Hermeneutical gymnastics arise to near Olympic competition quality in an attempt to invalidate the teaching of Acts 2:38 (and other passages, too). For instance, it is nothing more than a senseless quibble that punctuation, namely a comma, in an English translation dissolves the effect of the coordinate conjunction between the words “repent” and “be baptized” preceding “for the remission of sins” in Acts 2:38. The Greek New Testament had no punctuation!
The earliest Greek texts did not have any equivalent to our modern device of punctuation. Sentence punctuation became common several centuries after the time of Christ. Most of the oldest copies of both the Greek New Testament and the Hebrew Old Testament are written with no punctuation, though a few manuscripts from the second and third centuries CE do contain early attempts to develop punctuation. In addition, the ancient Greeks used no spaces between words. Most texts were a continuous string of letters, with an occasional blank line inserted to mark the end of a major section, though even this was not always done. They also had no equivalent to our lower case letters. Texts were written in all capitals. (Palmer)
It is easy to make baseless assertions, such as this one: “Baptism ALWAYS comes after repentance, faith, forgiveness, never before, in the Bible” (Martin). Yes, Bible baptism follows faith and repentance, but it is a false claim that “[b]aptism ALWAYS comes after… forgiveness, never before, in the Bible.” Look with me to the conversion of Saul of Tarsus – most widely known later and today as the apostle Paul. It is evident that from Acts 9:6 onward that Saul believed that Jesus of Nazareth was the Son of God, and yet, neither Saul nor Jesus Christ considered Saul saved from his sins yet. “So he, trembling and astonished, said, ‘Lord, what do You want me to do?’ Then the Lord said to him, ‘Arise and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do’” (Acts 9:6 NKJV). Had Saul known that he was saved from his sins, he would not have inquired of Jesus what he yet needed, and noticeably, Jesus would not have told him what he “must do” if Saul were already saved from his sins.
Saul prayed and fasted for three days before a Christian named Ananias was sent by Jesus to him (Acts 9:9-10). It was then and not before that according to Scripture Saul was told what he “must do” regarding his salvation. Here is what Ananias told Saul. “And now why are you waiting? Arise and be baptized, and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord” (Acts 22:16 emphasis added). Clearly, the assertion that “[b]aptism ALWAYS comes after… forgiveness, never before, in the Bible” is false. Saul had retained his sins even after meeting Jesus on the road to Damascus and after three days of fasting with prayer, but those sins were remitted in Christian baptism. That is what a student of the New Testament would expect after reading the declaration of Jesus about salvation in Mark 16:16 or what the apostle Peter preached (Acts 2:38) and wrote (1 Peter 3:21) about at what point one is saved.
It is easier and simpler to believe and practice what Jesus taught and what Peter preached and wrote about salvation. More importantly, the plan of salvation that is divine in origin alone can assure the living that they have the forgiveness of sins, whereby they may confidently with boldness (Hebrews 10:19) know that they are prepared to meet God in Judgment (Amos 4:12).
Works Cited
Martin, Dave. Baptist preacher Bartlett, TN from an email.
Palmer, Michael W. “Punctuation in Ancient Greek Texts, Part I.” Greek Language and Linguistics. 10 Jan 2013. <https://greek-language.com/grklinguist/?p=657>.
