{"id":5264,"date":"2006-05-14T17:40:28","date_gmt":"2006-05-14T22:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/?p=5264"},"modified":"2021-11-11T17:25:58","modified_gmt":"2021-11-11T23:25:58","slug":"was-baptism-only-for-the-jews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-baptism-only-for-the-jews\/","title":{"rendered":"Was baptism only for the Jews?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h2>Question:<\/h2>\n<p>In our Bible class tonight with some Dispensational friends I brought up I Corinthians 6:11, about them being washed and sanctified. Our friend said that had nothing to do with baptism, but that the blood of Jesus cleansed and washed us not water from baptism. I mentioned I Peter 3:21 and the comparison to Noah and the water, but our friends believe that the baptism there and in Acts. 2 is <b>only <\/b>for the Jews, not for Gentiles. How can we reason that &#8220;washed&#8221; means baptism rather than just the figurative use of it?<\/p>\n\t<h2>Answer:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>If only for Jews, then why did Peter command Cornelius (a Gentile) to be baptized (Acts 10:47-48)?<\/li>\n<li>If only for the Jews, then why did Paul write to the Romans (Gentiles included) &#8220;<i>Or do you not know that&nbsp;<b>as many of us as were baptized<\/b>&nbsp;into Christ Jesus were baptized into His death?<\/i>&#8221; (Romans 6:3)?<\/li>\n<li>Why did Paul tell the Galatians, who were obviously Gentile since he argued against circumcision, &#8220;<i>For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ<\/i>&#8221; (Galatians 3:27).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Speaking of circumcision, Paul told the Colossians (also a Gentile community), &#8220;<i>In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ,&nbsp; buried with Him in baptism, in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead. And you, being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He has made alive together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses<\/i>&#8221; (Colossians 2:11-13).<\/p>\n<p>If washing is only symbolic, then why did Ananias tell Paul, &#8220;<i>Arise and&nbsp;<b>be baptized, and wash<\/b>&nbsp;away your sins<\/i>&#8221; (Acts 22:16).<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Question: In our Bible class tonight with some Dispensational friends I brought up I Corinthians 6:11, about them being washed and sanctified. Our friend said that had nothing to do with baptism, but that the blood of Jesus cleansed and washed us not water from baptism. I mentioned I Peter 3:21 and the comparison to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[52,1384,787],"class_list":["post-5264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-baptism","tag-dispensationalism","tag-equality"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":92363,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-baptism-only-for-the-jews-3\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":0},"title":"Was baptism only for the Jews? (3)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 28, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good day. Does I Corinthians 12:13 refer to Holy Spirit baptism? Was water baptism only for the Jews? Did it stop when Paul got his assignment to the Gentiles? Thanks. Answer: I Corinthians 12:13 tells us who was behind the means by which we can be saved. The Holy\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":11298,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/was-baptism-only-for-the-jews-2\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":1},"title":"Was baptism only for the Jews?(2)","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 2, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Good morning brother, I recently had a discussion with a brother in Christ who said that the book of Acts was addressed to the Jews because they killed Christ. He mentioned that the question asked after their hearts were pricked, \"what shall we do\" applied to those Jews that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":79303,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-baptism-a-symbol\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":2},"title":"Is Baptism a Symbol?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"November 20, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton \"Jesus's blood saves us. It has nothing to do with baptism. Water baptism is symbolic of what happens to us when our sins are washed away by His blood.\" Answer: Why do we need a symbol? If the real thing happened, it happened. How does baptism\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":42093,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-peter-have-the-jews-baptized-to-make-a-public-statement\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":3},"title":"Did Peter have the Jews baptized to make a public statement?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 6, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Reading online the transcript of a sermon by a man named John MacArthur in which he preached on Peter's sermon at Pentecost and the reaction to it, I was a little surprised to see how flimsy the argument put forth was regarding the role of baptism in salvation.\u00a0 With\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22011,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-one-receive-the-holy-spirit-without-baptism\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":4},"title":"Can one receive the Holy Spirit without baptism?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 15, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can one receive the Holy Spirit without baptism? Answer: The clear answer to this is \"yes.\" Baptism is a command found in the New Testament, yet people had received the Holy Spirit in the Old Testament. In addition: \"While Peter was still speaking these words, the Holy Spirit fell\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Answer&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":92667,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/when-did-baptism-of-the-holy-spirit-change\/","url_meta":{"origin":5264,"position":5},"title":"When Did Baptism of the Holy Spirit Change?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 18, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"by Terry Wane Benton At the beginning, when Jesus performed the baptism that no man could perform, baptism with the Holy Spirit, people knew it because of the powerful miracles from heaven that attended it and demonstrated it. They knew Jesus did this from heaven because there was a display\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Article&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5264"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5264\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}