Circumcision and Baptism

Welcome, once again to our Bible study program.

Today we are discussing Circumcision and Christian baptism. Our focus is on the validity of the argument that Christian baptism is a continuation or fulfilment of circumcision of the Old Testament.

To start our study, let us have an overall picture of circumcision.

Circumcision is a religious rite prescribed in the Hebrew Bible. It is mentioned nearly one hundred times in the Bible.

For the Jewish people it is an integral part of the Abrahamic covenant.

Circumcision was enjoined upon the Biblical patriarch Abraham, his descendants and their slaves as "a sign of the covenant" between God and him (Genesis 17:11).

Thus it is commonly observed by two Abrahamic religions, Judaism and Islam.

The tenth leper

This is a case study of the healing received by the tenth leper.

Once Jesus was going through an area between Samaria and Galilee.

On the way He was met by ten lepers.

They cried for mercy and Jesus healed them.

All of them, except one, rushed to show themselves to the priest to be declared as clean.

Only one of them, the tenth leper, returned to Christ to give a personal thanks.

This story is recorded by Luke and none other gospel writes have narrated it.

This miracle emphasizes the importance of faith. The account is full of salvific meaning.

And in this message we are focusing on the salvific meaning of this incident.

Let us read the story according to Luke:

Letters to 7 Churches

The book of Revelation in the New Testament is a record of end time events leading up to the return of Jesus Christ.

This is a record of a vision that Apostle John received while he was in the lonely island of Patmos.

There, Jesus Christ appeared to John and instructed him to: "Write on a scroll what you see and send it to the seven churches: to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamum, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea.”

These seven churches were seven local congregations of early Christians living in each city.

The seven Churches are named for their locations.

All of them are located in the Asia Minor, present-day Turkey.

The order of these cities corresponds to the route along which a courier from Patmos would have carried the scroll.

Anointing of Jesus with oil

This is a short study about the anointing of Jesus with oil.

Our question is that how many times was Jesus anointed with oil?

A description of this incident is recorded by all the four gospels.

We read about the incident in Matthew 26: 6-13; Mark 14: 3-9; Luke 7: 36-50 and John 12:1-8.

But these descriptions are not about one and the same event. They are about three separate occasions of different women anointing Jesus.

Born Again

What is the meaning of the Biblical phrase ‘born again’?

This is the question we intend to discuss today.

The best passage to learn about born again is the famous conversation between Nicodemus and Jesus Apostle John recorded this conversation his gospel in 21 verses.

Let us read certain passages from this conversation and try to understand the real meaning of ‘born again’ experience.