Understanding Baptism: Do Our Sins Really Wash Away?

Lesson Transcript

Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins, calling on the name of the Lord. Now we know your sins are not washed away in baptism. You can't get baptized and wash away your sins, okay? We have a clear understanding of Scripture, but these guys, again, they're early in Christian history. They don't get the—they didn't get the kind of education we do. They didn't have all the books that we have to help us, okay?

So they're reading this and they're thinking, Ananias is saying, "Arise and be baptized and wash away your sins." He's not saying that. I think we all—we realize he's not saying that. But can you see that one of the early Christians might read that and think he's saying, "Be baptized and wash away your sins"? Yeah, it's a little strange, but can you—I mean, can we be charitable with the early Christians that, yeah, they're reading that and they just don't know any better?