptism."

    Many people are under attack the same as your husband and that is way I wrote the articles.   Just today I have received three e-mails from people struggling with baptism and what it truly is.  So your husband is not alone.

    If you have trouble downloading the articles write me and I will forward each one separately for you.

    As Ephesians 6:10 says, "For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

     Our only defense is God truth....   I hope this helps your husband.    Pray for him and love him as he seeks God's truth.

If you have further questions please write...
Cooper Abrams
Calvary Baptist Church
http://bible-truth.org