I have been attending a great bible teaching church and in the last few month have come to realize that the pastor believes that we don’t receive the Holy Spirit until we are baptized. We have spoken at length and agree that when you believe on Jesus as your Savior you are saved and will spend eternity with him and the father. He says that Ephesians 1:13-14 is saying we are sealed (as in marked) for our future inheritance, but the spirit doesn’t dwell and live within us until we get baptized and that is when we receive the promise of the Father. He says the Lord’s own baptism is our example of this and in Acts 2:38 Peter placed baptism before receiving the Holy Spirit.

I think that baptism is very important and we should do it because it is commanded and it is a public display of our choice to be a follower of Christ, but I disagree with my pastor on this issue. I have studied at length and hoped you might help?

Would you please speak on the communion. Which bread is to be used?

Man is in a depraved state and sin was passed down thru Adam to us. Because of our sinful nature, how are we able to make the decision to be saved without God helping us ? Are we that able to have something to do with our salvation ? Wouldn’t that mean salvation isn’t just up to God and that it’s our work and His grace combined?

What happened to Jesus after he died? Because I remember he had told the thief on the cross that he would be with Him in paradise.

I was going through the Parable of the Yeast from Matthew 13 and I have a question. Normally in Bible, Man is the term used to represent humans (both men and women). Here in this parable “Women” is used. Does she represent EVE? Through Eve, sin has been spread and mixed all over the world till now.(“until it was all leavened” means “to the end of the world”) What do you think?

Is there any relationship between Water Baptism and Holy Communion? Where I live certain Pastors warn born again people to refrain from partaking of Holy Communion unless they’ve also taken Water Baptism. As far as I know, there is no Scripture to support this doctrine, and many pastors know this too. Do you have any idea about this teaching?

What was the criteria for Old Covenant saints to go to Abraham’s bosom? Was it based on their behavior or on faith of the Messiah to come? For instance Lazarus and the rich man; it seems unlikely to me that Lazarus in his state was able to keep all the rituals of the law. However, the rich man very well could have ritually been following the law, but his heart was corrupt. When I look at David, he obviously had a revelation of God’s Grace that leaves me amazed as I am slowly grabbing hold of Grace. Were they only accountable to be obedient for what they understood?

I have a question about the inhabitants who will live in New Jerusalem during the millennium and beyond. People say the church, Bride Of Christ, will be those who dwell there. I agree, but a question always tugs away at the back of my mind about the city Abraham was looking forward to as recorded in Hebrews 11:10. “For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God”. There is only one city that I can recall in scripture whose builder and maker would be God, and that’s the New Jerusalem. So, if Church age believers are going to be the only occupants of New Jerusalem, what city is Hebrews 11:10 all about?

I have been witnessing to a friend who is a lesbian. She feels that since she believes in Jesus she is saved, but I have a problem with that because Satan and demons believe but we know they aren’t saved. Every time Jesus healed someone we know they believed in Him because they had faith He would heal them, yet Jesus told them to go sin no more. Repentance is a big part of salvation and yet some people don’t believe you have to repent to go to heaven. They say John 3:16 says plainly that he that believes in him shall have eternal life. What about repenting?

Is it possible for believing Christians who have the Holy Spirit as our Seal, after being baptized and accepting Jesus as our Savior, to read the same portion of scripture and have different opinions about what it says?