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Apostolic Teaching and Practice
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One of the most basic and obvious of these apostolic teachings, I believe, will be to restore the original meaning and purpose of the Lord's Supper and Believer's Baptism. Both of these are seen by many Christians merely as something akin to a symbolic ritual, performed in `remembrance' or just out of obedience to Scripture, rather than because they have tremendous spiritual impact from God's point of view. In reality, there is actually NOTHING that Jesus has instituted in the New Testament that is merely a "symbolic" act or a `ritual' that we are to perform. Such things belong to the Old Covenant, not the New. Everything that Jesus has instituted in the New Covenant has tremendous spiritual value and life-giving power, if only we can partake of these things by faith, as He intended.
When we partake of the Lord's Supper, we are supposed to be partaking afresh of the "bread of life" (the word of God) and the cleansing power of the "blood of the new covenant" (see Mt 26:26-28, Jn 6:48-58, 1 Cor 10:16- 17, 1 Cor 11:23-30, etc). We are to take this fresh impartation of spiritual life to ourselves by faith, as we eat and drink of the Lord's Supper. Why do you think the early Christians partook of the Lord's Supper "daily" in their gatherings `from house to house'? Moreover, why do you think Paul warned the Corinthians that some of them were `weak' and others had died because they had not discerned the "one body" that they were to be partakers of, and were therefore "eating and drinking judgment" upon themselves? (1 Cor 11:27-33). There is real spiritual power in the Lord's Supper! This is not just some symbolic ceremony. We are clearly to be continual partakers of the "one body" of Christ, broken for us (and divided amongst us at Communion), and the cleansing, empowering "blood of the new covenant".
Baptism (by immersion) is another thing that has lost its true significance over the centuries. We are told often that this is essentially a "symbolic" death-and-burial ceremony for the believer. There are many believers today (even `Spirit- filled' ones) who think so little of baptism that they have not even "got around to it yet" at all. However, what is God's view of believer's baptism? Does He regard it merely as `an outward symbol'? I think not! We are told in Rom 6:3-6, "Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death... We know that our old self was crucified with him so that the sinful body might be destroyed, and we might no longer be enslaved to sin." It is clear from this and many other Scriptures that from a spiritual point of view, baptism is an event of tremendous impact and importance.
Can we claim to have truly "died with Christ" if we have not been baptized by immersion? No, we cannot. Can we claim to have been spiritually `cut off' from our sinful body, so that we might no longer be enslaved to sin? No, scripturally we cannot. Moreover, how else can we "reckon" ourselves`dead to sin'? I believe that rather than being some kind of "symbolic" death, God sees believer's baptism as being a very "literal" spiritual death - a `cutting off' of the sinful body of the believer. Why else would Peter tell the assembled crowd on the day of Pentecost, "Repent, AND BE BAPTISED in the name of Jesus Christ FOR THE FORGIVENESS OF YOUR SINS..."? (Acts 2:38). And why else would Paul be told, on the day of his conversion, "Arise and BE BAPTISED, AND WASH AWAY YOUR SINS, calling on the name of the Lord"? (Acts 22:16). And what exactly did Jesus mean when He declared that, "Unless a man is BORN OF WATER AND OF THE SPIRIT he cannot enter into the kingdom of God"? (Jn 3:5. See also Mk 16:16-18, 1 Cor 10:1-2, Gal 3:27, Col 2:11-12, Titus 3:5, 1 Pe 3:20-21, etc).
Today, when people want to become a Christian, they are told to simply "ask Jesus into their heart", or "give their heart to the Lord". You might be surprised to learn that there is literally NOT ONE example of anyone in the New Testament being told to do anything like this at all. For instance, there are many, many examples in the book of Acts of people becoming Christians, and yet NOT ONCE are any of them told anything that even remotely resembles, "Just give your heart to the Lord". Instead, people in Bible days were told, "Repent, and be baptized... and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:38. See also Acts 8:12-20, Acts 8:35-39, Acts 10:44-48, Acts 19:1-6, Acts 22:16, etc). In the coming Revival, just like the book of Acts, repentance, water-baptism (by immersion), and baptism in the Holy Spirit will be expected to occur IMMEDIATELY someone believes the gospel. Until all of these things have occurred, they will simply not be considered a true, New Testament Christian. This is clearly the only tenable Scriptural position on the matter. What a shockingly inadequate and unscriptural gospel the church has been preaching up until now!
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