Baptism in 1st Corinthians - part I

In the previous post, we talked about how it is important to read entire books/letters of the Bible in one sitting so as to get a better understanding of the context of verses.  Today, we'll attempt to discuss all the references to baptism in one letter:  that of the 1 Corinthians.

Of all the New Testament letters, none speaks of baptism/immersion more than Paul's first letter to the Corinthians.  In today's post we are going to walk through the references there to see what we can learn about baptismal thought and language in the mind of Paul.

Let's start at the beginning:

 "Now brethren, I am pleading with you through the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all should speak the same thing and there should be no splits among you, but you should be framed together in the same mind and in the same viewpoint. For it has been indicated to me concerning you, my brethren, by the household of Chloe, that strifes are among you. Now I am saying this, that each of you says, I am indeed of Paul! I am indeed of Apollos! I am indeed of Cephas! I am indeed of Christ!  Has Christ been divided? Paul was not crucified on your behalf, was he? Or were you immersed into the name of Paul?  I thank God that I immersed none of you, except Crispus and Gaius;  lest anyone might say that you were immersed into my name.  And I also immersed the household of Stephanas; furthermore, I do not know if I immersed any other. For Christ sent me not to immerse, but to proclaim the good-news; not in wisdom of words, (that the cross of Christ might not be made void)."
- 1 Corinthians 1:10-17, MLV

This is one of the most controversial passages about baptism and as James Dunn states in his book, Baptism in the Holy Spirit, "This passage is a battlefield where both sacramentalists and their opponents claim the victory, v. 13 being the stronghold of the one, and v. 17 that of the other."

Let's examine the passage and see what we can glean from not only these verses but the letter as a whole.  Paul starts off his letter by imploring the Corinthians to be united.  Apparently, factions had been started based off of either who had preached to them before they got baptized, or who had baptized them.  Paul's three questions in v. 13 are powerful and put baptism in some interesting company:  he puts the unity Christ, the crucifixion of Christ and baptism in the name of Christ all together.  This is not unlike the company baptism finds itself with in Ephesians 4:3-6, another place where Paul is referring to unity in the body of Christ.  Another assumption we can make based on this text is that all the Corinthians had been baptized.  This corresponds with what is said in Acts 18:7-8 where we see many Corinthians believing and being baptized, which brings us to v. 14 where we see that Paul personally baptized one Crispus and one Gaius.  As a matter of fact Paul is glad that he only baptized those two so that no one could say they were baptized in his name.  (See this post for a more in-depth discussion of the conversion of Crispus as recorded in Acts and 1 Corinthians) Suddenly, the Spirit prompts Paul to remember that he also baptized the household of Stephanas, and then we come to a verse of not a little controversy, v. 17 when Paul says he wasn't sent to baptize.  Many have taken this to mean that baptism is not important, that it's just a secondary or afterthought.  However, this doesn't make logical sense given what Paul had just previously stated regarding baptism, not to mention his references and explanations of it in many other letters.  As a general rule, I'm not a fan of The Message Bible, but here I think they definitely catch the meaning of what Paul is really trying to get across in verse 17, given the context:

"God didn’t send me out to collect a following for myself, but to preach the Message of what he has done, collecting a following for him. And he didn’t send me to do it with a lot of fancy rhetoric of my own, lest the powerful action at the center—Christ on the Cross—be trivialized into mere words."

Given the full context of this passage, it is clear that Paul was diminishing the importance of the person who physically baptized the convert, not the importance of baptism itself.  This makes sense given that both Jesus (John 4:1-3) and Peter (Acts 10:47-48) also delegated the immersing to another.  Also, given the context of this passage, we can see that factions were arising based on preaching and baptizing; Paul wanted to make clear that it didn't matter if he physically put someone under the water, because it would be done as a response to the preaching of the gospel message.  That is the other point of this passage, we know that baptism in the name of Jesus is in water (Acts 2:38-39, Acts 8:35-39, Acts 10:47-48) and it is what one disciple of Jesus does to a convert (Matthew 28:18-20).  so, when Paul says he baptized Crispus, Gaius and the household of Stephanas, we know that he means in water in the name of Jesus.


