Michael Green offers biblical and ecumenical answers to disputed questions about baptism. The gateway into the church. An individual’s testimony to faith and repentance. The reception of the Holy Spirit. The meaning of baptism varies wildly between different Christian traditions. Seeking common ground, Michael Green turns to Scripture to assess the varieties of baptismal theology. Though Green assents that baptism is no substitute for saving faith, he endorses infant baptism, confronting common objections head-on. He also addresses the related problems of confirmation and rebaptism. Green’s lively and clear argument will challenge and intrigue readers of all denominations.

In From the Beginning to Baptism, Linda Gibler takes readers on a journey 'from the depths of space and the beginning of time through sacred Scripture and church history 'to discover the origins and creative power of water, oil, and fire. She traces the lives of those elemental entities through their cosmic history, to the point at which they are poured over the head and light the way of one being baptized. These elemental sources of all life are the substances through which new life in Christ begins in the sacrament of baptism. The journey through space and time, through the birth of the Universe and of life, and Gibler's reflections on this drama, help readers to enter into the cosmocentric spirituality" at the heart of all things. No one who reads this book will ever again look at a drop of water, an olive, or a candle with the same eyes. Linda Gibler, PhD, a Houston Dominican Sister, is currently associate academic dean at the Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, Texas. She has several years ' experience as a parish minister and is the science editor and a contributing author for the Collins Foundation Press, which hosts conferences on the significance of recent scientific revelations for faith, meaning, and the well-being of Earth and all her species.

The writings of Luke (Luke-Acts) comprise over 28% of the whole New Testament -- even more than the extensive writings of his friend and companion, Paul, whose letters account for almost exactly a further 25%. This fact alone emphasizes the vital importance of the Lucan corpus to a true understanding of the doctrine as well as the history of apostolic times. There has been a growing awareness of the qualities of Luke as a historian, and in this book Dr. Marshall demonstrates that Luke's theology, which he summarizes as "the theology of salvation," is at least of equal stature and importance with his carefully compiled history. - Back cover

Our days are filled with a variety of known and lurking fears. Christians who name Jesus as Lord on Sundays are inundated with stories (real and imagined) inducing fear and caution throughout the week: random violence, health concerns, the perceived threat of people different from us, and economic worries, to name a few. News sources and national political leaders manipulate these fears in a fashion that threatens (and sometimes usurps) the church's ultimate trust in Christ. A pastoral assumption: at the core of this national anxiety is the looming fear of death, spawning various supplemental protections that have little to do with the promises of Christ. This fear of death (and the false promises claiming to shield us from such) may prompt us to nudge the One we call Lord to the margins of daily life, or even solely to the afterlife--a savior we'll all meet in heaven one day but whose quaint teachings have little to do with problems we're now facing. In this book, gifted storyteller Frank G. Honeycutt calls on his many years of pastoral experience to examine one of the most stunning (and overlooked) theological claims of the New Testament: how baptism radically unites followers of Christ in his death and resurrection. In baptism, we have already died (Romans 6). Disciples commence life in the kingdom on this side of the grave. Believing this with theological rigor and trust relieves personal (and corporate) anxiety about any day in the future when a believer stops breathing.

Many new believers have questions about what it means to live as a Christian in the context of a local church, and pastors are looking for resources to pass along to their congregations to help them think biblically about the Christian life. Church Questions is a series by 9Marks that seeks to provide Christians with sound and accessible biblical teaching by answering common questions about church life. Each booklet offers biblical answers and practical applications with the goal of nurturing healthy church practice and commitment. This booklet unpacks Scripture's teaching on the importance of baptism in the local church by responding to 7 reasons that baptism is often neglected as well as answering 3 common questions about baptism.

This treatise was written about 400 A.D. Concerning it Aug. in Retract. Book II. c. xviii., says: I have written seven books on Baptism against the Donatists, who strive to defend themselves by the authority of the most blessed bishop and martyr Cyprian; in which I show that nothing is so effectual for the refutation of the Donatists, and for shutting their mouths directly from upholding their schism against the Catholic Church, as the letters and act of Cyprian. Aeterna Press

Bo Ivar Reicke (1914-1987) was born and schooled in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1933 he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts of the University of Stockholm, transferring, however, in 1935 to the University of Uppsala, where in 1937 he received his degree in the areas of the history of religions and classical Greek and philosophy. From 1938 he continued his studies in the Faculty of Theology of the same university. Graduating in 1941, he became ordained in December of the same year as a minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sweden. He immediately continued with doctoral studies, choosing the exegesis of the Old and New Testaments as his field of research. In May 1946 he presented in print and publicly defended his dissertation, The Disobedient Spirits and Christian Baptism: A Study of 1 Pet. III.19 and Its Context, [Acta Seminarii Neotestamentici Upsaliensis Edenda Curavit A. Fridrichsen, 13] (Lund 1946). In the official statement to the university, his New Testament teacher, Professor A. Fridrichsen, describes the dissertation as a weighty contribution to the solution of an old exegetical problem and goes on to recommend the author for a position on the Uppsala Faculty. In the following years, Reicke taught New Testament exegesis as assistant professor in his home faculty. In September of 1953 he received the call of the Faculty of Theology of the University of Basel, Switzerland, to fill the chair in New Testament. Moving to Basel with his family, Reicke served there for thirty years until his retirement in 1984. In addition to lecturing around the world and training about forty doctoral students, he was the author of a number of books (see below). Still actively writing and lecturing, Bo Reicke died in Basel in May of 1987.