Q. From Tucson, Arizona comes this question: “Since there was music and dancing when the prodigal son came home, suggested to us in Luke 15:25, how is it that we condemn dancing today?” A. That question is often asked by young folk. They point to David danc ing before Saul, and to passages in the Old Testament where the Jews danced. So they ask, why condemn dancing today? Well, we were not there back in Old Testament times to see what the dance consisted of, but we do know that the modern dance is lustful and licen tious, and stands to be condemned. If you were to take away from the dance of today, its suggestiveness, or all the possibility of evil thinking, the dance would fall of its own weight; there would be no appeal to it at all. It is based upon the sinful, lustful condition of man’s heart. I have had young people tell me that they could dance and their thoughts were absolutely pure. Well, that may be in isolated cases, but the cases would be rare, indeed. We do not like to call anyone a liar right to his face, but the dance of today is a hellish thing and has no relationship whatever to any of the dances condoned in the Word of God. Q. A listener fjrom this area writes: l am almost heartbroken when we see our loved ones separated. Is it wrong to grieve? A. The ultimate in grief is when we 16
Q, “Was there a difference between John’s baptism and Christian baptism as we know it today?” Acts 19:3-5 is referred to here. A. The answer is “Yes.” That differ ence is very clearly set forth in Acts 19:3-5. The Apostle Paul says, “. . . Into what then were ye baptized?”— 1901 Version is used. He had asked them if they had received the Holy Spirit when they believed and they said they did not even hear the Holy Spirit was given. So He said, “Into what were ye baptized? And he re plied into John’s baptism.” Paul said “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people that they should believe on him that should come after him, that is, on Jesus.” Thus John’s baptism was a baptism to encourage the people of Israel to repent individually in order that they be prepared for the coming of their Messiah who was to redeem them—in other words it was a preparatory bap tism. Note verse 5—“And when they heard this they were baptized into the name of the Lord Jesus.” They did not argue about it, they recognized that there was another act necessary on their part, to accept the authority of Christ, recog nizing He had already come. That He had worked out in God’s will the work of redemption on Calvary’s cross. So they were baptized into the name and under the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ, His Messiahship and His mes sage.
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