The second baptismal passage in this letter can be found in chapter six:

 "Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be misled. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor pedophiles, nor homosexuals, nor the greedy, nor thieves, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor swindlers, will inherit the kingdom of God.  And some of you were these, but you were bathed, but you were sanctified, but you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus and in the Spirit of our God." - 1 Corinthians 6:9-11, MLV

Several people try to say that this passage is not about baptism, or that it is only about spiritual baptism and not baptism in water.  The facts speak in contrary to that idea.   In this verse, Paul is using language similar to that which he heard at his own conversion.  Look at the question Ananias asked him:

"And now, why are you hesitating? You yourself, stand up; be immersed and bathe away your sins, calling upon the name of the Lord." - Acts 22:16, MLV


 However, the connection goes further, let's look at a breakdown of the text (in the NIV):

Or do you not know that wrongdoers will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor men who have sex with men nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. <-- SIN

And that is what some of you were. <-- WHAT HAPPENED/CHANGED?

But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God.

Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 both refer to sins being BATHED/WASHED away and make reference to the name. In fact, the only uses of the verb that is translated washed/bathed here in the entire New Testament are the two verses in Acts 22 and 1 Corinthians 6.  See here:   http://biblehub.com/str/greek/628.htm

So, we know that this verse in 1 Corinthians 6 is a reference to baptism.  The connection doesn't end there.  "Washed/bathed...in the name of the Lord" is extremely close to "be baptized/immersed in the name of the Lord".  The parallel of being washed/bathed/baptized in the name of the Lord for the forgiveness of sins occurs in these two verses and Acts 2:38:

“…and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins.” –Acts 2:38

“be baptized and wash your sins away, calling on his name.’” – Acts 22:16

“But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ…” – 1 Corinthians 6:11

Not only that but the reference to the Spirit of our God in 1 Corinthians also parallels "you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit" in Acts 2.  These verses are all connected.

So, we can conclude that the first two references to baptism in 1 Corinthians (coupled with the information we have from the book of Acts) both refer to immersion in water in the name of Jesus where a disciple (Paul, Ananias) baptized a convert (Crispus, Gaius, Saul, etc) as part of the conversion process.

In Part II, we'll discuss 1 Corinthians 10:1-2, 1 Corinthians 12:13 and 1 Corinthians 15:29.

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

One letter at a time...

"Give my greetings to the brothers and sisters at Laodicea, and to Nympha and the church in her house.  After this letter has been read to you, see that it is also read in the church of the Laodiceans and that you in turn read the letter from Laodicea." - Colossians 4:15-16

Church "service" in the first century was very different in some ways than our services today.  In the early (Jewish-only) church in the first 10 chapters of Acts, the disciples would often meet on the Sabbath in the Temple or synagogue to hear Scripture being read.  The Apostles would get up and preach about Jesus, and then throughout the week the disciples would often meet in their homes or in the Temple courts as well.

After the inclusion of Gentiles in the kingdom of God, meeting at the Temple/synagogues became increasingly more difficult as the uncircumcised were not allowed in certain areas, so the church began meeting more frequently in homes.  Reading through Acts and Paul's letters we see more and more the idea of "house churches".  The majority of the New Testament consists of letters written to specific churches and/or individuals by the apostles and prophets in the first century.  These letters would then be circulated (and later copied) among the house churches of the time as we can see from the initial verse above. Paul often names the carriers of the letter towards the end of each one.  Due to the large number of people who were illiterate in those days, one or two persons would often read the letter aloud to everyone (and for those who weren't Greek-speaking, there would be an interpreter into Hebrew/Aramaic).  They would have a communion meal together and pray and sometimes someone would get up and preach words of encouragement or share news about the surrounding sister churches.

This is often very different from how we read the Bible today.  We often read short sections or a few chapters at a time, forgetting that most books/letters of the Bible were intended to be read in one sitting.

Here's a great article by fellow blogger Radically Christian on estimated times it would take to read each book of the Bible in one sitting.

It can also really help you to read the Bible as such if you have an edition with no chapters/verses.  Last year, I bought this one and I love it for numerous reasons:  a more logical order/division of the books and putting similar texts in sections together.   For example, in most Bibles Paul's letters are arranged in order from longest (Romans) to shortest (Philemon), while this Bible puts them in what is most commonly believed to be their chronological order.  Also, most Bibles separate Samuel, Kings and Chronicles into two books, while this Bible does not.  The Bible also takes the logical step of putting Luke-Acts together, since Luke (the doctor) wrote them both as a part I and part II.

