When did the 11 remaining Disciples become saved? This was a question that came up last night at our regular Thursday night Bible study, and interestingly, as we rode home in the truck afterwards, my husband and I both discovered this was a question neither of us had ever pondered before.
Upon moving to Council, we visited the Assembly of God Church once, and while we didn’t have anything in particular we didn’t like about it, we wanted to check out the other options in town – actually quite a bit to choose from, especially for a town of around 1,000 people. As a result, we landed at another local church for several months, and again while there was nothing glaringly obvious in their doctrine that gave us pause, it just wasn’t a good fit for us.
Around that same time, my husband had stopped off at a “Man Stuff” yard sale in the AG church parking lot. Turned out to be the annual fund-raiser for the boys’ program at the church called The Royal Rangers. It seemed that the church in general, and the Royal Rangers in particular, needed a bus driver (they had a bus that had been parked for a couple of years), and just so happened (yeah, I know) that my husband had his commercial drivers’ license (CDL) with the appropriate endorsements to drive (of all things) school bus loads of church kids – something he had done for many years back in Washington. So, back to the AG church we went.
There is no doubt we have found a solid church home there, though we are not necessarily 100 percent in agreement with the AG doctrine. In my 30s, this would have probably been a show stopper, but now in my mid-50s, I find I have fewer of those sorts of issues, and the diversity of belief isn’t around anything terribly important in the grand scheme of things. We were even more than a little amused to find that the church had the “Baptist section” – folks who – like ourselves – were raised Baptist and had chosen to make their church home here in Council in the AG family of Believers. Meanwhile, there is no doubt that we are a living, growing, Bible-believing, Bible-teaching church that takes care of our own and has a fairly extensive reach into a community that desperately needs a Savior. What an awesome God we serve!
One of the things we love – especially being good Baptists – is the potlucks, and one of those potluck opportunities is the Thursday night Bible study and potluck. We took the summer off because everyone was busy and out of town, but with the start of school came the restart of Thursday night Bible study. Last night was our third night in the study of the Book of Acts as the pastor takes it verse by verse. This brought us into the second chapter of Acts and the Baptism of the Holy Spirit upon the 120 in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit is something that AG doctrine holds as a subsequent event in a Believer’s life that takes place after a Believer becomes justified, or “saved” if you will. As a Baptist, I have never held to this interpretation, but rather believe that a Believer receives the Holy Spirit at the time he or she becomes a Believer, and the degree to which the Holy Spirit works in our lives is determined by the degree to which we are walking in obedience to Scripture and the will of God in our lives, as well as the particular instances at specific times He uses us to achieve His sovereign purposes. I will explore all of this later and keep you updated, but in the context of this discussion arose the question: When do you believe the Disciples became saved?
Having never contemplated this question, off the top of my head I suggested that it was not until the Day of Pentecost. But subsequent contemplation of this question raises other possibilities – possibilities I will now explore via Bible study and commentator consultation.
Stay tuned! In the meantime, feel free to offer any words of wisdom you may have on the matter in the comments below.