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Bogo City Lectures Begin
Our day started with waking a little after 5am this morning. Following breakfast, we immediately left for Bogo City at the north end of Cebu Island. A number of denominational preachers and other people had asked for further studies. I have preached there on at least five previous occasions, maybe more. Ron Halbrook has also preached there numerous time. The local preacher, Gil Suico, invited both of us to join in these lectures and we agreed to do so.
The drive up to Bogo is normally about 2 hours. Today, it was about 3 and a half. Traffic was horrible even by Filipino standards. On top of that, we missed one of the Cebu City preachers, Pablo Espinoza, as we tried to pick him up and had to backtrack for him. During the drive, I tried to avert my eyes from the happenings on the road as it tends to cause my constant fear to be interrupted only by moments of outright panic! This averting of the eyes was made even more difficult by the fact that I rode in the front passenger seat -- an experience of truly coming close to God. By the time we got to the venue, it was an hour and a half after the intended starting time. We made up for some of the time by eliminating breaks and having a shortened lunch break.
My lesson on “God’s Use of Prophets” started the lectures as we noticed and emphasized the Bible’s teaching on the verbal inspiration of Scripture. Ron followed with the first two lessons in his six lesson series on “Authority.” After the lunch break, I presented a lesson on “Salvation & Saul” showing that Paul (then called “Saul”) was initially saved from his sins at the point of baptism, not by faith only on the Damascus road as taught by many denominations. Ron followed with the third lesson on “Authority.”
We then had a question/answer period for almost one hour to end today’s session. Most of the time was taken by a Baptist preacher’s questions seeking to say that baptism is not essential in order to be saved, but is an act of obedience after baptism. He asked me to explain Romans 10:1-13 which I gladly did. I noted the fact that Paul addressed the problem of Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Christ, thus failing to believe. Paul clearly started for the point they were at and taught them that salvation was not through the Old Testament law of Moses, but through Christ. He urged them to believe that gospel teaching. Without that faith, they could not be saved. Regardless of what action the may do, there is no way that could be saved without first believing. I then paralleled that to Acts 8:35-38 where Philip, asked by the eunuch what hindered him baptized, said “If you believe you may.” It would have done the Ethiopian no good to be baptized without first believing, nor would there be any authority to baptize him if he had not first believed. Hence, I noted Paul in Romans 10 simply taught the same thing Philip taught in Acts 8 -- that faith must precede obedience to the gospel of Christ.
I then asked him if he would explain to me 1 Peter 3:21 (“baptism does also now save us”). He started to say he knew what it said, but it was his belief that baptism was not for our salvation. I told him I knew what he believed, but that was not what I asked. I noted that I had gone verse by verse through Romans 10:1-13 to show what the text taught and asked him to show us how 1 Peter 3:21 taught the same thing he teaches. He tried to escape it several times, but was brought right back to the text until he finally admitted he could not explain the passage. He was then asked to go through James 2:24-26 and show how that harmonized with the doctrine of salvation by faith only. He said it dealt with pretended faith, not real faith, so I asked him to show me that from the Bible verses. He finally admitted he could not show such, but maybe he could by tomorrow. He then asked 2 or 3 questions to clarify points Rom had made, but took no issue at all with the explanations. I have seen the man at our lectures before and am happy to see him coming back and trying to defend his doctrine. If he keeps on, I can see him finally coming to the truth. The same thing has happened with numerous other faithful preachers who were once denominational preachers. Please pray for him.
Our return trip to Cebu City again took us almost 3 hours, filled with fear and trembling as in all road adventures here in the Philippines (blind passing on a two-lane road, vehicles so close that you could easily touch them out the window, congestion you would not believe, near misses of pedestrians crossing the highway in the midst of heavy traffic, etc.). We finally got to our supper at 8pm and then got to work on lessons for tomorrow’s lectures. We start again at about 5am tomorrow so we can be fully ready when breakfast opens at 6am. The Lord willing, we will again leave for Bogo City as soon as we finish breakfast.
The drive up to Bogo is normally about 2 hours. Today, it was about 3 and a half. Traffic was horrible even by Filipino standards. On top of that, we missed one of the Cebu City preachers, Pablo Espinoza, as we tried to pick him up and had to backtrack for him. During the drive, I tried to avert my eyes from the happenings on the road as it tends to cause my constant fear to be interrupted only by moments of outright panic! This averting of the eyes was made even more difficult by the fact that I rode in the front passenger seat -- an experience of truly coming close to God. By the time we got to the venue, it was an hour and a half after the intended starting time. We made up for some of the time by eliminating breaks and having a shortened lunch break.
We then had a question/answer period for almost one hour to end today’s session. Most of the time was taken by a Baptist preacher’s questions seeking to say that baptism is not essential in order to be saved, but is an act of obedience after baptism. He asked me to explain Romans 10:1-13 which I gladly did. I noted the fact that Paul addressed the problem of Jews who had rejected Jesus as the Christ, thus failing to believe. Paul clearly started for the point they were at and taught them that salvation was not through the Old Testament law of Moses, but through Christ. He urged them to believe that gospel teaching. Without that faith, they could not be saved. Regardless of what action the may do, there is no way that could be saved without first believing. I then paralleled that to Acts 8:35-38 where Philip, asked by the eunuch what hindered him baptized, said “If you believe you may.” It would have done the Ethiopian no good to be baptized without first believing, nor would there be any authority to baptize him if he had not first believed. Hence, I noted Paul in Romans 10 simply taught the same thing Philip taught in Acts 8 -- that faith must precede obedience to the gospel of Christ.
I then asked him if he would explain to me 1 Peter 3:21 (“baptism does also now save us”). He started to say he knew what it said, but it was his belief that baptism was not for our salvation. I told him I knew what he believed, but that was not what I asked. I noted that I had gone verse by verse through Romans 10:1-13 to show what the text taught and asked him to show us how 1 Peter 3:21 taught the same thing he teaches. He tried to escape it several times, but was brought right back to the text until he finally admitted he could not explain the passage. He was then asked to go through James 2:24-26 and show how that harmonized with the doctrine of salvation by faith only. He said it dealt with pretended faith, not real faith, so I asked him to show me that from the Bible verses. He finally admitted he could not show such, but maybe he could by tomorrow. He then asked 2 or 3 questions to clarify points Rom had made, but took no issue at all with the explanations. I have seen the man at our lectures before and am happy to see him coming back and trying to defend his doctrine. If he keeps on, I can see him finally coming to the truth. The same thing has happened with numerous other faithful preachers who were once denominational preachers. Please pray for him.