I strongly suggest that you carve out time in your schedule to read each book of the Bible in one sitting (except for maybe Psalms and Proverbs, which I don't believe were intended to be read as such - those should probably be split up into sections over several days).
It will change so much of your understanding of the Bible and help you to see connections you have never noticed before.  The first century church read the letters of the NT in one sitting, and even then some folks missed or distorted the meaning of things (see the closing verse of this entry).  How much more susceptible are we to error like that by reading only snippets of the Bible on a regular basis?

Many people like to form an entire conversion doctrine around Ephesians 2:8-9, forgetting that in that same letter Ephesians 4:4-6 and Ephesians 5:25-27 must be taken into account.
The "faith/belief alone = salvation" proponents will often cite Romans 4 and Romans 10:9-13 while ignoring the surrounding context and the fact that Romans 6:1-11 lies between the two in the same letter.  In our next entry, we'll look at the first letter to the Corinthians and how baptism/immersion is referenced there and should be understood throughout the ENTIRE letter.

"Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction." - 2 Peter 3:15-16

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

P.S.  I apologize about the delay in publishing an article this week.  I actually was afforded the opportunity to preach the Sunday sermon at my home church this past week, and was out of town the first three days of the week. Starting this coming weekend, I will resume my regular schedule of publishing articles on Sundays and Wednesdays.

Counting conversions?

As pointed out in a previous post "discipleship and baptism", immersion was/is a part of making a disciple.  It is the turning point, where one goes from darkness to light.  Let's look at some further evidence for the idea that the NT church knew of or marked the turning point:

"Greet my dear friend Epenetus, who was the first convert to Christ in the province of Asia." - Romans 16:5b, NIV, emphasis mine

"You know that the household of Stephanas were the first converts in Achaia, and they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people." - 1 Corinthians 16:15a, NIV, emphasis mine.

The word being translated here as "convert(s)" actually literally means "first-fruits" from the Greek word aparché.  The idea comes from the first part of a harvest that was offered in a sacrifice or a gift to a deity.  

The early church (in this case, Paul in particular) knew who the first converts were in particular areas and if someone was a recent convert or not.  Look at one of the qualifications given for someone to become an elder/shepherd in the church:

"He must not be a recent convert, or he may become conceited and fall under the same judgment as the devil." - 1 Timothy 3:6, NIV, emphasis mine.

The word being translated "recent convert" here comes from the same word that the English term "neophyte" is derived.  It can mean novice or beginner, but it literally means "newly sprouted".  An idea that is not foreign to the Biblical concept of conversion (see John 12:23-25,  1 Corinthians 3:5-9, and 1 Corinthians 15). 

Finally, we see reference to a certain Cypriot named Mnason who had been a disciple "of old/of long standing":

"Some of the disciples from Caesarea accompanied us and brought us to the home of Mnason, where we were to stay. He was a man from Cyprus and one of the early disciples." -Acts 21:16, NIV, emphasis mine.

So, the early church was cognizant of or understood the idea of "how long" someone had been a disciple.

WHEN then does this change occur?  

2 Corinthians 5:17 refers to this as being "in Christ", being "a new creation".  The way that a person gets into Christ is through faith and baptism:

" Or are you ignorant that as many as were immersed into Christ Jesus were immersed* into his death?  Therefore we were buried together with him through the immersion* into death; that just-like Christ was raised up from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we might also walk in newness of life." - Romans 6:3-4, MLV

 For you are all sons of God, through the faith, in Christ Jesus.  For as many as were immersed into Christ were clothed with Christ.  There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bondservant nor free man, there is no male and female; for you all are one in Christ Jesus. - Galatians 3:26-28, MLV

The only way the Bible refers to a person becoming or getting "into Christ" is immersed/baptized into Christ.  The Bible never uses the terms "believed/repented/confessed/prayed into Christ".  

This idea corresponds with what we see in Acts, the only book of the Bible with conversions recorded in it:

Acts 2:41-42 - 3,000 baptized and then they devoted themselves...(like Matthew 28:18-20, baptize them then teach them to obey everything...).  See also Acts 4:4, Acts 21:20 for a "tracking" of the number of converts to five thousand (men) and thousands respectively.  

