Follow-Ups to Answer from Expert MaryEllen O`Brien, M.A.

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Mike wrote at 2010-08-27 19:12:06
Are you a "main-stream" Christian yourself? Just curious why you didn't include the fact that infant baptism is completely un-biblical along with many of the practices of "main-stream" corporate worship; ie.. worship of Mary (as a "mediator"), Angels, Saints, confirmation etc.. These are all man made teachings, not Biblical in any sense. It breaks my heart to say it but it reminds me of this verse:



Isaiah 29:13 "The Lord says: 'These people come near to me with their mouth and honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. Their worship of me is made up only of rules taught by men.' " (NIV)



In terms of the other responses here are the verses that relate:



(Baptism)

Matthew 3:6 "Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River." (NIV)



Mark 16:16 "Whoever *believes* and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned." (NIV)



Acts 2:38 Peter replied, "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit." (NIV)  



(Worship of Angels)

Colossians 2:18 "Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions." (NIV)

 

"For there is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus,  

who gave himself as a ransom for all men-the testimony given in its proper time." 1Timothy 2:5-6 (NIV)



"It is not to angels that he has subjected the world to come, about which we are speaking." Hebrews 2:5 (NIV)   



I guess we can go into detail that an infant can't repent and it is extremely Biblical for the two (repentance and baptism) to coincide but that's a whole different arguement.. We can also go into the corruption of the "goverment" type of systems we see in the "main-stream" churches but we shouldn't perhaps. The higher authority is Christ, we don't answer to men (or women) but to Him alone.  We see the hierarchy of the Jews and how much it failed as well (Pharisees etc). For the record I'm not taking sides, it's imperative to note that in every denomination we see corruption and "wolves in sheeps clothing." The corruption in the Catholic Church just happened to be extreme and gained much publiclity. Anyways, it just seemed like a very biased answer, and wanted to add another view.. May the both of you be blessed and continue to grow in the knowledge of the Lord Christ Jesus  

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Born again wrote at 2011-02-09 10:32:27
You also forget to say that the Bible also says that the only way to the Father is through the Son. So how now?

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