"And it came to pass, that, while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul having passed through the upper coasts came to Ephesus: and finding certain disciples, He said unto them, Have ye received the Holy Ghost since ye believed? And they said unto him, We have not so much as heard whether there be any Holy Ghost. And he said unto them, Unto what then were ye baptized? And they said, Unto John's baptism. Then said Paul, John verily baptized with the baptism of repentance, saying unto the people, that they should believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus. When they heard this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus."
Today's lesson is yet another very important one in that it more definitely affirms that the baptism that saves the souls of the lost is the baptism of the Holy Ghost, NOT WATER BAPTISM, as so many religious organizations contend.
In the first part of today's quote, Paul asked the few disciples at Ephesus whether they had received the Holy Ghost "since ye believed"? They answered, in essence, that they had not even heard of the Holy Ghost. That admission plainly tells us that those Ephesians had NOT been taught the gospel of Jesus Christ, because the Holy Ghost was integral to God's plan of eternal salvation. By not even knowing that the Holy Ghost existed, those Ephesians could not have been believers in Jesus Christ to the point of eternal salvation. Then what, we might ask, did they "believe" in. The answer is simple, they believed the "baptism (message) of John". Remember, John the Baptist was, "The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths straight." (Mark 1:3) John's message was to prepare the Jews for the COMING of the means of salvation. John did not teach that the means of eternal salvation was already here, therefore, those Ephesians could not have believed in Jesus Christ because He had not yet come.
Therefore, when Paul, in the latter part of the quote, told those Ephesians to "believe on him which should come after him, that is, on Christ Jesus", they were "baptized", (eternally saved and thereby received the Holy Ghost.)~
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