Now, in no way am I advocating that church should be run like a business with spreadsheets and stats about growth and conversions;  I do think it is interesting that to at least a degree the early (Jerusalem) church did somewhat monitor their numbers.  This isn't totally surprising coming from the Jewish brethren given Israel's history of keeping records and counts.

I think the lesson here is that it is always exciting and a good thing to want to see lots of people become followers of Christ, but we have to remember it is the Lord adding to the number daily through the power of his Spirit and not necessarily our efforts or "church planning".  

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

NOTE:  for verses dealing with baptism I tend to use the MLV because I prefer the more accurate translation of "immersion/immersed", but for the ease and familiarity of the reader, other verse citations will be in the NIV.  

The conversion of 10 individuals in the book of Acts (part II)

In the previous blog post, we discussed the conversions of 5 individuals in the book of Acts.  Let's look at the second half of the list after a brief recap of the introduction:

 At the conclusion of two of the gospels we find the following:

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations…by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In Mark 16:15-16, Jesus tell his disciples to preach the gospel/good news to all creation…and that everyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. 

We will look at the second set of  cases here to see if they follow the pattern given: A) preaching of the gospel by a Christian, B) believingand being baptized by the converts, making them disciples (=saved).

6) In Acts 16:11-15 we encounter Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from Thyatira was one of several women who were (working or washing) at the river.  Paul and his companions speak/preach to them (Acts 16:13-14), and we can reason that Lydia believed as her heart was opened to respond to the message.  She and the members of her household are baptized (Acts 16:15), presumably in the river right there.  Again, we can see the pattern of being preached to, believing and then responding by being baptized.  While her belief is not explicitly stated, after her conversion she asks if they consider her a believer in the Lord (v. 15), which obviously they do.

7) The conversion of the Philippian jailer occurs in Acts 16:23-36.  Paul and Silas land in prison after being persecuted for an exorcism.  While in jail, there is a great earthquake, and the jailer believes that all the prisoners have escaped and so he is about to commit suicide when Paul intervenes (Acts 16:16-28).  He asks what he must do to be saved, and Paul/Silas respond that he needs to believe in the Lord Jesus, and both he and his household will be saved (Acts 16:30-31).  Afterwards, Paul and Silas speak/preach the word of the Lord to him and his entire household (v. 32).  This is important, because we see that he preaching the word of the Lord came AFTER him being told to believe in the Lord Jesus.  This lets us know that to “believe in the Lord Jesus” ALONE is NOT the full “word of the Lord”.  After being preached to, the jailer takes Paul and Silas to a place where he can wash their wounds (probably the river mentioned earlier in the chapter).  Then immediately, he and his entire household are baptized (v. 33), probably in the same river as Lydia.  Again, the converts are told to believe, but it is not explicitly stated that they do as in other cases.  However, we can infer their belief by them accepting being baptized, and by the later statement that he and his household had come to believe in God. (v. 34)

8) Paul is in Athens in Acts 17:16-34, where he preaches the good news about Jesus and the resurrection (Acts 17:18).  He is then taken to the Areopagus, and he preaches again (Acts 17:22-31).  We are told that a number of people became followers of Paul and believed.  The two that are mentioned by name are Dionysius (a member of the Areopagus) and Damaris.  If they are presumed to have become “followers of Paul” the way that Simon followed Philip (Acts 8:13), or the way Paul describes it in 1 Corinthians 1:12-16, then belief and baptism would be in view as someone would become a follower of the person who baptized them; although nothing explicit is said of their baptism, similar to Sergius Paulus (Acts 13). It should be noted that in several of the other individual conversions, an explicit mention of the person having “believed” is not mentioned, while their baptism is.  Just as in those instances the belief can be assumed, here the baptism should be assumed as well.  The next story will give further confirmation for this.

9)  In Corinth (Acts 18:1-17), Paul goes to the synagogue and reasons with/tries to persuade Jews and Greeks.  Paul preaches/testifies that Jesus is the Messiah to the Jews.  The Jews become abusive, so Paul leaves the synagogue and goes next door to the house of Titius Justus;  Crispus and his entire household believe in the Lord, and many Corinthians believe and are baptized (Acts 18:8).  So, again, we have someone preaching, and then the convert believes, but what about the baptism?  One beauty of the Bible is that many of the cities that Paul planted/strengthened churches in also receive letters from him later.  In 1 Corinthians 1:14, we are told that Paul baptized Crispus.  So, again, we have our complete pattern of being preached to, believing and then being baptized.  This is also an important conversion story because of what it lets us know about how Luke may word conversions.  So, in Acts while Luke may only say “believed” (Acts 13:12, Acts 17:34), the implication can be that the person “believed and was baptized”. 

