The Book Of Acts According To Alexander Campbell

Author : John Gidley
Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781980370130
Total Pages : 186 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (71 download)

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Download or read book Analysis of the 12 Propositions of Alexander Campbell written by John Gidley and published by . This book was released on 2018-02-22 with total page 186 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Does Acts 2:38 mean forgiveness of sins by repentance connected to water baptism, or was the ceremony of baptism merely in reference to the forgiveness of sins that Christ procured for us on the cross 50 days earlier? What did Peter mean using the language of his day? Which interpretation is correct and how can we honestly know?Several dozen American born and bred protestant denominations can trace their origins to the early Restoration Movement started by Alexander Campbell, Walter Scott along with a few other 'restorers''. Sometime after the Revolutionary War, American Christianity was being subdivided into many differing groups hoping to find simple, biblical, core orthodoxy. One of these groups, The Disciples of Christ, got their beginnings clear back in the 1820s. By the time of the Civil War, this nondenominational movement had over 200,000 members and to this day the many Campbellite denomination boast thousands of congregations with millions of members. In many of these Campbellite groups, the sacrament of water baptism is elevated to a place of expediency. I disagree with Alexander's premise that baptism is 'in order to' the forgiveness of sins, the 'act' as he refers to it that is necessary to change one's state from unforgiven to forgiven, and I explain why he was wrong with this simple to read analysis of his 12 propositions. But why analyze these 12 propositions and not other arguments in defense of salvation through the act of water baptism? Why this polemic? It is because, though other evangelical groups formulated this interpretation, it was not defended until Alexander Campbell wrote his book, The Christian System. All of the Campbellite groups, whether they realize it or not, receive this perspective precisely and squarely from Mr. Campbell's 12 propositions and not from Scripture, and his personal perspective has been handed down from generation to generation without thought or debate. They need to ask themselves, why are we the only ones that seems to interpret Acts 2:38 the way we do and no one else except for the Roman Catholic Church? Why? It all began with Alexander Campbell's 12 proposition. This is a historical fact. So, I go to the source to see if there is any truth to such an idea. I have discovered that Mr. Campbell used his own sense of reasoning and not the teachings of Christ or the Apostles to develop his proposition. I employed simple hermeneutics to discern where he failed in his proposal; 1. The teachings of Jesus as they are worded without any disclaimers or theological bias/interpretations attached to them to determine the truth of Campbell's views. In other words, does Mr. Campbell say what Jesus says? And, 2. The idea that all the ideas in the Bible come from the words in the Bible. In other words, can we find Mr. Campbell's words recorded in Scripture, can we trace them to a book, chapter, and verse? I also discovered from this study his endless use of eisegesis, context collapsing, creative etymology, and just plain sloppy theological deduction. We create sound doctrine on what the Bible says, not on what it does not say. We do not and cannot build sound doctrine on hypothetics, speculative hunches, or theoretical evaluations. Core orthodoxy contains that lexis of salvific theological truths and must be understood and defended. This comes from God's word, not man's. My analysis will demonstrate that Alexander Campbell's 12 propositions fails to defend or support New Testament baptism as recorded in Scripture. The reader will have to make certain choices concerning the actual truth behind Acts 2:38 and its proper interpretation including the other texts that refer to being born again and those texts that contain the word, 'water'. The major challenge for the reader will be to determine, 'do I trust Jesus to be the promise maker and keeper, or do I reject his teachings and promises replacing them with Mr. Campbell's invention of means and states.