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Given the consistent pattern in Acts where baptism precedes expressions of joy and salvation (Acts 2:46-47 "gladness," Acts 8:39 "went on his way rejoicing," Acts 16:34 "rejoiced"), and considering the Greek perfect tense in Acts 16:34 explicitly placing baptism before completed belief ("having believed/pepisteukōs") - what specific Greek grammatical evidence should be cited to support salvation before baptism ?​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​
'But James says JUSTIFIED BY WORKS!'

And your mirror says you're IN the bathroom - but it didn't put you there! James is talking about how faith gets SHOWN to be genuine, not how sinners get SAVED from judgment. Different context, different conversation!

Want proof? The same James who supposedly preaches an 'anti-gospel' calls faith a 'gift from above' (James 1:17) and speaks of the 'word of truth' that brings us forth (1:18). Some anti-gospel! That's like calling your GPS 'anti-travel' because it tells you when you're off course!

Here's the million-dollar question: If someone says 'I've got saving faith' but their life screams 'I couldn't care less about what God wants,' who you gonna believe - their lips or their life? James isn't adding works to salvation; he's adding a spotlight to profession!
I want to understand something important. You believe that denying Joseph Smith's miracles is blasphemy against the Holy Spirit because they came from God's power. Yet Joseph Smith used the very same seer stone he later used for translation for treasure hunting. He admitted in court to using it to defraud people before claiming it was a divine gift. So, we have three possibilities.

1. All the power was from God even when Joseph confessed using such to defraud people.
2. It was always the power of something else, or
3. The same identical practice somehow changed sources from fraudulent to divine

Which of these makes the most sense to you? And how do you determine when the same practice went from being fraudulent to divine?
1. Smith, its real author, as ignorant and impudent a knave as ever wrote a book, betrays the cloven foot in basing his whole book upon a false fact, or a pretended fact, which makes God a liar. It is this: - With the Jews, God made a covenant at Mount Sinai, and instituted a priesthood and a high priesthood. The priesthood he gave to the tribe of Levi, and the high priesthood to Aaron and his sons for an everlasting priesthood. He separated Levi, and covenanted to give him this office irrevocably while ever the temple stood, or till the Messiah came. 'Then, says God Moses shall appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their priest's office, and the stranger, (the person of another family,) who cometh nigh, shall be put to death.' Numbers iii.10. 'And the priests, the sons of Levi, shall come near; for them the Lord thy God hath chosen to minister unto him, and to bless in the name of the Lord, and by their word shall every controversy and every stroke be tried.' Deut. xxi.5. Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, with 250 men of renown, rebelled against a part of the institution of the priesthood, and the Lord destroyed them in the presence of the whole congregation. This was to be a memorial that no stranger invade any part of the office of the priesthood. Num. xvi.40. Fourteen thousand and seven hundred of the people were destroyed by a plague for murmuring against this memorial.
In the 18th chapter of Numbers the Levites are again given to Aaron and his sons, and the priesthood confirmed to them with this threat - 'The stranger that cometh night shall be put to death.' 'Even Jesus, says Paul, were he on earth, could not be a priest, for he was of a tribe concerning which Moses spake nothing of priesthood.' Heb. vii.13. So irrevocable was the grant of the priesthood to Levi, and of the high priesthood to Aaron, that no stranger dare approach the altar of God which Moses established. Hence, Jesus himself was excluded from officiating as priest on earth according to the law.
This Joseph Smith overlooked in his impious fraud, and makes his hero Lehi spring from Joseph. And just as soon as his sons return with the roll of his lineage, ascertaining that he was of the tribe of Joseph, he and his sons acceptably 'offer sacrifices and burnt offerings to the Lord.' - p.15. Also it is repeated, p. 18 - Nephi became chief artificer, ship-builder and mariner; was scribe, prophet, priest and king unto his own people, and 'consecrated Jacob and Joseph, the sons of his father, priests to God and teachers - almost six hundred years before the fulness of the times of the Jewish economy was completed. p.72. Nephi represents himself withal as 'under the law of Moses,' p. 105. They build a temple in the new world, and in 55 years after they leave Jerusalem, make a new priesthood which God approbates. A high priest is also consecrated, and yet they are all the while 'teaching the law of Moses, and exhorting the people to keep it! - p.146,209. Thus God is represented as instituting, approbating and blessing a new priesthood from the tribe of Joseph, concerning which Moses gave no commandment concerning priesthood. Although God had promised in the law of Moses, that if any man, not of the tribe and family of Levi and Aaron, should approach the office of priest, he would surely die; he is represented by Smith as blessing, approbating, and sustaining another //12// family in this approbated office. The God of Abraham or Joseph Smith must then be a liar!! And who will hesitate to pronounce him an imposter? This lie runs through his records for the first six hundred years of his story.

Alexander Campbell
2024/12/24 12:29:38
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