10) Our final story is not as straight forward as the others, but also could provide further evidence for the pattern outlined and examined here.  This conversion story takes some historical knowledge.  The three types of names that have come to be regarded as quintessentially Roman were the praenomen, nomen, and cognomen. Together, these were referred to as the tria nomina, or three-name system.  This is being brought up to point out that, as many scholars believe, Titius Justus of Acts 18:8 is probably Gaius of 1 Corinthians 1:14, his full name being Gaius Titius Justus.  He would be counted among the many Corinthians who believed and were baptized after hearing Paul preach, just like Dionysius and Damaris were counted among the many in Athens who became followers of Paul and believed (Acts 17:34).  Further evidence for this theory is that when Paul writes his letter to the Romans, he is in the city of Corinth; he is staying at the house of Gaius (Romans 16:23), and the whole church enjoys his hospitality.  Another possibility is that Titius Justus might also have been Stephanas, whom Paul also baptized personally (1 Corinthians 1:16).  Evidence for this is the fact that Stephanas and his family were the first converts in Achaia, and they devoted themselves to the Lord’s service (1 Corinthians 16:15-17).  In Acts 18:8, Titius Justus and Crispus are two of the Corinthians specifically mentioned by name, and mentioned together, so it would not be surprising that Crispus and Gaius or Stephanas who are all mentioned together and could be considered some of the first converts would be the same people in 1 Corinthians 1.  Since Titius Justus was a worshipper of God who lived next door to the synagogue, he was probably a wealthy benefactor who funded or built the synagogue, similar to the centurion in Luke 7:1-10.  Meaning, he was wealthy enough to have a large enough house to host the church.  Also, it would be at a prime location right next door with a synagogue which was usually built near a lake or river so that Jews could take part in their ceremonial washings, similar to the “place of prayer” in Philippi were Lydia was converted.  This would be a perfect spot to preach the word (to Jews and Greeks) and then convert via baptism all those who had believed the message. 

 

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS – GROUP CONVERSIONS:

In addition to these individual conversions, there are several places in Acts where large groups of people are converted.  What may be considered to be the prototypical group conversion is the FIRST conversion ever recorded:  Peter preaches the first gospel sermon ever in Acts 2:14-36.  Those who hear the message are cut to the heart, which could be presumed to be their belief.  They ask what they should do, and Peter tells them to “Repent and be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of their sins and the gift of the Holy Spirit.”  The 3000 people who accepted (=believed) his message were baptized.  This could be considered to follow the pattern outlined above with the individual conversions as well.  So, the very first group conversion recorded follows this pattern (3000 at Pentecost), and the very first individual conversion recorded also follows this pattern (Simon from Samaria). 

There are several more group conversions given in Acts, usually occurring after preaching, or a miracle.  Sometimes the converted are only said to have “believed”:  Acts 4:4, Acts 5:14, Acts 9:42, Acts 11:21, Acts 13:48, Acts 14:1, Acts 17:12, Acts 18:27, Acts 19:18 and Acts 21:20.  Other times statements about belief and baptism are given:  Acts 2:37-41, 8:12, Acts 18:8, Acts 19:1-7.  Given what we learned from the Crispus connection in Acts 18 and 1 Corinthians 1, as well as an in-depth examination of the conversion of the Ephesian disciples (of John/Apollos?) in Acts 19, we can see that even when baptism is not explicitly stated, it can/should be tied to belief.  So, while there are several examples of large groups and two cases of individuals (Acts 13:12, 17:34) simply having “believed”, we should still assume that baptism was a part of their conversion process given the command of Jesus in Mark 16:15-16, Matthew 28:18-20, and the very first conversions ever recorded in Acts 2:14-41 which show the pattern of being preached the gospel, responding by believing and being baptized as the conversion process. 

