e.r.m., Mankind has no part in his salvation. Nothing can be boasted of by mankind. It was all done by Jesus Christ. Eph.2:8 Mankind can only humbly confess his guilt, Repent of his sinful ways and submit to the Will of the Father.
There you're wrong. Even the very statement
Mankind has no part in his salvation contradicts humbly confess his guilt, Repent of his sinful ways and submit to the Will of the Father.
- John 3:18 Anyone who believes in Him is not condemned, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned, because he has not believed in the name of the One and Only Son of God.
- John 6:27 Don’t
work for the food that perishes
but for the food that lasts for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal of approval on Him.” ...29 Jesus replied, “This is the work of God—that
you believe in the One He has sent.”
- Romans 10: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart,
resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth,
resulting in salvation.
- Acts 3:19 Therefore repent and turn back, so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord,[
a]
- Acts 2:37 When they heard this, they came under deep conviction[
a] and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles:
“Brothers, what must we do?”
38 “Repent,” Peter said to them, “and be baptized, each of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit.
These are all mankind's parts.
Mankind
having a part does not equal mankind boasting.
Peter used "in like figure" in connection to "saved"
Exactly, Peter didn't use it the way you used it, not in baptism being symbolic toward anything.
Paul used "like as"; were baptized into" "walk in newness of life" "planted together" "in the likeness of". Those all denote "symbolism". And those I quoted
Exactly also. You are saying they denote symbolism. You don't denote symbolism. You say it outright. You actually use the word symbolic every chance you get.
(BTW, Paul says there is a likeness, Paul doesn't say the likeness is the purpose for the baptism).
There is NO comparison.
Belief only advocates say explicitly and Aggressively that baptism's
PURPOSE is to symbolize...
They wage a relentness repetitious public campaign, vocalizing the word, 'symbolic' over, & over, and over, till people turn blue, until they don't think twice about. Biblical authors were never so aggressive.
Belief only advocates don't
Denote, and Biblical authors didn't explicitly and Aggressively tell people "You get baptized to symbolize...".
for example,
Paul never says "3 Or are you unaware that all of us who were baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death-
symbolically? 4 Therefore we were buried with Him by baptism into death -
symbolically, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we too may walk in a new way[
a] of life. 5 For if we have been joined with Him in the likeness of His death, we will certainly also be[
b] in the likeness of His resurrection. 6 For we know that our old self[
c] was crucified with Him-
symbolically in order that sin’s dominion over the body[
d] may be abolished, so that we may no longer be enslaved to sin,"
You, however,
correct people, ending
their sentences for them with the word-
symbolically.
It's not just you. I've heard this insertion since 1987 by belief only advocates.
In the 1981 Movie
Peter and Paul, the writers
Christopher Knopf and
Stanley Hough had Anthony Hopkins say "Baptism is only a symbol". I remember watching the movie. I was incensed by that line.
The Biblical authors were never so direct and were
NO WHERE NEAR as repetive on a supposed symbolic purpose for baptism as today's belief only advoactes are
, hence the discrepancy.
Why weren't the Biblical authors as
OBIQUITOUS about baptism's symbolic purpose as belief only advocates?
u·biq·ui·tous
/yuˈbɪk
wɪ
təs/ Show Spelled[yoo-bik-wi-tuh
s]
adjective
existing or being
everywhere, especially at the same time;
omnipresent
It was the "father of lies" who cast doubt over the meaning of GOD'S plain messages. What's so hard to understand concerning the meaning of Beliefs in John 3:16 when it is HIS GIVING OF HIS SON?
Giving His Son, God's part. Believing, one of man's part.
If you're going to respond with "It's man's only part", be ready to present a verse with the word "only" in it.