Hi Gallenwalsh,
I too am ex-wwcg, was there from 1980 to about 1995
But I think that background in darkness is why the light is so bright now
Here are a couple of excerpts that should help your understanding, they are from the 2007 conference (conferences are scheduled from time to time so that we can meet together and hear Ray's latest study).
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=6142.0 -----------
IN CHRIST - IN SPIRIT
Col 2:10 And you are complete in Christ, who is the Head of all principality and power,
This is talking to the Colossians here, these are Gentiles, these are people who are trying to be the kingdom of the heavens.
Col 2:11 in whom also ye (all of you) are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands (no more physical rituals, talking about the real stuff now, in your heart - in your mind - in your soul - in your spirit), in putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ,
People will say, ‘so Ray you are saying that we don’t need to be baptized anymore?’ Oh I never said that. I never said we don’t have to be baptized anymore. We have to be baptized, we have to be circumcised, we have to partake in the foot washing, we have to keep the Sabbath, we have to partake of the bread and the wine… IN SPIRIT.
If you don’t do it in spirit, then forget it. When you go down dry, you’ll come up wet. You will loose some skin and some blood and that’s all. You’ll eat a little piece of wafer and you’ll drink a little grape juice and that’s all. This is the real thing, SPIRITUALLY.
Spiritually you must be circumcised, you must have the foreskin of your heart, that flesh cut off. You must be baptized with Christ, that means you have to die. That’s not too popular, that you have to die to the flesh. The flesh doesn’t want to die. The flesh says, here I am look at me, don’t let me die, pay attention to me, puff me up, make me great, make me important, it’s flesh flesh flesh.
We have to be crucified with Christ.
Gal 2:20 I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.
But this next verse is “buried with Him in baptism.”
Col 2:12 buried with Him in baptism…
It doesn’t say buried in water. Where do you see buried in water there? I don’t see buried in water, I see buried with Him in baptism.
Col 2:12 …in which you also were raised with Him through faith in the working of God, who raised Him from the dead.
I don’t see anything about water there. You say, ‘well that’s what it’s all about isn’t it?’ Paul said in the first chapter of Corinthians, Christ has not called me to baptize.
1Cor 1:17 For Christ did not send me to baptize, but to preach the gospel,
He said that’s not my calling, He called me to preach the gospel. This is the gospel. Being baptized in Christ is the gospel and persecuted with Christ, and hated of all nations.
Mat 24:9 Then they will deliver you up to be afflicted and will kill you. And you will be hated of all nations for My name's sake.
http://forums.bible-truths.com/index.php?topic=4472.0 ---------------
But there is only one body, one spirit. Even as you are called in one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism. There’s only one baptism that counts, that’s Christ’s baptism. Now if your not baptized into Christ, your water baptism is of no value whatsoever. But people want to do the physical, keeping the physical. They think well I have to keep the baptism and circumcision, and every year we have to wash one another’s feet, and we take the Passover or communion, sometimes it’s six times a year, sometimes it’s twice a day, whatever.
Paul says they love the letter, their little communion thing and their little wafer (such a cute little thing) and they take their communion cup and say bless you, bless you, bless you and send me money, money, money. You have to have an anointing cloth and the hands laid on you and rubbed with oil... You got to pay your tithe and keep the Holy Days... You can’t wear mixed fabrics... The clean and unclean foods... You have to keep the Sabbath... You can’t work from sunset to sunset... and it just goes on and on and on. You do all these things and you will be a holy person, it will just make your heart so wonderful. But what it does is it makes hypocrites and heretics out of people.
It’s only ONE baptism and that’s Jesus Christ. We are baptized into His death. You say I thought we were suppose to be baptized in water? No. We are baptized into His death, that’s the thing that counts. It is only one baptism, there is only one circumcision, you either get that one or you have none at all.
Col 2:10-11 “And you are complete in Him, who is the Head of all principality and power, in whom also you are circumcised with the circumcision made without hands…”
No skin, no hands, no knife, that's circumcision, okay. Continuing verse 11 “… putting off the body of the sins of the flesh by the circumcision of Christ.”
That is what it represents, “the flesh by the circumcision of CHRIST!” That is the only way it counts.
Col 2:12 “buried with Him in baptism, in whom also you were raised through the faith of the working of God, raising Him from the dead.”
Then you say, 'alright Ray there it is, we have to be baptized, can’t you read it in context?' The circumcision is without hands, the baptism is without water. This is Christ’s circumcision, Christ’s baptism, Christ is the anointing, it’s Christ, Christ, Christ, all of it.
If you don’t see that, you are just spinning your wheels in physical rituals.
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mercy, peace and love
Kat
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Topic: Holidays (Read 5010 times)