NOTE:  Repentance (Luke 24:46-47, Acts 2:38, Acts 3:19, Acts 5:31, Acts 11:18, Acts 17:30, Acts 20:21, Acts 26:20) and a confession of faith/calling on the name of the Lord (Acts 8:37, Acts 22:16, Romans 10:9-13, 1 Timothy 6:12-13) should also be considered part of the conversion process, however the confession of faith is not as heavily emphasized in the conversion stories in Acts, and repentance is often used to summarize the conversion process as a whole, rather than merely as a step, the same way that believe is often used at times to refer to the whole conversion process and at other times just as a step in the process.

CONCLUSION

Some of Jesus’ final words to his followers are that they are to:  preach the gospel to all creation/make disciples of all nations, with the response of the would-be converts being to believe and get baptized (in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit) for salvation. The pattern being preaching of the gospel/good news by someone who is already a disciple of Jesus, followed by all those who believe it, being baptized.  This pattern can be observed in the 10 individual conversions listed above.

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

The conversion of 10 individuals in the book of Acts (part I)

 "I say to you thus, that there will be joy in heaven over one sinner who repents..." - Luke 15:7a, MLV

INTRODUCTION

At the conclusion of two of the gospels we find the following:

In Matthew 28:18-20, Jesus tells his disciples to go and make disciples of all nations…by baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

In Mark 16:15-16, Jesus tell his disciples to preach the gospel/good news to all creation…and that everyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. 

Acts holds a very special place in Scripture as it is a unique book in the NT.  The four gospels show the life of Jesus from birth to his resurrection.  The letters are written to Christians, those already disciples of Jesus and giving them encouragement and reminding them often of Jesus, his death burial and resurrection.  Acts is the ONE book in the Bible where we have disciples of Jesus meeting non-Christians and converting them.  We can gain lots of insight into the conversion process by examining the book of Acts.  While Acts often speaks of groups or large numbers of people being converted (see notes at end of part II), at times the book mentions specific individual conversions. The fact that the Spirit prompted Luke to write about cases of individuals (sometimes by name, other times by profession) being converted shows their importance to their respective fellowship/church at the time of conversion, or to the narrative of the book of Acts as a whole.  We will look at ten cases (seemingly the only ones in Acts) here to see if they follow the pattern given: A) preaching of the gospel by a Christian, B) believing and being baptized by the converts, making them disciples (=saved); This study will shed light on the conversion process and help to confirm the Great Commission(s) as given at the end of the gospels.

CONVERSIONS

1) The first individual converted is an interesting one: Simon the Samaritan sorcerer in Acts 8:4-25.  He’s a “powerful” sorcerer who has a cult following.  Philip the evangelist goes down to a city in Samaria and preaches the word/proclaims the Messiah/good news of the kingdom of God there (Acts 8:4-5, 12).  Many of those in Simon’s cult, both men and women, believe and are baptized.  And then we see in verse 13.  “Simon himself believed and had been immersed…”

This is the first confirmation of a conversion consisting of being preached to, believing and then being baptized.  Also of note is that towards the end of the story, when Simon is found to be in sin, he is not told to be baptized again, but rather to repent and pray.  

2) The next individual conversion is that of an Ethiopian eunuch, an important official, the treasurer for the queen of the Ethiopians in Acts 8:26-40.  After being directed by an angel and the Spirit, Philip goes and talks to him.  He tells him (or preaches) the good news about Jesus (Acts 8:35).  In the variant text, v. 37 has the Ethiopian saying “I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God” after asking what can stand in the way of him being immersed.  Philip and the eunuch go down in the water, and Philip immerses  him (v. 38).  Again, we see the pattern of being preached to, believing and being baptized.  Even without the variant text we can conclude that the eunuch believed Philip since he brought up the idea of being baptized.  This story is also important because it lets us know that the baptism that concludes the conversion process takes place in water.  It is NOT the Holy Spirit baptism that happens to the apostles (& perhaps the rest of the 120) in Acts 2:1-4.  This fact will be further confirmed by the Cornelius story.

