It is important to “understand the difference between ‘knowing’ someone and really knowing someone. Paul spoke in Philippians of having the goal of knowing...
While doing a study on the life of the apostle Paul, I began to wonder if he was actually named Saul after the 1st king of Israel. I began to make comparisons between the two and found several things that they had in common. The name Saul means "desired" while the name Paul means "little". It's interesting to think that Paul started off as Saul, or the one to be desired, but when God got a hold of him, he became Paul the little one. Sounds like the words of John the Baptist when he said of Christ, "He must increase, but I must decrease." John 3:30
Reformed Reconstructionists aim to fill Christian society with their philosophy and doctrine. They are heavily involved in writing material for homeschoolers and are glad to put their own twist on Christian history. James B. Jordan, in "The Failure of the American Baptist Culture" (p.89), declares anabaptism to be basically the same as the ancient heresy of gnosticism. Then, building from this ridiculous charge, he implies that this anabaptist/gnostic view is the view of Baptists and other similar groups today. One way in which he distinguishes what he calls the orthodox view from the gnostic view is by the method of salvation. He states, "The focus of orthodoxy, by way of contrast, is on the objective goverrnment of God. The defining mark of a Christian is not, as in gnosticism, some 'conversion experience,' but rather an evident submission to the government of God, signed and sealed in baptism and manifest in a holy walk." That is, salvation is not a personal experience but an outward submission to the church government sealed by infant baptism. These people are on a mission to destroy the influence of the Baptists in America. They are a fifth column in our battle for truth. Beware of the concision (Philippians 3:2).
On three different occasions the Apostle Paul admonishes believers to be followers of him (see 1Corinthians 4:6; 1Corinthians 11:1; and Philippians 3:17). With this in mind we ought to preach the gospel which Paul preached. We find this gospel defined in 1Corinthians 15:1-4, where it says the gospel includes the death, burial and resurrection according to the scriptures. Today we are taught by many of the necessity of baptism for salvation. Apparently Paul did not know this for he said, "For Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel" (1Corinthians 1:17). Notice that Paul contradicted the gospel and baptism as if they were not the same. If Paul believed that baptism was necessary for salvation, then he was one of the biggest hypocrites ever to walk the face of this earth. He should have been going all over the countryside dunking people in water instead of wasting his time in prison for preaching the gospel.
