turbosixx
New member
I agree and this was one of those special times. So try and imagine why Cornelius' conversion was different than every other conversion based on it's context.
10:15 And the voice came to him again a second time, “What God has made clean, do not call common.”
10:17 Now while Peter was inwardly perplexed as to what the vision that he had seen might mean, behold, the men who were sent by Cornelius,
10:28 And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a Jew to associate with or to visit anyone of another nation, but God has shown me that I should not call any person common or unclean.
10:34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: “Truly I understand that God shows no partiality,
10:45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles.
11:2 So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying, 3 “You went to uncircumcised men and ate with them.”
11:17 If then God gave the same gift to them as he gave to us when we believed in the Lord Jesus Christ, who was I that I could stand in God's way?” 18 When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God, saying, “Then to the Gentiles also God has granted repentance that leads to life.”
The conversion of Cornelius was God's way of proving without a doubt to the Jew's that the Gentiles were now his people too.
If Cornelius is the norm and not the exception, then please explain this. Here we will see men who had believed in Jesus and baptized in water but not in Jesus name. If you will notice, Paul does not question what they were taught or if they truly believed but when he finds out they didn't receive the Holy Spirit he questions their baptism.
Acts 19:1 And it happened that while Apollos was at Corinth, Paul passed through the inland country and came to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2 And he said to them, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?” And they said, “No, we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.” 3 And he said, “Into what then were you baptized?” They said, “Into John's baptism.”
They were taught Jesus but were not baptized into his name as he instructed on how to make Christians. We see that Paul doesn't give them spiritual gifts until after he has made them Christians by baptizing them in the name of Jesus.
19:4 And Paul said, “John baptized with the baptism of repentance, telling the people to believe in the one who was to come after him, that is, Jesus.” 5 On hearing this, they were baptized in the name of the Lord Jesus. 6 And when Paul had laid his hands on them, the Holy Spirit came on them, and they began speaking in tongues and prophesying.