3) We know from the beginning of Acts 8 and Acts 9 that Saul was heavily persecuting the church.  His conversion story is told three times in Scripture.  It is recorded initially by Luke in Acts 9:1-19.  Paul then recounts the story twice, once in Acts 22:1-16 and again in Acts 26. Jesus puts a dramatic and abrupt stop to Saul's persecution of the church while he is on the road to Damascus.  We get three accounts of Saul’s conversion, which provide us lots of detail.  Jesus appears to Saul on the road.  We can say with certainty that he believed him to be Lord, Christ and the Son of God (Acts 9:20, Acts 22:10), after the blinding vision.  While, it should have been sufficient simply having Jesus appear to him, Saul’s conversion doesn’t conclude there.  Jesus then sends Ananias to complete the conversion process.  Ananias heals him and then preaches to him about Jesus, the Holy Spirit and his calling (Acts 9:17, Acts 22:12-16); Saul is then immersed (Acts 9:18, 22:16), presumably by Ananias. From the three accounts we can glean some interesting insight into who Luke writes about conversion.  We will see that all elements of the conversion process are not always explicitly mentioned.  For example, in the Acts 9 account we are told about the healing, the Holy Spirit and the baptism;  in Acts 22 we are told about the healing, the baptism and calling on the name of the Lord, but not mention of the Holy Spirit.  In the Acts 26 account, Paul's blindness and later healing aren't mentioned ,Ananias isn't mentioned at all, and neither is the Holy Spirit nor his baptism stated.  This lets us know that Luke doesn't always give every element of conversion in every story (belief/faith, repentance, confessing/calling on the name of the Lord, baptism, reception of Holy Spirit).  

4) Like Saul/Paul's conversion, there is another whose story is thrice told.  Here we have the conversion of the first Gentile, one of the oft-mentioned “fearers/worshippers of God” named in Acts. The original event is recorded in Acts 10.  Recounting of the events occurs in Acts 11:1-18 and Acts 15:6-11. After a series of double visions had by Cornelius and Peter (similar to the double visions had by Saul and Ananias), Peter then goes to Cornelius’ house and preaches to him (Acts 10:34-43, Acts 11:14-15).  While their belief is not explicitly stated, it can be inferred from the fact that they began to speak in tongues and praise God after He poured out the Holy Spirit on them (Acts 10:44-46), which is a baptism of the Holy Spirit, pointed out by Peter in Acts 11:15-16. Also, Peter says that belief in Jesus will lead to forgiveness of sins "through his name", alluding to being baptized in his name: which is explicitly stated - their baptism in water (Acts 10:47-48) in the name of the Lord Jesus.  This story serves to confirm that there is a difference between baptism of the Holy Spirit (in the book of Acts baptism of the Holy Spirit only happened here and in Acts 2), which takes places in verses 44-46, and baptism in water in the name of the Lord Jesus (v. 47-48), which serves as the conclusion of the conversion process.  These verses also let us know that when we see the phrase baptized/immersed/washed in the name of the Lord, it is in water (see Matthew 28:19, Acts 2:38, Acts 8:16, Acts 19:5, Acts 22:16, 1 Corinthians 1:13, 1 Corinthians 6:11)  Once again, we see that all elements are not mentioned in each account of the conversion.  Their reception of the Spirit and immersion in water is mentioned in Acts 10.  In Acts 11, their reception of the Spirit is mentioned (and shown to be a unique occurrence that had only happened once previously back in Acts 2) and repentance.  In Acts 15 their miraculous reception of the Spirit and belief are mentioned, but not repentance nor baptism in water.  A careful examination of Scripture lets us know that we should assume all elements of conversion present, even if they are not all explicitly mentioned.  For an in-depth study of Cornelius' conversion, see James Bales' book: The Case of Cornelius, which is a fascinating book dedicated to the study of the first Gentile convert.  

5) Paul and Barnabas go to Paphos, on the island of Cyprus and teach/preach to the proconsul, one Sergius Paulus in Acts 13:4-12.  Here, we are told that he has faith (Acts 13:8) and that he believed (Acts 13:12).  No mention is made of his baptism, nor repentance, nor reception of the Spirit, but just as no explicit mention is made of the faith/belief of Saul, there is simply no reason to believe that the proconsul was not baptized.  This will be addressed in further detail in part II, to appear later this week when we show the second set of individual conversions given in the book of Acts.

For further reading, see Robert Allen Black's PhD dissertation entitled: The Conversion Stories in the Acts of the Apostles. 

Be strong in the grace,

Fenton

NOTE:  All in-text verses are cited in the Modern Literal Version,  while the hyperlinks show the NIV translation.