On today’s Bible Answer Man broadcast (03/15/21), Hank continues to work his way through the Gospel of Matthew. In chapter 3, we see John the Baptist who is preaching a Gospel of repentance, and the Sadducees and the Pharisees coming to see what is going on with all of these people who are coming to be baptized by John. When John sees these priests, he calls them a brood of vipers (as Christ also says later on)—Why? Because they were deceptive and malicious. John goes on to say, “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire” (Matthew 3:11 NIV). Baptism is not a mere initiation rite, it is a sacrament. Unfortunately, says Hank, there are those in churches around the world that have taken the sacramental nature of baptism and dispensed with it. They have made baptism into something we do for God, as opposed to something that God does within us.

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